Feminism; Women; Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
But the modes of constitution, as of inheritance, are more complex, of
course, than that one parent supplies the potential of one side, the
other parent that of the other side.
As regards inheritance, the maternal ovum comprises, I believe, the
potential of the whole body, with the exception of the brain, the
spinal-cord and the spinal nerves. But because the mother is descended
from parents of both sex, and possesses, therefore, both Male and Female
elements, the ovum must contain (as must every other cell) both male and
female factors. These, it is conceivable, are grouped, by contrary
polarities, into two areas, or hemispheres; an upper and a lower. Of
these the upper is Male in inherency. It comprises the potentials of
shoulders and spinal column which are fulcra of action, and of lungs and
heart which are the _energising_ organs of Life. The lower hemisphere of
the ovum is Female in inherency. It comprises the potentials of the
pelvis, which is the cradle of Maternity, of the reproductive organs,
which engender Life and the emotions, and of the digestive and
assimilative organs, which engender vital processes.
So too, because the male parent is likewise descended from parents of
opposite sex, his contribution to offspring must also contain both male
and female factors. But while the mother supplies, in the ovum, the
potential of the whole body--face and head, trunk, limbs and vital
organs, the father contributes the potential of the brain, the spinal
cord and the spinal nerves only, which adapt the organism, by way of
form and Consciousness, to environment. The limbs, which adapt it, by
way of Motion, to environment, may be regarded as differentiations
primarily of the brain and nervous system.
The ovum is spheroidal; the sperm-cell rectilinear (following the rule
that the line of Maleness is a straight one; that of Femaleness, a
curve). And as in the spheroidal ovum, the factors of the opposite
sexes, grouped into two areas, separate it into hemispheres of opposite
sex-inherency, so in the rectilinear sperm-cell, we may surmise the
factors of the two sexes to be grouped lengthwise, and to separate it
thus into a male side and a female side. Such a sperm-cell penetrating
the ovum, and developing laterally, further differentiates this into
anterior, posterior and lateral areas. The two lateral developments of
this potential brain and spinal cord and nerves eventually constitute
the right and the left brain-hemispheres, and differentiate the body
into right and left sides.
The left brain-hemisphere, with its half of the spinal cord and nerves,
is derived from the _male_ side of the sperm-cell; while the right
brain-hemisphere, with its half of the spinal cord and spinal nerves, is
derived from the _female_ side (by inheritance) of the sperm cell.
Weismann describes the Germ-Plasm as being transmitted in the female
line solely, from ovum of mother to that of daughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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