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Ambert, Changing Families: Relationships in Context, Third Canadian Edition
Test Item File

CHAPTER 7
Couple Formation and Sexual Relations

TRUE-FALSE

1. U.S. researchers accept the ages of 13 and 14 as ‘developmentally appropriate’ for


the onset of dating.

Answer: True Difficulty: easy Page: 183 Skill: factual

2. Dating and courtship refer to the same phenomenon.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 183 Skill: conceptual

3. In our society, race, social class, and religion are the main sources of endogamy.

Answer: True Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

4. The principles of homogamy are equally important in homosexual and heterosexual


mate selection.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 189 Skill: conceptual

5. Although increasing numbers of Canadians are choosing cohabitation for their first
union, cohabitation is still less institutionalized than marriage.

Answer: True Difficulty: easy Page: 193 Skill: conceptual

6. Most couples cohabit as a form of “trial” marriage.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 193 Skill: factual

7. Research over several decades has shown that cohabitations are every bit as stable
as marital relationships.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 193 Skill: factual

8. Married couples are just as likely as cohabitants to keep their money separately.

Answer: False Difficulty: easy Page: 194 Skill: applied

9. Generally, young cohabiting women do less housework than married ones and
young cohabiting men do more than married men.

Answer: True Difficulty: moderate Page: 195 Skill: factual

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10. The cohabiting population has a lower rate of conjugal violence than the
married population.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 195 Skill: factual

11. Women who cohabit serially are at high risk of never marrying and, if they do
marry are at higher risk of divorcing.

Answer: True Difficulty: moderate Page: 196 Skill: factual

12. A possible masculine bias about sexual expression is evident in studies on


frequency of sexual intercourse.

Answer: True Difficulty: challenging Page: 203 Skill: applied

13. Both males and females are equally likely to describe their first intercourse as
exciting and satisfying.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 207 Skill: factual

14. Casual sex in adolescence is related to cohabitation rather than marriage later.

Answer: True Difficulty: moderate Page: 208 Skill: applied

15. Research suggests there is no relationship between consumption of internet


pornography and marital infidelity.

Answer: False Difficulty: moderate Page: 215 Skill: factual

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. High school and college dating in Canada is an institution because


a. it affects every young person.
b. it is ritualized.
c. it often precedes the institution of marriage.
d. it is a natural part of the courtship process.
e. it is based in looking for a potential marriage partner.

Answer: b Difficulty: moderate Page: 183 Skill: conceptual

2. As an institution, when did dating first emerge?


a. During the Industrial Revolution.
b. In the 1980s.
c. After the first World War.
d. During the 1960s when females gained equality with males.
e. During the 1950s.

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Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 183 Skill: conceptual

3. At which point in a relationship is heterosexual dating most likely to be nonegalitarian?


a. At the beginning.
b. Once the couple makes a commitment of fidelity to each other.
c. Once the couple has engaged in sexual intercourse.
d. Before the couple has engaged in sexual intercourse.
e. About one year into the relationship.

Answer: d Difficulty: moderate Page: 184 Skill: applied

4. Dating is a gendered experience because


a. men tend to invest more in their dating relationship than do.
b. mothers are more concerned about their daughters’ well-being than are fathers.
c. women tend to invest more in their dating relationship than do men.
d. mothers take a proactive interest in their daughter’s dating life.
e. men are responsible for initiating dates.

Answer: c Difficulty: easy Page: 183 Skill: conceptual

5. Young women work harder at relationship maintenance because


a. they perceive fewer alternatives to their current dating partners.
b. they enjoy maintenance work.
c. they are better at maintaining relationships than young men.
d. young men are, by nature, not monogamous.
e. they are more romantic by nature.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 183 Skill: applied

6. It may not be functional for young gays to date same-sex partners openly in high
school because
a. it impacts negatively on their grades.
b. they may not self-identify as gay.
c. they may not know how to find a partner.
d. they fear being stigmatized.
e. there are very few potential partners.

Answer: d Difficulty: easy Page: 185 Skill: factual

7. The statement that ‘internet dating is akin to a buffet as opposed to a sit-down


dinner’ is meant to suggest that
a. the internet makes it possible to exchange many emails and pictures prior to an
actual face-to-face encounter.
b. the internet contains a wide variety of places a couple can meet such as chat
rooms and ethnic sites.
c. the internet allows for the possibility of moving from one person to the next
without ever being committed to any of them.

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d. the internet creates the possibility of judging a person’s physical appearance,


voice, facial expressions, and general demeanour all at the same time.
e. the internet allow for the possibility of having access to many potential partners
simultaneously.

Answer: e Difficulty: moderate Page: 187 Skill: factual

8. The rule of propinquity in partner selection refers to


a. physical or geographic proximity.
b. similarity of values.
c. proximity of recreational facilities.
d. endogamy.
e. levels of attractiveness.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

9. Assortative mating refers to


a. the concept of exogamy in mate selection.
b. the principle of proximity of dating partners.
c. choosing a date on the basis of certain characteristics similar to one's own.
d. a random process of partnering.
e. choosing a date on the basis of attractiveness and popularity.

Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

10. Marrying within one's own status group is called


a. propinquity.
b. endogamy.
c. exogamy.
d. monogamy.
e. proximal similarity.

Answer: b Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

11. If a woman chooses to date only men who are vegetarian like herself, then she is
practising
a. exogamy
b. propinquity
c. homogamy
d. monogamy
e. cohabitation

Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: applied

12. _____________ strengthens mutual feelings and lowers the risk of divorce.
a. Endogamy
b. Exogamy

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c. Polygamy
d. Cohabitation
e. Propinquity

Answer: a Difficulty: easy Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

13. Currently, about ____ per cent of married and cohabiting couples in Canada are
exogamous.
a. 22
b. 16
c. 10
d. 4
e. 1

Answer: d Difficulty: moderate Page: 186 Skill: factual

14. When age homogamy is not present, women tend to marry


a. men the same age as themselves.
b. men a few years younger than they are.
c. men a few years older than they are.
d. elderly men.
e. boys.

Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 188 Skill: applied

15. _____ refers to when people are attracted to one another because of common
interests and shared topics of conversation that are related to their class-linked
resources.
a. Social class
b. Educational monogamy
c. Class-based identity
d. Educational homogamy
e. Educational endogamy

Answer: e Difficulty: easy Page: 188 Skill: applied

16. Gay males take ___________ into account in mate selection more than lesbians do.
a. economic position.
b. educational status.
c. age.
d. physical appearance.
e. weight.

Answer: d Difficulty: easy Page: 189 Skill: factual

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17. Physical attractiveness is NOT an important element in mate selection for


a. young gay males.
b. young heterosexual men.
c. middle aged heterosexual men.
d. middle aged gay males.
e. lesbians.

Answer: e Difficulty: moderate Page: 190 Skill: applied

18. ______ has a higher proportion of cohabiting couples than any other region in
Canada.
a. Quebec
b. Ontario
c. British Columbia
d. Saskatchewan
e. Newfoundland

Answer: a Difficulty: easy Page: 190 Skill: factual

19. Some people find that it is easier to enter into a cohabitational than a marital
relationship because
a. it is less institutionalized.
b. it is less expensive.
c. it is a more open relationship which allows for other sexual partners.
d. they fear divorce.
e. it requires less risk.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 193 Skill: applied

20. More than _____ percent of all cohabitations end in dissolution within five years.
a. 20
b. 40
c. 50
d. 60
e. 75

Answer: c Difficulty: easy Page: 193 Skill: factual

21. The stability of a cohabiting relationship depends, in part, on


a. the age of the cohabiters.
b. the reason why the couple is cohabiting.
c. the response from family members.
d. the socio-economic status of the couple.
e. whether either or both members of the couple are divorced or widowed.

Answer: b Difficulty: challenging Page: 193 Skill: factual

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22. Women in cohabiting relationships are less faithful than


a. men in cohabiting relationships.
b. men in marital relationships.
c. women in married relationships.
d. women in dating relationships.
e. men in dating relationships.

Answer: d Difficulty: challenging Page: 195 Skill: factual

23. Which age would a cohabiting man be most likely to be committed to their
relationship?
a. 18
b. 25
c. 30
d. 45
e. 55

Answer: e Difficulty: easy Page: 195 Skill: conceptual

24. Older women who are widowed or divorced often find cohabitation functional
because
a. they can pool economic resources.
b. they can maintain their sense of independence.
c. they are able to have a regular sex life.
d. they enjoy being more radical than they could be when they were younger.
e. they can have the same daily routines they did when married.

Answer: b Difficulty: moderate Page: 197 Skill: applied

25. Which of the following statements about cohabitation for older adults is correct?
a. For older adults, cohabitation carries more risks than it does for younger adults.
b. Cohabitation in older adults is related to economic disadvantage.
c. Older cohabitants have lower levels of relationship quality than younger
cohabitants .
d. Older men benefit from cohabitation rather than remaining single.
e. Older divorced or widowed women prefer to marry within 2 years of the end of
their marriage.

Answer: d Difficulty: moderate Page: 197 Skill: conceptual

26. Which of the following types of couples would be most likely to choose marriage
over cohabitation?
a. a professional couple with both partners having graduate degrees.
b. a working class couple with both partners having no more than a high school
diploma.
c. a homeless couple who are both high school drop outs.

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d. a poor couple who are both high school dropouts.


e. a working class couple with one spouse who is a skilled tradesperson and the
other spouse who is a high school graduate.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 198 Skill: applied

27. Marriage tends to be less satisfying for women, in part, because


a. women are more difficult to satisfy in personal relationships.
b. women’s expectations of marital happiness are higher than men’s expectations.
c. women are held more responsible for children, which impacts on their
employment and leisure time more than it does on men’s.
d. women are held responsible for keeping the romance in marriage even though
men are often not romantically inclined.
e. women assume they will ‘live happily ever after’ and do not realize that a good
marriage takes effort.

Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 199 Skill: applied

28. Women who are most comfortable with cohabitation tend to be women who
a. are younger than 30.
b. have parents whom are divorced.
c. are engaged to the person they are cohabiting with.
d. require the economic support of their cohabiting partner.
e. have children.

Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 200 Skill: applied

29. One of the obligations that challenges the institutionalization of marriage with
respect to same-sex marriages is
a. the commitment to monogamy and fidelity.
b. the obligation to provide economically for one’s partner.
c. the provision of same-sex benefits to
each partner.
d. the
emotional support required by each partner.
e. the pursuit of
similar hobbies and interests.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 200 Skill: conceptual

30. Adolescent attitudes about nonmarital sex indicate a gender divide whereby
a. same-sex adolescent couples are more likely to have a positive view towards
sex than are opposite-sex couples.
b. heterosexual females are much less likely to approve of sex on the first date
than are heterosexual males.
c. heterosexual males are much less likely to approve of sex on the first date than

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are heterosexual females.


d. heterosexual males and heterosexual females are equally likely to disapprove of
sex on the first date.
e. heterosexual males and heterosexual females are equally likely to approve of
sex on the first date.

Answer: b Difficulty: easy Page: 203 Skill: applied

31. Which of the following statements is NOT true of adolescents who have multiple
sex partners?
a. Adolescents with multiple partners practise safe sex.
b. Adolescents with multiple partners have lower school achievement.
c. Adolescents with multiple partners have a more difficult parent-child
relationship.
d. Adolescents with multiple partners tend to consume alcohol more.
e. Adolescents with multiple partners are less likely to receive a great deal of
supervision.

Answer: a Difficulty: easy Page: 205 Skill: applied

32. Individuals who are born into one sex but, from very early in their lives, have never
felt comfortable in this designation are referred to as
a. gay.
b. lesbian.
c. homosexual.
d. bisexual.
e. transgendered.

