Plain Facts for Old and Young

by John Harvey Kellogg

The doctrine of pangenesis supposes that these centers of nutrition form and throw off not only cells like themselves, but very minute granules, called gemmules, each of which is capable, under suitable circumstances, of developing into a cell like its parent.

These minute granules are scattered through the system in great numbers. The essential organs of generation, the testicles in the male and the ovaries in the female, perform the task of collecting these gemmules and forming them into sets, each of which constitutes a reproductive element, and contains, in rudimentary form, a representative of every part of the individual, including the most minute peculiarities. Even more than this: It is supposed that each ovum and each zoösperm contains not only the gemmules necessary to reproduce the individuals who produced them, but also a number of gemmules which have been transmitted from the individuals' ancestors.

If this theory be true,—and we can see no sound objection to it,—it is easy to understand all the problems of heredity. The gemmules must be very small indeed, but it may be suggested that the molecules of matter are smaller still, so this fact is no objection to the theory.

It will be seen, then, that each spermatozoön, or zoösperm, actually contains, in an embryonic condition, every organ and tissue of the individual producing it. The same is true of the ovum. In other words, the reproductive elements are complete representatives, in miniature, of the parents, and contain all the elements for producing an offspring possessing the same peculiarities as the parents. Various modifying circumstances sufficiently explain the dissimilarities between parents and children.

This theory is strikingly confirmed by the fact, previously mentioned, that in certain cases the ovum alone, a single reproductive element, may undergo a degree of development approaching very near to completion. It is supposed that fecundation is chiefly necessary to give to the gemmules the requisite amount of nourishment to insure development.

As we shall see hereafter, this matter has a very important bearing upon several practical questions.

[Ante-Natal Influences.]—There can be no manner of doubt that many circumstances which it is entirely within the power of the parents to supply, exert a powerful influence in molding both the mental and the physical characteristics of offspring. By carefully availing himself of the controlling power given him by a knowledge of this fact, the stock-raiser is enabled to produce almost any required quality in his young animals. Pigeon fanciers show wonderful skill in thus producing most curious modifications in birds. The laws of heredity and development are carefully studied and applied in the production of superior horses, cows, dogs, and pigeons; but an application of the same principles to the improvement of the human race is rarely thought of. Human beings are generated in as haphazard and reckless a manner as weeds are sown by the wind. No account is taken of the possible influence which may be exerted upon the future destiny of the new being by the physical or mental condition of parents at the moment when the germ of life is planted, or by the mental and physical conditions and surroundings of the mother while the young life is developing. Indeed, the assertion of a modern writer that the poor of our great cities virtually "spawn children," with as little thought of influences and consequences as the fish that sow their eggs broadcast upon the waters, is not so great an exaggeration as it might at first sight appear to be.

[Law Universal.]—Men and women are constantly prone to forget that the domain of law is universal. Nothing comes by chance. The revolutions of the planets, studied by the aid of the telescope, and the gyrations of the atoms, seen only by the eye of science, are alike examples of the controlling influence of law. Notwithstanding this sad ignorance and disregard of this vitally important subject, the effects of law are only too clearly manifested in the crowds of wretched human beings with which the world is thronged. An old writer sagely remarks, "It is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born;" nevertheless, it is the sad misfortune of by far the greater portion of humanity to be deprived of this inestimable "felicity."

[A Source of Crime.]—Who can tell how many of the liars, thieves, drunkards, murderers, and prostitutes of our day are less responsible for their crimes against themselves, against society, and against Heaven, than those who were instrumental in bringing them into the world? Almost every village has its boy "who was born drunk," a staggering, simpering, idiotic representative of a drunken father, beastly intoxicated at the very moment when he should have been most sober.