Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

1867] LeCoxte on the Law of the iSexes. 479ova commence to develope successively, and separatesuccessively at the same stage of development, and continuetheir development in the oviduct previous to fecundation.Being thus regularly arranged in the oviduct inthe order of their ages, and therefore of their maturity.If all are fecundated by one copulative act, the most mature,or the males would be laid first. Embryologistsmust settle the important questions we have started. Ifdefinitely settled, then it would seem that experiments onhens were best adapted to test M. Thuny's theory ; butuntil definitely settled, experiments on multiparous animalswill avail little. In the meantime the experimentsof M. Cornaz on cattle have never been controverted.Such is a brief extract of the memoir of M. Thuny,and of the experiments of M. M. Coste and Gerbre, intermingled,however, with some explanations of our own, inorder to make the whole more intelligible. We wouldlike to see the subject taken up by some of our intelligentstock-raisers.The great importance of the theory, if true, both inascientific and practical point of view—both to the physiologistand farmer, can not be doubted. But the historyof the theory can only be accomplised by intelligent andvery careful observers. The physical signs of the generativeperiod differ in the different species, and in differentindividuals of the same species, particularly in domesticanimals. It is always well marked in wild animals, butin domestic animals it is often obscure.Close and patientobservations will, however, overcome all these difficulties.Nashville Journal Med. and Surg.