Naturall philosophie reformed by divine light, or, A synopsis of physicks by J.A. Comenius ... ; with a briefe appendix touching the diseases of the body, mind, and soul, with their generall remedies, by the same author.

Of the generative faculty.

Seeing that living creatures as well as plants, are mortal entities: they must of necessitie be multiplied, for the conservati∣on of their species; touching which marke the Axiomes following.

LXI. Because that the generation of li∣ving creatures, by reason of the multitude and tendernesse of their members, could not com∣modiously be performed in the bowels of the earth: they had a different sex given them. And it was ordained that the new living creature should be formed in the very body of the living crea∣ture it self.

As the sun by its heat doth beget plants in the wombe of the earth, so it may also those living things, whose formation is fini∣shed with in some few dayes, as wormes, mice, and diverse insects, (which is done ei∣ther by the seed of the same living creatures falling into an apt matter scattered, or by the spirit of the universe, falling into an apt matter. But more perfect living creatures, which consist of many and so∣lide members, and want much time for their formation (as a man, an horse, an elephant) it cannot beget. For being that the Sun can∣not stay so long in the same coast of hea∣ven, the young one would be spoiled before it could come to perfection. I herefore the most wise Creatour of things, appointed the place of formation to be, not in the earth, but in the living creature it self; having formed two sexes, that one might do the part of the plant bearing the seed, the other of the earth, cherishing, and as it were hatching the seed. This alone and none other is the end of different sexes in all living creatures. Wo be to the rashnesse and madness of men, which abuse them! as no beast doth. The members, whereby the sexes differ, are the same in number, site and form, and differ in nothing

almost unless it be in regard of exterius and interius: to wit the greater force of heat in the male thrusting the genitals outward, but in the female by reason of the weaker heat the said members conteining themselves within: which Anatomists know.

LXII The spirit is the directour of all ge∣neration, like as in plants; which being heat∣ed in the seed, first formes it selfe a place of abode, that is the brains and head: and thence making excursions, formes the rest of the members by little and little, and gently: and again retiring to its seat, rests and operates by turns: whence the original of waking and fleeping.

Therefore the formation of a living creature doth not begin from the heart, as Aristotle thought, but from the head, for the head is as it were the whole living creature; the rest of the body is nothing but a structure of organs for divers opera∣tions. And that appears plain, for some living creatures (as fishes) have no heart, but none are without a head and brains.