s of perversion.
In some respects, savages approach more nearly to the natural state
than civilized man, and in other particulars, the latter more nearly
represents man's natural condition; but in neither barbarism nor
civilization do we find man in his primitive state.

In consequence of this universal departure from his original normal
condition,--the causes of which we need not here trace, since they are
immaterial in the consideration of this question,--when we wish to
ascertain with certainty the functions of certain organs of the human
body, we are obliged to compare them with the corresponding organs of
lower animals, and study the functions of the latter. It is by this
method of investigation that most of the important truths of physiology
have been developed; and the plan is universally acknowledged to be
a proper and logical one.

Then if we wish to ascertain, with certainty, the true function of the
reproductive organs in man, we must pursue the course above indicated;
in other words, study the function of reproduction in lower animals.
We say _lower animals_, because man is really an animal, a member of
the great animal kingdom, though not a beast--at least he should not
be a beast, though some animals in human form approach very closely
to the line that separates humanity from brutes. We are brought, then,
for a solution of this problem, to a consideration of the question,
What is the object of the reproductive act in those members of the animal
kingdom just below man in the scale of being? Let science tell us, for
zoologists have made a careful study of this subject for centuries.

We quote the following paragraphs from one of the most distinguished
and reliable of modern physiologists;[11] the facts which he states
being confirmed by all other physiologists:--

"Every living being has a definite term of life, through which it passes
by the operation of an invariable law, and which, at some regularly
appointed time, comes to an end.... But while individual organisms are
thus constantly perishing and disappearing from the stage, the
particular kind, or species, remains in existence.... This process,
by which new organisms make their appearance, to take the place of those
which are destroyed, is known as the process of _reproduction_ or
_generation_.

"The ovaries, as well as the eggs which they contain, undergo, at
particular seasons, a periodical development, or increase in growth....
At the approach