Answer: e Difficulty: easy Page: 211 Skill: conceptual

33. In a marriage, the frequency of intercourse largely diminishes with


a. age.
b. number of years married.
c. social class.
d. cohabitational status.
e. the arrival of children.

Answer: a Difficulty: moderate Page: 211 Skill: factual

34. The higher frequency of sexual intercourse among cohabiters than married couples
is probably explained by
a. the greater commitment of cohabiters.
b. biases in studies on this topic.
c. the fact that cohabitations are of short duration.
d. the greater love experienced by cohabiters.
e. the less conservative norms of cohabiters.

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Answer: c Difficulty: moderate Page: 212 Skill: applied

35. Men are least sexually faithful


a. in unhappy marriages.
b. in gay unions.
c. among the upper class.
d. in dating relationships.
e. in cohabiting relationships.

Answer: b Difficulty: challenging Page: 214 Skill: factual

SHORT ANSWER

1. What kinds of risk factors are generally associated with adolescent dating and
sexual behaviour?

Answer: Concerns about dating and popularity may supersede other areas of
developmental importance in terms of self-definition if dating starts too early.
Adolescent females, for instance, are more vulnerable in emotional and
academic realms when dating than older adolescent females are. Given that
dating interactions seem to be nonegalitarian and males tend to have more
power than females, this is a problematic precursor to adult relationships. There
also may be pressure for sex when young females are not emotionally ready.
Many young females may feel coerced into having sex when they do not want
to. Where very young men seem to benefit psychologically from relatively early
sexual experiences, very young women often experience shame, anxiety, and
guilt. Where young males feel in control of their environment if they are
sexually active, young females feel the opposite. They feel they have little or no
control over their environment. The earlier youth begin dating, the more likely
it is that they will also begin having sexual experiences at an early age. Not
only is this potentially damaging in terms of emotional and psychological well-
being, these youth are also at a far higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases
simply because the earlier you begin to have sexual experiences, the more
partners you will potentially have.

Difficulty: moderate Page: 204-209 Skill: factual

2. Use exchange theory and feminism to explain the gendered nature of dating.

Answer: Young women invest more in dating than young men do. Females are socialized
to be nurturing and understanding of others so it is often up to them to maintain
relationships. Because popularity and social success rests on acquiring dates,
females often feel more social pressure to maintain relationships in order to
achieve the status that comes with having these relationships. Females also are
socialized to see fewer desirable alternatives outside of relationships with males.

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Males are socialized to see that there are alternative outside of dating which
make life worthwhile and which provide status. However, females with the most
desirable resources, such as attractiveness do less maintenance work because
they are confident that other dating alternatives exist to their present one.

Difficulty: easy Page: 185 Skill: conceptual

3. Is endogamy in partner selection functional?

Answer: Endogamy is when people date, cohabit, or marry within their own status group
or with persons who are similar to them in terms of basic social characteristics.
Endogamy is functional in that people who are similar to each other are more
likely to have compatible interests, values, and lifestyle wishes. It usually leads
to equitable exchange of resources, both personal and social. Endogamy in race
and ethnicity, social class, and religion tend to lead to more stable relationships
that are longer lasting.

Difficulty: easy Page: 188 Skill: conceptual

4. Discuss the reasons that cohabitation might be favoured over marriage for many
couples.

Answer: Many individuals choose cohabitation because it requires less sexual fidelity
and role demands than marriage. The fact that it is less institutionalized means
that fewer obligations are expected. Cohabitational relationships are easier to
enter and carry fewer financial risks if the relationship ends. Cohabiting couples
are less tolerant of differences between them than are married couples (
Hohmann-Marriott, 2006 ). For young couples, cohabitation may be pursued
due to the perceived sexual availability of the partner. For young couples
cohabitation may be seen as an extension of long-term dating and not
necessarily a precursor to marriage. For younger people, cohabitation might
also be a way of saving money by sharing a residence. Divorced adults may
also find economic benefits to cohabitation because of child support
requirements. For older adults, cohabitation might provide companionship and
may be preferred by older female widows and divorcees who value their newly
gained freedom. The economic benefits of cohabitation over remarriage may be
even more important among the older generation because it provides the
advantage of economies of scale while protecting their children’s inheritances.

Difficulty: moderate Page: 193-197 Skill: conceptual

5. How does marriage benefit men and women? In what ways are the benefits accrued
from marriage greater than in cohabitating relationships?

Answer: When compared with men and women in any of the other marital status
categories (e.g., cohabitating, same sex) both married men and women have

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lower rates of emotional problems, are healthier physically, and live longer.
Compared to cohabitation, marriage also increases both financial and health
satisfaction, which in turn increase happiness. Marriage also helps adults
stabilize their personalities, gain self-esteem and personal security, and allows
them to develop competencies and a sense of responsibility that were not
required when they were single. For men, marriage means being more regularly
employed than other men. This translates into greater personal. Men are also
generally far more secure in a marital relationship because married couples are
more likely to pool their resources than are cohabiting couples. Also, married
adults are more likely to maintain a healthy lifestyle than non-married adults.
For example, married people eat at home more, stay out late less, use alcohol an
illegal drugs less, and are better organized to take care of their basic needs.
Marriage also has advantages for women in terms of wealth accumulation
which becomes especially important after retirement age. From a financial
perspective, marriage is advantageous to both genders.

Difficulty: moderate Page: 197-200 Skill: applied

6. Explain why the societal norm of monogamy in marriage might be challenging for
same-sex couples.

Answer: Marriage as an institution has various obligations, one of which is sexual


fidelity or monogamy. Some gay groups are ideologically committed to “open
contracts” that is, a relationship that includes extramarital outlets (Sullivan,
1995). This is a contradiction in terms because marriage is meant to be a
committed and exclusive relationship. One can assume that same-sex couples
who intend to marry rather than co-habit may share the value of monogamy and
fidelity. Green (2010 ) has found that 40 percent of female and 60 percent of
male same sex spouses do not believe that marriage always needs to be
monogamous. Nearly half of males had arrived at an explicit agreement of non-
monogamy in their marriage. However, as reported by Goldberg et al. (2010
:23), more recent cohorts may value monogamy more.

