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CHAP. XXXVII. Of the cause of barrennesse in men.
THere are many causes of barrenness in men, that is to say, the too hot, cold, dry or moyst distemper of the seed, the more liquid and flexible consi∣stence thereof, so that it cannot stay in the womb, but will presently flow out again: for such is the seed of old men and striplings, and of such as use the act of generation too often and immoderately: for thereby the seed becommeth * 1.1 crude and waterish, because that it doth not remaine his due and lawfull time in the testicles, wherein it should be perfectly wrought and concocted, but is evacuated by wanton copulation. Furthermore, that the seed may be fertile, it must of necessity be copious in quantity, but in quality well concocted, moderately thicke, clammy, and puffed up with the abundance of spirits; both these conditions are wanting in the seed of them that use copulation too often: and moreover, because the wives of those men never gather a just quantity of seede laudible both in quality and consi∣stence in their testicles, whereby it commeth to passe that they are the lesse provoked or delighted with venereous actions, and performe the act with lesse alacrity, so that they yeeld themselves lesse prone to conception. Therefore let those that would be parents of many children use a mediocrity in the use of venery.
The woman may perceive that the mans seed hath some distemperature in it, if * 1.2 when shee hath received it into her wombe, shee feeleth it sharpe, hot or cold, if the man be more quick or slow in the act. Many become barren after they have beene cut for the stone, and likewise when they have had a wound behind the eares, where∣by certaine branches of the jugular veines and arteries have been cut, that are there, so that after those vessels have been cicatrized, there followed an interception of the seminall matter downewards, and also of the community which ought of necessity to be betweene the braine and the testicles, so that when the conduits or passages are stopped, the stones or testicles cannot any more receive, neither matter nor lively spirits from the braine in so great quantity as it was wont, whereof it must of neces∣sity follow, that the seed must bee lesser in quantity, and weaker in quality.
Those that have their testicles cut off, or else compressed or contused by violence, cannot beget children, because that either they want the help that the testicles should minister in the act of generation, or else because the passage of the seminall matter is intercepted or stopped with a Callus: by reason whereof they cannot yeeld forth seed, but a certaine clammy humour conteyned in the glandules called prostatae (yet with some feeling of delight).
Moreover the defects or imperfections of the yard may cause barrennesse: as, if it * 1.3 be too short, on if it bee so unreasonable great, that it renteth the privie parts of the woman, and so causeth a fluxe of bloud, for then it is so painefull to the woman, that shee cannot voyde her seed, for that cannot bee excluded without pleasure and de∣light, also if the shortnesse of the ligament that is under the yard doth make it to bee crooked, and violate the stiffe straightnesse thereof, so that it cannot be put directly or straightly in the womans privie parts. There bee some that have not the orifice of the conduit of the yard rightly in the end thereof, but a little higher, so that they cannot ejaculate or cast out their seed directly into the wombe.
Also the particular palsie of the yard is numbred among the causes of barrennesse; * 1.4 and you may prove whether the palsie be in the yard by dipping the genitals in cold water: for except they do draw themselves together or shrinke up after it, it is a to∣ken of the palsie, for members that have the palsie, by the touching of cold water, do not shrinke up, but remaine in their accustomed laxity and loosenesse: but in this case the genitals are endued with small sense; the seed commeth out without plea∣sure or stiffenesse of the yard; the stones in touching are cold; and to conclude, those that have their bodies daily waxing leane through a consumption, or that are vexed with an evill habit or disposition, or with the obstruction of some of the entrals, are barren and unfertile, and likewise those in whom some noble part necessary to life