Various Works Page 57

  copulate, for the females manifestly insert this from below into the

  males above, not in all cases, but in most of those observed. Hence it

  seems clear that, when the males do emit semen, then also the cause of

  the generation is not its coming from all the body, but something else

  which must be investigated hereafter. For even if it were true that it

  comes from all the body, as they say, they ought not to claim that

  it comes from all parts of it, but only from the creative part- from

  the workman, so to say, not the material he works in. Instead of that,

  they talk as if one were to say that the semen comes from the shoes,

  for, generally speaking, if a son is like his father, the shoes he

  wears are like his father's shoes.

  As to the vehemence of pleasure in sexual intercourse, it is not

  because the semen comes from all the body, but because there is a

  strong friction (wherefore if this intercourse is often repeated

  the pleasure is diminished in the persons concerned). Moreover, the

  pleasure is at the end of the act, but it ought, on the theory, to

  be in each of the parts, and not at the same time, but sooner in

  some and later in others.

  If mutilated young are born of mutilated parents, it is for the same

  reason as that for which they are like them. And the young of

  mutilated parents are not always mutilated, just as they are not

  always like their parents; the cause of this must be inquired into

  later, for this problem is the same as that.

  Again, if the female does not produce semen, it is reasonable to

  suppose it does not come from all the body of the male either.

  Conversely, if it does not come from all the male it is not

  unreasonable to suppose that it does not come from the female, but

  that the female is cause of the generation in some other way. Into

  this we must next inquire, since it is plain that the semen is not

  secreted from all the parts.

  In this investigation and those which follow from it, the first

  thing to do is to understand what semen is, for then it will be easier

  to inquire into its operations and the phenomena connected with it.

  Now the object of semen is to be of such a nature that from it as

  their origin come into being those things which are naturally

  formed, not because there is any agent which makes them from it as

  simply because this is the semen. Now we speak of one thing coming

  from another in many senses; it is one thing when we say that night

  comes from day or a man becomes man from boy, meaning that A follows

  B; it is another if we say that a statue is made from bronze and a bed

  from wood, and so on in all the other cases where we say that the

  thing made is made from a material, meaning that the whole is formed

  from something preexisting which is only put into shape. In a third

  sense a man becomes unmusical from being musical, sick from being

  well, and generally in this sense contraries arise from contraries.

  Fourthly, as in the 'climax' of Epicharmus; thus from slander comes

  railing and from this fighting, and all these are from something in

  the sense that it is the efficient cause. In this last class sometimes

  the efficient cause is in the things themselves, as in the last

  mentioned (for the slander is a part of the whole trouble), and

  sometimes external, as the art is external to the work of art or the

  torch to the burning house. Now the offspring comes from the semen,

  and it is plainly in one of the two following senses that it does

  so- either the semen is the material from which it is made, or it is

  the first efficient cause. For assuredly it is not in the sense of A

  being after B, as the voyage comes from, i.e. after, the

  Panathenaea; nor yet as contraries come from contraries, for then

  one of the two contraries ceases to be, and a third substance must

  exist as an immediate underlying basis from which the new thing

  comes into being. We must discover then, in which of the two other

  classes the semen is to be put, whether it is to be regarded as

  matter, and therefore acted upon by something else, or as a form,

  and therefore acting upon something else, or as both at once. For

  perhaps at the same time we shall see clearly also how all the

  products of semen come into being from contraries, since coming into

  being from contraries is also a natural process, for some animals do

  so, i.e. from male and female, others from only one parent, as is

  the case with plants and all those animals in which male and female

  are not separately differentiated. Now that which comes from the

  generating parent is called the seminal fluid, being that which

  first has in it a principle of generation, in the case of all

  animals whose nature it is to unite; semen is that which has in it the

  principles from both united parents, as the first mixture which arises

  from the union of male and female, be it a foetus or an ovum, for

  these already have in them that which comes from both. (Semen, or

  seed, and grain differ only in the one being earlier and the other

  later, grain in that it comes from something else, i.e. the seed,

  and seed in that something else, the grain, comes from it, for both

  are really the same thing.)

  We must again take up the question what the primary nature of what

  is called semen is. Needs must everything which we find in the body

  either be (1) one of the natural parts, whether homogeneous or

  heterogeneous, or (2) an unnatural part such as a growth, or (3) a

  secretion or excretion, or (4) waste-product, or (5) nutriment. (By

  secretion or excretion I mean the residue of the nutriment, by

  waste-product that which is given off from the tissues by an unnatural

  decomposition.)

