by Aristotle
Thus the womb, having the power to draw up the semen, indicates that it is in a proper condition to conceive during intercourse whenever it is in that state without [30] pain or insensitivity. And it is good that the neck is not in an unusual condition; for this indicates that there is nothing to prevent the womb from closing up when necessary.
3 · These, then, are the points to observe in order to tell whether or not the neck of the womb is in the right condition. As to the womb itself, it should behave as follows after menstruation: first, the woman should dream that she is with a man and her emissions should come easily, as if she were actually having intercourse— [35] and the more often this happens the better; and when she wakes up she should sometimes need the treatment she requires when she has actually had intercourse with a man, and sometimes be dry. But this dryness should not continue long; but later, after waking, she should grow moist again, sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly, . . .9 and the moisture should be of the sort which occurs after she has [635b1] had intercourse with a man. For all this indicates that the womb can receive what it is offered, and that the cotyledons can draw up and retain what they receive and will not readily give it up.
Again, wind should be produced without any affliction, as in the stomach, and [5] this should be released, whether in large or small quantity, without disease; for this shows that the womb is not more solid than it should be and that it is not unresponsive, either by nature or by disease, but can make room for the growth of whatever it receives. And10 it also possesses elasticity. When this does not occur, the [10] womb is either too close-textured or too insensitive, whether by nature or by disease. That is why it cannot nourish the embryo but may actually destroy it—when the embryo is still small, if the condition is severe, when it is larger if less severe; and if the condition is very mild, offspring are produced in a rather poor state, as though [15] nourished in a poor container.
Again, the right and the left parts of the womb should be level to the touch; and so too with the rest. And during intercourse with a man, the womb should become moist, but not often nor excessively. This affection is a sort of local sweating—just as we often emit saliva at the mouth on the approach of food and when we are [20] talking or working too hard; again, tears fall from our eyes when we look at objects that are too bright, or under the influence of cold or great heat which those organs master when they are somewhat moist.11 Similarly, the womb too grows moist [25] during its work, when it is in a somewhat moist condition. This occurs even in wombs which are naturally in an excellent state. Hence women always need treatment, in greater or less degree, just as the mouth needs to spit. But in some there is so much moisture that they cannot draw up the man’s emission in a pure [30] form, because it is mixed with the moisture from the woman.
In addition to those affections, one should observe what happens when a woman dreams she is having intercourse with a man, and what state she is in when she wakes up—e.g. is she weaker?) is she always so, or12 sometimes so and [35] sometimes not so? or is she sometimes actually stronger? If not, is the womb drier at first, later growing moist? For this should occur if the woman is fertile. For the exhaustion indicates that the body is continually emitting semen, and the woman who has emissions and . . .13 is made weaker. That this affection is not accompanied by any disease indicates that the emission occurs naturally and in the right manner. [636a1] Otherwise, the weakness would be morbid. If sometimes she becomes stronger, and her womb is dry and then grows moist, that is a sign that her body as a whole is receiving and absorbing, and that it is not the womb only but the body too which is [5] strong. For it is by breath that the womb draws in what comes to it from outside, as we said earlier. For the woman emits not into the womb but at the place where the man’s emission also falls. And everything done by the breath is done by strength; hence it is clear that in such women the body too has the power of drawing matter up.
Some women suffer from what is known as wind-pregnancy: that too is [10] something which women should not experience. The affection is of the following sort: when they are with a man, they neither clearly emit the semen nor become pregnant; and so it is called a wind-pregnancy. The cause of the affection is the womb, when it is too dry. For having drawn the fluid up into itself, it ejects it;14 but [15] the fluid dries up and, becoming reduced in quantity, it leaves the womb but is not observed to do so because there is little of it. When the womb is severely affected in this way, and becomes excessively dry, it loses the fluid quickly and the woman is quickly seen not to be pregnant. But if it does not do this very quickly, the woman [20] seems to be pregnant during the intervening time until the womb loses whatever it holds in itself. Such women soon experience symptoms similar to those of genuine pregnancy; and if the condition lasts for a long time, the womb expands, so that the woman seems evidently pregnant until the fluid leaves; and then it becomes just as it [25] was before. They ascribe this affection to the supernatural. It can be treated unless the woman is naturally of this sort15 and suffers severely from the affection. It is an indication that women are16 of this nature if they plainly do not emit when they have received from the man and yet do not conceive.
4 · The womb is also impeded if it suffers from spasms. Spasms occur either [30] if the womb is distended by inflammation or if in child-birth a large quantity of fluid suddenly collects and the neck does not open—then spasms are caused by the distention. It is an indication that the womb does not suffer from spasms if it clearly [35] is not inflamed when performing its functions; for if it suffered from spasms it would sometimes become inflamed.
Again, if there is a growth on the neck and the neck is severely ulcerated, that impedes conception. It is an indication that this is not so if the womb is seen to open [636b1] and close properly during menstruation and sexual intercourse.
Again, in some women the neck is somehow knitted together, sometimes from birth, sometimes as the result of disease. This is in some cases curable, in others not. The condition is not difficult to recognise; for the woman is unable to receive [5] anything of what she should or to emit anything. Hence if she is seen to receive from the man and to emit, it is clear that she does not suffer from the affection.
