The Politics of Aristotle

by Aristotle

  Then, again, how will these parts that came from all the body grow? It is true [10] that Anaxagoras plausibly says that flesh out of the food is added to the flesh. But if we do not say this (while saying that semen comes from all parts of the body), how will the foetus become greater by the addition of something else if that which is added remain unchanged? But if that which is added can change, then why not say that the semen from the very first is of such a kind that blood and flesh can be made [15] out of it, instead of saying that it itself is blood and flesh? Nor can we say that it is increased later by a process of mixing, as wine when water is poured into it. For in that case each element would be itself at first while still unmixed, but the fact rather is that flesh and bone and each of the other parts is such later. And to say [20] that some part of the semen is sinew and bone is quite above us, as the saying is.

  Besides all this there is a difficulty if the sex is determined in conception (as Empedocles says: ‘it is shed in clean vessels; some wax female, if they fall in with [25] cold’).15 Anyhow, it is plain that both men and women change not only from infertile to fertile, but also from bearing female to bearing male offspring, which looks as if the cause does not lie in the semen coming from all the parent or not, but in the mutual proportion or disproportion of that which comes from the woman and [30] the man, or in something of this kind. It is clear, then, if we are to put this down as being so, that the female sex is not determined by the semen coming from any particular part, and consequently neither is the special sexual part so determined (if really the same semen can become either a male or female child, which shows that the sexual part does not exist in the semen). Why, then, should we assert this of this part any more than of the others? For if semen does not come from the uterus, the [723b1] same account may be given of the others.

  Again, some creatures come into being neither from parents of the same kind nor from parents of a different kind, as flies and the various kinds of what are called [5] fleas; from these are produced animals indeed, but not in this case of similar nature, but a kind of grub. It is plain in this case that the young of a different kind are not produced by semen coming from all parts of the parent, for they would then resemble them, if indeed resemblance is a sign of its coming from all parts.

  Further, even among animals some produce many young from a single coition (and something like this is universal among plants, for it is plain that they bear all [10] the fruit of a whole season from a single movement). And yet how would this be possible if the semen were secreted from all the body? For from a single coition and a single segregation must follow only a single secretion. Nor is it possible for it to be separated in the uterus; for this would no longer be a separation of semen, but, as it [15] were, a severance from an animal.

  Again, the cuttings from a plant bear seed; clearly, therefore, even before they were cut, they bore their fruit from their own mass alone, and the seed did not come from all the plant.

  But the greatest proof of all is derived from observations we have sufficiently established on insects. For, if not in all, at least in most of these, the female in the [20] act of copulation inserts a part of herself into the male, This, as we said before, is the way they copulate; for the females manifestly insert this from below into the males above, not in all cases, but in most of those observed. Hence it seems clear that, [25] when the males do emit semen, then also the cause of the generation is not its coming from all the body, but something else which must be investigated hereafter. For even if it were true that it comes from all the body, as they say, they ought not to claim that it comes from all parts of it, but only from the creative part—from the [30] workman, so to say, not the material he works in. Instead of that, they talk as if one were to say that the semen comes from the shoes; for, generally speaking, if a son is like his father, the shoes he wears are like his father’s shoes.

  As to the vehemence of pleasure in sexual intercourse, it is not because the semen comes from all the body, but because there is a strong friction (wherefore if this intercourse is often repeated the pleasure is diminished in the persons [724a1] concerned). Moreover, the pleasure is at the end of the act, but it ought, on the theory, to be in each of the parts, and not at the same time, but sooner in some and later in others.

  If mutilated young are born of mutilated parents, it is for the same reason as [5] that for which they are like them. And the young of mutilated parents are not always mutilated, just as they are not always like their parents; the cause of this must be inquired into later, for this problem is the same as that.

  Again, if the female does not produce semen, it is reasonable to suppose it does not come from all the body of the male either. And if it does not come from all the male it is not unreasonable to suppose that it does not come from the female, but [10] that the female is cause of the generation in some other way. Into this we must next inquire, since it is plain that the semen is not secreted from all the parts.

  In this investigation and those which follow from it, the first thing to do is to [15] understand what semen is, for then it will be easier to inquire into its operations and the phenomena connected with it. Now the object of semen is to be of such a nature that from it as their origin come into being those things which are naturally formed,† not because there is any agent which makes them from it as . . . but simply [20] because this is the semen.†16 Now we speak of one thing coming from another in many senses; it is one thing when we say that night comes from day or a man becomes man from boy, meaning that the one comes after the other; it is another if we say that a statue is made from bronze and a bed from wood, and so on in all the other cases where we say that the thing made is made from a material, meaning [25] that the whole is formed from something pre-existing, which is put into shape. In a third sense a man becomes unmusical from being musical, sick from being well, and generally in this sense contraries arise from contraries. Fourthly, as in the ‘climax’ [30] of Epicharmus; thus from slander comes railing and from this fighting, and all these are from something in the sense that it is the efficient cause.17 In this last class sometimes the efficient cause is in the things themselves, as in the last mentioned (for the slander is a part of the whole trouble), and sometimes external, as the art is external to the work of art or the torch to the burning house.

