Aristotle's master-piece, or, The secrets of generation displayed in all the parts thereof ... very necessary for all midwives, nurses, and young-married women.

CHAP. III. The reason why Children are often like their Parents, and what the Mothers Imagination contributes thereto, whence grows the Kind, viz. Whether the Man or Woman is the cause of the Male or Female Child•• &c.

THAT if a Woman in the Act of Co∣pulation afford most Seed, her likeness will have the greater impression upon the Child; but if on the contrary, then will follow the contrary effects; or if a propor∣tionable quantity proceed from either, then will the Similitude depend upon either.

Lanctantius is of Opinion, That when a Man's Seed falls on the left side of the Womb, a Male Child may be gotten; but by rea∣son it is the proper place for a Female, there will be something in it greatly resembling a Woman, viz. It will be fairer, whiter, and smoother, not very subject to have Hair on the Body or Chin, long lank Hair on the Head, Voice small and sharp, and the Courage feeble; and arguing yet fur∣ther, he says, that a Female may perchance be procreated, if the Seed fall on the right Side; but then thro' extraordinary heat, she will be very large boned, full of Cou∣rage,

indued with a big Voice, and have her Chin and Bosom hairy, not being so clear as others of the Sex; subject to quar∣rel with their Husband when married, for the Superiority, &c. In case of the simili∣tude, nothing is more powerful than the Imagination of the Mother; for if she con∣ceive in her Mind, or do by chance fasten her Eyes upon any Object, and imprint it in her Memory, the Child in its outward Parts, frequently has some representation there∣of; so whilst a Man and Woman are in the Act of Copulation, if the Woman earnestly he hold his Countenance, and fix her Mind thereon, without all peradventure, the Child will resemble the Father; nay, so powerful is its Operation, that though a Woman be in unlawful Copulation, yet if fear, or any thing else, causes her to fix her Mind upon her Husband, the Child will resemble him, tho' he never got it. The same effect, according to the Opinion of the Learned, proceeds from Imagination in cause of Warts, Mold spots, Stains, Dashes, and the Figures of strange things, tho' in∣deed they sometimes happen thro' frights or extravagant Longings: Many Women there are, that seeing a Hare cross them, when great with Child, will, through the strength of Imagination, bring forth a Child

with a hairy Lip, Some Children again are born with flat Noses, wry Mouths, great blubber Lips, and ill sha••ed Bodies, and most ascribe ••he reason to the strange conceit of the Mother, who has b••sied her Eyes and Mind upon some ill-shaped or distorted Creatures; therefore it greatly behoves all Women ••ith Child, to avoid any mon∣struous sight, or at least, to have a stedfast Mind, not easily fixed upon any one thing more than another. And this Opinion Pliny confirms in his 7th Book of natural things, and the 12th Chapter. The famous Sir Tho∣mas Moore likewise con••irms it, and discants merrily on a Passage of his times, wherein a Person having divers Children, would own none but one that was like him, when in the end it proved, by the asseveration of the Mother, that all, except that, were of his own begetting; but whilst another Man was mounted in his Saddle, she fear∣ing that he would come and detect her in the Act, had her Imagination so fixed on him, that as she conceived, the similitude could proceed from no other cause; where∣fore it is apparent, that likeness can confirm no Child to be a lawful Fathe••'s own: Yet in manners, wit, and prophension of the Mind, daily Examples teach us that Chil∣dren are commonly of the same condition,

with their Progenitors, and of the same na∣ture, but there is much in this; whether venery be used with great or weak desire, for many are less inclined to it, and not so hot, and consequensly not so desirous of Copulation, but rather decline it, unless Civility to their Wives cause them to com∣pliance therein, and then they proc••••d faint∣ing and drowsily, whence it happens that the Children fall short of the Parents na∣ture, wit and manners, and hence it is that wise Men frequently beget stupid sloathful Children of feeble Minds, because they are not much given to these delights. But as I said on the contrary, when the Progeni∣tors are not in venerious Actions, and do liberally & abundantly employ themselves therein, it oftentimes happens that the Children are of the same desires, manners, and actions of the Mind, with th••ir Parents. And thus much for the first point, now I shall proceed to the second, which is to shew, what share each of the Parents have in begetting the Child, &c. And first we will give the Opinion of the Ancients about it.