When a woman is not impeded in any of these ways but is in the condition we have said she should be in, then unless the man is a cause of childlessness or they are capable of having children together but are not in harmony by having their [10] emissions at the same time but differ widely, they will have children.
5 · There are various signs by which you can tell that the man is not responsible; and it is very easy17 to tell this if he has intercourse with other women and produces children. And it is a sign that they do not keep pace with one another if, although all the conditions described are met, he does not produce children.18 For [15] it is plain that this alone is the cause; for if the woman too contributes something to the semen and to the process of generation, it is plain that the partners must keep pace with one another. Thus if the man ejaculates quickly and the woman with difficulty (for women are for the most part slower), that prevents conception; and that is why partners who do not produce children with one another do produce [20] children when they meet with partners who keep pace with them during intercourse. For if the woman is excited and prepared and has the appropriate thoughts, and the man has previously been pained and has grown cold, they must necessarily then keep pace with one another.
Again, it sometimes happens that women who have had erotic dreams and men [25] who have made love are more vigorous—not in strength but in health. This occurs when a large quantity of semen has gathered at the place from which it is emitted: if it is then ejected, women do not become weaker; for they are not always exhausted after ejection, provided that what remains is sufficient. Nor are they exhausted if [30] what is ejected is useless—indeed,19 they are actually more at ease, as though relieved of a surplus. That is why they become more vigorous, not through strength but through lightness. (But when an emission detracts from an amount which
the body needs, then it makes them weaker. But this is quickly over if the body is otherwise in good health and of an age which quickly produces semen; for semen is [35] something which can grow and which does grow quickly.)20 And it is then especially that women conceive without realising it; for they do not think that they have conceived if they are not aware of their emission, and they actually suppose that the emissions must occur in both partners, the man and the woman, at the same time. Unnoticed conception occurs especially in women who think that it is impossible to [637a1] conceive unless they become dry and the fluid they have received has plainly been absorbed. But it sometimes happens that both the woman and the man emit more than she can absorb and more than enough for conception. Thus when enough is drawn up but a great quantity remains, they conceive without realising it. That such [5] a thing is possible and that conception does not require all the semen is shown by those animals that produce many young from a single act of copulation, and by the generation of twins when they develop from a single act. For it is clear that generation did not require all the semen, but that the region received a part of it and left a much larger part behind. (Again, if many young are generated by a single act [10] of copulation—something which evidently occurs in the case of pigs, and sometimes with twins—it is clear that the semen does not proceed from the whole body but that it divides up according to each form.) For it is possible for some to be separated off [15] from the whole, and for the whole to be divided into many parts; but21 it is impossible for it to act as a whole on different parts at the same time.
Again, the woman emits into the area in front of the neck of the womb, where the man too emits when he has intercourse. For from there the womb draws it up with the aid of the breath, as with the mouth or the nostrils. For everything that is [20] not pulled forward by instruments either is light and has a nature such as to travel upwards or else is drawn upwards from that place by breath. That is why women take care that the place is as dry as it was before the act took place.
The path along which the semen passes in women is of the following nature: they possess a tube—like the penis of the male, but inside of the body—and they [25] breathe through this by a small duct which is placed above the place through which women urinate. That is why, when they are eager to make love, this place is not in the same state as it was before they were excited. Now the semen escapes from this tube, and the area in front of the womb is much larger than the path by which the [30] semen escaped into this region. In this respect the part is like a nose; for the nose has a duct leading inside to the larynx and outside to the air: in the same way this place too has a very small and narrow duct outside22—just large enough to let the air out—whereas that which leads to the region in front of the womb is broad and open; [35] just as in the nose the passage leading to the air is larger than that leading to the mouth and larynx. Similarly, in women the duct leading to the area in front of the womb is larger and broader than the one leading out.23
Whatever is contributed to this place produces the same affections,24 because [40] the woman too emits generative material. And if the causes are the same the results are the same. For those who think that one thing can be the cause either of disease [637b1] or of death do not25 consider the last factor in the direction of the principles, which they should look to. For in some cases all the primary causes are the same,26 in some none are, and in others27 some are the same and some are not. Thus the results [5] follow as they should: in some cases the affections passed through are all the same; in others most are the same, when most causes are the same; in others a few; and in others none, when none are.28
6 · It is clear when animals need to be covered. For they pursue the males—e.g. the domestic hen pursues the cock and squats beneath him if he is not [10] excited. Other animals do this too. So if the same affections are evident in all animals as far as mating goes, it is clear that the same causes are present too. Now female birds desire not only to receive but also to emit. An indication of this is the fact that if a male is not about she squats under another female and becomes pregnant and produces a wind-egg, thereby showing that she wants then to emit, [15] and actually emitting—as happens when a man has intercourse with another male. Other animals do this too: a woman once made the test on singing crickets, which she caught while they were still young and then reared—when they had grown they became spontaneously pregnant. From this it is clear that every female contributes [20] something to the semen, if it has been seen to occur in the case of one genus. For a wind-egg differs from a fertile egg only in the fact that it does not generate an animal; and that is because it did not come from both partners. That is why not all male emissions seem to be fertile, but some are infertile, when they are not [25] harmonised in the right way from both partners.