Difficulty: moderate Page: 200-201 Skill: factual

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84
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Sect. 2.—The Examination of the Process of Reproduction in
Vegetables.

The extension of the analogies of animal generation to the vegetable


world was far from obvious. This extension was however made;—
with reference to the embryo plant, principally by the microscopic
observers, Nehemiah Grew, Marcello Malpighi, and Antony
Leeuwenhoek;—with respect to the existence of the sexes, by
Linnæus and his predecessors.

The microscopic labors of Grew and Malpighi were patronized by


the Royal Society of London in its earliest youth. Grew’s book, The
Anatomy of Plants, was ordered to be printed in 1670. It contains
plates representing extremely well the process of germination in
various seeds, and the author’s observations exhibit a very clear
conception of the relation and analogies of different portions of the
seed. On the day on which the copy of this work was laid before the
Society, a communication from Malpighi of Bologna, Anatomes
Plantarum Idea, stated his researches, and promised figures which
should illustrate them. Both authors afterwards went on with a long
train of valuable observations, which they published at various times,
and which contain much that has since become a permanent portion
of the science.

Both Grew and Malpighi were, as we have remarked, led to apply


to vegetable generation many terms which imply an analogy with the
generation of animals. Thus, Grew terms the innermost coat of the
seed, the secundine; speaks of the navel-fibres, &c. Many more
such terms have been added by other writers. And, as has been
observed by a modern physiologist, 53 the resemblance is striking.
Both in the vegetable seed and in the fertilized animal egg, we have
an embryo, chalazæ, a placenta, an umbilical cord, a cicatricula, an
amnios, membranes, nourishing vessels. The cotyledons of the seed
are the equivalent of the vitellus of birds, or of the umbilical vesicle of
suckling-beasts: 458 the albumen or perisperm of the grain is
analogous to the white of the egg of birds, or the allantoid of
viviparous animals.
53 Ib. p. 384.

Sexes of Plants.—The attribution of sexes to plants, is a notion


which was very early adopted; but only gradually unfolded into
distinctness and generality. 54 The ancients were acquainted with the
fecundation of vegetables. Empedocles, Aristotle, Theophrastus,
Pliny, and some of the poets, make mention of it; but their notions
were very incomplete, and the conception was again lost in the
general shipwreck of human knowledge. A Latin poem, composed in
the fifteenth century by Jovianus Pontanus, the preceptor of
Alphonso, King of Naples, is the first modern work in which mention
is made of the sex of plants. Pontanus sings the loves of two date-
palms, which grew at the distance of fifteen leagues from each other:
the male at Brundusium, the female at Otranto. The distance did not
prevent the female from becoming fruitful, as soon as the palms had
raised their heads above the surrounding trees, so that nothing
intervened directly between them, or, to speak with the poet, so that
they were able to see each other.
54 Mirbel, El. ii. 538.

Zaluzian, a botanist who lived at the end of the fifteenth century,


says that the greater part of the species of plants are androgynes,
that is, have the properties of the male and of the female united in
the same plant; but that some species have the two sexes in
separate individuals; and he adduces a passage of Pliny relative to
the fecundation of the date-palm. John Bauhin, in the middle of the
seventeenth century, cites the expressions of Zaluzian; and forty
years later, a professor of Tübingen, Rudolph Jacob Camerarius,
pointed out clearly the organs of generation, and proved by
experiments on the mulberry, on maize, and on the plant called
Mercury (mercurialis), that when by any means the action of the
stamina upon the pistils is intercepted, the seeds are barren.
Camerarius, therefore, a philosopher in other respects of little note,
has the honor assigned him of being the author of the discovery of
the sexes of plants in modern times. 55
55 Mirbel, ii. 539.

The merit of this discovery will, perhaps, appear more


considerable when it is recollected that it was rejected at first by very
eminent botanists. Thus Tournefort, misled by insufficient
experiments, maintained that the stamina are excretory organs; and
Reaumur, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, inclined to the
same doctrine. 459 Upon this, Geoffroy, an apothecary at Paris,
scrutinized afresh the sexual organs; he examined the various forms
of the pollen, already observed by Grew and Malpighi; he pointed out
the excretory canal, which descends through the style, and the
micropyle, or minute orifice in the coats of the ovule, which is
opposite to the extremity of this canal; though he committed some
mistakes with regard to the nature of the pollen. Soon afterwards,
Sebastian Vaillant, the pupil of Tournefort, but the corrector of his
error on this subject, explained in his public lectures the
phenomenon of the fecundation of plants, described the explosion of
the anthers, and showed that the florets of composite flowers,
though formed on the type of an androgynous flower, are sometimes
male, sometimes female, and sometimes neuter.

But though the sexes of plants had thus been noticed, the subject
drew far more attention when Linnæus made the sexual parts the
basis of his classification. Camerarius and Burkard had already
entertained such a thought, but it was Linnæus who carried into
effect, and thus made the notion of the sexes of vegetables almost
as familiar to us as that of the sexes of animals.

Sect. 3.—The Consequent Speculations.—Hypotheses of


Generation.

