The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction Part 1

The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction.

by Winfield S. Hall.

CHAPTER I.

REPRODUCTION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF BIOLOGY.

REPRODUCTION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF BIOLOGY.

I. GENERAL ACTIVITIES OF LIVING ORGANISMS.

The casual observer, even if he watches thoughtfully the various activities of plants and animals, would hardly believe these activities capable of cla.s.sification into two general cla.s.ses. He notes the germination of the plant seed and its early growth, step by step approaching a stage of maturity; it blossoms, produces seed, and if it is an annual plant, withers and dies. If it is a perennial plant its leaves only, wither and die at the approach of winter, the plant pa.s.sing into a resting stage from which it awakes the following spring to repeat again its annual cycle.

If he observes an animal he finds that it similarly develops to a stage of maturity, reproduces its kind, withers and dies; but incident to these general activities he notes numerous others that seem to have no relation to the activity of the plant. He sees men tilling the fields, felling the forests, building houses, factories and railroads; he sees them build hospitals, colleges and churches. Is it possible to group all of these activities of plants and animals into two general groups? A more critical view of these activities makes it evident that they are all directed either to the maintenance and protection of the individual, or the maintenance and protection of the race. Those directed towards the maintenance of self are called egoistic activities, while those directed to the maintenance of the race are called _phyletic activities_.

The Egoistic Activities.

The term egoistic implies that the effort is directed towards the ego or self, and includes all of those activities directed to the support, protection, defense and development of oneself. As ill.u.s.trated in the plant organism, the taking of nourishment from the air and soil, the development of the stem, branches, roots and leaves, are egoistic activities. In the animal--we may take, for example, man--the egoistic activities begin with the drawing of nourishment from the mother's breast and include all those activities of early childhood usually called play, the real significance of which is to develop the neuro-muscular system and the special senses, to that condition of alertness and strength that will make the growing individual self-supporting. A very large part of the activities of the self-supporting human subject are directed towards the earning of his daily bread, and of clothing and shelter. The activities of the school and college period, devoted, as they are, almost exclusively to the development of the youth's powers, intellectual or physical, are also egoistic. Even the pursuit of pleasure and of sense gratification on the part of the individual belongs to this same group of activities.

The Phyletic Activities.

As the etymology of the term suggests, these activities are devoted to the propagation, maintenance and protection of the race.

a. =Reproduction.=--The most fundamental one of the activities for the maintenance of the race is reproduction. Every living organism, whether plant or animal, possesses the power to reproduce its kind.

Some plants produce spores and some produce seeds. Reference was made above to the production of the flower in plants. The flower represents the reproductive organ of the plant, and the real object of the flower is to produce the seed. Animals produce eggs from which the young develop, either through a process of incubation outside of a maternal body or an a.n.a.logous process within the maternal body. In the latter case the young are brought forth as living organisms.

b. =Support and Protection of Offspring.=--Whether we consider the plant seed, or the animal egg or newborn--in any case the parental organism must provide for the support and protection of the offspring during those stages of development when it is unable to support and protect itself.

The plant deposits in or about the seed a supply of nourishment sufficient to support it during the germinating process and until it is able to gain its own support from the soil and air. Furthermore, the plant protects the seed by means of the various seed envelopes, against the cold and moisture of winter.

In a similar way the young animal is supplied by its parents with nourishment. The young bird is incubated within the egg where a supply of nourishment is provided sufficient to develop the bones, muscles, nervous system, blood, glands and covering--all developed to a point that makes the bird able to take from the mother during the early weeks after its release from the sh.e.l.l, such nourishment as the mother may provide. In the meantime it must be brooded and protected in the parental nest until it is able to provide for its own protection.

Similarly the young mammal is developed within the body of the maternal organism to a point where it is able to perform the primitive functions of life. For weeks, months or even years, according to the cla.s.s of the animal, it must be supported and protected by its parents. The human young receives milk from its mother's breast and protection in its mother's arms during its first year, after which it continues to receive nourishment, clothing and protection under the parental roof for a period varying from eighteen to twenty years, or even longer.

c. =Support and Protection of Weaker Members of Society.=--Young animals are supported and protected because they are unable to support and protect themselves. If they were not thus cared for the race would become extinct. Now, there are certain individuals, orphans for example, who have, through some accident, been deprived of their natural support and protection. If these weaker members of society, not yet able to support and protect themselves, were not provided for, they would perish and become thus lost to the race. From the time of primeval man to the present, these weaker individuals of society who have been deprived of their natural protectors, have been cared for by the stronger members of society and afforded such support and protection as they may need to make them independent. In a similar way the sick and defective members of society are cared for by the strong.

