224 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



by this process of assimilation becomes exactly 

 equal in quality to the part which assimilates it, it 

 follows that the process by which like concentrates 

 with like and dissociates from unlike has practically 

 been continuously at work upon the reproductive sub- 

 stance of the universe as a unit ever since life first 

 began on earth. This leads to the conclusion that 

 the reproductive substance contained in any form 

 of life to-day represents for that form the total result 

 of this process of concentration and dissociation ever 

 since life first began on earth. 



In the next higher form of reproduction, the 

 freedom from disturbance must have been still 

 greater, and the time applicable to purification still 

 longer, for there appears now a tendency of the re- 

 productive substance to fall apart into two different 

 materials, viz., the male and the female reproductive 

 matter. The latter, according to the undemon- 

 strated opinions of leading biologists, contains the 

 materials necessary to the beginning of the pro- 

 cess, the former the fertilizing, formative principles. 

 These two different substances, representing different 

 functions and potencies, occur at this stage, however, 

 in the same individual. 



In a step still higher the male reproductive 

 material has acquired separate existence. It lives 

 apart from the body of the individual containing the 

 bulk of the female substance. But in this primary 

 form of the sexes, the male has hardly any other 

 functions or organs besides those appertaining 



