AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. 227 



the English. Cuvier, just as we might style Laplace 

 the French Newton, published upon this subject a 

 treatise, entitled, " On Virginal Generation.* This 

 title is in itself the enunciation of a theory, which we 

 regret exceedingly we cannot adopt. 



In fact, the idea of virginity is inseparably asso- 

 ciated with the possibility of the cessation of this 

 condition. The latter supposes the existence of the 

 apparatus which are the distinctive characters of the 

 sexes. When these organs are absent, either from 

 normal or accidental causes, the animal can no longer 

 be called a virgin. This term is not applied to a 

 eunuch, or to a deformed animal. With far greater 

 reason it is inapplicable to a creature which has 

 never been either male or female. Now, the results 

 of observation and experiment go to prove that such 

 is unquestionably the case in all the animals of which 

 we have spoken, so long as they are in the state of 

 scolex or strobila, so long as they multiply by buds, 

 offshoots, or by spontaneous division. The most deli- 

 cate scalpel, the most powerful microscope fails to 

 show us, in either the Sporocyst or Scyphistoma, any- 

 thing conveying an idea of sexuality. 



Nevertheless, according to Professor Owen, all 

 these beings are females. Although recognizing the 

 difficulty found in expressing certain parental rela- 

 tions, he conceives that the term mother may be 

 applied to them. This mode of view, adopted by the 

 English savant, is based upon a very singular excep- 

 tion. The individuals belonging to the intermediate 



* " On Parthenogenesis." 1849. In the course of this work the 

 author proposes another term, that of Metagenesis, which may be 

 translated by the words changeable generation. 



Q 2 



