“We must not forget, however, that the protoplastic bodies of the copulating cells also fuse together in the act of impregnation; the cell-body of the invading spermatozoön (the trunk and tail of the ciliated cell) is dissolved in the yelk of the female ovum. This coälescence is not so important as that of the [two] nuclei, but it must not be overlooked; and though the process is not so well known to us, we see clearly at least the formation of the star-like figure, (the radial arrangement of the particles in the plasma) in it.” (Haeckel, Ev. Man, p. 56.) In another place (p. 57) he says: “It has been shown that the tiny sperm-cell (spermatozoön) is not subordinated to but co-ordinated with, the large ovum. The nuclei of the two cells, as the vehicle of the hereditary features of the parents, are of equal physiological importance. In some cases we have succeeded in proving that the mass of the active nuclear substance, which combines in the copulation of the two sexual nuclei is originally the same for both. “These morphological facts are in perfect harmony with the familiar physiological truth that the child inherits from both parents; and that on the average they are equally distributed. I say ‘on the average’ because it is well known that a child may have a greater likeness to the father, or to the mother; that goes without saying, as far as the primary sexual characters (the sexual glands) are concerned. But it is also possible that the determination of the latter--the weighty determination whether the child is to be a boy or a girl--depends on a slight qualitative or quantitative difference in nuclein or the colored nuclear matter which comes from both parents in the act of conception.” (Ev. Man, p. 57.) Haeckel continues, (p. 57): “Quite in harmony with this new conception of the equivalence of the two gonads (ovum and spermatozoön) on the equal physiological importance of the male and female sex-cells and their equal share in the process of heredity, is the important fact established by Hertwig that in normal impregnation only one single spermatozoön copulates with one ovum; the membrane which is raised on the surface of the yelk immediately after one sperm-cell has penetrated, prevents any others from entering. All the rivals of the fortunate penetrator die without.” (Ev. Man, pp. 57-58.) Sec. 17. Germ-Cell Does Not Contain Any Skeleton, Model nor Performed Outline of the Coming Embryo