Conclusions--Utopian ideas on the ideal marriage of the
future--Bibliographical remarks 499
THE SEXUAL QUESTION
THE SEXUAL QUESTION
INTRODUCTION
My object is to study the sexual question under all its aspects:
scientific, ethnological, pathological and social, and to seek the
best solution of the numerous problems connected with it.
Unfortunately, in publications dealing with this subject, eroticism
usually plays a considerable part, and it is difficult for an author
to abstract himself from this, for it is reflected unconsciously in
his thoughts. As all sentiment, more or less, warps judgment, it is
the duty of scientific criticism to eliminate eroticism in order to be
exact and impartial. We shall, therefore, do all that is possible to
free ourselves from it in the course of the present study.
The sexual question is of fundamental importance for humanity, whose
happiness and well-being depend largely on the best solution of this
important problem. In dealing with such a delicate subject I shall
endeavor to avoid narrow-mindedness and prejudice; I shall avoid
tiresome quotations, and shall only employ technical terms when
necessary, as they rather interfere with the comprehension of the
subject. I shall take care to explain all those which appear to me
indispensable.
My opinions on the sexual question are based, on the one hand, on my
scientific study of the human brain, and on the other hand on the long
personal experience of an alienist who has devoted himself almost as
much to normal mentality and questions of social hygiene as to
pathological mentality. I have, however, been obliged to rely on the
fundamental work of _Westermark_ with regard to ethnology, this
subject being strange to me. Concerning sexual psycho-pathology I have
followed the classification of _Krafft-Ebing_.
The sexual question is extraordinarily complex, and we cannot expect
to find a simple solution for it as we can for the questions of
alcoholism, slavery, torture, etc. The latter are solved in one
word--suppression. Suppression of slavery and torture; suppression of
the usage of alcoholic drinks. We are concerned here with ulcers
artificially produced and preserved in human society; ulcers which
must be simply extirpated. Their suppression is nothing but
beneficial, since, far from being connected with the normal conditions
of human existence, they place it in peril. Sexual instinct and
sentiment, on the contrary, have their roots in life itself; they are
intimately bound up with humanity, and therefore require quite a
different treatment. But human society has guided them into false and
pernicious ways. It is important to turn them from these in order to
tranquilize and regulate their course by damming them up and
canalizing them.
The fundamental axiom of the sexual question is as follows:
_With man, as with all living beings, the constant object of all
sexual function, and consequently of sexual love, is the reproduction
of the species._ It is therefore necessary to treat the question from
the point of view of the natural sciences, physiology, psychology and
sociology. This has already been done more than once, but usually in
erudite treatises which only look upon one side of the question; or,
on the other hand, in a superficial and often frivolous manner.
To ensure happiness, humanity should desire to reproduce itself in a
manner which elevates progressively all the physical and mental
faculties of man, with regard to health and bodily strength, as much
as to sentiment, intelligence, will, creative imagination, love of
work, joy of living, and the sentiment of social solidarity. Every
attempt made to solve the sexual question should, therefore, be
directed toward the future and toward the happiness of our
descendants.
It requires much disinterestedness to attempt seriously any sexual
reform. But, as the human subject is by nature extremely weak, as his
views are limited, especially in the matter which concerns us, it is
absolutely necessary, if we would avoid Utopia, to adapt the
fundamental aim of sexual union to happiness and joy, even to the
natural weakness of man.
The fundamental difficulty of the problem lies in the necessity for
such an adaptation, and this difficulty requires us to make a clean
sweep of prejudices, traditions and prudery. It is this which we wish
to attempt.
Considered from an exalted point of view, sexual life is beautiful as
well as good. What there is in it which is shameful and infamous is
the obscenity and ignominy caused by the coarse passions of egoism and
folly, allied with ignorance, erotic curiosity and mystic
superstition, often combined with social narcotic intoxication and
cerebral anomalies.
We shall divide our subject into nineteen chapters. Chapters I to VII
deal with the natural history and psychology of sexual life; Chapter
VIII with its pathology, and Chapters IX to XVIII with its social
role, that is to say, its connection with the different domains of
human social life.
CHAPTER I
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS
_History of the Germ:--Cell-division--Parthenogenesis--
Conjugation--Mneme--Embryological Development--Difference of
the Sexes--Castration--Hermaphrodism--Heredity--Blastophthoria._
A general law of organic life decrees that every living individual is
gradually transformed in the course of a cycle which is called
individual life, and which terminates with death, that is by the
destruction of the greater part of the organism. It then becomes inert
matter, and the germinative cells alone of all its parts continue its
life under certain conditions.
=The Cells: Protoplasm. The Nucleus.=--Since the time of
_Schwann_ (1830) it is agreed that the cell is the most simple
morphological element which is capable of living. Among the lower
organisms this element constitutes the entire individual. There is no
doubt that the cell is already a thing of high organization. It is
formed of infinitely small elements of very different value and
chemical constitution, which form what is called _protoplasm_ or the
cell-substance. But these infinitely small elements are so far
absolutely unknown. It is in them that must be sought the change from
inanimate matter, that is the chemical molecule, to living matter, a
change which was formerly believed to lie in the protoplasm itself,
before its complicated structure was known. We need not concern
ourselves here with this question which remains an open one.
Life being established, the cell remains its only known constant
element. The cell is composed of protoplasm which contains a rounded
nucleus formed of _nucleo-plasma_. The nucleus is the most important
part of the cell, and governs its life.
=Cell-division.=--The lowest unicellular organisms, as each cell of a
multicellular organism, reproduce themselves by division or
_fission_. Each cell originates from another cell in the following
manner: the cell divides in the center as well as its nucleus, and in
this way forms two cells which grow by absorbing by _endosmosis_
(filtration) the nutritive juices which surround them. Death or
destruction of the cell is therefore death of the entire organism when
this is unicellular. But it has been previously reproduced.
We find here already the special and fundamental act of conjugation,
that is the fusion of two cells into one, which serves to strengthen
reproduction. This act, common to all living things including man,
shows us that continuation of life is only possible when from time to
time different elements, that is elements which have been exposed to
different influences, combine together. If this conjugation is
prevented and life is allowed to continue indefinitely by means of
fission or by budding (_vide infra_), there results a progressive
weakening and degeneration which leads to the disappearance of the
whole group thus reproduced.
It is necessary to explain here the results of recent scientific work
on the intimate phenomena of cell-division, for they are closely
allied to those of fecundation.
The nucleus of an ordinary cell presents itself in the form of a
nearly spherical vesicle. Delicate methods of staining have shown that
the nucleus encloses several round nucleolar corpuscles, and also a
reticulum which is attached to its membrane and spreads through its
whole substance. The liquid part of the nucleus fills the meshes of
this reticular tissue, which stains easily and for this reason is
named _chromatin_. The phenomena of cell division in well-developed
cells with nuclei is termed _mitosis_. Certain lower forms of cells
exist in which the nucleus is not well differentiated. Mitosis begins
in the nucleus (Plate I). Figure 1 represents the cell before division
has commenced. In the protoplasm, by the side of the nucleus, is
formed a small corpuscle (_c_) which is called the _centrosome_. The
nucleus itself is marked _b_. When the cell commences to divide, the
meshes of the network of chromatin contract and the centrosome divides
into two parts (Fig. 2). Shortly afterward the particles of chromatin
concentrate in the form of convoluted rods called _chromosomes_
(Figs. 3 and 4). The number of these varies according to the species
of organism, but remains constant for each animal or vegetable
species. At the same time the two centrosomes separate from each other
on each side of the nucleus. The chromosomes then become shorter and
thicker while the nucleus is completely dissolved in the protoplasm of
the cell, and its membrane disappears (Fig. 4).
Directly afterwards the chromosomes arrange themselves regularly in
line, like soldiers at drill, following one of the larger diameters of
the cell, and forming a barrier between the two centrosomes (Fig. 5).
Each of the chromosomes then divides into two parallel halves of equal
thickness (Fig. 6).
Figures 3 and 4 show that, while these changes are being produced,
each of the two centrosomes is surrounded by stellate rays. Some of
these rays extending in the direction of the chromosomes, become
attached to one of their extremities and draw it toward the
corresponding centrosome (Fig. 7). Thus around each centrosome are
grouped as many chromosomes as the mother cell possessed itself (Fig.
8). Simultaneously, the cell enlarges and its protoplasm commences to
become indented at each end of the diameter previously formed by the
chromosomes. From this moment the nuclear liquid concentrates itself
around each of the groups of chromosomes, the rays disappear and the
cell divides into two halves, each containing a group of chromosomes
(Fig. 9); the indentation increases so as to form a partition across
the protoplasm. The chromosomes then form a new meshwork of nuclear
chromatin, and we have then two cells each with a nucleus and a
centrosome like the mother cell (Fig. 10).
This is what takes place in the reproduction of all cells of the
animal and vegetable kingdoms. In the simplest unicellular organisms
which are known fission constitutes the only means of reproduction. In
the complicated organisms of the higher plants and animals each cell
divides in the manner indicated above, both in the embryonic period
and later on during the development of each of the organs which forms
the organism. This fact shows more than any other the intimate
relationship which connects all living organisms. The most remarkable
thing, perhaps, is the almost mathematical division of the
chromosomes into two halves, a division which results in the equal
distribution of their substance through the whole organism. We shall
return to this point later on.
=Reproduction by Budding. Parthenogenesis.= In the animal and
vegetable kingdoms the higher organisms become more and more
complicated. They are no longer composed of a single cell, but of an
increasing number of these cells combined in a whole, of which each
part, adapted for a special purpose, is itself formed of cells,
differentiated as much by their organic form as by their chemical and
physical constitution. In this way, in plants, are formed the leaves,
flowers, buds, branches, trunk, bark, etc.; and in animals the skin,
intestine, glands, blood, muscles, nerves, brain, sense organs, etc.
In spite of the great complication of the divers living multicellular
organisms, one often finds among them the power of reproduction by
fission or by budding. In certain animals and plants, groups of cells
vegetate in buds which separate from the body later on and form a new
individual; this occurs among the polypi and plants with bulbs, etc.
One can even form a tree by means of a cutting. Ants and bees, which
have not been fecundated, are capable of laying eggs which develop by
_parthenogenesis_ (virgin parturition) and become complete
individuals. But these degenerate and disappear if reproduction by
parthenogenesis or budding is continued during several generations.
Among the higher animals, the vertebrates and man, there is no
reproduction without conjugation; no parthenogenesis or budding. So
far as we have studied the question we see in the animal and vegetable
kingdoms sexual reproduction, or conjugation, as a _sine qua non_ for
the indefinite continuation of life.
=The Sexual Glands. The Embryo.= However complicated the organism, it
always possesses a special organ, the cells of which, all of the same
form, are reserved for the reproduction of the species and especially
for conjugation. The cells of these organs, called _sexual glands_,
have the power of reproducing themselves so that they reconstruct the
whole individual (the type of the species) from which they arose, in
an almost identical form, by conjugation (sometimes also, for a
certain time, by parthenogenesis) under certain fixed conditions as
soon as they leave its body. We can thus say with _Weismann_, speaking
philosophically, that these germinal cells continue the life of their
parents, so that in reality death only destroys part of the
individual, namely, that which has been specially adapted for certain
exclusively individual ends. Each individual, therefore, continues to
live in his descendants.
The germinal cell divides into a number of cells called embryonic,
which become differentiated into layers or groups which later on form
the different organs of the body. The embryonic period is the name
given to the period between the exit of the germinal cell from the
maternal body and the final complete development which it acquires in
becoming the adult individual. During this period the organism
undergoes the most singular metamorphoses. In certain cases it forms a
free embryo which appears to be complete, having a special form and
mode of life, but which finally becomes transformed into an entirely
different sexual individual. Thus from the egg of a butterfly there
first emerges a caterpillar, which lives and grows for some time, then
changes to a chrysalis and finally to a butterfly. The caterpillar and
the chrysalis belong to the embryonic period. During this period every
animal reproduces in an abbreviated manner certain forms which
resemble more or less those through which its ancestors have passed.
