The flower so sweetly unfolding
Was crushed by a rough hand one day,
And the jewel, so sacred, so precious,
Was stolen and taken away.—Selected.
CHAPTER XIV
MOTHER’S FIRST TALK—THE FEMALE FORM
You have been told God’s plans in bringing all the little fish, plants, birds, animals and human babies into the world. You have enjoyed all these stories. We have not gone into detail in these talks. When you are older, if you desire you can study the laws of life more thoroughly. We have tried to satisfy your inquiring mind and lead you to see that God’s laws of increasing life are pure and sacred.
All these years you have been a little girl. You have been growing larger and wiser all the time. You have worn short dresses, loved your dolls, played with little boys and girls; you have been innocent, free from care, jolly and happy. You will be a girl for several years to come. You should not be in a hurry to get away from the joys, pleasures, and ways of girlhood. However, God has not planned for you to be a girl always. He has wisely planned for you to grow and change in body and mind, from a girl into a woman, that you may some day be a mother.
A review.—In previous talks we found that every little baby plant and animal had a father and a mother. We found that the pollen produced by the small organs of the flower had to unite with the seed formed by the mother organs, before a little plant could come into the world. We found among the animals that little eggs were formed by organs in the mother’s body, called ovaries, just as seed are formed by ovaries in the flowers. We also found that these little eggs formed by the mother organs could not become baby animals without the union of a life-giving substance from the father animals. In the higher animals, where the mother nurses her young with milk formed by the mother’s breasts, we find many resemblances to the lower animals, with some very interesting additions to the reproductive organs.
Among some of the lower animals, such, for example, as mussels and fish, no provision is made to nourish and feed their young; some, such as the bee, store up food in cells; while still others, such as the bird, provide food for the young for some days after they are hatched.
Mothers of the higher animals and man.—In the higher animals, the mother supplies her young with food for weeks or months after they are born, by means of organs called breasts or udders. These organs are not found among the lower animals. They are vitally associated with, and therefore a part of, the female organs of sex of the higher animals and man.
How mothers in the lower and higher forms of life differ.—Among the higher animals, the eggs are formed by ovaries, just as in the case of plants and the lower animals. Here we find another important addition to the female organs of sex. As soon as the egg is formed by the ovary it passes, by means of a duct called the fallopian tube, into a pear-shaped vessel called the uterus, or womb. Here, if the egg is fertilized by the male substance, it becomes attached to the wall of the womb. At this point of the womb, a cord is formed, containing a vein and artery, called the placenta. The placenta connects with the body of the young at a point called the navel. The forming young receives its air, food, and life through the cord from the mother’s blood.
There is a very close resemblance between the creative organs and their functions in the higher animals and man. We could not become fathers and mothers without these special organs of sex.