328 
OWEN’S POSITION IN 
neither is it known how it operates in developing 
the primary germ-mass from the impregnated 
germ- vesicle of the ovum. In both we witness 
centres of repulsion and attraction antagonising 
to produce a definite result’ 
But the primary assumption that this ‘sper- 
matic force is necessary to the evolution of germs, 
that, therefore, sexless proliferation is only, as it 
were, sexual pioliferation, one or more degrees re- 
moved, begs the whole question, which is exactly 
whether spermatic influence is, or is not, necessary 
to proliferation. 
The other part of Owen’s hypothesis, that 
proliferation depends upon the presence, in the 
proliferating region, of unchanged descendants of 
the primitive spermatized cells of the embryo, 
could not and cannot be supported by observa- 
tion ; and is, indeed, contradicted by plain facts. 
In mosses, for example, there are very few parts 
of the whole organism which will not, under 
favourable circumstances, give rise to bud-like 
germs, whence new mosses proceed. And, in 
closely allied animals, in which the cells of the 
respective ovaries are equally near in descent to 
those of the embryo, the one will regularly 
proliferate, without male influence, and the other 
will never do so. 
Ow'en, in fact, got no further towards the solu- 
tion of this wonderful and difficult problem than 
Morren and others had done before him. But it 