The views of the processes of generation, and of their analogies


throughout the whole of the organic world, which were thus
established and diffused, form an important and substantial part of
our physiological knowledge. That a number of curious but doubtful
hypotheses should be put forward, for the purpose of giving further
significance and connexion to these discoveries, was to be
expected. We must content ourselves with speaking of these very
briefly. We have such hypotheses in the earliest antiquity of Greece;
for as we have already said, the speculations of cosmogony were
the source of the Greek philosophy; and the laws of generation
appeared to offer the best promise of knowledge respecting the
mystery of creation. Hippocrates explained the production of a new
animal by the mixture of seed of the parents; and the offspring was
male or female as the seminal principle of the father or of the mother
was the more powerful. According to Aristotle, the mother supplied
the matter, and the father the form. Harvey’s doctrine was, that the
ovary of the female is fertilized by a seminal contagion produced by
the seed of the male. But an opinion which obtained far more
general reception was, that 460 the embryo pre-existed in the mother,
before any union of the sexes. 56 It is easy to see that this doctrine is
accompanied with great difficulties; 57 for if the mother, at the
beginning of life, contain in her the embryos of all her future children;
these embryos again must contain the children which they are
capable of producing; and so on indefinitely; and thus each female of
each species contains in herself the germs of infinite future
generations. The perplexity which is involved in this notion of an
endless series of creatures, thus encased one within another, has
naturally driven inquirers to attempt other suppositions. The
microscopic researches of Leeuwenhoek and others led them to the
belief that there are certain animalcules contained in the seed of the
male, which are the main agents in the work of reproduction. This
system ascribes almost everything to the male, as the one last
mentioned does to the female. Finally, we have the system of Buffon;
—the famous hypothesis of organic molecules. That philosopher
asserted that he found, by the aid of the microscope, all nature full of
moving globules, which he conceived to be, not animals as
Leeuwenhoek imagined, but bodies capable of producing, by their
combination, either animals or vegetables, in short, all organized
bodies. These globules he called organic molecules. 58 And if we
inquire how these organic molecules, proceeding from all parts of the
two parents, unite into a whole, as perfect as either of the
progenitors, Buffon answers, that this is the effect of the interior
mould; that is, of a system of internal laws and tendencies which
determine the form of the result as an external mould determines the
shape of the cast.
56 Bourdon, p. 204.
57 Ib. p. 209.

58 Ib. p. 219.

An admirer of Buffon, who has well shown the untenable character


of this system, has urged, as a kind of apology for the promulgation
of the hypothesis, 59 that at the period when its author wrote, he
could not present his facts with any hope of being attended to, if he
did not connect them by some common tie, some dominant idea
which might gratify the mind; and that, acting under this necessity, he
did well to substitute for the extant theories, already superannuated
and confessedly imperfect, conjectures more original and more
probable. Without dissenting from this view, we may observe, that
Buffon’s theory, like those which preceded it, is excusable, and even
deserving of admiration, so far as it groups the facts consistently;
because in doing this, it exhibits the necessity, which the
physiological speculator ought to feel, of aspiring to definite and solid
general principles; and that thus, though 461 the theory may not be
established as true, it may be useful by bringing into view the real
nature and application of such principles.
59 Ib. p. 221.

It is, therefore, according to our views, unphilosophical to derive


despair, instead of hope, from the imperfect success of Buffon and
his predecessors. Yet this is what is done by the writer to whom we
refer. “For me,” says he, 60 “I vow that, after having long meditated on
the system of Buffon,—a system so remarkable, so ingenious, so
well matured, so wonderfully connected in all its parts, at first sight
so probable;—I confess that, after this long study, and the
researches which it requires, I have conceived in consequence, a
distrust of myself a skepticism, a disdain of hypothetical systems, a
decided predilection and exclusive taste for pure and rational
observation, in short, a disheartening, which I had never felt before.”
60 Bourdon, p. 274.

The best remedy of such feelings is to be found in the history of


science. Kepler, when he had been driven to reject the solid
epicycles of the ancients, or a person who had admired Kepler as M.
Bourdon admires Buffon, but who saw that his magnetic virtue was
an untenable fiction, might, in the same manner, have thrown up all
hope of a sound theory of the causes of the celestial motions. But
astronomers were too wise and too fortunate to yield to such
despondency. The predecessors of Newton substituted a solid
science of Mechanics for the vague notions of Kepler; and the time
soon came when Newton himself reduced the motions of the
heavens to a Law as distinctly conceived as the Motions had been
before.
CHAPTER V.

Examination of the Nervous System, and Consequent Speculations.

Sect. 1.—The Examination of the Nervous System.

I T is hardly necessary to illustrate by further examples the manner


in which anatomical observation has produced conjectural and
hypothetical attempts to connect structure and action with some 462
higher principle, of a more peculiarly physiological kind. But it may
still be instructive to notice a case in which the principle, which is
thus brought into view, is far more completely elevated above the
domain of matter and mechanism than in those we have yet
considered;—a case where we have not only Irritation, but
Sensation;—not only Life, but Consciousness and Will. A part of
science in which suggestions present themselves, brings us, in a
very striking manner, to the passage from the physical to the
hyperphysical sciences.