The caterpillar, for example, resembles the worm which is the ancestor
of the insects. _Haeckel_ calls this the _fundamental biogenetic law_.
We are not concerned here with embryology, and will content ourselves
with some of the main points.
=Germinal Cells. Hermaphrodites.= We now come to _conjugation_. In
order to avoid complications we will leave aside plants and speak only
of animals. Among multicellular animals, sometimes in the same
individual, sometimes in different individuals, occur two kinds of
sexual glands, each containing one kind of cells--the male cells and
the female cells. When both kinds of sexual glands occur in the same
individual, the animal is said to be _hermaphrodite_. When they
develop in two different individuals the animals are of distinct
sexes. Snails, for example, are hermaphrodite. There also exist lower
multicellular animals which reproduce by budding, but among which
conjugation takes place from time to time. We shall not consider these
animals any further, as they are too remote to interest us here.
=Spermatozoa and Ova.=--In all the higher animals, including the
hermaphrodites, the male germinal cells, or _spermatozoa_ are
characterized by their mobility. Their protoplasm is contractile and
their form varies according to the species. In man and vertebrate
animals they resemble infinitely small tadpoles, and their tails are
equally mobile. The female germinative cell, on the contrary, is
immobile and much larger than the male cell. Conjugation consists in
the movement of the male cell, by means of variable mechanism, toward
the female cell, or egg, into the protoplasm of which it enters. At
this moment it produces on the surface of the egg a coagulation, which
prevents the entrance of a second spermatozoid.
The egg and the spermatozoid both consist of protoplasm containing a
nucleus. But, while the spermatozoid has only a small nucleus and very
little protoplasm, the egg has a large nucleus and a large quantity of
protoplasm. In certain species the protoplasm of the egg grows in the
maternal organism in a regular manner to form the _vitellus_ (yolk of
egg) which serves as nourishment for the embryo for a long period of
its existence. This occurs in birds and reptiles.
=Conjugation.=--The phenomena of conjugation were made clear by _van
Beneden_ and _Hertwig_. These phenomena, as we have seen, commence
among unicellular organisms. In these they do not constitute
reproduction, but the vital reenforcement of certain individuals.
Conjugation takes place in a different manner in different cases.
For example, a unicellular animal applies itself against one of its
fellows. The nucleus of each cell divides into two. Then the
protoplasm of the two cells fuses over the whole surface of contact,
and half the nucleus of the first cell penetrates the second cell,
while half the nucleus of the latter enters the first cell. After this
exchange the cells separate from each other and each exchanged half of
the nucleus fuses with the primitive half of the nucleus remaining in
the cell.
From this moment each cell continues to reproduce itself by fission,
as we have seen above. In another form, two cells meet and fuse
completely. Their nuclei become applied against each other and each
exchanges half its substance with the other as in the preceding case,
so that the final result is the same. In both cases the two conjugated
cells are identical, and one cannot call them male and female.
=Penetration of the Spermatozoid into the Egg.=--In all the higher
animals in which the germinal cells are of two kinds, male and female,
conjugation takes place in rather a different manner. Here, the female
cell or egg only reproduces itself exceptionally by parthenogenesis.
It usually contains no chromosomes and often too little chromatin, so
that it perishes when conjugation does not occur.
The spermatozoid swims by means of its tail to meet the egg. As soon
as it touches it it penetrates it and the coagulation which we have
mentioned is produced. This coagulation forms the _vitelline
membrane_, which prevents the entry of other spermatozoids. If, from
pathological causes the entry of several spermatozoids takes place,
there results, according to _Fol_, a double or triple monster.
In Fig. 11 on Plate II, we see the egg with its vitelline membrane and
nucleus, the chromatin network of which is marked in blue: _b_ shows
the protoplasm of the egg or _vitellus_; _a_ the vitelline membrane;
_d_ the spermatozoid which has just entered, and the nucleus of which,
composed chiefly of chromatin, is colored red, while its tail has
performed its task and is about to disappear. The letters _e_, _f_,
and _g_, show a spermatozoid which has arrived too late.
Before the head of the spermatozoid which has entered, appears a
centrosome (Fig. 12) which it brings to the egg with its small amount
of protoplasm, and around this centrosome rays form, as in the case of
cellular fission. At the same time a nuclear liquid arising from the
protoplasm of the egg becomes concentrated around the chromatin of the
spermatozoid, while the nucleus of the egg remains in place and does
not change. The nucleus of the spermatozoid, on the contrary, begins
to grow rapidly. It forms half the number of chromosomes
corresponding to the cell of the species to which it belongs, and
grows at the expense of the vitellus of the egg. During this time the
centrosome divides into two halves, which progress slowly on each side
toward the periphery of the egg, as in the case of fission (see Plate
I), while the chromatin of the chromosomes of the spermatozoid is
dissolved in the network. The nucleus thus formed by the spermatozoid
enlarges more and more (Figs. 13 and 14) till it attains the size and
shape of that of the egg (Fig. 15). The male and female chromatin are
colored red and blue respectively.
Then only commences activity of the nucleus of the egg, at the same
time as fresh activity on the part of the nucleus of the spermatozoid.
Before this, however, the nucleus of the egg has thrown off a part of
its chromatin called a _polar_ body, and it now possesses only half as
much chromatin as the other cells of the body of the individual. The
nucleus of the egg and that of the spermatozoid then begin at the same
time to concentrate their chromatin in the form of chromosomes (Fig.
16) which arrange themselves regularly in the middle line exactly as
shown in Plate I, and divide longitudinally into two halves which are
then attracted in opposite directions by the rays of each of the
centrosomes (Fig. 17). Figure 17, of Plate II, thus corresponds
exactly to Fig. 6, of Plate I.
In fact, the growth of the nucleus of the spermatozoid has given to
its substance the same power of development as to that of the nucleus
of the egg. Both enter into conjugation in equal parts, which
symbolizes the social equality and the rights of the two sexes!
The signification of these facts is as follows: as soon as, in the
course of development, the conjugated nuclei divide again into two
cells, as in Figs. 7 to 10, of Plate I, each of these two cells
contains almost the same quantity of paternal as maternal chromatin.
We do not say exactly as much, for the paternal and maternal
influences are not divided equally in the descendants. This phenomenon
may be explained by what _Semon_ calls alternating ecphoria in mnemic
dichotomy. (_Vide infra._) As cell division continues in the same way
during embryonic life, it follows that each cell, or at least each
nucleus of the future organism, will contain on the average half its
substance and energy from the paternal and half from the maternal
side.
=Heredity. The Mneme.=--The secret of heredity lies in the phenomena
which have been just described. Hereditary influence preserves all its
primary power and original qualities in the chromosomes, which enlarge
and divide, while the vitelline substance, absorbed by the chromosomes
and transformed by the vital chemical processes into the specific
substance of the chromosomes, loses its specific and plastic vital
energy, as completely as the food which we swallow loses its energy in
forming the structure of our living organs. We do not acquire any of
the characters of the ox by eating beefsteaks; and the spermatozoid,
after eating much vitelline protoplasm, preserves its own hereditary
energies, increased and fortified, but without change in their
qualities.
In this way the nuclear chromatin of our germinal cells becomes the
carrier of all the hereditary qualities of the species (hereditary
mneme), and more especially those of our direct ancestors. The
uniformity of the intracellular phenomena in cell division and
conjugation proves, however, that, without being capable of
reproducing the individual, the other non-germinal cells of the body
may also possess these hereditary energies, and that there exists,
hidden behind all these facts, an unknown law of life, the explanation
of which is reserved for the future.
However, a recent work based on an idea of the physiologist, _E.
Hering_, which looks upon instinct as a kind of memory of the species,
opens up a new horizon. I refer to the book of _Richard Semon_: "The
_mneme_ considered as the conservative principle in the transmutations
of organic life." (_Die Mneme als erhaltendes Prinzip im Wechsel des
organischen Geschehens_, Leipzig, 1904.)
_Conception of Irritation._[1]--By the aid of the fundamental facts of
morphological science, biological and psychological, _Semon_ proves
that _Hering's_ idea is more than an analogy, and that there is a
fundamental identity in the mechanism of organic life. In order to
avoid the terminology of psychology which tends to be equivocal,
_Semon_ employs some new terms to designate his new ideas, based on
the fundamental conception of _irritation_ in its physiological sense.
_Semon_ defines _irritation_ as an energetic action on the organism
which determines a series of complicated changes in the irritable
substance of the living organism. The condition of the organism thus
modified, which lasts as long as the irritation, is called by _Semon_
the _state of irritation_. Before the action of irritation, the
organism is in a condition which _Semon_ calls the _primary state of
indifference_, and after its action, in the _secondary state of
indifference_.
_Engram. Ecphoria._--If, when an irritation has entirely ceased, the
irritable substance of the living organism becomes modified
permanently during its secondary state of indifference, _Semon_ calls
the action _engraphic_. To the modification itself he gives the word
_engram_. The sum of the hereditary and individual engrams thus
produced in a living organism is designated by the term _mneme_.
_Semon_ gives the name _ecphoria_ to the revival of the engram by the
repetition of part only of the original irritation, or by the entire
but weakened reproduction of the whole state of irritation of the
organism, which was originally produced in a synchronous manner with
the primary irritation.
Thus, an engram may be ecphoriated (that is to say, reproduced or
revived) by the return of one part of the complex of primary
irritations which produced it. A young dog, for example, is attacked
by urchins who throw stones at it. It experiences two kinds of
irritation: (1) the urchins stooping down and throwing stones (optic
irritation); (2) the pain caused by the stones (tactile irritation).
In its brain are produced two associated series of corresponding
engrams. Previously, this dog did not react when it saw people stoop
down. From this moment it will run away and howl at the sight, without
any stone being thrown at it. Thus the tactile engram will be
ecphoriated by the repetition of the original associated irritation.
In the same way, the image of a tree in a known landscape will
ecphoriate the entire landscape.
Moreover, an engram may be revived by the enfeebled return of the
primary irritating agent which produced it, or by an analogous
enfeebled irritation. Thus, the sight of a photograph will revive the
image of a known person. A certain kind of maize imported for a long
time into Norway and influenced in that country during many
generations by the sun of the long summer days, finally accelerated
its time of maturation. When imported again to the south of Europe it
first preserved its faculty of accelerated maturation in spite of the
shortness of the days (_Schuebeler_). _Semon_ gives a series of
analogous examples which show how engrams repeated during several
generations accumulate and end by becoming ecphoriated when they have
acquired enough power.
Engrams may be associated simultaneously in space, such as those of
sight. But they may also be associated in succession, such as those of
hearing and of ontogeny. Simultaneous engrams are associated in every
direction with the same intensity. Successive engrams, on the
contrary, are associated more strongly forwards than backwards, and
have only two poles. In the succession _a b_, _a_ acts more strongly
on _b_ than _b_ on _a_. In the successions of engrams it often happens
that two or more analogous engrams are associated in a manner more or
less equivalent to a preceding engram. _Semon_ calls this phenomenon
dichotomy, trichotomy, etc. But in the successions, two engrams cannot
be ecphoriated simultaneously. Hence the phenomenon which _Semon_
names _alternating ecphoria_; that is sometimes one, sometimes the
other of the constituent engrams, for example, of a dichotomy, which
arrives at ecphoria. Similarly, the engram of the ecphoriated
dichotomy is most often that which has been previously most often
repeated.
In the laws of ontogeny and heredity alternating ecphoria plays an
important part. The branch less often repeated remains latent and the
other only is ecphoriated. But certain combinations which reenforce
the latent branch or paralyze the other may induce ecphoria of the
first to the second generation.
_Semon_ also shows that the phenomena of regeneration in the embryo,
as well as those of the adult, obey the law of the mneme.
