Grafton-street, Berkeley-square, 30th March, 1833.
PROLEGOMENA
OF
THE DEVELOPMENT AND METAMORPHOSES
OF
THE HUMAN OVUM.
PROLEGOMENA.
1. The ultimate purpose of nature, in associating the two sexes in the human species, is to bring to maturity and produce, in a fit state to live and procreate, a constant succession of individuals, that shall perpetuate the species to the end of time.
2. This object is invariably accomplished by one uniform series of laws and phenomena, which have been studiously inquired into, accounted for, and, in most instances, explained in a satisfactory manner, amounting almost to demonstration.
3. The study of the function of reproduction, in all the other classes of animals, affords no other nor any dissimilar evidence. On the contrary, both by comparison and analogy, the study in question serves to confirm us in the notion, that Man differs in nought, in this respect, from the animated beings placed below him in the scale of creation. One same primary intention is manifest in their sexual distinctions; the means to ensure the ultimate purpose—their perpetuation—are the same; the same laws and the same phenomena mark the appearance, the development, and the final production of successive generations of individuals.