Though it is apparent (say they) that the Seed of Man is the chief efficient and beginning of Action, Motion, and Gene∣ration, yet that the Woman does afford Seed, and effectually contributes in that

particular to the Procreation of the Child, is evinced by strong reasons. In the first place, Seminary Vessels had been given them in vain and genital Testicles inter∣verted, if the Woman wanted Seminal exces∣sence; for being Nature doth nothing in vain, therefore it must be granted, that they were made for the use of Seed and Procreation, and fixed in their proper pla∣ces, both the Testicles and Receptacles of Seed, whose nature and force is to operate, and afford fruitful vertue to the Seed; and to prove this, there needs no stronger Ar∣gument (say they) than that, if a Woman do not use Copulation, to eject her Seed, she oftentimes falls into strange Diseases, as appears by young Widows and Virgins. A second reason they urge, that although the Society of a lawful Bed consist not al∣together in these things, yet it is appa∣rent, that the Female Sex is not better won•• and appear more blithe and jocund than when they are often satisfied this way, which is an inducement to believe that they have greater Pleasure, and receive more Conten•• than a Man: For since by Nature much Delight accompanies the Ejection•• by breaking forth of the swelling Spirit, and the ••••iffness of the Nerves, in which case the opera••ion of the Womans part is double,

she suffering both ways, even by ejection and reception, whereby she is more recre∣ated and delighted in the Veneral Act.

Hence it is (say they) that the Child more frequently resembles the Mother than the Father, because the Mother con∣fers the most towards its Generation: And they think it may be further instanced from the great love they bear them; for that besides their contributing Seminal matter, they, during the time they are in the Womb, feed and nourish the Child with the purest Fountain of Blood; which Opinion Galen confirms, by allowing the Child to par∣ticipate more of the Mother than the Fa∣ther, and refers the difference of the Sex to the influence of menstrual Blood; but the reason of the likeness he attributes to the force of the Seed; for as Plants receive more from fruitful Ground than from the industry of the Husband-man, so the Infant in more abundance receives from the Mo∣ther than the Father; for first, the Seed of both is heaped and fostered in the Womb, and there grows to perfection, being nourished with Blood. And hence they will have it, that Children for the most part effect their Mothers best, for it proceeds from the nearness of Nature, by a natural instinct, because the Mothers forces were

most employed about 'em? For 9 Months, and sometimes 10, she nourisheth the Child with her purest Blood, then her love towards it newly born, and the likeliness do clearly demonstrate, that the Woman affordeth Seed, and that Women do con∣tribute more towards making the Child than Men. But in all this, the Ancients were very much in an Error, for the Te∣sticles (so called) in Women, do not afford any Seed, but are true Eggs, anulogous to those of Fowls, and other Creatures; nei∣ther have they any such Office as those of Men, but are indeed Ovarium, wherein these Eggs are nourished by the Sanguinary Vessels dispersed through them, and from whence one or more (as they are secunda∣ted by the Man's Seed) separated, and are convey'd into the Womb by the Ovi duces. The truth of this is plain; for if you boil them, their Liquor will have the same colour Taste and Consistency, with the white of Birds Eggs, to say that they want shells, is nothing at all; for the Eggs of Fowls, while ••hey are in the Ovary, nay, after they have fallen down into the Uterus, have no shell, And though when they are laid they have one, yet that is more than a Fence, which Nature has provided them against outward Injuries, while they are

hatched without the Body, whereas those of Women, being hatched within the body, need no other fence than the womb, by which they are sufficiently guarded.

And thus much for the clearing of this point also; and now to the third thing pro∣posed, viz. Whence grows the kind, and whether the Man or the Woman is the cause of the Male or Female Infant.