_Homophony._--The terms engram and ecphoria correspond to the
well-known introspective phenomena in psychology of memory and the
association of ideas. Engrams are thus ecphoriated. At the time of
such phenomena every mnemic irritation of the engrams vibrates
simultaneously with the state of synchronous irritation produced by a
new irritation. This simultaneous irritation is named by _Semon_
_homophony_. When a partial discord is produced between the new
irritation and the mnemic irritation, the organism always tends to
reestablish homophony (harmony). This is seen in psychological
introspection by activity of attention; in embryology by the
phenomenon of regeneration; and in phylogeny by that of adaptation.
Relying on these convincing facts, _Semon_ shows that irritative
actions are only localized at first in their zone of entry (primary
zone); but that afterward they irradiate or vibrate, gradually
becoming weaker in the whole organism (not only in the nervous system,
for they also act on plants). By this means, engraphia, although
infinitely enfeebled, may finally reach the germinal cells. _Semon_
then shows how the most feeble engraphias may gradually arrive at
ecphoria, as the result of numerous repetitions (in phylogeny after
innumerable generations). This is how the mnemic principle allows us
to conceive the possibility of an infinitely slow heredity of
characters acquired by individuals, a heredity resulting from
prolonged repetition.
The facts invoked by _Weismann_ against the heredity of acquired
characters lose nothing of their weight by this, for the influence of
crossing (conjugation) and selection transforms the material organic
forms in an infinitely more rapid and intense manner than individual
mnemic engraphias. The latter, on the other hand, furnish the
explanation of the mutations of _de Vries_, which appear to be only
sudden ecphoria of accumulated long engraphic actions.
The way in which _Semon_ studies and discusses the laws of the mneme
in morphology, physiology and psychology, is truly magisterial, and
the perspective which opens out from these new ideas is extensive. The
mneme, with the aid of the energetic action of the external world,
acts on organisms by preserving them and combining them by engraphia,
while selection eliminates all that is ill-adapted, and homophony
reestablishes the equilibrium. The irritations of the external world,
therefore, furnish the material for the construction of organisms. I
confess to having been converted by _Semon_ to this way of conceiving
the heredity of acquired characters. Instead of several nebulous
hypotheses, we have only one--the nature of mnemic engraphia. It is
for the future to discover its origin in physical and chemical laws.
I must refer my readers to _Semon's_ book, for this volume of 343
pages, filled with facts and proofs, cannot be condensed into a few
paragraphs.
=Each Cell bears in itself Ancestral Energy.= As we have already seen,
the germinal, cells are not the only ones which possess the energies
of all the characters of the species. On the contrary it becomes more
and more certain, from further investigation, that each cell of the
body bears in itself, so to speak, all the energies of the species, as
is distinctly seen in plants. But in all the cells which are not
capable of germinating, these energies remain incapable of
development. It results that such energies, remaining virtual, have no
practical importance.
In an analogous sense we may say that all the cells of the body are
hermaphrodite, as all germinal cells, for each possesses in itself the
undifferentiated energies of each sex. Each spermatozoid contains all
the energies of the paternal and maternal ancestry of man, and each
egg those of the paternal and maternal ancestry of woman. The male and
the female are only the bearers of each kind of germinal cells
necessary for conjugation, and each of these bearers only differs from
the others by its sexual cells and by what is called correlative
sexual differences. But we must not forget that the germinal cells
themselves are only differentiated at a certain period in the
development of the embryo; they are thus hermaphrodite originally and
only become male and female later.
New experiments made on the eggs of sea urchins and other organisms
have shown that conjugation may be replaced by an external irritating
agent; for example, the action of certain chemical substances is
sufficient to make eggs develop by parthenogenesis which would have
died without this action. An entire being has been successfully
produced from an egg divided into two by means of a hair. And even
from the protoplasm of the egg without its nucleus, with the aid of a
spermatozoid. We must not, however, base premature hypotheses on these
facts.
When a female cell, or egg, develops without fecundation
(parthenogenesis) its nucleus enlarges and divides in the same manner
as conjugated nuclei (mitosis).
A point of general interest is what is called the _specific
polyembryony_ of certain parasitic insects (hymenoptera of the genus
_Encyrtus_). According to _Marchal_, their eggs grow and divide into a
considerable number of secondary eggs, each of which gives rise to an
embryo and later on a perfect insect. By shaking the eggs of certain
marine animals they have been caused to divide into several eggs
and thus to produce several embryos. All the individuals arising from
the division of the same egg of _Encyrtus_ are of the same sex.
[Illustration: PLATE I
CELL DIVISION
FIG. 1. Cell before division.
FIG. 2. Division of centrosome.
FIG. 3. Formation of chromosomes.
FIG. 4. Dissolution of nucleus.
FIG. 5. Lining up of chromosomes.
FIG. 6. Division of chromosomes.
FIG. 7. Division of chromosomes.
FIG. 8. Attraction of chromosomes by centrosomes.
FIG. 9. Concentration of nuclei. Division of cell.
FIG. 10. Formation of new chromatin.]
[Illustration: PLATE II
FERTILIZATION OF THE OVUM BY THE SPERMATOZOID
DIAGRAM OF OVUM AND SPERMATOZOID
FIG. 11. _a_, Vitelline membrane; _b_, protoplasm, or vitellus;
_c_, nucleus with chromatin; _d_, spermatozoid penetrating egg;
_e_, another spermatozoid arrested by the vitelline membrane.
FIG. 12. Formation of centrosome.
FIG. 13. Formation of male nucleus by spermatozoid. Division of
centrosome.
FIG. 14. Development of nucleus of spermatozoid.
FIG. 15. Nucleus of spermatozoid attains same size as that of
ovum.
FIG. 16. Formation of male and female chromosomes.
FIG. 17. Lining up of male and female chromosomes.]
=Embryology.=--It is not necessary to describe here in detail the
different changes which the two conjugated cells pass through to
become an adult man. This is the object of the science of embryology.
We shall return to this in Chapter III. A few words are necessary,
however, to explain the general principles.
=Ovulation. The corpus luteum.=--The ovaries of woman (Fig. 18)
contain a considerable number of cells or ovules, although infinitely
less than the number of spermatozoids contained in the testicles. From
time to time some of these ovules enlarge and are surrounded by a
vesicle with liquid contents, which is called the Graafian follicle.
At the time of the monthly periods an egg (sometimes two) is
discharged from its Graafian follicle, from one or other ovary. This
phenomenon is called _ovulation_. The empty follicle becomes
cicatrized in the ovary and is called the _corpus luteum_ (yellow
body).
The egg after its discharge arrives at the abdominal orifice of the
Fallopian tube, which communicates directly with the abdominal cavity.
Some authors state that the end of the tube becomes applied against
the ovary by the aid of muscular movement and, so to speak, sucks in
the discharged ovule, while others hold that the movements of the
vibratile cilia, with which the epithelium of the tubes is furnished,
suffice to draw the ovule into its cavity. Figure 18 explains this
phenomenon.
Having arrived in the tube, the ovule moves very slowly in the almost
capillary tube by means of the vibratile cilia and arrives in the
cavity of the womb. Fecundation probably takes place most often at the
entrance to the tube or in its canal; sometimes possibly in the womb.
On some occasions a squad of spermatozoids advances to meet the
descending egg, and numerous spermatozoids are often found in the
tubes, even as far as the abdominal cavity.
=Fixation of the egg. Formation of the Decidua.=--After fecundation,
the egg becomes attached to the mucous membrane of the cavity of the
womb. This mucous membrane proliferates and becomes gradually detached
from the womb to form the _membrana decidua_ which envelops the egg
or ovule. An egg fecundated and fixed in this way may keep its
position and grow during the first weeks of pregnancy, by the aid of
villosities covering its envelope which penetrate the wall of the
womb.
[Illustration: FIG. 18. Diagrammatic section in median plane of
the female genital organs. It shows the position of an ovule
which has just been discharged lying in the opening of the right
tube, and that of another ovary fecundated and surrounded by the
decidual membrane. In reality this could hardly coexist with the
other ovule freely discharged. In the right ovary are seen ovules
in various degrees of maturity in their Graafian follicles: also
a corpus luteum--an empty Graafian follicle after expulsion of
the ovule. The figure also shows the end of the penis in the
vagina at the moment of ejaculation of semen, and the position of
a preventive to avoid fecundation.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19. The mouth of the tube applied to the
ovary at the moment of expulsion of the ovule.]
=The womb. The placenta.= The womb or uterus is the size of a small
egg flattened in one direction. It terminates below in the neck or
_cervix_, which is prolonged into the vagina as a projection, called
the vaginal portion of the uterus. The cavity of the womb is continued
into the neck and opens below in the vagina by an aperture which is
round in virgins and is called the external _os uteri_. The walls of
the womb consist of a thick layer of unstriped muscle. When childbirth
takes place it causes tearing which makes the external os uteri
irregular and fissured. During copulation the aperture of the penis or
male organ is placed nearly opposite the os uteri, which facilitates
the entrance of spermatozoa into the uterus. (For the illustration of
these points see Fig. 18.)
The vitellus and the membrane of the egg enlarge with the embryo and
absorb by endosmosis the nutritive matter necessary for the latter,
contained in the maternal blood. The womb itself enlarges at the same
time as the embryo.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. Human egg of the second week: magnified
eight times. (After _Koelliker_.)
_Chor._ Chorion or envelope of the egg.
_Vill._ Villi of the chorion.
_Emb._ Embryo (near the head are seen the branchial arches).
_Umb._ Umbilical vesicle.
_Am._ Amnion.]
The fasciculus attached to the embryo is the allantois which becomes
the umbilical cord. The vertebrae are already easy to recognize in this
embryo. The embryo is formed from a portion of blastoderm, that is to
say, from the cellular layer applied to the membranes of the egg and
arising from the successive divisions of the two primary conjugated
cells and their daughter cells. The embryo has the form of a spatula
with the head at one end and the tail at the other. From its walls is
detached a surrounding vesicle (Fig. 20) called the _amnion_, while
another vesicle, the _umbilical vesicle_, grows from its ventral
surface and serves, in birds, for the vitelline circulation of the egg
which is detached from the mother's body.
In man, the umbilical vesicle is unimportant. In its place the
circulation of the blood takes place by the aid of another vesicle,
called the _allantois_, which arises from the intestine of the embryo,
and which becomes attached to the walls of the womb in the form of a
thick disk called the placenta.
[Illustration: FIG. 21. Embryo of four weeks (After _Koelliker_).
1. Auditory vesicle.
2. Ocular vesicle.
3. Olfactory fossa.
4. Bud forming upper maxilla.
5. Bud of lower maxilla.
6. Right ear.
7. Liver.
8. Upper limb.
9. Lower limb.
10. Caudal extremity.]
The placenta is formed of dilated blood vessels which meet the
maternal blood vessels, also dilated, in the uterine wall, allantois
later on becomes the umbilical cord.
In the placenta the embryonic and maternal vessels without actually
communicating, are placed in intimate contact, which allows nutritive
matter and oxygen to pass by endosmosis from the maternal vessels to
those of the embryo. Figure 21 shows a human embryo at the beginning
of the fifth week of pregnancy.
[Illustration: FIG. 22. Sagittal section of a primipara in the
last month of pregnancy.]
=Duration of pregnancy. Birth.= Pregnancy lasts from conjugation,
which is synonymous with conception, till birth, that is about nine
months (ten lunar months of four weeks). The embryo is then ready to
separate from the maternal body (Fig. 22). By the act of birth it is
expelled violently, bringing with it the umbilical cord and the
placenta (Fig. 23). Immediately afterward the empty womb contracts
strongly and gradually recovers its former size. The sudden
interruption of its communications with the maternal circulation
deprives the embryo, which has suddenly become a child, of its
nutritive matter and oxygen.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. Sagittal section of frozen body of a
woman in labor: the head of the child is engaged in the neck of
the womb; the orifice of the neck of the womb (_os uteri_) is
already fully dilated and the bag of waters commences to project
from the vulva: it is formed by the former membranes of the egg
and the decidua.]
