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THE AGRICULTURAL THEORY. The agricultural theory as it may be called, because adopted by farmers, is that impregnation occurring within four days of the close of the female monthlies produces a girl, because the ovum is yet immature; but that when it occurs after the fourth day from its close, gives a boy, because this egg is now mature; whereas after about the eighth day this egg dissolves and passes off, so that impregnation is thereby rendered impossible, till just before the mother's next monthly.
It is also, in my opinion, unreasonable to suppose that the rudimentary corpora lutea of lower viviparous Vertebrates arose as a mutation the result of which was to cause internal development of the ovum.
He experimented with frogs, tortoises, and dogs; and settled beyond question the function of the ovum and spermatozoon. Unfortunately he misinterpreted the part played by the spermatozoa in believing that their surrounding fluid was equally active in the fertilizing process, and it was not until some forty years later that Dumas corrected this error.
And it is practically certain that these cells meet in the oviduct, even in that portion of it which receives the ovum just as it leaves the ovary. Thither a number of the male cells have traveled by their own activity; several come in contact with the ovum and one, but only one, actually enters it.
It was strange how so little a thing as the union of a spermatozoon and an ovum could produce so much trouble. He looked across the office at Copper placidly filing case cards. She wasn't worrying. With sublime faith, she was sure that he would find the answer, the one that would solve everything. He shuddered. The only logical solution was abortion and that was unthinkable!
With the naked eye it can barely be seen; magnified by the microscope it appears as a little round bag made of a transparent membrane. Briefly described, the ovum is a single cell. That is, it belongs to the simplest class of anatomical structures, and is one of the millions upon millions of units that make up the body. It contains a nucleus surrounded by nutritive material, the yolk.
Is there, then, anything in memory, as we observe it in ourselves and others, under circumstances in which we shall agree in calling it memory pure and simple without ambiguity of terms is there anything in memory which bars us from supposing it capable of overleaping a long time of abeyance, and thus of enabling each impregnate ovum, or each grain, to remember what it did when last in a like condition, and to go on remembering the corresponding period of its prior developments throughout the whole period of its present growth, though such memory has entirely failed as regards the interim between any two corresponding periods, and is not consciously recognised by the individual as being exercised at all?
It has nothing whatever to do with conception; though many people, especially young husbands who know just a little about the phenomenon, believe that it is an essential to pregnancy. But such is by no means the case. All that is needed to bring about conception in a woman is the presence of the ovum in the uterus, and its meeting semen there, and so becoming fertilized.
The union usually takes place in the tube. The spermatozoon, after being deposited in the vagina, travels to the mouth of the womb, then up through the womb into one of the tubes. Here it meets the ovum and unites with it, then the impregnated ovum continues on its way to the uterus. It attaches itself to the lining of the womb by little thread-like filaments which it projects.
The egg is very much larger than the spermatozoon, and contains enough yolk material to afford nourishment for the embryo for a number of days. Within the ovum there are taking place some of the most marvelous changes in the whole life history of the individual. The nucleus of the fertilized egg, and the protoplasm which surrounds it, divide into two cells, then into four, eight, sixteen, etc.
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