Thus we see that the building and maintenance of orphanages, hospitals, asylums and "homes," are activities that belong clearly to the group of phyletic or altruistic activities.

2. SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.

Sacrifice and Compensation in Egoistic Activities.

The thoughtful student is very likely to ask--Why does man till the fields? Why does man fell the forest trees? Why does he cultivate domestic animals? Why does he delve in the earth for minerals? These are all strenuous activities that require the outlay of time, talent and strength. We may say that they are sacrifices that he makes and, apparently, willingly. We have only to study the problem more closely to see that he tills the fields and cultivates his domestic animals for food; that he fells the forest trees to make for himself shelter; that he cultivates certain plants and animals to procure for himself clothing; that he delves in the earth to bring out mineral products to use in the various industries that supply various elements of his livelihood. It becomes manifest then that the egoistic activities of an organism represent sacrifice followed by compensation. The individual sacrifices in order that he may reap his reward or receive his compensation. It may be stated as a general biological truth that, _nature demands sacrifice or work on the part of all living organisms; and, under normal conditions, metes out a compensation commensurate with the sacrifice made_.

Sacrifice and Compensation in the Phyletic Activities.

a. =Lower Organisms.=--As an example of a lower organism we may take the _amoeba_. If one watches an amoeba under the microscope he may see it move about the field, creeping along the surface of the gla.s.s plate; throwing out a pseudopodium here; inv.a.g.i.n.ating a mouth or stomach there; taking in and digesting minute plant organisms; transporting itself across the field of the microscope through the aid of improvised locomotory organs. All these activities are egoistic.

The amoeba is putting forth effort to gain its sustenance; it is sacrificing energy to receive compensation in the form of support. If we continue to watch this minute organism we will find that sooner or later it goes into a resting stage which does not last long before we can observe important internal changes making themselves manifest first at the nucleus, which slowly divides into two equal portions that separate, each carrying with it about half of the protoplasm of the parent organism. As these two young amoebae lie side by side under the microscope the thoughtful student will inquire--what has become of the parent organism? Whereas at first there was one mature amoeba, now we have before us two young amoebae of the next succeeding generation.

The parent organism has sacrificed its substance and its individuality absolutely and completely for the next generation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate I Reproduction in the Amoeba.]

It may be said in general that _reproduction always involves a division of the parent organism_. In the case of the amoeba the division is into two equal portions. In the case of some of the lower plants and animals the substance of the parent organism is divided into many equal minute spores or eggs, each of which develops a new organism.

b. =Higher Organisms.=--These also suffer a division of their body protoplasm. However, instead of dividing into two or more equal parts and merging their individuality immediately into the next generation, the higher organisms divide off a very small portion of their protoplasm to make an egg or seed while the parent organism lives on to produce eggs or seeds on subsequent occasions.

While the parental sacrifice in eggs or spermatozoa is minute and inconsiderable in the higher animals, the sacrifices subsequent to this initial division are incalculably greater in higher animals than in the lower organisms. We can cite no better example than the human subject. The human ovum, divided off from the maternal organism, is a minute globule of protoplasm, almost microscopic in size. The sacrifice of the mother in producing the ovum is inconsiderable, but the production of the ovum is simply the first step in the sacrifice which the maternal organism makes.

The fertilized ovum makes a lodgment on the inner surface of the uterus or womb and begins immediately to absorb its nourishment from the maternal organism. It soon develops a heart and blood vessels so related to the blood vessels of the mother that throughout its intra-uterine existence the mother's blood supplies the growing child all of the substance that is built up into bone, muscle, brain and glands, preparing the young child to come into the world a living, breathing, sentient organism. These draughts upon the vitality of the maternal organism are so great that they frequently result in a very sensible depletion of the mother's physical power, particularly manifest in the depletion of the blood.