In order to avoid suffocation it is obliged to breathe atmospheric air
immediately, for its blood becomes dark by saturation with carbonic
acid, which irritates the respiratory nerve centers. The first
independent act of the new-born child is, therefore, a nervous reflex
determined by asphyxia, and is performed with the first cry. Soon
afterward the infant begins to suck, so as not to die of hunger, while
the umbilical cord, having become useless, shrivels up, and the
placenta is destroyed (some animals eat it). The new-born infant is
only distinguished from the embryo soon after birth by its breathing
and crying.
We may, therefore, say that infancy, especially early infancy, is only
a continuation of embryonic life. The transformations which the infant
undergoes from birth to adult age are known to all. They take place
more and more slowly, except at the relatively short period of
puberty.
=Formation of the sexual glands.=--We must remember that at a very
early embryonic period certain groups of cells are reserved to form
later on the sexual glands. These cells are at first neither male nor
female, but are undifferentiated; later on they become differentiated
to form in certain individuals, called males, the testicles with their
spermatozoa, and in others, called females, the ovaries with their
eggs. On this differentiation depends the sex of the individual, and,
according as it takes place in one way or the other, all the rest of
the body develops with the correlative sexual characters of the
corresponding sex (at first the external genital organs peculiar to
each sex, then the beard in man, the breasts in woman, etc).
=Castration. Correlative sexual characters.=--Castration is the term
applied to the extirpation of the sexual glands. When it takes place
in infancy it causes a considerable change in the whole subsequent
development of the body, especially in man, but also in woman. Man
becomes more slender, preserves a high and infantile voice, and his
sexual correlative characters develop incompletely or not at all.
_Eunuchs_ are men castrated, usually in infancy. To ensure more safety
in their harems the Orientals not only remove the testicles but also
the penis. Bullocks and horses are bulls and stallions castrated at an
early age, and can be distinguished at first sight from normal males.
Females who have undergone castration become fat and sometimes take on
certain masculine characters. Male human eunuchs have a high-pitched
voice, a narrow chest; they remain beardless or nearly so, and have an
effeminate character, often intriguing. In both sexes there is a
tendency to neurosis and degeneration. It is a mistake to qualify the
peculiarities of the male eunuch in the terms of female peculiarities;
there is only a relative tendency. The eunuch is no more a woman than
a bullock is a cow.
The characters of castrated individuals are due only to ablation of
the sexual glands themselves--the testicles in man and the ovary in
woman; mutilation of other sexual organs, internal or external, such
as the penis, womb, etc., produces no result of this kind. It would
even appear to result from recent experiments that reimplantation of a
sexual gland in any part of the body is sufficient to arrest the
production of the special peculiarities of the eunuch.
All these facts, almost inexplicable hitherto, become comprehensible
by the aid of the engraphia of the mnemic energies. (Vide above;
_Semon_). The sexual glands, being of undifferentiated origin, contain
the energies of both sexes. The ecphoria of one of them provokes that
of its correlative characters and excludes that of the characters of
the other. If ecphoria of the sexual glands is arrested by castration
before it is finished, this paralyzes the predominance of that of its
corresponding correlative characters and reestablishes a kind of
intermediate or undifferentiated equilibrium between the ecphorias of
the correlative hereditary sexual characters of the two sexes.
On the other hand, if the sexual glands of an adult are removed, his
body is not sensibly modified. The sexual functions do not cease
completely, although they cannot lead to fecundation. Men castrated in
adult age may cohabit with their wives; but the liquid ejaculated is
not semen but only secretion from the accessory prostatic gland. Adult
women after castration preserve their sexual appetite, and sometimes
even their menstruation, for a certain time. They generally become fat
and often suffer from nervous troubles and change in character. The
ecphoria of the correlative sexual characters being complete in the
adult, suppression of the sexual glands can only act on their direct
functions.
In different species of animals, the correlative sexual characters of
which we have spoken vary enormously; sometimes the differences are
insignificant, at other times they are considerable; while we can
hardly distinguish a male swallow from a female, the cock and hen, the
peacock and peahen, the stag and hind are very different from each
other. In man, the correlative sexual characters are very distinct,
even externally. These characters may extend to all parts of the
body, even to the brain and mental faculties.
In some of the lower animals, for example the ants, the sexes differ
remarkably from each other and appear to belong to different
zoological families. The eyes, the form of the head, the color, and
the whole body differ so much that, when a case of pathological
lateral hermaphrodism is produced (that is, when the sexual glands are
male on the one side and female on the other), we can exactly
determine the male or female character on each portion of the body. We
thus see hermaphrodite ants with one half of the body male and the
other half female--black on one side and red on the other, a large eye
on one side and a small eye on the other, thirteen joints in one
antenna and twelve in the other, and so on. In this case the mental
faculties are sometimes female, sometimes male, according as the
ecphoria of the brain is influenced by the hereditary mneme of the
male or female part of the hermaphrodite sexual organs, which results
in a male or female brain. I have seen hermaphrodite ants in which two
parts of the thorax formed a crossed hermaphrodism; in front, male on
the right and female on the left, behind female on the right and male
on the left. Further; among ants which live in societies, the
progressive transformation of the species, or phylogeny, has produced
a third sex derived from the female sex--the worker; sometimes there
is even a fourth--the warrior. In these two forms the wings are
absent, but the head and brain are much larger; the sexual organs
remain female, but are very small. While the large brain (pedunculated
bodies of the supra-esophageal ganglion) is almost rudimentary in the
male, it is well developed in the female and very large in the worker
and the warrior. Among these singular animals exist pathological
hermaphrodites, not only between males and females, but between males
and workers, and not only lateral but mixed and crossed in all
possible ways. I have seen a hermaphrodite, whose abdomen and sexual
organs were almost entirely male, accomplish all the complex
instinctive actions of a worker of his species (expeditions, attacks
on a hostile ant heap, abduction of chrysalids), thanks to its head
and brain which were of the worker type. The female itself is
incapable of such complex actions. I cite these facts here as material
for study, for we are only too prone in this domain to generalize
prematurely and to draw too hasty conclusions. In reality, there is
still a wide field for study of the greatest interest.
There are animals which are normally and physiologically
hermaphrodite, for they possess in the normal state male and female
sexual glands and fecundate themselves, such as the solitary worms, or
in pairs such as the snails. In the latter case there is copulation,
during which each animal plays the parts of both male and female.
In man and other vertebrates, hermaphrodism is always abnormal. In man
it is extremely rare and nearly always very incomplete, being usually
limited to the external or correlative characters.
=Heredity.=--It results from what we have said that every living being
reproduces, more or less identically, in its specific characters, the
whole life of its parents and less remote ancestors, and constitutes
the continuation of life from a minute part of their bodies.
Each individual life thus repeats an entire cycle of development
called _ontogeny_, which is peculiar to all individuals of the
species. Here we must mention three fundamental points:
(1). In its principal characters, each individual is the copy of its
parents or direct ancestors, with correlative sexual peculiarities
which we have mentioned, and with individual variations due to the
combinations of varieties by conjugation, and the alternating or
unequal ecphorias of hereditary characters; that is to say paternal or
maternal hereditary engrams.
(2). No individual is absolutely identical with another.
(3). On the average, each individual resembles more especially its
direct ancestry and its parents, and differs more markedly from its
parentage the more this is remote.
We shall see later on that the ancestral relationship of the different
groups, species and varieties of animals has been fairly well fixed,
and we may say that the third of the laws stated above is equally true
in a wider sense. In fact the species and varieties of animals which
are near related resemble each other, while the _genera_, families
and classes are more dissimilar as their relationship is more remote.
We employ here the terms resemblance, homology and difference in their
profound and general sense. Certain purely external resemblances, due
to phenomena of convergence, must not be considered as homologies in
the sense of hereditary relationship. Thus, in the language of natural
history we do not say that a bat resembles a bird, nor that a whale
resembles a fish, for here the resemblances are due simply to aerial
or aquatic life which produces the effects of convergence, while the
internal structure shows them to be quite dissimilar organisms.
Although it swims in the sea the whale is a mammal; its fins at first
sight resemble those of a fish, but they are really the homologues of
the four limbs of other mammals and contain the corresponding bones.
In man, we see that brothers and sisters resemble each other in a
general way, but that each one is dissimilar in some respects from the
others. If we compare different families with many children we find
that brothers and sisters resemble each other the more their parents
are alike and come from a uniform ancestry which has undergone little
crossing, while the crossing of different races and human varieties
results in the production of individuals which differ from each other
considerably, even when they come from the same couple.
If we examine things more closely, we find that the characters of each
of the offspring of the same couple present neither simple repetition
nor an equal mixture of the peculiarities of the parents, but very
diverse combinations of the characters of several ancestors. For
instance, children may bear a striking resemblance to a paternal
grandfather, a maternal grand-aunt, or a maternal great-grandmother,
etc. This is called _atavism_. Some children resemble their father,
others their mother, and others a kind of mixture of father and
mother.
A closer examination reveals further very curious facts. An infant
which, in its early years, strongly resembles its father, may later on
resemble its mother, or inversely. Certain peculiarities of a certain
ancestor appear suddenly, often at an advanced age. It is needless to
say that peculiarities concerning the beard cannot appear till this
has grown, and this simple fact is so characteristic that it has been
called _hereditary disposition_. Everything may be transmitted by
heredity, even to the finest shades of sentiment, intelligence and
will, even to the most insignificant details of the nails, the form of
the bones, etc. But the combinations of ancestral qualities vary so
infinitely that it is extremely difficult to recognize them.
Hereditary dispositions arise from the energy of two conjugated germs
during the whole of life and till death. Old people sometimes develop
peculiarities hitherto unknown in them, owing to the fact that one or
more of their ancestors also presented the same phenomena at an
advanced age.
_Semon_ has clearly proved that, although forming an infinite number
of combinations the engrams or hereditary energies never blend in the
proper sense of the term, and in the light of his exposition the above
facts are more clearly explained than they had been hitherto. The
experiments of _Mendel_ have shown in plants a certain alteration in
the hereditary ecphorias of the products of dissimilar parents.
Certain parental characters, according as they are added or
subtracted, may disappear during one or two generations, to reappear
all the more strongly in the following generations. In short, there
are a number of phenomena, the laws of which may be more clearly
explained to us in the future.
To sum up, each individual inherits on the average as much from his
paternal as from his maternal side, although the minute nucleus of the
spermatozoid is the only agent concerned on the paternal side, while
the mother provides not only the egg which is much larger, but also
nutrition during the nine months of embryonic life. We can only
conclude that in the egg also it is only from the part of the nucleus
which conjugates with the male nucleus that arise all the inherited
maternal peculiarities; that all the rest is only utilized as food;
and that the nutritive blood of the mother in no way influences the
inherited energies of the offspring.
This shows the capital importance of conjugation and of the substance
of the conjugated nuclei, especially of their chromatin. The fact
that, in certain of the lower animals, the protoplasm of the egg
without nuclei may occasionally produce some phenomena of cell
division, thanks to its inherited mnemic engrams, in no way alters the
fundamental principle which alone occurs in man, for this vicarious
action, which is moreover rudimentary, only happens when the
protoplasm of the egg is not consumed by the conjugated nuclei.
Parthenogenesis is also a very interesting phenomenon in the history
of our animal ancestors, but for the same reasons it has no direct
interest for humanity.
If we take into consideration all the observations of which we have
just spoken, which are as simple as they are irrefutably demonstrated,
it is hardly possible to interpret them in any other way than by the
following hypothesis:
In each sexual gland, male or female, the germinal cells which are
produced by division of the cells of the embryo, reserved primarily
for reproduction, differ considerably from each other in quality and
contain in their infinitely small atoms very diverse and irregularly
distributed energies, inherited from their different ancestors. Some
contain more paternal and others more maternal energy, and among the
former there are some contain, for example, more paternal grandfather
and others more maternal grandmother, and so on to infinity, till it
is impossible to discover the ancestral origin of the fully grown
individual we are examining. The same holds good for the energies of
the maternal cells.
