Ladies' Guide in Health and Disease Author:John Harvey Kellogg Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: to this theory is the fact that a large number of spermatozoa are apparently required for the fecundation of a single ovum. At any rate, it is well known that in... more » the case of some of the lower animals, as, for example, the frog, a very large number of spermatozoa, enter each ovum and disappear in its interior, becoming amalgamated with its elements. It has been suggested that the sex of progeny may depend to a considerable degree upon the number of spermatozoa which unite with the ovum, a certain number being sufficient to produce males and a smaller number females. The resemblance of children to their father or mother has also been accounted for in the same way; a large number of spermatozoa uniting with the ovum producing a preponderance of the male characteristics of the sex, and a lesser number the contrary. It is useless to devote space to a discussion of the relative importance of the male and female reproductive elements, since neither is capable of independent development. Conception.—There is considerable evidence for believing that the union of the spermatozoa with the ovum takes place in some portion of the fallopian tubes. After this has been effected, the ovum usually soon passes down to the cavity of the uterus. Sometimes, when fecundation occurs at the surface of the ovary, the ovum loses its way, and remains in the abdominal cavity. Its progress down the fallopian tube is also occasionally stopped before it reaches the uterus. The result of its arrest in these abnormalpositions will be referred to elsewhere. When the ovum reaches the uterus, it soon becomes attached to some portion of its wall, the mucous membrane having been previously prepared for its reception by a process of thickening and the formation of little pockets, one of which receives the ovum,...« less