that the two ears became conjoined. Similar coalescence has 

 affected the viscera and the lower part of the body, but there is 

 no instance of a coalescence that has not equally affected both 

 sides. 



In malformations in which some part of the body is abnormally 

 developed, the rule is the same, the abnormality always extends 

 across the median line. It is very rare that there appears any 

 marked excess or deficiency of one side that is not shared by the 

 other, and we know of no case of such lateral excess or deficiency 

 sufficiently marked to be considered a monstrosity, though slight 

 differences are of very usual occurrence. 



There is another abnormality of great significance in this con- 

 nection, that of hermaphroditism. In every case of true her- 

 maphroditism in the higher animals, the male and female organs 

 of generation occur on opposite sides of the body. This is not 

 usually the case in the normally hermaphroditic animals, in which 

 the two organs are often combined in a single gland, but so far as 

 it goes it is an indication of sexual difference of the two halves 

 of the body. 



And such a conception aids us in comprehending the results of 

 hermaphroditic generation. For if the two sides of the body are 

 thus related, germs coming from opposite sides might be capable 

 of proliferation, and thus unisexual generation be a normal 

 process. 



In the development of plants there does not, at first sight, seem 

 to be any trace of bilateral division. And yet if we consider that 

 the active layer of plants is a cylindrical tissue, bounded inter- 

 nally and externally by the most vital layers of the wood, we 

 may surmise that the polar halves of the plant consist of its in- 

 ternal and external active layers, between which flows the nutri- 

 ent fluid, in a cylindrical vascular tissue. This idea is sustained 

 position of the hermaphroditic organs of the plant, the 



female orea 



ing central and the male organs disposed 



m a circle 



Evidently, under such a sexual law as that here proposed, there 

 might be great differences in the sexual energy, and also in the 

 life energy of new individuals. Where the polar energies of the 

 germ were weak, the life energy would be reduced. And the de- 

 gree of sexual differentiation would depend upon the excess of 

 en ergy of one sexual pole over the other. Strength or weakness 



