The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service.
- United States Public Health Service
- Date:
- [1933]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The wonderful story of life : a mother's talks with her daughter regarding life and its reproduction / reprinted by the British Social Hygiene Council ... by permission of the United States Public Health Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![CHAPTER V. When you reach high school or college, Helen Elizabeth, you may begin to study Latin, the language which the old Romans used to speak and write. Perhaps some day you will come across the Latin words which were written many years ago and which mean, “Every life comes from an egg.’ You may be surprised to know that this is true for almost all living things. You understand or believe that the fish comes from an egg and that the bird does; and you can even understand what J mean when I say that the seed of a plant comes trom an egg at the base of the pistil. But you may think that puppies and calves, colts and babies do not come from eggs, because you have never heard of such a thing and never saw the egg of a dog, cow, horse, or woman. There are such things, however, and all of these young animals come from eggs just as truly as do chickens and birds. Now, why is it that, if animals come from eggs, you have never heard of or seen the eggs? The fact is that the eggs of the higher animals are too small to be seen. You are surprised, of course, that the egg of so large a creature as a horse or a cow, or even an elephant should be too small to be seen, while a little bird like a humming bird lays an egg as big as a pea. The reason is this: What we call the bird’s egg really contains two different things. First there is the little egg itself, which is to grow and become the young bird. Secondly, there is food enough inside the shell to supply [19]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32172060_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