  Now that semen cannot be a part of the body is plain, for it is

  homogeneous, and from the homogeneous nothing is composed, e.g. from

  only sinew or only flesh; nor is it separated as are all the other

  parts. But neither is it contrary to Nature nor a defect, for it

  exists in all alike, and the development of the young animal comes

  from it. Nutriment, again, is obviously introduced from without.

  It remains, then, that it must be either a waste-product or a

  secretion or excretion. Now the ancients seem to think that it is a

  waste-product, for when they say that it comes from all the body by

  reason of the heat of the movement of the body in copulation, they

  imply that it is a kind of waste-product. But these are contrary to

  Nature, and from such arises nothing according to Nature. So then it

  must be a secretion or excretion.

  But, to go further into it, every secretion or excretion is either

  of useless or useful nutriment; by 'useless' I mean that from which

  nothing further is contributed to natural growth, but which is

  particularly mischievous to the body if too much of it is consumed; by

  'useful' I mean the opposite. Now it is evident that it cannot be of

  the former character, for such is most abundant in persons of the

  worst condition of body through age or sickness; semen, on the

  contrary, is least abundant in them for either they h
ave none at all

  or it is not fertile, because a useless and morbid secretion is

  mingled with it.

  Semen, then, is part of a useful secretion. But the most useful is

  the last and that from which finally is formed each of the parts of

  the body. For secretions are either earlier or later; of the nutriment

  in the first stage the secretion is phlegm and the like, for phlegm

  also is a secretion of the useful nutriment, an indication of this

  being that if it is mixed with pure nutriment it is nourishing, and

  that it is used up in cases of illness. The final secretion is the

  smallest in proportion to the quantity of nutriment. But we must

  reflect that the daily nutriment by which animals and plants grow is

  but small, for if a very little be added continually to the same thing

  the size of it will become excessive.

  So we must say the opposite of what the ancients said. For whereas

  they said that semen is that which comes from all the body, we shall

  say it is that whose nature is to go to all of it, and what they

  thought a waste-product seems rather to be a secretion. For it is more

  reasonable to suppose that the last extract of the nutriment which

  goes to all parts resembles that which is left over from it, just as

  part of a painter's colour is often left over resembling that which he

  has used up. Waste-products, on the contrary, are always due to

  corruption or decay and to a departure from Nature.

  A further proof that it is not a waste-product, but rather a

  secretion, is the fact that the large animals have few young, the

  small many. For the large must have more waste and less secretion,

  since the great size of the body causes most of the nutriment to be

  used up, so that the residue or secretion is small.

  Again, no place has been set apart by Nature for waste-products

  but they flow wherever they can find an easy passage in the body,

  but a place has been set apart for all the natural secretions; thus

  the lower intestine serves for the excretion of the solid nutriment,

  the bladder for that of the liquid; for the useful part of the

  nutriment we have the upper intestine, for the spermatic secretions

  the uterus and pudenda and breasts, for it is collected and flows

  together into them.

  And the resulting phenomena are evidence that semen is what we

  have said, and these result because such is the nature of the

  secretion. For the exhaustion consequent on the loss of even a very

  little of the semen is conspicuous because the body is deprived of the

  ultimate gain drawn from the nutriment. With some few persons, it is

  true, during a short time in the flower of their youth the loss of it,

  if it be excessive in quantity, is an alleviation (just as in the

  case of the nutriment in its first stage, if too much have been taken,

  since getting rid of this also makes the body more comfortable),

  and so it may be also when other secretions come away with it, for

  in that case it is not only semen that is lost but also other

  influences come away mingled with it, and these are morbid. Wherefore,

  with some men at least, that which comes from them proves sometimes

  incapable of procreation because the seminal element in it is so

  small. But still in most men and as a general rule the result of

  intercourse is exhaustion and weakness rather than relief, for the

  reason given. Moreover, semen does not exist in them either in

  childhood or in old age or in sickness- in the last case because of

  weakness, in old age because they do not sufficiently concoct their

  food, and in childhood because they are growing and so all the

  nutriment is used up too soon, for in about five years, in the case of

  human beings at any rate, the body seems to gain half the height

  that is gained in all the rest of life.