Again, women have erotic dreams, and after the dream they experience the same conditions as when they have been with a man—relaxation and incapacity. Thus it is clear, if they are seen to emit something while dreaming, that they also contribute something then; for after the dream the same region is moist, and they [30] need to give themselves the same treatment as they do when they have been with a man. Thus it is clear that there is an emission of semen from both partners if the semen is going to be fertile.
The womb does not emit into itself, but outside, where the man too emits; and it then draws it from there into itself. How is it, then, that some females generate by [35] themselves, as birds produce wind-eggs, and others do not, e.g. horses and sheep? Is it because birds emit into the womb, there being no external place into which they—or the males—can emit? That is why if no cock is mating with it, the hen spills its semen onto the ground. But in quadrupeds there is another place outside the womb into which both the female and the male emit. What in other creatures is [638a1] mixed together with the other fluids and does not take form in the womb, which it does not enter, is in the case of birds received into the womb and concocted by it into a sort of body which is like an animal in other respects but is not an animal because an animal must proceed from both partners. [5]
7 · We can determine whether those women tell the truth who say that when they have erotic dreams they wake up dry. For it is clear that the womb draws the fluid upwards; so why do females not produce offspring by themselves, since they draw up the male semen too when it is mixed with their own? Why do they not also draw up their own semen unmixed, if it extends into the outer part? … [10]
. . .29 to whom this affection occurs during pregnancy.30 For they give birth to what is called a ‘mole’: it happened once to a woman who had been with a man and thought she had conceived; the bulk of her womb increased and at first everything else happened in the expected way. But when the time came for the birth, she did not give birth, nor did the bulk become less, but she continued in that state for three [15] or four years, until she fell ill of dysentery and, having been in some danger from it, gave birth to a sizable lump of flesh of the sort they call a mole. In some women this condition persists until they grow old and die. Does this condition come about [20] because of heat, when the womb happens to be hot and dry and therefore apt to draw matter into itself in such a way as to draw anything into itself and conserve it there? For it is when women are in this state and there is no mixture from both partners but, like a wind-egg, matter is received from one only, that the so-called [25] moles occur; and they are neither animals (for they do not come from both partners) nor yet inanimate (for what was received was animate), as in the case of wind-eggs. They remain for a considerable time, both because of the condition of the womb, and because, in the case of birds which produce many eggs in themselves, the womb is distended by them and the eggs are pushed forward and laid; and once the womb [30] is opened the last one comes out too. For there is nothing holding them in; but the body itself, having become prone to emission when it was being filled up, can no longer give the womb the power to hold on to the eggs. In viviparous animals, because their power changes as the embryo grows and they require dif
ferent food at [35] different times, the womb becomes inflamed and brings about the birth at the appointed time. But the lump of flesh, since it is not an animal, is always uniform; and that is why it does not weigh down the womb or make it inflamed. Hence in some women the affliction lasts until they die, unless some fortunate weakness [638b1] strikes them, as it did the woman who was afflicted with dysentery.
But does the condition occur because of heat, as we said, or rather because of moisture (for the growth is a sort of mucus)?31 or when the womb is not so cold as to [5] expel it nor yet so hot as to concoct it? That is why the condition lasts so long, just as some things remain boiling for a long time while others boil quickly for a limited period. Wombs of that sort, being very slow32 take a long time.
Again, since it is not an animal, it does not move and so does not bring on [10] labour; for it is the movement of the ligaments which is labour, and the embryo produces it because it is alive. And the hardness of the thing33 is the result of parboiling; for it becomes so hard that it cannot be cut with an axe. Now things that are boiled, and all things that are concocted, become soft; but things that have been [15] parboiled are unconcocted and hard.
Many doctors are unaware of this, and call an affliction a mole on the basis of similarity, if they merely see the belly extended without any sign of dropsy and the menstrual flow suspended as the affliction continues. But that is wrong: in fact, the [20] so-called moles occur rarely. Sometimes there is a fluxion of cold, moist and watery residues, sometimes of thicker residues, into the region of the belly, if the region is of such a nature or is in such a condition. For these provide neither pain34 nor heat [25] because of their coldness; and as they grow, some to a greater extent and some to a less, they do not induce any other disease apart from themselves but remain inactive like a sort of deformity. The failure to menstruate occurs because the residues are being expended here, just as happens in women who are nursing (for they too either do not menstruate at all or do so only a little). Sometimes there is a fluxion from the flesh into the region between the womb and the belly, and that seems to be a mole [30] when in fact it is not. It is not difficult to diagnose a mole, if she touches the womb. For if it is compact and not expanded, it is plain that it does not suffer from the affliction. But if it is in the same condition as when it contains a child, then it will be [35] hot and dry35 because the fluids have been diverted towards the inside; and the neck will be in the same condition as when they are pregnant. But if the mass is anything else, it will be cold to the touch and not dry and the neck will always be uniform.