At the time of conjugation, the qualities of the child which will
result from it depend therefore on conditions of the ancestral
qualities of the conjugated egg and spermatozoon. Moreover, although
of the same size, the nuclei which become conjugated are evidently of
unequal strength; the energies of one or the other predominate later
on in the embryo, and still later in man. According to circumstances
the latter will resemble more or less his paternal or maternal
progenitors.
Moreover, the different organs of the body may receive their energies
from different parts of the conjugated nuclei in different degrees. A
person may have his father's nose and his mother's eyes, the paternal
grandmother's humor and the maternal grandfather's intelligence, and
all this with infinite degrees and variations, for it is only a matter
of more or less accentuated averages. In my own face the two halves
are distinctly different, one resembling my maternal ancestry and the
other, in a lesser degree, my paternal ancestry, these points being
seen distinctly in photographs taken in profile.
Each germinal cell contains the hereditary mneme of its ancestors,
paternal and maternal, and the two cells united by conjugation (Fig.
17) that of the ancestors of each of them. We have spoken above of
ecphorias produced according to _Mendel's_ law and reproducing
characters which have been latent during one or two generations.
Darwin was the first to study this interesting fact, which shows how
atavism often results from the crossing of varieties. There are
several varieties of fowls which do not brood; if two of these
varieties, B and C, are crossed excellent brooders are obtained.
_Semon_ assumes that in each of the non-brooding varieties the
ancestral energy, A, of the primary species, is weaker than that of
varieties B and C; we have then A > B, and A < C. But if B is coupled
with A the product represents the value B + C + A + A. Then B and C
are in equilibrium; and A being doubled becomes stronger than each of
them and arrives at ecphoria in their place, which restores the
faculty of brooding to the product of crossing.
_De Vries_ has shown, in the crossing of varieties with their primary
species, more or less analogous phenomena which he calls
"Vicino-variations." Conjugation leads to infinite combinations and
variations which the law of heredity traverses like a guiding line.
The celebrated zoologist, _Weismann_, considers that the chromatin of
each germinal cell contains a considerable quantity of particles each
of which is capable of forming an entire organism similar to the
parents; these he calls "ides." According to _Weismann_, each ide is
subdivided into "determinants" from which each part of the body is
derived, being potentially predetermined in them. According to the
action of a yet unknown irritation male or female determinants develop
in each individual of the animal species with separate sexes. But if
the determinants are disordered, either by abnormal variations or by
pathological causes, hermaphrodites or monstrosities may be produced.
In animals which are normally hermaphrodite (snails, etc.), there is
only one kind of sexual determinant, while in polymorphous animals
(ants, etc.), there are as many as the polymorphous forms. The
conception of "ides" and "determinants" is only a hypothesis to which
we must not attach much value. The mnemic laws established by _Semon_
give a much better explanation of the facts.
It has often been maintained that the qualities of higher forms of man
are exhausted in a few generations, while the mass of mediocrities
continually produce new genius. The fact that the descendants of
distinguished men are often mediocre and that remarkable men suddenly
arise from the common people, appears at first sight to support this
superficial assertion. It is forgotten, however, that in a people
whose average mass consists of thousands or millions of individuals,
while men of higher powers are only counted by units or dozens, all
this arithmetic is reduced to absurdity by the inequality of numbers,
as soon as the law of heredity is understood. To make a more exact
calculation, it would be necessary to compare the number of superior
men who have arisen from some hundreds of the most distinguished
families of a country with that of distinguished men who have arisen
from some millions of the rest of the people, and then calculate the
percentage. It is also necessary to take into account the means
employed in the education of the individuals. If education is
obligatory and gratuitous in a country, this factor will have less
importance.
Another error which is committed in such cases is to neglect the
influence of the maternal lineage. A common woman will lower the level
of the offspring of a distinguished husband, and inversely. In his
"History of Science and Scientists" _Alphonse de Candolle_ has given
irrefutable proof that the posterity of high-class men furnishes a
great number proportionally of men high class in their turn, compared
with that of the average population. This shows the value of the usual
twaddle concerning this question. It is inconceivable that the laws of
heredity should make an exception of the mental qualities of man.
Moreover, the most deceptive point is the contrast of a man of genius
with his children, who do not rise to his standard because they
represent a combination of his ancestral energies with those of their
mother. This contrast makes the children appear unfavorably, while the
public has a general tendency to exaggerate the value of a great man.
The theory of the mneme throws light on this subject, by introducing a
new factor in the question, that of ecphoria of the cerebral engrams
of the ancestors, accumulated in the hereditary mneme.
=Heredity of Acquired Characters.=--While _Darwin_ and _Haeckel_
affirmed the possibility of the heredity of characters acquired during
life by different tissues, for instance the brain, _Weismann_ limits
the possibility to everything that can modify the nucleoplasm of the
germinal cells. We must first eliminate the question of the phenomena
of blastophthoria, which we shall consider next, and which _Weismann_
was, I think, the first to comprehend, without giving them the name.
On one hand we see the singular effects of castration, which we have
already considered; on the other hand, an extraordinary constancy in
the hereditary characters of the species. For more than three thousand
six hundred years, which corresponds to about eight hundred
generations, the Jews have been circumcised. Nevertheless, if a Jew
ceases to circumcise his offspring the prepuce of his children grows
as it did three thousand six hundred years ago, although, during the
eight hundred generations in question, its absence from birth has
prevented it reacting on the germinal cells of the individuals. If the
engraphia of the external world could sensibly modify in a few
generations the hereditary mneme of the species, it appears evident
that the Jewish infants of the present day would be born without
prepuce, or at least with an atrophied one.
It is on such facts, which are innumerable in natural history, that
_Weismann_ relies to repudiate absolutely the heredity of characters
acquired by non-germinal organs and to attribute the development of
organisms to blends and combinations due to conjugation, or crossing,
as well as to natural selection, which he regards as all-powerful.
_Darwin_ well recognized the difficulty in question, and being unable
to explain the facts, had recourse to the hypothesis of _pangenesis_,
that is of small particles detached from all parts of the body and
transported by the blood to the germinal cells, to transmit to them,
for example, the qualities acquired by the brain during life. This
hypothesis was so improbable that _Darwin_ himself was forced to
recognize it. Let us examine the facts.
On the one hand a newly born Chinese transported and brought up in
France will learn French, and will show no inclination to learn or
understand Chinese. This well-established fact seems in favor of
_Weismann_ and against the heredity of acquired characters. But, on
the other hand, we cannot understand how the evolution of the brain
and its functions takes place, without admitting that in one way or
another the characters acquired by habits repeated during many
generations gradually accumulate in the form of hereditary
dispositions in the germinal protoplasm. It is certain that our brain
has progressed since the time when our ancestors were similar to the
gorilla, or even the cave man at the beginning of the quaternary age.
How can this cerebral progression be explained only by selection which
can only eliminate, and by crossings which by themselves can hardly
raise the average? It is here that the intervention of an unknown
power is necessary, something unexplained, the action of which has
been lately recorded in the phenomena of mutations of _de Vries_.
_De Vries_ proves that certain variations appear suddenly and without
any known cause, and have a much greater tendency to be preserved than
the variations obtained by crossing and selection. In my opinion the
phenomena of the mneme revealed by _Hering_ and _Semon_ explain the
apparent contradictions which have hitherto impaired the theories of
heredity. Mnemic engraphy explains, by its infinitesimal and repeated
action through numerous generations, how the external world may little
by little transmit to the germinal cells the characters which it
impresses on organisms. The eight hundred generations during which the
prepuce of the Jews has been cut off have not yet sufficed for the
ecphoria of the corresponding negative mnemic engraphia; while
conjugation and selection modify rapidly and strongly in a few
generations; a fact which is more striking and allows of direct
experiment. Moreover, a positive engraphia must necessarily act more
powerfully, and it seems to me that mutations must be the ecphoria of
accumulated former latent engraphias.
_Merrifield_ and _Standfuss_, by exposing caterpillars and chrysalids
for varying periods to considerable degrees of cold and heat, have
determined permanent changes in the specific characters of the
butterflies which have emerged from them.
_Standfuss_ and _Fischer_ have also shown that, after several
generations, by continuing the action of cold on the caterpillars, the
variations thus produced can be preserved even after the cold has
ceased to act. No doubt the cold acts on the germinal cells as on the
rest of the body, but the heredity of an acquired character is thus
demonstrated.
The experiments of _Miss de Chauvin_ on salamanders (_Axolotl_) are
still more conclusive, for we are dealing here with characters
acquired through aquatic or aerial media, which can hardly act on the
sexual glands. We cannot continue this subject any further and we
return to the work of _Semon_. It is needless to say that the nature
of mnemic engraphia remains itself an unknown quantity. As long as we
are unable to transform inert matter into a living organism we shall
remain in ignorance. But, when it is accepted with the laws of the
phenomena which it produces, this unknown quantity, as _Semon_ has
shown, alone suffices to explain all the rest, and is already a great
step toward the comprehension of the laws which govern life.
=Blastophthoria.=--By blastophthoria, or deterioration of the germ, I
mean what might also be called false heredity, that is to say, the
results of all direct pathogenic or disturbing action, especially that
of certain intoxications, on the germinal cells, whose hereditary
determinants are thus changed. Blastophthoria thus acts on germs not
yet conjugated, through the medium of their bearers, and creates at
their origin _hereditary stigmata_ of all kinds, while true heredity
only combines and reproduces the ancestral energies.
Blastophthoria deranges the mneme or hereditary engrams, and
consequently a more or less considerable part of their ecphorias
during the life of the individuals which arise from them. It is not a
question here of the reproduction of the hereditary ancestral energies
in the descendants (in different combinations) as is the case in the
heredity which we have just studied, but, on the contrary, a question
of their perturbation. However, the store of cells reserved as
germinal cells in the embryo, the germ of which has been damaged by
blastophthoric action, being usually also affected by the disturbing
cause, it follows that the pathological change introduced by
blastophthoria in the hereditary mneme is transmitted to the
descendants by ordinary heredity. In this way blastophthoria deposits
the first germ of most pathological degenerations by causing immediate
deviation of all the determinants of the germ in the same direction.
The most typical and the commonest example of blastophthoria is that
of alcoholic intoxication. The spermatozoa of alcoholics suffer like
the other tissues from the toxic action of alcohol on the protoplasm.
The result of this intoxication of the germs may be that the children
resulting from their conjugation become idiots, epileptics, dwarfs or
feeble minded. Thus it is not alcoholism or the craving for drink
which is inherited. No doubt the peculiarity of badly supporting
alcohol is inherited by ordinary heredity as a hereditary disposition,
but it is not this which produces the alcoholic degenerations of the
race. These are the result of the single blastophthoria. When, on the
other hand, a man is found to be imbecile or epileptic as the result
of the insobriety of his father, he preserves the tendency to transmit
his mental weakness or his epilepsy to his descendants, even when he
abstains completely from alcoholic drinks. In fact, the chromosomes of
the spermatozoid, from which about a half of his organism has issued,
have preserved the pathological derangement produced by the parental
alcoholism in their hereditary mneme, and have transmitted it to the
store of germinal cells of the feeble minded or the epileptic, who in
his turn transmits it to his descendants. From _Weismann's_ point of
view his hereditary determinants remain pathologically deviated. All
intoxications which alter the protoplasm of the germinal cells may
produce blastophthoric degenerations, which continue to menace several
successive generations in the form of hereditary taints.
