The Mother and Her Child | Page 6

within its body, in a wonderfully organized capsule, a part of the
ancestral stream of life that unceasingly has flowed down through the
centuries from father to son and from mother to daughter. This "germ
plasm" is a divine gift to be held in trust and carefully guarded from the
odium of taint, to be handed down to the sons and daughters of the next
generation. Any young man who grasps the thought that he possesses a
portion of the stream of life, that he holds it in sacred trust for posterity,
cannot fail to be impressed with a sense of solemn responsibility so to
order his life as to be able to transmit this biologic trust to succeeding

generations free from taint and disease.
THE PROCESS OF FERTILIZATION
Just as within the body of "Mother Morning Glory" (See Fig. 15) may
be found the ovary or seed bed, so there are two wonderfully organized
bodies about the size of large almonds found in the lower part of the
female abdomen on either side of the uterus, and connected to it by two
sensitive tubes. There ripens in one of these bodies each month a
human baby-seed, which finds its way to the uterus through the little
fallopian tube and is apparently lost in the debris of cells and mucus
which, with the accompanying hemorrhage go to make up the
menstrual flow. This continues from puberty to menopause, each gland
alternatingly ripening its ovum, only to lose it in the periodical
phenomenon of menstruation, which is seldom interrupted save by that
still more wonderful phenomenon of conception.
At the time of conception, countless numbers of male germ-cells
(sperms) are lost--only one out of the multitude of these perfectly
formed sperms made up of the mosaics of hereditary depressors,
determiners, and suppressors that so subtly dictate and determine the
characteristics and qualifications of the on-coming individual--I repeat,
only one of these wonderful sperms finds the waiting ovum (Fig. 1). In
this search for the ovum, the sperm propels itself forward by means of
its tail--for the male sperm in general appearance very much resembles
the little pollywog of the rain barrel (Fig. 1).
The fateful meeting of the sperm and the ovum takes place usually in
the upper end of one of the fallopian tubes. It is a wonderful occasion.
The wide-awake, vibrating lifelike sperm plunges head first and bodily
into the ovum. The tail, which has propelled this bundle of life through
the many wanderings of its long and perilous journey, now no longer
needed, drops off and is lost and forgotten. This union of the male and
female sex cells is called "fertilization." There immediately follows the
most complete blending of the two germ cells--one from the father and
one from the mother--each with its peculiar individual, family, racial,
and national characteristics. Here the combined determiners determine
the color of the eyes, the characteristics of the hair, the texture of the

skin, its color, the size of the body, the stability of the nervous system,
the size of the brain, etc., while the suppressors do a similar work in the
modification of this or that family or racial characteristic.
THE FIRST WEEKS OF LIFE
The fertilized ovum remains in the tube for about one week, when it
slowly makes its way down into the uterus, all the while rapidly
undergoing segmentation or division. It does not grow much in size
during this first week, but divides and subdivides first, into two parts,
then four, then eight, then sixteen and so on, until we have a peculiar
little body made up of many equally divided parts, and known as the
"Mulberry Mass" (Fig. 1). The blending of the sperm and ovum has
been perfect, the division of the original body multitudinous.
[Illustration: Sperm and Ovum Cell Division
Fetus at Six Weeks Fetus at Three Months
Fig. 1. Steps in Early Development]
While this division of the united sex cells is progressing, a wonderful
change is also taking place in the inside lining of the uterus. Instead of
the usual thin lining, it has greatly thickened and has become highly
sensitized, and as the ovum enters the uterus from the fallopian tube,
this sensitized lining catches it and holds it in its folds--actually covers
it with itself--holding the precious mass much as the cocoon, you have
so often seen fastened to the side of a plant or leaf, holds its treasure of
life.
Just as soon as the new uterine home is found the baby heart begins to
make its appearance, as also do many other rudimentary parts. By the
end of the third week, our round mass has flattened and curved and
elongated, and the nervous system and brain begin to develop, while
the primitive ears begin to appear. At this time,