712 
HEREDITARY INFLUENCE. 
more complex and more special mode of reproduction : the 
parent gives off from its own substance, by what may be 
also considered a “ budding process,” a mass of cells, which 
as pollen and ovule, as sperm-cells and germ-cells, unite to 
develope into plants or animals. Here again, there ought to 
be no doubt that the parents are reproduced ; their offspring 
truly may be called “ their own flesh and blood.’ 5 Nor would 
the doubt have ever arisen, had not the great complexity of 
the organisms admitted the intervention of the Law of 
Variations, to which all dissemblances are due. But however 
such interventions may baffle our inquiries, the mind recog- 
nises at once the truth of the proposition that sperm-cell and 
germ-cell are as much to be regarded in the light of repro- 
ductions of the parents, as the cells produced by spontaneous 
division are to be regarded in the light of repetitions of the 
parent-cell. 
And here we may glance at an ingenious hypothesis 
which would explain the fact of all our organs being double, 
by the concourse of both parents : so that the father will give 
one half, the mother the other half, the father the right, the 
mother the left side :* “ Cette idee ferait presumer que notre 
corps est double, et que nous sommes composes de deux 
corps finis artistement adosses Pun a l’autre.” The fact that 
all our organs are double — some primitively, others perma- 
nently — was first demonstrated by Serres, who, in his very 
remarkable work on transcendental anatomy, f has given a 
rapid outline of this Lex Serriana , as Meckel calls it. In 
consequence of this primitive duality of all organs (the single 
organs being those in the median line, and formed by the 
fusion of two originally distinct organs), “l’embryon resulte 
de la reunion de deux moities d 5 embryon ; Panimal unique, 
si l’on peut s’exprimer ainsi, est le produit de deux moities 
d’animaux/’ Serres would not, however, give any counte- 
nance, we imagine, to the hypothesis of each half being 
furnished by each parent ; for the hypothesis is contradicted 
by the facts of the perfect resemblance as well as perfect 
symmetry of each side, whereas if one parent only gave one 
side, we should see realized in life the fantastic combinations 
sometimes seen at masquerades, presenting us with a figure, 
half of which wears the dress of a man, and half of a woman ; 
* Brouzet : ‘Essais sur l’Education Medicinale des Enfans,’ Paris, 1754. 
(Quoted by Lucas.) 
-j- ‘Precis d’Anatomie Transcendante/ Paris, 1842, p. 238. Dr. Lucas 
is in error when he attributes to Elourens the conception and demonstration 
of this important point. It is true Elourens himself claims it in his last 
work, ‘Cours de Physiologie Comparee,’ 1856. 