Other deviations in the development of the germs may act in an
analogous manner to blastophthoria. We have mentioned above the
experiments of _Merrifield_ and _Standfuss_ on the caterpillars of
certain butterflies. Without being really of a pathological nature,
these actions of a physical agent on the hereditary energies resemble
blastophthoria.
Mechanical action on the embryo may also give rise to pathological
products or even mutilation. Thus, _Weismann_ demonstrated the
production of degenerate individuals in ants when certain coleoptera
were introduced in their nest, the ants being fond of the secretion of
the large glandular hairs of the coleoptera. The exact cause of the
degeneration has not yet been found, but the fact is certain. In man,
certain constitutional affections and congenital anomalies are the
result of certain diseases in the procreators, which have affected the
germinal cells or the embryo (for instance syphilis). As soon as the
blastophthoric actions cease in the procreators, those of their
descendants who live under a normal regimen have evidently a tendency
to eliminate the blastophthoric organs at the end of several
generations and to regenerate themselves little by little. Thanks to
the power of the ancestral mneme which tends to reestablish homophony.
However, the data on this subject are insufficient. In this case
homophony is represented by the normal equilibrium of the different
typical or normal characters of the species.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] I insert here some passages intended for more advanced readers,
but this does not imply that they are of less importance. On the
contrary I strongly advise all my readers to try and understand the
theories of _Hering_ and _Semon_, which appear to me to throw a new
light on the question of transformation and heredity.
CHAPTER II
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS
The theory of evolution is intimately associated with the name of
_Darwin_, for it was he who established it in the scientific world. In
reality, the idea of the transformation of organisms was put forward
by _Lamarck_ more than a century ago, but he did not sufficiently
support it. The theory of evolution states that the different animal
and vegetable species are not each of them specially created as such
from the first, but that they are connected with each other by a real
and profound relationship, and derived progressively one from another;
generally from more simple forms, by engraphia and selection. Man
himself is no exception to this rule, for he is closely related to the
higher apes.
It is no longer possible to-day to deny the fundamental fact which we
have just stated. Since _Darwin_, and as the result of the powerful
impulse which this man of genius gave to natural science, innumerable
observations and experiments have confirmed the truth of the
progressive evolution of living beings. Comparative anatomy,
comparative geography of plants and animals, comparative embryology,
and the study of the morphology and biology of a number of recently
discovered plants and animals, have built up more and more the
genealogical tree, or _phylogeny_, of living beings, that is to say
their ancestral lineage. The number of varieties and races or
sub-species increases indefinitely, the more closely they are
examined.
Researches on the fossil remains of species of animals and plants
which have been extinct for thousands and millions of years
(_palaeontology_) have also contributed to determine the trunk of the
great tree of former life. The numerous gaps which still exist between
these fragmentary documents of former ages are nevertheless too
considerable for continuous connections to be established in the past
by the aid of fossils.
We not only know that the different forms of living beings are
connected to each other by a real relationship, but we can fathom more
and more deeply the degrees of this relationship, and can often prove
from which group of animals a given group is descended. In many cases
we can determine at which period the fauna and flora of two continents
have been separated from each other, and in what manner they have been
transformed, each in its own way, while still preserving the general
characters which were common before their separation. The specialist
can soon discover what species belong to the old geographically
differentiated fauna and flora of the country, and what have been
ulteriorily imported.
I record these facts for the benefit of those persons who have not yet
understood that it is absolutely useless at the present day to dispute
the evolution of living beings. Deceived by the divergent opinions of
scientists concerning hypotheses which endeavor to explain the details
of evolution, these persons confound the details with the fundamental
facts of evolution.
=Ontogeny. Phylogeny.=--In the light of the facts of evolution,
heredity takes quite a new aspect when removed from the old biblical
idea of the independent creation of species. _Haeckel_ launched into
the scientific world, under the name of "fundamental biogenetic law,"
a theory which, without having the right to the title of an immutable
dogma, explains the facts in a general way, and gives us a guiding
line along the phylogenetic history of living beings. "_Ontogeny_,"
that is the history of the embryological development of each
individual, always consists in a summary and fragmentary repetition of
_phylogeny_, or the history of the ancestors of the species to which
the individual belongs. This signifies that, as embryos, we repeat in
an abridged form the series of types or morphological stages through
which has passed the series of our animal ancestors, from the
primitive cell to man. In reality this is only true in a relative way,
for a considerable part of the ancestral engraphias of the embryo has
disappeared without leaving any trace; also many embryos, especially
those which have special conditions of existence outside the body of
their mother, have acquired special complex organs and corresponding
functions. Thus, the caterpillars of butterflies with their specific
and generic peculiarities, hairs, horns, etc., furnish many examples
of secondary acquired characters which have nothing in common with the
worm, which is the ancestral type of the butterfly represented by the
embryonic period when it is a caterpillar. However, many undoubted
vestiges of the ancestral history are found in the embryos at
different periods of their development. It is certain that insects
descended from worms, and there is no doubt that the larvae of insects,
which are almost worms, represent the ontogenetic repetition of the
phylogeny of insects.
It is also certain that whales, although they have whalebone instead
of teeth, have descended from cetacea provided with teeth, which in
their turn descended from terrestrial mammals. But we find in the
embryo whale a complete denture which is of no use to it, and which
disappears in the course of the embryonic period. This denture is
nothing else than a phylogenetic incident in the ontogeny of the
whale.
In the fins of cetacea, as in the four limbs of other mammals, we find
the same bones, which are derived from the bones of the wings and legs
of their bird ancestors. In birds, the same bones are the phylogenetic
derivatives of the limbs of reptiles.
All these facts demonstrate with certainty the descent of animal
forms, a descent which we can follow in all its details. In certain
ants whose bodies show their close relationship with a slave-keeping
group, but which have become the parasitic hosts of other ants, we
find not only the arched mandibles, shaped for rape, but the undoubted
rudiments of the slave instinct, although this instinct has, perhaps,
not been exercised by them for thousands of years.
These examples suffice to show that the form and functions of a living
organism, as well as its mental faculties, are derived not only from
the most recent direct ancestors of this organism, but that they
partly mount much higher in the genealogical tree.
Our coccyx is a vestige of the tail of animals. It is from them also
that we have inherited anger and jealousy, sexual appetites, fear,
cunning, etc. As long as they remain in use, the oldest inherited
characters normally remain the most tenacious and are preserved the
longest. When they cease to be utilized, or become useless, they still
remain for a long time as rudiments before finally disappearing; for
instance the vermiform appendix of the intestine and the pineal gland
of the brain. These rudiments often persist for still a longer time in
the embryo, as we have seen in the case of the ancestral teeth of the
embryo whales. We also meet with the stumps of wings in the chrysalis
of certain ants (_Anergates_), the males of which have lost their
wings.
=Natural Selection.=--The artificial selection practiced by gardeners
and cattle breeders led _Darwin_ to his hypothesis of natural
selection by the struggle for existence. Confirmed in his idea by the
observation of tropical nature, _Darwin_ thought he could explain the
origin of living beings by natural selection. It is this hypothesis
which is properly called _Darwinism_. But the name Darwinism has also
been given to evolution as a whole, which has been the cause of
endless confusion. All the mystic and narrow-minded, full of biblical
prejudice, naturally profit by this confusion to attack the facts of
evolution and science itself.
=The Struggle for Existence.=--The struggle for existence and natural
selection are absolutely positive facts, which can be constantly
verified by the observation of living nature as it is presented to us.
All living beings eat one another or at any rate struggle against each
other, plants as well as animals; and, apart from air and water,
animals are almost entirely nourished by plants and other animals. It
is obvious that in this perpetual struggle the less adapted and the
less armed--and by arms we include the powers of reproduction,
resistance to diseases and to cold, etc.--disappear, while the better
adapted and the better armed persist. I confess I cannot understand
the detractors of _Darwin_ who are blind in face of these facts and
hypnotized by certain conventional suggestions.
On the other hand, what always has been and still remains hypothetical
is the explanation of the descent of all plants and animals by natural
selection alone. We have already spoken of the _mutations_ of _de
Vries_, and the theory of the _mneme_ elaborated by _Semon_, and need
not repeat them here. Thanks to the idea of _Hering_, worked out by
_Semon_, the facts are now explained in a satisfactory manner.
Engraphia, produced in the organisms by the irritating agents of the
external world, prepares and builds up little by little their
increasing complications, while selection, by continually eliminating
the unfit, directs the elaborating work of the mneme and adapts it to
the surrounding local circumstances.
_De Vries_ has objected that the variations produced by artificial and
natural selections are mutable, while sudden mutations have a much
more stable character. But we have just seen that these mutations
themselves are evidently only the delayed ecphoria of a long ancestral
engraphia accumulated.
On the other hand, the variations obtained by selection are themselves
only due to more rapid ecphorias, derived from repeated conjugations
in a certain direction. _Plate_ and others have shown that they may
become more and more fixed, if they are well adapted, and thus become
more tenacious. There is, therefore, no contradiction between the
fundamental facts, and all is simply and naturally explained by the
combination of hereditary mnemic engraphia with selection.
Recent study on the transformations of living beings have shown that
they do not take place in a regularly progressive manner, as _Darwin_
at first believed, but that periods of relatively rapid transformation
alternate with periods of relative arrest, both in a general way and
for each particular species. We see certain species remaining almost
stationary for an immense time and tending rather to disappear, while
others vary enormously, showing actual transformation. The
transplantation of one species to a new environment, for instance to a
new continent, provokes, as has been proved, a relatively rapid
transformation. It is evident that mnemic engraphia transforms
organisms the more rapidly as it changes in nature itself, which is
the case in the migrations we have just mentioned, and which also
changes the factors of selection.
Other facts show clearly that the fauna and flora of the present world
find themselves in a period of recoil with regard to their
modification. In the tertiary period the fauna and flora of the world
were richer than to-day; many more older species have disappeared than
new ones have arisen. This fundamental fact seems due to the extremely
slow cooling of the earth, and appears to be indicated by the powerful
growth in tropical climates, the fauna and flora of which resemble
those of the tertiary period, and, on the other hand by the relative
poverty and slowness of growth in cold countries.
=Conclusions.=--What are the principal conclusions to which we are led
by this short study of the ancestral history or phylogeny of man?
(1). The transformation or evolution of living beings is a
demonstrated fact.
(2). The factors in evolution appear at first sight to be very
diverse: selection, mutation, climatological, physical and chemical
factors, etc.
We have seen that they may all be connected with the fundamental
principle of mnemic engraphia, aided by natural selection. No doubt
the nature of the mnemic engraphia of external agents in the living
substance is still unknown. When we are able to connect the laws of
life with the laws of inert nature, we shall only have before us a
single great metaphysical mystery, that of the tendency of mundane
energy to the differentiation of details and the production of
complicated forms. What is important here is to know that engraphia
and selection are capable of considerably modifying species in a
positive or negative manner, for good or evil, improving them by good
influence and good conjugations, or deteriorating them by bad
selection or by blastophthoria, which causes them to degenerate. The
combination of a bad selection with blastophthoric influences
constitutes the great danger for humanity, and it is here that a
rational sexual life should intervene.
(3). The mental faculties of animal species, as well as their physical
characters, depend on their ancestral hereditary mneme. They simply
represent the internal or introspective side of central activity, and
the brain obeys the natural laws of the mneme in the same way as the
other organs.
(4). It follows from all this that phylogeny and selection, the same
as heredity properly understood, have the right to a fundamental place
in the sexual question, for the germs which, after each conception,
reproduce an individual are, on the one hand, bearers of the inherited
energy of our ancestors, and on the other hand, that of future
generations. According to the care or neglect of civilized humanity
they may be transformed for good or evil, progress or recede.
Unfortunately, owing to religious and other prejudices, the question
of evolution is not discussed in schools. Hence, the majority of men
only hear of these things by hearsay in a rough and inexact manner; so
that a series of phenomena familiar to naturalists and medical men,
are still dead letters for the rest of the public. This obliges me to
speak further on some points of detail.
