nature it should be a mass of sanguineous liquid, and (3) since that
which Nature endows with a smaller portion of heat is weaker, and
(4) since it has already been stated that such is the character of the
female- putting all these considerations together we see that the
sanguineous matter discharged by the female is also a secretion. And
such is the discharge of the so-called catamenia.
It is plain, then, that the catamenia are a secretion, and that they
are analogous in females to the semen in males. The circumstances
connected with them are evidence that this view is correct. For the
semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time
of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females, and that they
change their voice and their breasts begin to develop. So, too, in the
decline of life the generative power fails in the one sex and the
catamenia in the other.
The following signs also indicate that this discharge in females
is a secretion. Generally speaking women suffer neither from
haemorrhoids nor bleeding at the nose nor anything else of the sort
except when the catamenia are ceasing, and if anything of the kind
occurs the flow is interfered with because the discharge is diverted
to it.
Further, the blood-vessels of women stand out less than those of
men, and women are rounder and smoother because the secretion which in
men goes to these vessels is drained away with the catamenia. We
must suppose, too, that the same cause accounts for the fact that
the bulk of the body is smaller in females than in males among the
vivipara, since this is the only class in which the catamenia are
discharged from the body. And in this class the fact is clearest in
women, for the discharge is greater in women than in the other
animals. Wherefore her pallor and the absence of prominent
blood-vessels is most conspicuous, and the deficient development of
her body compared with a man's is obvious.
Now since this is what corresponds in the female to the semen in the
male, and since it is not possible that two such discharges should
be found together, it is plain that the female does not contribute
semen to the generation of the offspring. For if she had semen she
would not have the catamenia; but, as it is, because she has the
latter she has not the former.
It has been stated then that the catamenia are a secretion as the
semen is, and confirmation of this view may be drawn from some of
the phenomena of animals. For fat creatures produce less semen than
lean ones, as observed before. The reason is that fat also, like
semen, is a secretion, is in fact concocted blood, only not
concocted in the same way as the semen. Thus, if the secretion is
consumed to form fat the semen is naturally deficient. And so among
the bloodless animals the cephalopoda and crustacea are in best
condition about the time of producing eggs, for, because they are
bloodless and no fat is formed in them, that which is analogous in
them to fat is at that season drawn off to form the spermatic
secretion.
And a proof that the female does not emit similar semen to the male,
and that the offspring is not formed by a mixture of both, as some
say, is that often the female conceives without the sensation of
pleasure in intercourse, and if again the pleasure is experience by
her no less than by the male and the two sexes reach their goal
together, yet often no conception takes place unless the liquid of the
so-called catamenia is present in a right proportion. Hence the female
does not produce young if the catamenia are absent altogether, nor
often when, they being present, the efflux still continues; but she
does so after the purgation. For in the one case she has not the
nutriment or material from which the foetus can be framed by the power
coming from the male and inherent in the semen, and in the other it is
washed away with the catamenia because of their abundance. But when
after their occurrence the greater part has been evacuated, the
remainder is formed into a foetus. Cases of conception when the
catamenia do not occur at all, or of conception during their discharge
instead of after it, are due to the fact that in the former instance
there is only so much liquid to begin with as remains behind after the
discharge in fertile women, and no greater quantity is secreted so
as to come away from the body, while in the latter instance the
mouth of the uterus closes after the discharge. When, therefore, the
quantity already expelled from the body is great but the discharge
still continues, only not on such a scale as to wash away the semen,
then it is that conception accompanies coition. Nor is it at all
strange that the catamenia should still continue after conception
(for even after it they recur to some extent, but are scanty and do
not last during all the period of gestation; this, however, is a
morbid phenomenon, wherefore it is found only in a few cases and
then seldom, whereas it is that which happens as a regular thing
that is according to Nature).
It is clear then that the female contributes the material for
generation, and that this is in the substance of the catamenia, and
that they are a secretion.
