FECUNDATION OR FERTILIZATION

 

Extra-Uterine Pregnancy. The tube is a bad place for the ovum to grow and develop, because the tube cannot stretch to such an extent as the uterus can, nor can it furnish the embryo such good nourishment as the uterus can. Occasionally, however, it happens that the impregnated ovum remains in the tube and develops there; we then have a case of what we call extra-uterine (outside-of-the-uterus) or tubal pregnancy. Extra-uterine pregnancy is also called ectopic pregnancy, or ectopic gestation. Unless diagnosed early and operated upon, the woman may be in great danger, for after a few weeks or months the tube generally ruptures.

From the moment the spermatozoön has entered the ovum, a process of division or segmentation commences. The ovum, which consists of one cell, divides into two, the two into four, the four into eight, the eight into sixteen, these into thirty-two, these into sixty-four, 128, 256, 512, 1,024, until they can no longer be counted. This mulberry mass of cells arranges itself into two layers, with a cavity in between. And from these layers of cells there develop gradually all organs and tissues, until a fully formed and perfect child is the result. If two ova are impregnated at the same time by two spermatozoa, the result is twins.



I might mention here that the moment the ovum is impregnated, i.e., joined by a spermatozoön, it is called technically a zygote; it is also called embryo, and this name is applied to it until the age of five or six weeks. Some use the term embryo up to two or three months. After that, until it is born, it is called fetus.
A study of the development of the embryo and the formation of the various organs from one single cell, the ovum, vitalized or fecundated by another single cell, the spermatozoön, is the most wonderful and most fascinating of all studies.

But that belongs to the domain of Embryology, which is a separate science.
What we see in the process of fecundation is a foreshadowing of the future man and woman. The ovum has no motion of its own, it is moved along by the wave-like motions of the lining cells of the Fallopian tube, and throughout the entire act it remains passive. The spermatozoön, on the other hand, is in a state of continuous activity from the moment it has been ejaculated by the male until it has reached its goal—the ovum. And as the spermatozoa carry in them the entire impress of the man, and the ova of the woman, they foretell us the fates of the future boy and girl. The woman's rôle throughout life is a passive and the man's an active one. And in choosing a mate the man will always be the active factor or pursuer. So biology seems to tell us. Whether education—using the word in its broadest sense—will effect a radical change in the relation of man and woman remains to be seen.

 A change putting the man and the woman on a footing of equality would be desirable; but whether biological differences having their roots in the remotest antiquity can be obliterated, is a question the answer of which lies in the distant future. As Geddes and Thomson so well said: The differences [between the sexes] may be exaggerated or lessened, but to obliterate them it would be necessary to have all the evolution over again on a new basis. What was decided among the prehistoric Protozoa cannot be annulled by act of Parliament.