The so-called historical times, that is the times of the Chinese,
Egyptians and Assyrians, which appear to us extremely remote, are from
the point of view of evolution very near to us. These ancient peoples,
at any rate those who were our direct ancestors, or who were closely
related to them, are thus, in the language of evolution, which takes
no count of time or of the number of generations, our very near
relations. The generations which separate them from us and the few
hundred generations between them and those of their direct ancestors,
who were at the same time ours, represent a limited period from the
point of view of the ethnological history of mankind.
On the other hand, if we examine the savage peoples of America, Asia,
Africa and Australia, which have been specially studied since the
discovery of America and some of which are actually living, and
compare them with ourselves and with our ancestors of four thousand
years ago, we find that they differ infinitely more from us than we
differ from our ancestors, as their ethnographical and historical
remains are sufficient to prove.
Among the savage peoples we find races such as the pigmies of
_Stanley_ (Akkaas), the Weddas of Ceylon, even Australians and
negroes, whose whole bodily structure differs profoundly from our
European race and its varieties. The profoundness and constancy of
these differences clearly show that the relationship of such races to
ours must be very remote. We are concerned here with veritable races
or sub-species, or at least with very constant and accentuated
varieties. It is true that it is difficult to unravel the almost
inextricable confusion of human races; but we may be certain that the
savage races and varieties remote from ours, and even certain
less-remote races such as the Mongols and Malays, are, phylogenetically
speaking, infinitely less related to us than the ancient Assyrians.
This indicates that the ancestors which were common to us and these
races must probably be looked for several thousands of generations
back, even when their descendants are still living on other continents
at the present day.
It is easy to explain that human races so different could develop
separately in continents and under climates with a very different mode
of life and conditions of development, if we reflect that at these
remote periods men only had very limited modes of transport and lived
in a fashion very little different from that of the anthropoid apes,
so that the ethnological forms were preserved separated from each
other by small distances. This fact can still be observed among the
small hostile Indian or Malay tribes, who live in tropical regions and
often occupy only a few square leagues. The higher civilizations of
former times could not develop beyond a comparatively limited circle,
as their means of transport did not allow them to venture too far. The
conquest of the whole earth by modern civilization by means of the
mariner's compass, firearms, steam and electricity is thus an
absolutely contemporaneous event, unique in the history of the world,
the origin of which hardly goes back more than four hundred years.
This event has completely upset the natural internal evolution of
human races, by the fact that all the lower races attacked by
civilized races armed with guns and alcohol, are destined to rapid and
complete destruction.
Geology has discovered in the caves of the quaternary period, human
remains which are much lower in the scale of evolution and much nearer
the anthropoid apes than the lowest races still living. Their brain,
as shown by the cranial cavity, was still smaller. Lastly, _Dubois_
has discovered in Java the cranium of _Pithecanthropus erectus_ which
is intermediate between that of the orang-utan and man. If more such
remains are discovered the chain of transition between the apes and
man will be almost complete.
=Hybridity. Consanguinity.=--Before concluding this chapter we must
study the question of _hybrids_. It is important to know to what point
fecundity and descent are influenced by the degree of relationship
between the two procreators. Conjugation probably arises from the
general necessity of organisms to reenforce their race by variety.
Consanguinity perpetuated is harmful to the species, in the same way
as parthenogenesis, or indefinite reproduction by fission or budding.
It produces enfeeblement and degeneration of the race, and leads to
extinction by causing sterility.
By _consanguinity_ is meant continued sexual union between near
relatives. It is easy to understand that the conjugation of two germs
derived from brothers and sisters or from a father and his daughter
approaches parthenogenesis from the point of view of the mixing of
hereditary energies. We shall see later on that nearly all peoples
have a certain repugnance to consanguineous marriages. Among animals,
natural selection eliminates too consanguineous products.
On the other hand, sexual union between different species, however
little removed, gives no products. Near species may produce hybrids
between themselves, but these hybrids are as a rule sterile or nearly
so, and are incapable of perpetuating their type, which reverts
rapidly to one of the primitive species.
It has been recently demonstrated that the incapacity of two species
of animals to produce hybrids is intimately connected with the
reciprocal toxicity of their blood. When the blood of one species is
injected into the veins of another the production of hybrids is
possible between them, at least as far as has been observed. It is
curious to note that the blood of the anthropoid apes is not toxic for
man, although these animals are very different from us, and hybrids
have not yet been produced. This fact helps us to understand how it is
that the differences which exist between the different human races do
not prevent the production of hybrids between any two of them. In
spite of this we may state, without risk of error, that the most
dissimilar human races give a bad quality of hybrids, which have
little chance of forming a viable mongrel race. We have not
sufficient information on this point concerning the lowest human
races, such as the pigmies and Weddas. On the other hand, mulattoes
(hybrids between negroes and whites) constitute a race of very bad
quality and hardly viable, while the hybrids between Indians and
whites are much more resistant and of relatively better quality.
In this question, the middle course appears without any doubt the true
one. Unions between near races and varieties, or at least between
individuals of the same race or variety whose relationship is old, are
certainly the best. We readily grant that the homogeneity of a race
has the advantage of fixing its peculiarities in a more durable and
characteristic fashion; but many inconveniences counterbalance this
advantage. If we one day, by wise selection and by eliminating all
sources of blastophthoria obtain a superior quality of human germs, it
is possible that in the remote future, consanguinity, provided it is
not exaggerated may lose its dangers.
CHAPTER III
NATURAL CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN
COITUS--PREGNANCY--CORRELATIVE SEXUAL CHARACTERS
It is impossible to comprehend the deep meaning and lofty aim of an
act like that of sexual union without knowing the details of
conjugation and the origin of man as we have explained them in the
preceding chapters.
Conjugation requires the bringing together of two cells, and
consequently the movement of at least one of them. This cellular
movement suffices for the lower forms of union and is usually limited
to the male cell. Owing to its movement it plays the active role,
while the passive role is reserved for the female cell. Hence we see
in the higher plants the male cells, or pollen, transported to the
pistil by the wind or by insects, and thence reach the egg by
mechanical endosmotic attraction which brings about conjugation.
This takes place in an analogous manner in lower animals, but the male
cell is generally endowed with special movement. As soon as we deal
with complicated animals, mobile in themselves and composed of cells
differentiated to form complex organs, we see a second phenomena of
reproductive movements appear in the animal phylogeny, namely the
movement of the whole individual bearing male cells toward the
individual bearing female cells. This simple fact gives rise to the
formation of correlative sexual differences between the individuals
bearing each kind of germinal cells. As the result of the evolution of
these two phylogenetic systems of motor phenomena tending to establish
conjugation, we obtain for each sex two categories of sexual
formations:
(1). The _germinal cells themselves_, the female form of which becomes
larger, more rich in protoplasm, and remains immobile, while the male
form, or spermatozoid becomes extremely small and is provided with
motor apparatus (Fig. 11).
(2). The _individuals_ with their correlative sexual differences
proper to the male and female, disposed in a way to give the male the
active role and the female the passive role.
Normal hermaphrodism, complete or reciprocal (snails, etc.)
constitutes an intermediate stage. Here each individual bears two
kinds of germinal cells and possesses also male and female copulative
organs, so that there only exists one form of individuals which
copulate reciprocally; the male organ of one penetrating the female
organ of the other and vice versa. It is obvious that this excludes
the formation of correlative individual sexual characters.
In the second category, the male always differs from the female, at
least in the sexual organs, and usually in other physical and mental
characters. The difference in the sexual functions leads to the
formation of differences in other parts of the body, and in instincts
and sentiments, which find their material expression in the different
development of the brain.
Certain specific functions in society may, in social animals like the
ants, lead to the formation or differentiation of a third or fourth
kind of individuals. This is what is called _polymorphism_. Here it is
not the sexual function causes the correlative differences of the
individuals, but division of social labor. The ecphoria of the
hereditary mneme which produces the polymorphous, and more or less
asexual individual forms (workers, warriors,) still proceeds through
the energies of the reproducing germs. Here the action of selection is
necessary to explain the phenomena.
In man, sexual differentiation has led to the formation of two kinds
of individuals, differing little in their correlative attributes, but
each bearing one kind of germinal cells. In sexual union man plays the
active part, woman, the passive. When sexual activity, in the animal
kingdom, is no longer limited to the movement of one of the cells but
requires the displacement of the whole individual, we can quite
understand that the organization of these individuals must become much
more complex, and that it requires a central nervous system as a
directing apparatus. Sexual individuality thus involves collaboration
of the other organs of the body, and especially that of the central
organs for reflex movements, the instincts and the higher mental
faculties of man, in the accomplishment of the fecundating act those
which are the consequences of it.
From this simple animal origin is evolved the complex sexual love of
man. The duty of the active or male individual is to bring the
spermatozoa to a point where they can easily reach the female cells or
ovules. When this is done the duty of the male is accomplished. In the
passive or female individual of the higher animals, pairing and
conjugation are only the commencement of reproductive activity.
However, this is not the case in the whole animal kingdom. For
instance, fish have distinct sexes, but in them the female deposits
her non-fecundated eggs in the water and is not concerned with them
any further. The male then arrives and discharges his sperm on the
eggs. In this case fecundation takes place without copulation. With
such a system sexual love and maternal love lose their _raison
d'etre_, for the young fish are capable of providing for themselves as
soon as they are born. There are, however, a few exceptions, one of
the most curious being that of certain fish of the Dead Sea, in which
the male incubates the eggs by taking them into his buccal cavity.
=Reproduction in Vertebrates.=--We should never finish if we were to
describe even the chief varieties of sexual union among the
vertebrates. As a rule, the male possesses a copulating organ which
projects externally, while the female presents an invaginated cavity,
more or less cylindrical, into which the male organ can penetrate. A
certain amount of sperm is deposited by the male in the neighborhood
of the mature ovules (Fig. 18) discharged from the female germinal
gland or ovary, which renders conjugation possible. By means of their
mobile tails, the spermatozoa (Fig. 11) are able to reach the ovules
and fecundate them. The manner in which the egg when fecundated,
either in the mother's body or after being laid, continues its
development, varies enormously in different species. The eggs are
often deposited by the female and the embryo develops outside the
mother's body. This occurs in insects, mollusks, fish, amphibia,
reptiles, birds and the lowest mammals or monotremes (ornithorhynchus
and echidna).
In the lower mammals is developed an organ called the womb which
allows the embryo to remain longer in the maternal body. This organ is
very incomplete in them, and a pocket or fold in the skin of the belly
allows the mother to carry her young, which are extremely embryonic at
birth, till they have developed sufficiently to live alone. This
occurs in marsupials (kangaroos and opossums), in which the vagina and
uterus are double.
In the higher mammals the womb becomes more and more developed,
opening into a single vagina in the middle line of the abdomen,
between the two ovaries, and constituting a highly specialized organ
which allows the mother to preserve the young for a long time in her
belly. In most mammals the uterus has two elongated diverticula, each
of which may contain a successive series of embryos. In man it forms a
single cavity and normally contains a single embryo, occasionally two
or more. These facts show that the role of the female mammal in
reproduction is more important than that of the male. But this is not
all. Whether it still lays eggs, or whether it gives birth to young
which are more or less developed its sexual role is far from ended.
The higher oviparous vertebrates, especially the birds, take care of
their progeniture for some time after laying. The young are still fed
by the mother, either by milk from the teats, as in mammals, or by
nourishment obtained from outside, as in birds, or by both methods
combined or succeeding each other, as in cats.
In many animals the male contributes to the raising of the young; a
point to which we shall return. Here, we indicate these complicated
details simply to show that sexual union only contributes one link in
the long chain of reproduction. Let us study its mechanism in man.
