La conception: papa & maman, qui devant?

The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, volumes IV-V, The Organs of Generation, extraits: 

Chapitre XVIII, La Formation du Foetus, Remarques Générales, no 354, p.318:

Papa, maman, et rapidement déjà, une certaine autonomie et une certaine indépendance de l'embryon se mettent en place. 

Chapitre V, Le Placenta, no 306, pp. 305-306:

“From these various considerations it is apparent that the first essence, which, regarded as a substance is the soul, is derived from the father; that it concieves and excludes itself  according to the increments of the purest organs of the brain; and that all the rest is from the mother. It is also apparent that the ovum cannot in any wise be impregnated by the soul and spirit of the mother; for in order to conception, it is requisite that this first essence shall be pure, and shall be compacted as it were into globular forms in order that it may occupy the inner place while the animal spirit occupies the outer, that is, makes up the surface. This effect can be attained only in the male, who possesses organs similar to this office, that is to say, testicles which extract that first essence, and  epididymides which fashion it."

Chapitre VI, Le Chorion, L'Amnios et le Liquide Amniotique, no 330, p. 297:

[...]  “it follows that the rudiments of the embryo concieved from the spirituous seed of the father and straightway woven into the most perfect organic forms such as are the inmost forms of the cortical glands of the brain, afterwards takes its increments from the spirit [and blood] of the mother; and this successively, firt from her spirit and then from her blood, - wherein is stored up not only the mother's spirit, but also the other prime elemental parts.“ [...] “But as the embryo grows to its full measure of brain and body; and as the little organs of the brain, rendered active, begin successively more and more to concieve and exclude the first and inmost, that is, the true animal essence; then also in part, the embryo begins to provide for itself and to co-operate with the mother, - receiving from her, accessory and terrestrial parts and a constantly decreasing quantity of spirits. And then, little by little, the embryo itself is left to itself and its own principles;“ [...] [...]