* This view is not held at the present day. The commonly received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane, especially when it is remembered that they ascend in opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists." --"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed., p. 961,1876.--G.R. Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived. The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns, ascribes the original formation of the foetus to the combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis naturally presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of explaining the necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the resemblance in external form, and even in mind and character, which the offspring often bears to the male parent. "The principal objections," says Bostock, "to his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct proof of a female seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which depend upon the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming an organized being, and those which are derived from observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in support of their theory of pre-existent germs."