The Egg and
the Sperm
m
nly in the last hundred years have we really understood where
Ohuman obsession. Primitive tribes and advanced civilizations
babies come from. From the dawn of history， fertility has been a
puzzled equally over the miracle of childbirth. The ancient Hindus
thought the ibis brought children. The Teutons believed it was the stork.
And the Japanese honored the butterfly. The less poetic people of the East
Indian islands thought pregnancy was caused by bathing in streams inhab-
ited by eels. Most of these ancient tribes made no connection between sex
and pregnancy. A few enterprising groups came close when they theo-
rized that an accumulation of seminal fluid built the flesh and blood of a
baby. It followed that pregnancy could occur only after repeated inter-
course. Small surprise that this lively idea caught on quickly.
When the connection was finally made between intercourse ~md child-
birth， men quickly look all the credfl， and it was soon universally ac-
cepted that male semen was responsible for new life. The woman merely
provided the soil for the child to grow. The man was the farmer， the
Woman farnlland.
The difference in anatomy was partially accountable for the unequal
d stribution of responsibiqty. The reproductive organs of a woman were
Completely hidden， while a man had a clearly visible organ that ejected a
mysterious life-giving fluid.
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