GENERATION (from

See also:

• LAT

Lat. generare, to beget, procreate; genus, stock,

See also:

• RACE

race)  , the act of procreation or begetting, hence any one of the various methods by which plants, animals or substances are produced . As applied to the result of procreation, " generation " is used of the offspring of the same parents, taken as one degree in descent from a common ancestor, or, widely, of the body of living persons born at or near the same time; thus the word is also used of the age or period of a generation, usually taken as about thirty years, or three generations to a century . As a term in biology or physiology, generation is synonymous with the Gr . Otoyiveves and the Ger . Zeugung, and may comprehend the whole history of the first origin and continued reproduction of living bodies, whether plants or animals; but it is frequently restricted to the sexual reproduction of animals . The subject may be divided into the following branches, viz.: (I) the first origin of life and living beings, (2) non-sexual or agamic reproduction, and (3) gamic or sexual reproduction . For the first two of these topics see ABIOGENESIS, BIOGENESIS and BIOLOGY; for the third and more extensive division, including (I) the formation and fecundation of the ovum, and (2) the development of the embryo in different animals, see REPRODUCTION and EMBRYOLOGY .