We have seen already (chap. i.) that Galen and his predecessors
had satisfied themselves that the nerves are the channels of
perception; a doctrine which had been distinctly taught by
Herophilus 61 in the Alexandrian school. Herophilus, however, still
combined, under the common name of Nerves, the Tendons; though
he distinguished such Nerves from those which arise from the brain
and the spinal marrow, and which are subservient to the will. In
Galen’s time this subject had been prosecuted more into detail. That
anatomist has left a Treatise expressly upon The Anatomy of the
Nerves; in which he describes the successive Pairs of Nerves: thus,
the First Pair are the visual nerves: and we see, in the language
which Galen uses, the evidence of the care and interest with which
he had himself examined them. “These nerves,” he says, “are not
resolved into many fibres, like all the other nerves, when they reach
the organs to which they belong; but spread out in a different and
very remarkable manner, which it is not easy to describe or to
believe, without actually seeing it.” He then gives a description of the
retina. In like manner he describes the Second Pair, which is
distributed to the muscles of the eyes; the Third and Fourth Pairs,
which go to the tongue and palate; and so on to the Seventh Pair.
This division into Seven Pairs was established by Marinus, 62 but
Vesalius found it to be incomplete. The examination which is the
basis of the anatomical enumeration of the Nerves at present
recognized was that of Willis. His book, entitled Cerebri Anatome, cui
accessit Nervorum descriptio et usus, appeared at London in 1664.
He made important additions to the knowledge of this subject. 63
Thus he is the first who describes in a distinct manner what has
been called the Nervous Centre, 64 the pyramidal eminences which,
according to more recent anatomists, are the communication of the
brain with the spinal marrow: and of which the Decussation,
described by Santorini, affords the explanation of the action of a part
463 of the brain upon the nerves of the opposite side. Willis proved
also that the Rete Mirabile, the remarkable net-work of arteries at the
base of the brain, observed by the ancients in ruminating animals,
does not exist in man. He described the different Pairs of Nerves
with more care than his predecessors; and his mode of numbering
them is employed up to the present time. He calls the Olfactory
Nerves the First Pair; previously to him, these were not reckoned a
Pair: and thus the optic nerves were, as we have seen, called the
first. He added the Sixth and the Ninth Pairs, which the anatomists
who preceded him did not reckon. Willis also examined carefully the
different Ganglions, or knots which occur upon the nerves. He traced
them wherever they were to be found, and he gave a general figure
of what Cuvier calls the nervous skeleton, very superior to that of
Vesalius, which was coarse and inexact. Willis also made various
efforts to show the connexion of the parts of the brain. In the earlier
periods of anatomy, the brain had been examined by slicing it, so as
to obtain a section. Varolius endeavored to unravel it, and was
followed by Willis. Vicq d’Azyr, in modern times, has carried the
method of section to greater perfection than had before been given
it; 65 as Vieussens and Gall have done with respect to the method of
Varolius and Willis. Recently Professor Chaussier 66 makes three
kinds of Nerves:—the Encephalic, which proceed from the head, and
are twelve on each side;—the Rachidian, which proceed from the
spinal marrow, and are thirty on each side;—and Compound Nerves,
among which is the Great Sympathetic Nerve.
61 Spr. i. 534.

62 Dic. Sc. Med. xxxv. 467.

63 Cuv. Sc. Nat. p. 385.

64 Ibid.

65 Cuv. p. 40.

66 Dict. Sc. Nat. xxxv. 467.

One of the most important steps ever made in our knowledge of


the nerves is, the distinction which Bichat is supposed to have
established, of a ganglionic system, and a cerebral system. And we
may add, to the discoveries in nervous anatomy, the remarkable
one, made in our own time, that the two offices—of conducting the
motive impressions from the central seat of the will to the muscles,
and of propagating sensations from the surface of the body and the
external organs of sense to the sentient mind—reside in two distinct
portions of the nervous substance:—a discovery which has been
declared 67 to be “doubtless the most important accession to
physiological (anatomical) knowledge since the time of Harvey.” This
doctrine was first published and taught by Sir Charles Bell: after an
interval of some 464 years, it was more distinctly delivered in the
publications of Mr. John Shaw, Sir C. Bell’s pupil. Soon afterwards it
was further confirmed, and some part of the evidence corrected, by
Mr. Mayo, another pupil of Sir C. Bell, and by M. Majendie. 68
67 Dr. Charles Henry’s Report of Brit. Assoc. iii. p. 62.

68 As authority for the expressions which I have now used in the


text, I will mention Müller’s Manual of Physiology (4th edition,
1844). In Book iii. Section 2, Chap. i., “On the Nerves of
Sensation and Motion,” Müller says, “Charles Bell was the first
who had the ingenious thought that the posterior roots of the
nerves of the spine—those which are furnished with a ganglion—
govern sensation only; that the anterior roots are appointed for
motion; and that the primitive fibres of these roots, after being
united in a single nervous cord, are mingled together in order to
supply the wants of the skin and muscles. He developed this idea
in a little work (An Idea of a new Anatomy of the Brain, London,
1811), which was not intended to travel beyond the circle of his
friends.” Müller goes on to say, that eleven years later, Majendie
prosecuted the same theory. But Mr. Alexander Shaw, in 1839,
published A Narrative of the Discoveries of Sir Charles Bell in the
Nervous System, in which it appears that Sir Charles Bell had
further expounded his views in his lectures to his pupils (p. 89),
and that one of these, Mr. John Shaw, had in various publications,
in 1821 and 1822, further insisted upon the same views;
especially in a Memoir On Partial Paralysis (p. 75). MM. Mayo and
Majendie both published Memoirs in August, 1822; and these and
subsequent works confirmed the doctrine of Bell. Mr. Alexander
Shaw states (p. 97), that a mistake of Sir Charles Bell’s, in an
experiment which he had made to prove his doctrine, was
discovered through the joint labors of M. Majendie and Mr. Mayo.

Sect. 2.—The Consequent Speculations. Hypotheses respecting


Life, Sensation, and Volition.

I shall not attempt to explain the details of these anatomical


investigations; and I shall speak very briefly of the speculations
which have been suggested by the obvious subservience of the
nerves to life, sensation, and volition. Some general inferences from
their distribution were sufficiently obvious; as, that the seat of
sensation and volition is in the brain. Galen begins his work, On the
Anatomy of the Nerves, thus: “That none of the members of the
animal either exercises voluntary motion, or receives sensation, and
that if the nerve be cut, the part immediately becomes inert and
insensible, is acknowledged by all physicians. But that the origin of
the nerves is partly from the brain, and partly from the spinal marrow,
I proceed to explain.” And in his work On the Doctrines of Plato and
Hippocrates, he proves at 465 great length 69 that the brain is the
origin of sensation and motion, refuting the opinions of earlier days,
as that of Chrysippus, 70 who placed the hegemonic or master-
principle of the soul, in the heart. But though Galen thought that the
rational soul resides in the brain, he was disposed to agree with the
poets and philosophers, according to whom the heart is the seat of
courage and anger, and the liver the seat of love. 71 The faculties of
the soul were by succeeding physiologists confined to the brain; but
the disposition still showed itself, to attribute to them distinct
localities. Thus Willis 72 places the imagination in the corpus
callosum, the memory in the folds of the hemispheres, the
perception in the corpus striatum. In more recent times, a system
founded upon a similar view has been further developed by Gall and
his followers. The germ of Gall’s system may be considered as
contained in that of Willis; for Gall represents the hemispheres as the
folds of a great membrane which is capable of being unwrapped and
spread out, and places the different faculties of man in the different
regions of this membrane. The chasm which intervenes between
matter and motion on the one side, and thought and feeling on the
other, is brought into view by all such systems; but none of the
hypotheses which they involve can effectually bridge it over.
69 Lib. vii.

