Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/425

Rh R E P R E P 407 It is a simple statement of fact to say that newspapers have on many occasions had word pictures from their descriptive reporters which have never been surpassed in prose writing for elegance and vividness and force. The special correspondent is a "descriptive reporter." He goes to war to describe what he sees. The electric telegraph has made a great change in the manner and perhaps in the character of his work ; but he is still among those who help in newspaper reporting. Mention has been made of the connexion of the electric telegraph with reporting ; and it has been said that, since the telegraphs have been extended and telegraphing has been cheapened, the sphere of reporting has been widened and the demand for it has increased. No daily newspaper now confines its reporting to the affairs of the part of the country in which it is published. The electric telegraph brings the most distant places within easy reach of every newspaper. It has also made the work of the reporter more arduous and his responsibility greater. He cannot postpone the transcription of his notes to another day. The speech that is not finished in Manchester at midnight must be printed in full in the London newspaper which goes to press before three o'clock in the morning. The meeting which does not finish at Wick till midnight must be reported in the next day's papers in Edinburgh. All this means that the reporter must work under great pressure, and that he must exercise the greatest care in extending his notes. He has no time for revision, no opportunity of amending any doubtful passage. When these drawbacks are considered, it will most likely be felt that the work of reporting is not easy. Yet its importance could not well be overrated. Rc- portiug is the feature in the journalism of to-day which the public could least afford to lose. The editor of a newspaper may influence public opinion, but the reporter furnishes the material for its for- mation. Fair reporting is indeed a great security for freedom and for moderation. It enables all who can read to see the arguments for and against any proposal ; it shows how public bodies dis- charge their duties ; it indicates the wants and wishes, the hopes and fears of the public ; it puts within easy reach the means of combating wild and foolish propositions, however superficially attractive they may be ; in short, it makes the whole country au open council on all questions affecting the souls and bodies, the education and the government, of the people. It is but fair to add that reporting is done as a rule with great ability and fairness. The reporter rarely carries his likes or his dislikes into his work. He is scrupulously just, and as scrupulously impartial, though it may be that this is not always the opinion of some men who make speeches of which little is seen in the shape of reporting. (C. CO.) REPOUSS& See METAL-WORK and PLATE. REPRODUCTION I. ANIMAL REPRODUCTION. 1. ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION. AS a general account of this process has already been given (see BIOLOGY, vol. iii. p. 686), and the details of its occurrence in the various groups are described in the articles devoted to them (see PROTOZOA, HYDROZOA, TAPEWORM, &c.), it suffices here to recall the very broadest aspect of the phenomena, that asexual reproduction is simply discontinuous growth, and that, as we make an ascending survey of the Metazoa, that simple form of discontinuous growth which we term asexual reproduction becomes more and more subordinated to, and at last wholly replaced by, that more differentiated or "sexual" form of reproduction characterized by the union of two hetero- geneous cell-elementsnever to reappear save in degenerate forms. See SEX. 2. SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. In the lowest forms of animal life the process of sexual reproduction is found in its simplest imaginable expression unassociated with any of those complexities which arise among the higher animals and plants. All that is to be observed is the growth of the reproductive organs, the maturation of their products, and the passive liberation of these, the fecundation of the ovum and the fate of the embryo being entirely left to the circumstances of the environment. In higher forms, however, not only does this process of maturation become more complex and of far more marked influence over the other functions of the organism, but the attraction of the sexes becomes distinct and leads to new specializations of function and structure. Maturation. The maturation of the sexes acquires, as has been said, increasing definiteness in the higher forms, where it is associated with various characteristic accom- paniments. The profound reaction of reproductive maturity upon the whole system is best marked in Birds and Mammals, and perhaps most of all in Man. Thus in a young male Bird the circulation in the testes is greatly increased, and these organs increase greatly in size and weight and commence to develop spermatozoa. Meanwhile the " secondary sexual characters " of the adult gayer plumage for alluring the female, or weapons for contest with other males make their appearance, the voice and note may alter, and a marked increase of strength and courage may appear. Among Mammals the changes are of similar order, the secondary sexual char- acters of course differing in detail. The minor changes at puberty in Man associated with the commencement of spermatogenesis are (besides the reflex excitation of erec- tion due to distension of the seminal vesicles, and the more or less periodic expulsion of their contents during sleep) the growth of hair on the pubic region and later on the lower part of the face, and the rapid modification of the laryngeal cartilages and the lengthening of the vocal chords, so rendering the voice harsh and broken during the change and ultimately deepening it by about an octave. The marked strengthening of bones and muscles and the profound psychical changes which accompany the whole series of processes are also familiar. See SEX. The local and cellular activity within the ovary, which is the fundamental part of maturation in the female, is not less remarkable than that in the testes. That even in lower Invertebrates the enlargement and escape of the ova are part of a normal cellular rhythm is interestingly shown by their not unfrequent relapse to the amoeboid state, or by the fatty degeneration and death of ova which have not accomplished their destiny. The escape of ripe ova in the Vertebrate ovary is especially remarkable : each Graafian follicle, as it ripens, bursts, expelling its ovum ; its cavity contracts ; it is filled up by blood, of which the white cor- puscles form a -framework resembling connective tissue, in which the solids and corpuscles of the serum with colour- ing matter derived from the haemoglobin of the latter are retained ; and the whole constitutes the "corpus luteum," which, should pregnancy occur, may persist and undergo further retrogressive changes, or otherwise gradually dis- appear. The direct causes of this process of ovulation have been sometimes ascribed to the congestion of the blood-vessels of the ovary and to its own internal turgidity, or to the existence of a slight contractility of its stroma ; it seems, however, rather to depend upon the growth and turgescence of the individual follicle. The question of the relation of ovulation to the process of copulation in the higher animals has also been much discussed. Though we certainly know that ovulation is of regular occurrence whether fecundation takes place or not, it seems that in many cases copulation is speedily followed by the libera- tion of an ovum; nor is it difficult to see how the profound nervous and circulatory excitement associated with the former process might accelerate the bursting of a follicle. Leopold has conclusively shown, however, that ovulation may also long precede impregnation.