  In many animals and plants we find a difference in this connexion

  not only between kinds as compared with kinds, but also between

  similar individuals of the same kind as compared with each other, e.g.

  man with man or vine with vine. Some have much semen, others little,

  others again none at all, not through weakness but the contrary, at

  any rate in some cases. This is because the nutriment is used up to

  form the body, as with some human beings, who, being in good condition

  and developing much flesh or getting rather too fat, produce less

  semen and are less desirous of intercourse. Like this is what

  happens with those vines which 'play the goat', that is, luxuriate

  wantonly through too much nutrition, for he-goats when fat are less

  inclined to mount the female; for which reason they thin them before

  breeding from them, and say that the vines 'play the goat', so calling

  it from the condition of the goats. And fat people, women as well as

  men, appear to be less fertile than others from the fact that the

  secretion when in process of concoction turns to fat with those who

  are too well-nourished. For fat also is a healthy secretion due to

  good living.

  In some cases no semen is produced at all, as by the willow and

  poplar. This condition is due to each of the two causes, weakness

  and strength; the former prevents concoction of the nutriment, the

  latter causes it to be all consumed, as said above. In like manner

  other animals produce much semen through weakness as well as through

  strength, when a great quantity of a useless secretion is mixed with

  it; this sometimes results in actual disease when a passage is not

  found to carry off the impurity, and though some recover of this,

  others actually die of it. For corrupt humours collect here as in

  the urine, which also has been known to cause disease.

  [Further the same passage serves for urine and semen; and whatever

  animals have both kinds of excrement, that of liquid and that of solid

  nutriment, discharge the semen by the same passage as the liquid

  excrement (for it is a secretion of a liquid, since the nutriment

  of all animals is rather liquid than solid), but those which have

  no liquid excrement discharge it at the passage of the solid

  residua. Moreover, waste-products are always morbid, but the removal

  of the secretion is useful; now the discharge of the semen

  participates in both characteristics because it takes up some of the

  non-useful nutriment. But if it were a waste-product it would be

  always harmful; as it is, it is not so.]

  From what has been said, it is clear that semen is a secretion of

  useful nutriment, and that in its last stage, whether it is produced

  by all or no.

  19

  After this we must distinguish of what sort of nutriment it is a

  secretion, and must discuss the catamenia which occur in certain of

  the vivipara. For thus we shall make it clear (1) whether the female

  also produces semen like the male and the foetus is a single mixture

  of two semens, or whether no semen is secreted by the female, and, (2)

  if not, whether she contributes nothing else either to generation

  but only provides a receptacle, or whether she does contribute

  something, and, if so, how and in what manner she does so.


  We have previously stated that the final nutriment is the blood in

  the sanguinea and the analogous fluid in the other animals. Since

  the semen is also a secretion of the nutriment, and that in its

  final stage, it follows that it will be either (1) blood or that which

  is analogous to blood, or (2) something formed from this. But since it

  is from the blood, when concocted and somehow divided up, that each

  part of the body is made, and since the semen if properly concocted is

  quite of a different character from the blood when it is separated

  from it, but if not properly concocted has been known in some cases to

  issue in a bloody condition if one forces oneself too often to

  coition, therefore it is plain that semen will be a secretion of the

  nutriment when reduced to blood, being that which is finally

  distributed to the parts of the body. And this is the reason why it

  has so great power, for the loss of the pure and healthy blood is an

  exhausting thing; for this reason also it is natural that the

  offspring should resemble the parents, for that which goes to all

  the parts of the body resembles that which is left over. So that the

  semen which is to form the hand or the face or the whole animal is

  already the hand or face or whole animal undifferentiated, and what

  each of them is actually such is the semen potentially, either in

  virtue of its own mass or because it has a certain power in itself.

  I mention these alternatives here because we have not yet made it

  clear from the distinctions drawn hitherto whether it is the matter of

  the semen that is the cause of generation, or whether it has in it

  some faculty and efficient cause thereof, for the hand also or any

  other bodily part is not hand or other part in a true sense if it be

  without soul or some other power, but is only called by the same

  name as the living hand.

  On this subject, then, so much may be laid down. But since it is

  necessary (1) that the weaker animal also should have a secretion

  greater in quantity and less concocted, and (2) that being of such a