70 Lib. iii. c. 1.

71 Lib. vi. c. 8.

72 Cuv. Sc. Nat. p. 384.

The same observation may be made respecting the attempts to


explain the manner in which the nerves operate as the instruments
of sensation and volition. Perhaps a real step was made by
Glisson, 73 professor of medicine in the University of Cambridge, who
distinguished in the fibres of the muscles of motion a peculiar
property, different from any merely mechanical or physical action. His
work On the Nature of the Energetic Substance, or on the Life of
Nature and of its Three First Faculties, The Perceptive, Appetitive,
and Motive, which was published in 1672, is rather metaphysical
than physiological. But the principles which he establishes in this
treatise he applies more specially to physiology in a treatise On the
Stomach and Intestines (Amsterdam, 1677). In this he ascribes to
the fibres of the animal body a peculiar power which he calls
Irritability. He divides irritation into natural, vital, and animal; and he
points out, though briefly, the gradual differences of irritability in
different organs. “It is hardly comprehensible,” says Sprengel, 74
“how this 466 lucid and excellent notion of the Cambridge teacher
was not accepted with greater alacrity, and further unfolded by his
contemporaries.” It has, however, since been universally adopted.
73 Cuv. Sc. Nat. p. 434.

74 Spr. iv. 47.

But though the discrimination of muscular irritability as a peculiar


power might be a useful step in physiological research, the
explanations hitherto offered, of the way in which the nerves operate
on this irritability, and discharge their other offices, present only a
series of hypotheses. Glisson 75 assumed the existence of certain
vital spirits, which, according to him, are a mild, sweet fluid,
resembling the spirituous part of white of egg, and residing in the
nerves.—This hypothesis, of a very subtle humor or spirit existing in
the nerves, was indeed very early taken up. 76 This nervous spirit
had been compared to air by Erasistratus, Asclepiades, Galen, and
others. The chemical tendencies of the seventeenth century led to its
being described as acid, sulphureous or nitrous. At the end of that
century, the hypothesis of an ether attracted much notice as a
means of accounting for many phenomena; and this ether was
identified with the nervous fluid. Newton himself inclines to this view,
in the remarkable Queries which are annexed to his Opticks. After
ascribing many physical effects to his ether, he adds (Query 23), “Is
not vision performed chiefly by the vibrations of this medium, excited
in the bottom of the eye by the rays of light, and propagated through
the solid, pellucid, and uniform capillamenta of the nerves into the
place of sensation?” And (Query 24), “Is not animal motion
performed by the vibrations of this medium, excited in the brain by
the power of the will, and propagated from thence through the
capillamenta of the nerves into the muscles for contracting and
dilating them?” And an opinion approaching this has been adopted
by some of the greatest of modern physiologists; as Haller, who
says, 77 that, though it is more easy to find what this nervous spirit is
not than what it is, he conceives that, while it must be far too fine to
be perceived by the sense, it must yet be more gross than fire,
magnetism, or electricity; so that it may be contained in vessels, and
confined by boundaries. And Cuvier speaks to the same effect: 78
“There is a great probability that it is by an imponderable fluid that
the nerve acts on the fibre, and that this nervous fluid is drawn from
the blood, and secreted by the medullary matter.”
75 Spr. iv. 38.

76 Haller, Physiol. iv. 365.

77 Physiol. iv. 381, lib. x. sect. viii. § 15.

78 Règne Animal, Introd. p. 30.

Without presuming to dissent from such authorities on a point of


467 anatomical probability, we may venture to observe, that these
hypotheses do not tend at all to elucidate the physiological principle
which is here involved; for this principle cannot be mechanical,
chemical, or physical, and therefore cannot be better understood by
embodying it in a fluid; the difficulty we have in conceiving what the
moving force is, is not got rid of by explaining the machinery by
which it is merely transferred. In tracing the phenomena of sensation
and volition to their cause, it is clear that we must call in some
peculiar and hyperphysical principle. The hypothesis of a fluid is not
made more satisfactory by attenuating the fluid; it becomes subtle,
spirituous, ethereal, imponderable, to no purpose; it must cease to
be a fluid, before its motions can become sensation and volition.
This, indeed, is acknowledged by most physiologists; and strongly
stated by Cuvier. 79 “The impression of external objects upon the me,
the production of a sensation, of an image, is a mystery
impenetrable for our thoughts.” And in several places, by the use of
this peculiar phrase, “the me,” (le moi) for the sentient and volent
faculty, he marks, with peculiar appropriateness and force, that
phraseology borrowed from the world of matter will, in this subject,
no longer answer our purpose. We have here to go from Nouns to
Pronouns, from Things to Persons. We pass from the Body to the
Soul, from Physics to Metaphysics. We are come to the borders of
material philosophy; the next step is into the domain of Thought and
Mind. Here, therefore, we begin to feel that we have reached the
boundaries of our present subject. The examination of that which lies
beyond them must be reserved for a philosophy of another kind, and
for the labors of the future; if we are ever enabled to make the
attempt to extend into that loftier and wider scene, the principles
which we gather on the ground we are now laboriously treading.
79 Règne Animal, Introd. p. 47.

