Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
We may also suppose that the activity of the organic molecules, in
the semen of one individual, has need of being counterbalanced by the
activity or force of those of another individual, in order to fix
and bring them into a kind of equilibrium, a state of rest highly
necessary to the formation of the animal; and that this activity in
the organic molecules can only be counterbalanced by there being a
contrary action in those which come from the male, and those proceeding
from the female; so that, in this sense, all living or vegetating
beings must have two sexes, conjointly and separately, to produce
their resemblances. But this answer is too general to be entirely
clear; nevertheless, if we pay attention to all the phenomena, we
shall find some explanation resulting therefrom. The mixture of those
two liquors produces not only a male or female foetus, but also
other organized bodies, which have a kind of growth or expansion. The
placenta, membranes, &c. are produced at the same time as the foetus.
There are, therefore, in the seminal liquor of the male or female, or
in the mixture of both, not only organic molecules necessary for the
production of the foetus, but also those which form the placenta and
membranes. We know not from whence these molecules come, since there
is no part of the body, either of the male or female, from which they
could be sent back. From hence it seems it must be admitted, that the
molecules of the seminal liquors of each, being alike active, form
organized bodies every time they can fix, by acting mutually one on the
other: that the particles employed to form a male, will be those of the
masculine sex, which will fix the first, and form the sexual parts; and
that those common to both sexes will then fix indifferently to form the
rest of the body, and that the placenta and membranes are then formed
from the superabundant particles, which have not been used to form
the foetus; if, as we suppose, the foetus is a male, then there
remains to form the placenta, and membranes, all the organic particles
peculiar to the feminine sex which have not been employed; and also
all those of both which shall not have entered the composition of the
foetus, and which cannot be less than one half. So likewise, if the
foetus is a female, the same abundance will be left for the formation
of the placenta, and membranes, and the whole effects be the same,
excepting it will have the superfluity of the male, instead of that of
the female.
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