male. Omitting the alkali, Mr.
Sorby takes the formula, C{72}H{112}N{18}SO{22}, as representing the
composition of albumen. In a 1/2000 of an inch cube, he reckons--

Albumen 18,000,000,000,000 molecules.
Water 992,000,000,000,000 "
--------------------------------
1,010,000,000,000,000 molecules.

Or, in a sphere of the same diameter, 530,000,000,000,000 of the two
components. Taking a single mammalian spermatozoon, having a mean
diameter of 1/6000 of an inch; "it might contain two and a half million
of such gemmules. If these were lost, destroyed, or fully developed at
the rate of one in each second, this number would be exhausted in about
one month; but since a number of spermatozoa appears to be necessary to
produce perfect fertilization, it is quite easy to understand that the
number of gemmules introduced into the ovum may be so great that the
influence of the male parent may be very marked, even after having been,
as regards particular character, apparently dormant for many years." The
germinal vesicle of a mammalian ovum being about 1/1000 of an inch, mean
diameter, might contain five hundred million of gemmules, which, if used
up at the rate of one per second, would last more than seventeen years.
If the whole ovum, about 1/150 in diameter, were all gemmules, the
number would be sufficient to last, at this rate, one per second for
5,600 years! This, however, is not probable; but Mr. Sorby's remarks has
completely removed all doubt as to its physical possibility from the
Darwinian theory; "and they prompt us," says Slack, "to a wonderful
conception of the powers residing in minute quantities of matter."

The laws of inheritance are divisible into two series, conservative and
progressive transmission; the laws of adaptation to direct (active) or
indirect (potential) adaptation.

External causes often influence the reproductive system, especially in
organism propagating in a sexual way. This can be strikingly shown in
artificially produced monstrosities. Monstrosities can be produced by
subjecting the parental organism to certain extraordinary conditions of
life; and curiously enough, such an extraordinary condition of life does
not produce a change of the organism itself, but a change in its
descendants. The new formation exists in the parental organism only as a
possibility (potential); in the descendants it becomes a reality
(actual). Most commonly, monstrosities with