20
Some think that the female contributes semen in coition because
the pleasure she experiences is sometimes similar to that of the male,
and also is attended by a liquid discharge. But this discharge is
not seminal; it is merely proper to the part concerned in each case,
for there is a discharge from the uterus which occurs in some women
but not in others. It is found in those who are fair-skinned and of
a feminine type generally, but not in those who are dark and of a
masculine appearance. The amount of this discharge, when it occurs, is
sometimes on a different scale from the emission of semen and far
exceeds it. Moreover, different kinds of food cause a great difference
in the quantity of such discharges; for instance some
pungently-flavoured foods cause them to be conspicuously increased.
And as to the pleasure which accompanies coition it is due to emission
not only of semen, but also of a spiritus, the coming together of
which precedes the emission. This is plain in the case of boys who are
not yet able to emit semen, but are near the proper age, and of men
who are impotent, for all these are capable of pleasure by
attrition. And those who have been injured in the generative organs
sometimes suffer from diarrhoea because the secretion, which they
are not able to concoct and turn into semen, is diverted into the
intestine. Now a boy is like a woman in form, and the woman is as it
were an impotent male, for it is through a certain incapacity that the
female is female, being incapable of concocting the nutriment in its
last stage into semen (and this is either blood or that which is
analogous to it in animals which are bloodless owing to the coldness
of their nature). As then diarrhoea is caused in the bowels by the
&nb
sp; insufficient concoction of the blood, so are caused in the
blood-vessels all discharges of blood, including that of the
catamenia, for this also is such a discharge, only it is natural
whereas the others are morbid.
Thus it is clear that it is reasonable to suppose that generation
comes from this. For the catamenia are semen not in a pure state but
in need of working up, as in the formation of fruits the nutriment
is present, when it is not yet sifted thoroughly, but needs working up
to purify it. Thus the catamenia cause generation mixture with the
semen, as this impure nutriment in plants is nutritious when mixed
with pure nutriment.
And a sign that the female does not emit semen is the fact that
the pleasure of intercourse is caused by touch in the same region of
the female as of the male; and yet is it not from thence that this
flow proceeds. Further, it is not all females that have it at all, but
only the sanguinea, and not all even of these, but only those whose
uterus is not near the hypozoma and which do not lay eggs; it is not
found in the animals which have no blood but only the analogous fluid
(for what is blood in the former is represented by another fluid in
the latter). The reason why neither the latter nor those sanguinea
mentioned (i.e. those whose uterus is low and which do not lay eggs)
have this effluxion is the dryness of their bodies; this allows but
little matter to be secreted, only enough for generation but not
enough to be discharged from the body. All animals that are viviparous
without producing eggs first (such are man and all quadrupeds which
bend their hind-legs outwards, for all these are viviparous without
producing eggs)- all these have the catamenia, unless they are
defective in development as the mule, only the efflux is not
abundant as in women. Details of the facts in each animal have been
given in the Enquiries concerning animals.
The catamenia are more abundant in women than in the other
animals, and men emit the most semen in proportion to their size.
The reason is that the composition of their bodies is liquid and hot
compared to others, for more matter must be secreted in such a case.
Further, man has no such parts in his body as those to which the
superfluous matter is diverted in the other animals; for he has no
great quantity of hair in proportion to his body, nor outgrowths of
bones, horns, and teeth.
There is evidence that the semen is in the catamenia, for, as said
before, this secretion appears in the male at the same time of life as
the catamenia in the female; this indicates that the parts destined to
receive each of these secretions are differentiated at the same time
in both sexes; and as the neighboring parts in both become swollen the
hair of puberty springs forth in both alike. As the parts in
question are on the point of differentiating they are distended by the
spiritus; this is clearer in males in the testes, but appears also
about the breasts; in females it is more marked in the breasts, for it
is when they have risen two fingers' breadth that the catamenia
generally begin.
