224 METAMOEPHOSES OF MAN 



menon itself for an explanation. His doctrines on 

 this subject appear to us exceedingly Hypothetical. 

 The phases of multiplication, or rather the generations 

 to which we have given the terms scolex, strobila, &c, 

 He styles grandnurses, nurses, and so forth. Nor does 

 he employ these expressions in a figurative sense, but 

 in their special and absolute acceptations. Accord- 

 ing to him, the Medusa in its Hydroid form, which pro- 

 duces polyps, is not a mother on that account ; it is not 

 a parent in the etymological sense of the word. It 

 cannot be a mother, nor can it give birth to anything ; 

 and if it appears to produce buds and germs which 

 are converted into beings like itself, it is merely because 

 these beings have been entrusted to its care ; that it 

 in process of growth brings them with it. The germ 

 pre-exists in the organs in which it is deposited, in 

 the body in which it presents itself, and like it, pro- 

 ceeds from the individual primitive mother. The nurse 

 has no proper offspring ; her office is to bring up an 

 alien offspring which she has inherited * from Her 

 own mother. 



* These views are very clearly expressed in Steenstrup's funda- 

 mental work, and also in his " Objections," published in reply to 

 Van Beneden's " Observations." They are if anything more 

 explicit in the latter, the very words of which I have almost quoted. 

 This circumstance, in conjunction with the passage in the opposite 

 page, which is reproduced verbatim, will serve as a reply to the 

 censure I received from one of the editors of the " Bibliotheque 

 Universelle," who fancied that I was not familiar with the exact 

 expressions of the Danish naturalist. I have not altered the text 

 since its first appearance ; I have confined myself to the removal of 

 passages relating to some very spirited controversies which took 

 place at the time when these articles first appeared, and which it 

 gives me much pleasure to efface. 