The primal cause is, as is justly due in this and all other Causes, we must ascribe to God the Ruler and Disposer of all things, yet many things by his high Sufferance, proceed in regular order, by the Rules of Nature, and are carried by their in-bred motion, according to their usual and natu∣ral Course, without variation, tho' indeed by favour from on high. Sarah conceived Isaac; Hannah Samuel; and Elizabeth, Iohn the Baptist; but these were to fulfil the Almighty's Decree; nor since those times have the Prayers of the righteous been un∣successful in obtaining Children; but pas∣sing over such Supernatural and Extraor∣dinary causes that have their peculiar ef∣fects: I shall proceed to speak of things natural and common. The Antient Phy∣sicians and Philosophers say, that since there are two Principles, out of which the Body of Man is made, and which ren∣der

the Child like the Progenitors, and to be of one of the other Sex, viz. Seed com∣mon to both Sex, and menstrual Blood proper to the Woman only; The Simili∣tude (say they) must needs consist in the force of the Male or Female Seed•• so that it pgoves like to the one or the other, as more or less plenty is afforded by either: but that the difference of Sex is not refered to the Seed, but to the menstrual Blood, which is proper to the Woman; for were that force (say they) altogether retained in the Seed, the Mans Seed being of a hot∣ter quality than the Womans, Male Chil∣dren would be superabundant, and none of the other Sex (or very rarely) would be propagated, whereof the kind of the Creature is attributed to the temperament of the active qualities, which consist in heat and cold, and to the substance or nature of the matter under them, that is to the flow∣ing of the menstrual Blood: Now the Seed (say they) affords both force to procre∣ate and form the Child, and matter for its Generation, and that in the menstrual Blood there is both matter and force; for as the Seed most helps the material Principles, so likewise the menstrual Blood, the potenti∣al Seed, is, saith Galen, Blood well conco∣cted by the Vessels that contain it, so that

Blood is not only the matter of generating the Child, but also Seed, in possibility that menstrual Blood hath both principles, as matter, and faculty of offering. The An∣cients say further, that the Seed is the strongest efficient, the matter of it being very little in quantity, but that the poten∣tial or efficient faculty of it is very feeble: wherefore, if the material part or prin∣ciple of Generation, according to which the Sex is made, were only (say they) in the menstrual Blood, then would the Chil∣dren be all, or mostly Females, as if the efficient force was in the Seed, they would be all Males: but that, since both have operation in menstrual Blood, Matter pre∣dominates in quantity, and in the Seed, Force and Vertue. Deservedly, saith Gal••n, the Child receives its Sex rather from the Mother than from the Father, although his Seed do contribute something to the material Principles though more weakly. But as for similitude, although Imagina∣tion (say the Ancients) be of extraordinary force, it is referred rather to the Father, than the Mother, as to the quality of the Seed, at, or for a short time after Copu∣lation, but continues not long so to do, for that the Woman's Seed receiving facul∣ty from the menstrual Blood, for the space

of Nine Months, over-powers the Man's, as to that particular, because the men∣strual Blood flowing into the Vessels, ra∣ther cherishes and augments the one than the other; from which it may be more easily conjectured, that the Woman not only affords Matter to make the Child, but force and vertue to perfect the Concepti∣on, though the Womans Seed be fit Nu∣triment for the Man's, by reason of the moisture and thinness of it, being more fit to frame, and make up Conception there∣by; for as soft Wax, and moist Clay, the Work-man can frame what he intends, so, (say they) the Man's Seed mixing with the Woman's, as also, with the menstrual Blood, helps effectually to make the form and perfect part of Man; but (with all the respect & deferance imaginable to the Wis∣dom of the Ancients) we must needs say, that their Ignorance in Anatomy has led them in∣to many and great mistakes; and their Hy∣pothesis of the formation of the Embryo, from a Commixture of Seeds, and the Nutrition of it from the menstruous Blood, being al∣together false, their Opinion in this case must needs be false also.

Therefore, to conclude this Chapter, we say, that although a strong Imaginati∣on of the Mother may sometimes deter∣mine

the Sex (that is make it Male or Female, according as her imagination is) yet the main Agent in this case, is the Plastick or formative Principle, which is the Efficient in forming the Child, that gives it this or that Sex, according to those Laws and Rules that are prescribed to it•• by the wise Creator of all things.