Now, in all living things in which the male and female are not
separated the semen (or seed) is a sort of embryo; by embryo I
mean the first mixture of male and female; hence, from one semen comes
one bodys- for example, one stalk of wheat from one grain, as one
animal from one egg (for twin eggs are really two eggs). But in
whatever kinds the sexes are distinguished, in these many animals
may come from one emission of semen, showing that the semen differs in
its nature in plants and animals. A proof of this is that animals
which can bear more than one young one at a time do so in
consequence of only one coition. Whereby, too, it is plain that the
semen does not come from the whole of the body; for neither would
the different parts of the semen already be separated as soon as
discharged from the same part, nor could they be separated in the
uterus if they had once entered it all together; but what does
happen is just what one would expect, since what the male
contributes to generation is the form and the efficient cause, while
the female contributes the material. In fact, as in the coagulation of
milk, the milk being the material, the fig-juice or rennet is that
which contains the curdling principle, so acts the secretion of the
male, being divided into parts in the female. Why it is sometimes
divided into more or fewer parts, and sometimes not divided at all,
will be the subject of another discussion. But because it does not
differ in kind at any rate this does not matter, but what does
matter is only that each part should correspond to the material, being
neither too little to concoct it and fix it into form, nor too much so
as to dry it up; it then generates a number of offspring. But from
this first formative semen, if it remains one, and is not divided,
only one young one comes into being.
That, then, the female does not contribute semen to generation,
but does contribute something, and that this is the matter of the
catamenia, or that which is analogous to it in bloodless animals, is
clear from what has been said, and also from a general and abstract
survey of the question. For there must needs be that which generates
and that from which it generates; even if these be one, still they
must be distinct in form and their essence must be different; and in
those animals that have these powers separate in two sexes the body
and nature of the active and the passive sex must also differ. If,
then, the male stands for the effective and active, and the female,
considered as female, for the passive, it follows that what the female
would contribute to the semen of the male would not be semen but
material for the semen to work upon. This is just what we find to be
the case, for the catamenia have in their nature an affinity to the
primitive matter.
21
So much for the discussion of this question. At the same time the
answer to the next question we have to investigate is clear from these
considerations, I mean how it is that the male contributes to
generation and how it is that the semen from the male is the cause
of the offspring. Does it exist in the body of the embryo as a part of
it from the first, mingling with the material which comes from the
female? Or does the semen communicate nothing to the material body
of the embryo but only to the power and movement in it? For this power
is that which acts and makes, while that which is made and receives
the form is the residue of the secretion in the female. Now the latter
alternative appears to be the right one both a priori and in view of
the facts. For, if we consider the question on general grounds, we
find that, whenever one thing is made from two of which one is
active and the other passive, the active agent does not exist in
that which is made; and, still more generally, the same applies when
one thing moves and another is moved; the movi
ng thing does not
exist in that which is moved. But the female, as female, is passive,
and the male, as male, is active, and the principle of the movement
comes from him. Therefore, if we take the highest genera under which
they each fall, the one being active and motive and the other
passive and moved, that one thing which is produced comes from them
only in the sense in which a bed comes into being from the carpenter
and the wood, or in which a ball comes into being from the wax and the
form. It is plain then that it is not necessary that anything at all
should come away from the male, and if anything does come away it does
not follow that this gives rise to the embryo as being in the
embryo, but only as that which imparts the motion and as the form;
so the medical art cures the patient.
This a priori argument is confirmed by the facts. For it is for this
reason that some males which unite with the female do not, it appears,
insert any part of themselves into the female, but on the contrary the
female inserts a part of herself into the male; this occurs in some
insects. For the effect produced by the semen in the female (in the
case of those animals whose males do insert a part) is produced in
the case of these insects by the heat and power in the male animal
itself when the female inserts that part of herself which receives the
secretion. And therefore such animals remain united a long time, and
when they are separated the young are produced quickly. For the
union lasts until that which is analogous to the semen has done its
work, and when they separate the female produces the embryo quickly;
for the young is imperfect inasmuch as all such creatures give birth
to scoleces.
What occurs in birds and oviparous fishes is the greatest proof that
neither does the semen come from all parts of the male nor does he
emit anything of such a nature as to exist within that which is
generated, as part of the material embryo, but that he only makes a
living creature by the power which resides in the semen (as we said
in the case of those insects whose females insert a part of themselves