AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. 231 



We may state that, in the first place, it justifies the 

 expression parthenogenesis. According to this mode 

 of view, buds, bulbs, &c, are regarded as a sort of 

 offspring from the primitive ovum, as composed in 

 part of the substance of this ovum, and as being at 

 all events of the same nature. They are, so to speak, 

 genuine ova which have been fecundated in advance. 

 Now, the female alone produces the ova. In the main, 

 therefore, the scolices are of this sex, and may be 

 looked on as having some claim to virginity. Professor 

 Owen, by reducing all modes of reproduction to a single 

 fundamental law, simplifies all other questions, em- 

 braces and co-ordinates a great mass of scattered 

 facts, and elucidates relations till then unperceived. 



Despite all these merits, and notwithstanding the 

 great and just authority of the author's name, Pro- 

 fessor Owen's doctrine met with few supporters. 

 Without alluding to what is borrowed from Schwann's 

 cell theory, of which, in certain points, it is but a new 

 application, we may say that this doctrine is ex- 

 clusively based upon certain hypotheses which have 

 not been borne out by facts. The disappearance of 

 the germinal vesicle, prior to fecundation, has been 

 demonstrated by a host of observers, not only in 

 Mammalia, but also in Hermella and Teredo.* 

 Now this fact is in direct opposition to Professor 

 Owen's views ; it strikes the theory at its very founda- 

 tion. Moreover, since the publication of Schwann's 

 work, many naturalists have demonstrated that the 

 so-called segments of the yelk are by no means cells. 

 The observations which I published at the period 



* Vide the earlier portions of this volume. 