Such speculations as I have quoted respecting the nervous fluid,


proceeding from some of the greatest philosophers who ever lived,
prove only that hitherto the endeavor to comprehend the mystery of
perception and will, of life and thought, have been fruitless and vain.
Many anatomical truths have been discovered, but, so far as our
survey has yet gone, no genuine physiological principle. All the trains
of physiological research which we have followed have begun in
exact examination of organization and function, and have ended in
wide conjectures and arbitrary hypotheses. The stream of knowledge
in all such cases is 468 clear and lively at its outset; but, instead of
reaching the great ocean of the general truths of science, it is
gradually spread abroad among sands and deserts till its course can
be traced no longer.

Hitherto, therefore, we must consider that we have had to tell the


story of the failures of physiological speculation. But of late there
have come into view and use among physiologists certain principles
which may be considered as peculiar to organized subjects; and of
which the introduction forms a real advance in organical science.
Though these have hitherto been very imperfectly developed, we
must endeavor to exhibit, in some measure, their history and
bearing.

[2nd Ed.] [In order to show that I am not unaware how imperfect
the sketch given in this work is, as a History of Physiology, I may
refer to the further discussions on these subjects contained in the
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Book ix. I have there (Chap.
ii.) noticed the successive Biological Hypotheses of the Mystical, the
Iatrochemical, and Iatromathematical Schools, the Vital-Fluid School,
and the Psychical School. I have (Chaps. iii., iv., v.) examined
several of the attempts which have been made to analyze the Idea of
Life, to classify Vital Functions, and to form Ideas of Separate Vital
Forces. I have considered in particular, the attempts to form a
distinct conception of Assimilation and Secretion, of Generation, and
of Voluntary Motion; and I have (Chap. vi.) further discussed the Idea
of Final Causes as employed in Biology.]
CHAPTER VI.

Introduction of the Principle of Developed and Metamorphosed


Symmetry

Sect. 1.—Vegetable Morphology. Göthe. De Candolle.

B EFORE we proceed to consider the progress of principles which


belong to animal and human life, such as have just been pointed
at, we must look round for such doctrines, if any such there be, as
apply alike to all organized beings, conscious or unconscious, fixed
or locomotive;—to the laws which regulate vegetable as well as
animal forms and functions. Though we are very far from being able
to present a 469 clear and connected code of such laws, we may
refer to one law, at least, which appears to be of genuine authority
and validity; and which is worthy our attention as an example of a
properly organical or physiological principle, distinct from all
mechanical, chemical, or other physical forces; and such as cannot
even be conceived to be resolvable into those. I speak of the
tendency which produces such results as have been brought
together in recent speculations upon Morphology.

It may perhaps be regarded as indicating how peculiar are the


principles of organic life, and how far removed from any mere
mechanical action, that the leading idea in these speculations was
first strongly and effectively apprehended, not by a laborious
experimenter and reasoner, but by a man of singularly brilliant and
creative fancy; not by a mathematician or chemist, but by a poet.
And we may add further, that this poet had already shown himself
incapable of rightly apprehending the relation of physical facts to
their principles; and had, in trying his powers on such subjects,
exhibited a signal instance of the ineffectual and perverse operation
of the method of philosophizing to which the constitution of his mind
led him. The person of whom we speak, is John Wolfgang Göthe,
who is held, by the unanimous voice of Europe, to have been one of
the greatest poets of our own, or of any time, and whose Doctrine of
Colors we have already had to describe, in the History of Optics, as
an entire failure. Yet his views on the laws which connect the forms
of plants into one simple system, have been generally accepted and
followed up. We might almost be led to think that this writer’s poetical
endowments had contributed to this scientific discovery;—the love of
beauty of form, by fixing the attention upon the symmetry of plants;
and the creative habit of thought, by making constant developement
of a familiar process. 80
80 We may quote some of the poet’s own verses as an illustration
of his feelings on this subject. They are addressed to a lady.
Dich verwirret, geliebte, die tausendfältige
mischung
Dieses blumengewühls über dem garten umher;
Viele namen hörest du an, und immer verdränget,
Mit barbarischem klang, einer den andern im ohr.
Alle gestalten sind ähnlich und keine gleichet der
andern;
Und so deutet das chor auf ein geheimes gesetz,
Auf ein heiliges räthsel. O! könnte ich dich, liebliche
freundinn,
Ueberliefern so gleich glücklich das lösende wort.

Thou, my love, art perplext with the endless


seeming confusion
Of the luxuriant wealth which in the garden is
spread;
Name upon name thou hearest, and in thy
dissatisfied hearing,
With a barbarian noise one drives another along.
All the forms resemble, yet none is the same as
another;
Thus the whole of the throng points at a deep
hidden law.
Points at a sacred riddle. Oh! could I to thee, my
beloved friend,
Whisper the fortunate word by which the riddle is
read!

470 But though we cannot but remark the peculiarity of our being
indebted to a poet for the discovery of a scientific principle, we must
not forget that he himself held, that in making this step, he had been
guided, not by his invention, but by observation. He repelled, with
extreme repugnance, the notion that he had substituted fancy for
fact, or imposed ideal laws on actual things. While he was earnestly
pursuing his morphological speculations, he attempted to impress
them upon Schiller. “I expounded to him, in as lively a manner as
possible, the metamorphosis of plants, drawing on paper, with many
characteristic strokes, a symbolic plant before his eyes. He heard
me,” Göthe says, 81 “with much interest and distinct comprehension;
but when I had done, he shook his head, and said, ‘That is not
Experience; that is an Idea:’ I stopt with some degree of irritation; for
the point which separated us was marked most luminously by this
expression.” And in the same work he relates his botanical studies
and his habit of observation, from which it is easily seen that no
common amount of knowledge and notice of details, were involved in
the course of thought which led him to the principle of the
Metamorphosis of Plants.
81 Zur Morphologie, p. 24.

Before I state the history of this principle, I may be allowed to


endeavor to communicate to the reader, to whom this subject is new,
some conception of the principle itself. This will not be difficult, if he

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