During the period when the young child is developing within the body of the mother, she must make other sacrifices, viz., the withdrawal from society more closely within the four walls of her home where she busies herself many days in preparation of the wardrobe for the expected child. Then there are sacrifices incident to childbirth represented especially in the pain and travail of parturition. During the first year of the child's life in normal cases, it draws its nourishment from its mother's breast. This nourishment in turn is elaborated by the milk-secreting glands from the mother's blood--still further depleting her system. During its childhood and youth the mother prepares the food, clothing and shelter of her child at no small expense of her own time and strength. For years the mother holds herself ready to watch by the bedside of her child should he fall sick, and there is hardly a mother in the land who has not spent many nights in this vigil by the bed of her sick child.

We might turn now briefly to the consideration of the sacrifices that the father makes.

As is the case with mother so with the father, the initial sacrifice in the division of a portion of his body is too small to be considered, but in his case as in the case of the mother, the sacrifice for the coming progeny is only initiated with the act of procreation and continues through a period of fifteen, twenty or even thirty years--sometimes progressively increasing to the last. These sacrifices take the form, for the most part, of support and protection, and begin soon after conception on the part of the mother--as the pregnant woman usually requires much greater solicitude and care on the part of the husband than she does on other occasions.

The normal father, like the normal mother, holds himself in readiness to watch by the bedside of the sick child should the occasion arise, and to make other sacrifices incident to the protection and support of the child.

It is shown above that sacrifices incident to the egoistic activities receive their compensation. The question next demanding our attention is--do the sacrifices which are made incident to our phyletic activities receive a compensation? The most striking solution of this question would be a personal solution. Let any young man ask his parents if they have been compensated for all the sacrifices they have made for him. If this son is such a one as brings pride and satisfaction to the parents it is very evident what their unhesitating answer would be, viz., that they have been compensated many times over for all the sacrifices they have made. In what does such compensation consist? It can be expressed most briefly: LOVE OF OFFSPRING. This principle of _love of offspring_ seems to be a more or less general one in the whole realm of conscious living nature. That a tree could possess this no one would suggest; that a sea urchin could possess it no one would be likely to contend. It is probably possessed by all of those animals that are conscious of sacrifices; that is, if an animal is conscious of sacrifice he is capable of being conscious of this compensation which we term, _love of offspring_. For organisms too low in the scale of life to be conscious of either sacrifice or love of offspring, nature seems to have arranged another scale of sacrifices and compensations--sacrifice taking the form of contention for possession of females and sacrifice in their support and protection, the recompense being the gratification incident to s.e.xual intercourse.

That this last factor may enter, to a certain extent, as a determining factor among the higher animals cannot be questioned. The higher we get in the scale of animal life the less the part played by _s.e.xual gratification_ and the greater the part played by _love of offspring_.

In some of the higher animals, especially those in which the family circle is maintained or the community life highly developed, there is frequently at work still another consideration that may play no small part in ameliorating or compensating the sacrifice incident to reproduction. Reference is here made to the expectation on the part of the parents that support and protection will be provided for them in their old age when they are unable to support or protect themselves.

That this plays any great part in determining the procreation in the first place is not probable; but that it later becomes a matter of consideration is not to be doubted. However, in so far as these considerations of personal welfare enter into the compensation of the parents for the sacrifices that they have made for their offspring, in just so far do we remove these considerations from the realm of the phyletic and place them within the realm of the egoistic.

Reverting again to a discussion of the lower organisms--we have yet to consider the character and extent of the compensation which these organisms, which are unconscious of sacrifice, receive. The conscious sacrifice of higher animals receives a conscious compensation; similarly the unconscious sacrifice of lower organisms receives an unconscious compensation.

It will be remembered that the amoeba did not die, but that it was _rejuvenated in its offspring_. In the next and every succeeding generation there is no death, but a rejuvenation. It thus transpires that these lowly organisms enjoy immortality; or perhaps it may be better stated, that the protoplasm of these organisms enjoys immortality and this immortality is the compensation for the sacrifice which each successive individual makes unconsciously in the division of its protoplasm. This principle of biology was first discovered and formulated by the great German Biologist, Weissmann.

Summary of Principles.

a. The propagation of offspring and the protection and support of the young and defenseless always involve sacrifice on the part of the parents and the stronger members of the race.

b. Sacrifice made consciously for the race is, in the natural order of things, compensated.

CHAPTER II

ADOLESCENCE IN THE MALE