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On the Generation of Animals, Book IV
Translated by Arthur Platt
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div id=âbook4â class=âbookâ title=âBook IVâ>
1
We have thus spoken of the generation of animals both generally and
separately in all the different classes. But, since male and female are distinct
in the most perfect of them, and since we say that the sexes are first principles
of all living things whether animals or plants, only in some of them the sexes
are separated and in others not, therefore we must speak first of the origin of
the sexes in the latter. For while the animal is still imperfect in its kind the
distinction is already made between male and female.
It is disputed, however, whether the embryo is male or female, as the case
may be, even before the distinction is plain to our senses, and further whether
it is thus differentiated within the mother or even earlier. It is said by some, as
by Anaxagoras and other of the physicists, that this antithesis exists from the
beginning in the germs or seeds; for the germ, they say, comes from the male
while the female only provides the place in which it is to be developed, and
the male is from the right, the female from the left testis, and so also that the
male embryo is in the right of the uterus, the female in the left. Others, as
Empedocles, say that the differentiation takes place in the uterus; for he says
that if the uterus is hot or cold what enters it becomes male or female, the
cause of the heat or cold being the flow of the catamenia, according as it is
colder or hotter, more âantiqueâ or more ârecentâ. Democritus of Abdera also
says that the differentiation of sex takes place within the mother; that however
it is not because of heat and cold that one embryo becomes female and
another male, but that it depends on the question which parent it is whose
semen prevails,ânot the whole of the semen, but that which has come from
the part by which male and female differ from one another. This is a better
theory, for certainly Empedocles has made a rather light-hearted assumption
in thinking that the difference between them is due only to cold and heat,
when he saw that there was a great difference in the whole of the sexual parts,
the difference in fact between the male pudenda and the uterus. For suppose
two animals already moulded in embryo, the one having all the parts of the
female, the other those of the male; suppose them then to be put into the
1469
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The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156