=The Copulatory Organ of Man. The Testicles. The Seminal
Vesicles.=--Nature is often very sparing even in the highest
organizations. It has thus combined in the male the urethra with the
copulatory organ, and the sexual germinal glands, or _testicles_, with
an accessory gland, the _epididymis_. Hundreds of thousands of
spermatozoa are contained in the glandular tubes of these organs,
which, when they are mature can always produce new ones by cell
division. The spermatozoa accumulate at the extremity of the duct of
the gland in a reservoir called the _seminal vesicle_, where they
float in the mucus, thus constituting the seminal fluid or _sperm_.
This liquid has a special odor. The two seminal vesicles are situated
in the abdominal cavity underneath the urinary bladder, each having a
duct which meets that of the other side and opens by the side of it in
the deep part of the urethra. Here the secretion of several other
glands, especially of the _prostate_, is added to the sperm and mixes
with it. The point where the two seminal ducts open into the urethra
forms a small elevation, the _verumontanum_. From this point the male
urethra emerges from the abdominal cavity and is continued along the
special prolongation which forms the penis, or virile member of
copulation. In the ordinary way the penis only serves for the emission
of urine. It hangs flaccid and terminates in a rounded swelling called
the glans, at the end of which opens the urethra (Fig. 18). This
opening serves also for the emission of the sperm.
=Erection. The Corpus Cavernosum.=--The most curious part of this
apparatus is the mechanism of _erection_, or the power possessed by
the penis of swelling under the influence of certain nervous
irritations, increasing in length and diameter as well as becoming
rigid. This phenomenon is produced by three organs called the
_cavernous bodies_ which form the principal bulk of the penis. One of
them, situated in the middle and underneath and formed by two bodies
united into one, surrounds the urethra and terminates in front in a
dilatation which constitutes the glans already mentioned. The two
others are situated symmetrically on the dorsal part of the penis. All
three consist of caverns or diverticula formed by blood-vessels, which
are empty when the penis is flaccid. By a complex nervous mechanism
based on vascular paralysis due to nervous phenomena called inhibition
and dynamogeny, the nervous irritations cause an accumulation of blood
in the spaces of the cavernous bodies which become so gorged with
blood as to form stiff and hard rods. The size of the penis is thereby
increased considerably and its stiffness allows it to penetrate the
vagina of the female. At the same time and by the same mechanism the
verumontanum swells so as to close the ureter from the bladder, while
the seminal ducts open toward the urethral orifice. In this way the
copulatory organ is ready for its function.
Repeated irritations are however necessary to provoke the ejaculation
of semen. This is finally produced by excitation of a special muscle
which compresses the seminal vesicles in a spasmodic manner and
ejaculates the semen by the urethra. After ejaculation, the
accumulation of blood in the cavernous bodies gradually diminishes and
the penis again becomes flaccid.
This apparatus is thus very complicated and is put in action by
several nervous irritations which may be disturbed in many ways in
affections of the nervous system. We may observe here that the nervous
centers of erection and ejaculation may be put in action directly by
the brain, or indirectly by peripheral irritation of the glans.
Those peripheral nerves which provoke sexual excitation are especially
the nerves of the glans. This possesses a skin or mucous membrane
which is extremely delicate and is protected against external
irritation by a fold of skin called the _prepuce_, or foreskin. The
prepuce is often too narrow so that it cannot be withdrawn behind the
glans. It then forms a pocket in which sebaceous matter, semen, urine,
etc., accumulate and decompose. This anomaly, called _phimosis_, does
not exist among the Jews owing to circumcision, or the removal of the
prepuce in the newly born, which forms part of their religious rites.
Hygienic considerations sometimes oblige us to perform this operation
in others. The bad habit of masturbation, so common in boys, is often
provoked by phimosis, and shows that simple mechanical irritation of
the glans, due here to secretions contained in the prepuce, may lead
to ejaculation of semen as well as to erection.
We have seen above that the male and female germinal glands arise from
the same primitive organ in the embryo. If the embryo becomes male,
this organ is transformed into the two testicles which descend
gradually in the canal of the groin and become placed in the scrotum.
If it becomes female, the two sexual glands remain in the abdominal
cavity and are transformed into ovaries.
=The Genital Organs of Woman.=--The organs described in Chapter II
(Figs. 18 and 19), constitute the internal and more important part of
the female sexual apparatus. In women, the urethra opens externally on
its own account. It is much shorter and wider than in men. At its
external extremity is a small cavernous body called the _clitoris_,
which corresponds embryologically to the penis in man, and chiefly to
the glans. Like the latter it is specialized for sexual irritation and
possesses very sensitive nerves. The opening of the female urethra is
situated in front of the vulva directly under the pubic bone, at the
same place as the root of the male penis. From this point, on each
side of the middle line, extend two longitudinal folds, one external
covered with skin and called the larger lip of the vulva (Fig. 18,
_labia majora_), the other internal, hidden under the first, called
the lesser lip of the vulva (_labia minora_), and covered with thin
mucous membrane. Between the two lesser lips is the sexual aperture,
which, with the labia majora and minora is called the _vulva_. This
opening is distinct from that of the urethra, and leads to the
internal cavity or _vagina_ (Fig. 18). The vagina is about ten to
twelve centimeters long (2 to 2-1/2 inches) and terminates in a
_cul-de-sac_ which surrounds the vaginal portion of the womb, of which
we have spoken above.
In virgins the entrance to the vagina is more or less closed by a
delicate transverse membrane called the _hymen_, which is only
perforated by a narrow opening. At the first coitus the hymen is torn,
causing a certain amount of pain and bleeding. The walls of the vagina
are thrown into transverse folds, which render them somewhat rough.
The remains of the hymen torn by the first coitus afterward form
behind the vulva small excrescences named _carunculae myrtiformes_.
In the first chapter we have spoken of the changes undergone by the
fecundated ovule till it becomes the embryo and then the infant. It
remains to speak of the mechanism of expulsion of the ovule and of its
fecundation, as well as the changes in the womb which result from
these phenomena.
=Menstruation.=--About every four weeks, one or two ovules (rarely
more) mature and are discharged into the Fallopian tubes, down which
they pass by the movement of the vibratile cilia of the mucous
membrane, to the uterus, to the walls of which they become attached if
they have been fecundated on the way (Fig. 18). Fecundation or
conjugation takes place most often in the Fallopian tube, sometimes in
the uterus. The maturation and expulsion of the ovule are generally
accompanied in women by a nervous phenomenon closely related to
erection in man. The mucous membrane of the cavity of the uterus is
very rich in blood vessels which become dilated and gorged with blood
under the inhibitory influence of certain nerve centers. As the mucous
membrane is very thin, the result is otherwise than in man; the blood
transudes through the mucous membrane and flows away. This is called
_menstruation_ ("courses" or monthly periods). The object of this is,
no doubt, to prepare the mucous membrane of the womb for the fixation
of the fecundated egg which will become grafted on its surface. The
courses in women generally last three or four days, but are often very
irregular. It is necessary to point out that they do not depend on
ovulation (expulsion of the egg). The two phenomena may take place
independently of each other, for menstruation in itself depends only
on nervous irritation, which may be provoked or averted by hypnotic
suggestion, for example.
Moreover, there are women who never menstruate and who, in spite of
this, not only regularly discharge ovules but may be fecundated and
become pregnant. Usually, however, the two phenomena are associated by
nervous reflexes, so that menstruation takes place first and then the
ovule commences its migration.
=The Mechanism of Coitus.=--Copulation, or coitus, takes place as
follows: After a certain degree of excitation, both mental and
sensory, the male introduces the erect and stiffened penis into the
vagina. In the case of advanced pregnancy he should place himself
behind, so as to avoid injuring the unborn child. Rhythmic movements
of the two individuals, especially of the man, gradually increase the
excitation of the mucous membrane or skin of the genital organs of
each party, till voluptuous sensations, arising chiefly in the glans
penis and clitoris, spread to the whole nervous system and the entire
body, constituting what is called the _venereal orgasm_, and
terminating in the man by the ejaculation of semen.
The localizations of irritability in woman are multiple, and to the
clitoris must be added the nipples, the vulva, and even, it is said,
the neck of the womb. In man the parts round the anus may also,
besides the glans penis, form an excitable region. At the acme of
erection the glans is turgid, and is applied directly against the neck
of the womb (Fig. 18). In this way the sperm is ejaculated directly
against the neck of the womb.
In the woman an analogous phenomenon takes place; the clitoris becomes
turgid and the mild and repeated friction of the mucous membranes,
together with contact on other sensitive parts, produces a voluptuous
sensation as in the man. Through nervous association, the repeated
excitation determines secretion from certain glands of the vagina
which lubricate the vulva (glands of _Bartholin_). At the maximum
point of voluptuous feeling the woman experiences something analogous
to the venereal orgasm of the man. There is thus manifested in the two
sexes an intense and reciprocal desire of penetration one by the
other, a desire which powerfully favors fecundation. In the woman as
in the man the end of the orgasm is followed by an agreeable
relaxation which invites sleep.
The hereditary or instinctive nervous actions produce after coitus a
profound effect of contrast. When the sexual appetite commences, the
odors, especially those of the sexual organs, the contacts, the
movements, and the sight of the individual of the opposite sex, all
increase desire, producing a voluptuous excitation stronger than all
contrary feeling. Hardly is the sexual act consummated than all
vanishes like a dream. What was a moment before the object of the most
violent desire becomes indifferent, and sometimes even excites a
slight feeling of disgust, at least as regards certain odors,
sometimes even regarding touch and sight. The name sexual appetite
(libido sexualis) is given to the passionate and purely sexual desire
of the two sexes for each other. It varies greatly in different
individuals.
According to _Ferdy_ and other authors, the neck of the womb, during
the venereal orgasm of the woman, executes movements of suction in the
glans penis. I do not know if this is a fact, but it is certain that
the female orgasm is useless for conception. Absolutely cold women,
incapable of the least voluptuous sensation are as fruitful as those
who have pronounced venereal orgasms. It proves that the spermatozoa
arrive at their goal even when the womb is entirely passive. The great
variation of sexual desire in different individuals renders mutual
adaptation often very difficult. The venereal orgasm is sometimes more
rapid in man, sometimes in woman (more rarely in the latter). This
inequality is rather to the detriment of the woman, for the man can
still satisfy himself when the orgasm of the woman has terminated,
while the contrary is not possible without artificial manipulation.
Moreover, the frequence and intensity of the sexual appetite are often
much greater in one than in the other, which is detrimental to both.
Here again it is the woman who suffers the most, for the man can
always satisfy himself without the woman having voluptuous sensations.
What is commonly called good manners generally prevents the conjoints
from speaking of their sexual desires before marriage. This very often
results in grave deceptions, dissensions, and often even divorce. I
shall return to this subject in Chapter XIV.
Voluptuous sensations only represent the means employed by nature to
bring together the sexes with the object of reproducing the species. A
woman can be fecundated and give birth to a child by the aid of semen
injected into the uterus by a syringe. Moreover, it is rather
exceptional for the venereal orgasm to occur in the two sexes at the
same moment. It is essential for fecundation that the semen should
enter the womb. When the spermatozoa have reached the neighborhood of
the neck of the womb they swim by their own movements, not only along
the whole uterine cavity, but also along the Fallopian tubes and even
in the abdominal cavity, so that the force of ejaculation is of little
importance.
=Pregnancy.=--The womb enlarges considerably during pregnancy. It
exceeds the size of an adult head, and the muscles of its walls are
greatly increased, so as to be capable of expelling the child later
on.
The phenomena of pregnancy, birth and suckling are known to all, so
that I shall be brief. The almost sudden activity of the breasts after
childbirth is a very interesting correlative phenomenon. It suffices
to glance at one who has just become a mother and to observe the
complications which profoundly influence all her organism with regard
to the life of the infant, to comprehend to what extent the role of
sexual life is more important, more profound, even more vital, in
woman than in man. The latter no doubt requires a more violent
appetite to urge him to copulation because he plays the active part,
short though it be. But fecundating coitus having been effected, his
contribution to the reproduction of the species is ended.