  [35] Now the semen plainly falls under one of the two following senses—either the semen is the material from which it is made, or it is the first efficient cause. For assuredly it is not in the sense of one thing being after another, as the voyage comes [724b1] from the Panathenaea; nor yet as contraries come from contraries, for then one of the two contraries ceases to be, and a third substance must exist as an immediate underlying basis from which the new thing comes into being. We must discover, then, in which of the two other classes the semen is to be put, whether it is to be [5] regarded as matter, and therefore acted upon by something else, or as a form, and therefore acting upon something else, or as both at once. For perhaps at the same time we shall see clearly also how all the products of semen come into being from contraries, since coming into being from contraries is also a natural process, for some animals do so, i.e. from male and female, others from only one parent, as is the [10] case with plants and all those animals in which male and female are not separately differentiated. Now that which comes from the generating parent is called the seminal fluid, being that which first has in it a principle of generation, in the case of all animals whose nature it is to unite; semen is that which has in it the principles from both united parents (as in the case of plants and of those animals in which [15] male and female are not separated), as the first mixture which arises from the union of male and female, be it a foetus or an egg, for these already have in them that which comes from both. (Semen and fruit differ only in the one being earlier and the other later, fruit in that it comes from something else, and seed in that something [20] else comes from it, for both are really the same thing.)

  We must again take up the question wh
at the primary nature of what is called semen is.18 Everything which we find in the body must either be one of the natural parts, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, or an unnatural part such as a [25] growth, or a residue or waste-product, or nutriment. (By residue I mean what is left of the nutriment, by waste-product that which is given off from the growth by an unnatural decomposition.)

  Now that semen cannot be a part of the body is plain; for it is homogeneous, but from it nothing is composed, as things are from sinew or flesh; nor is it separated [30] as are all the other parts. But neither is it contrary to nature nor a defect; for it exists in all alike, and the natural organism comes from it. Nutriment, again, is obviously introduced from without.

  It remains, then, that it must be either a waste-product or a residue. Now the ancients seem to think that it is a waste-product; for when they say that it comes [35] from all the body by reason of the heat of the movement, they imply that it is a kind of waste-product. But these are contrary to nature, and from such arises nothing [725a1] according to nature. So then it must be a residue.

  But every residue is either of useless or useful nutriment; by ‘useless’ I mean that from which nothing further is contributed to natural growth, but which is [5] particularly mischievous to the body if too much of it is consumed; by ‘useful’ I mean the opposite. Now it is evident that it cannot be of the former character, for such is most abundant in persons of the worst condition of body through age or sickness; semen, on the contrary, is least abundant in them, for either they have [10] none at all or it is not fertile, because a useless and morbid residue is mingled with it.

  Semen, then, is part of a useful residue. But the most useful is the last and that from which finally is formed each of the parts of the body. For residues are either earlier or later; of the nutriment in the first stage the residue is phlegm and the like, [15] for phlegm also is a residue of the useful nutriment, an indication of this being that if it is mixed with pure nutriment it is nourishing, and that it is used up in cases of illness. The final residue is the smallest in proportion to the quantity of nutriment. But we must reflect that the daily nutriment by which animals and plants grow is [20] but small; for if a very little added of the same thing is the size of it will become excessive.

  So we must say the opposite of what the ancients said. For whereas they said that semen is that which comes from all the body, we shall say it is that whose nature is to go to all of it, and what they thought a waste-product seems rather to be [25] a residue. For it is more reasonable to suppose that the last extract of the nutriment which goes to all parts resembles it, just as part of a painter’s colour is often left over resembling that which he has used up. Waste-products, on the contrary, are always due to corruption and to a departure from nature.

  [30] A further proof that it is not a waste-product, but rather a residue, is the fact that the large animals have few young, the small many. For the large must have more waste and less residue, since the great size of the body causes most of the nutriment to be used up, so that the residue is small.

  Again, no place has been set apart by nature for waste-products but they flow [725b1] wherever they can find an easy passage in the body, but a place has been set apart for all the natural residues; thus the lower intestine serves for the excretion of the solid nutriment, the bladder for that of the liquid; for the useful part of the nutriment we have the upper intestine, for the spermatic secretions the uterus and pudenda and breasts, for it is collected and flows together into them.

  [5] And the resulting phenomena are evidence that semen is what we have said, and these result because such is the nature of the residue. For the exhaustion consequent on the loss of even a very little of the semen is conspicuous because the body is deprived of the ultimate gain drawn from the nutriment. With some few persons, it is true, during a short time in the flower of their youth the loss of it, if it be excessive in quantity, is an alleviation (just as in the case of the nutriment in its [10] first stage, if too much have been taken, since getting rid of this also makes the body more comfortable), and so it may be also when other residues come away with it, for in that case it is not only semen that is lost but also other influences come away [15] mingled with it,19 and these are morbid. That is why, with some men at least, that which comes from them proves sometimes incapable of procreation because the seminal element in it is so small. But still in most men and as a general rule the result of intercourse is exhaustion and weakness rather than relief, for the reason [20] given. Moreover, semen does not exist in them either in childhood or in old age or in sickness—in the last case because of weakness, in old age because their constitution does not concoct enough, and in childhood because they are growing and so all the nutriment is used up too soon—for in about five years, in the case of human beings at any rate, the body seems to gain half the height that is gained in all the rest of life. [25]

  In many animals and plants we find a difference in this connexion not only between kinds as compared with kinds, but also between similar individuals of the same kind as compared with each other, e.g. man with man or vine with vine. Some have much semen, others little, others again none at all, not through weakness but [30] the contrary, at any rate in some cases. This is because the nutriment is used up to form the body, as with some human beings, who, being in good condition and developing much flesh or getting rather too fat, produce less semen and are less desirous of intercourse. Like this is what happens with those vines which ‘play the goat’, that is, luxuriate through too much nutrition, for he-goats when fat are less inclined to mount the female; for which reason they thin them before breeding from [726a1] them, and say that the vines ‘play the goat’, so calling it from the condition of the goats. And fat people, women as well as men, appear to be less fertile than others from the fact that the residue when in process of concoction turns to fat with those [5] who are too well-nourished. For fat also is a healthy residue due to good living.

  In some cases no semen is produced at all, as by the willow and poplar. This condition is due to each20 of the two causes, weakness and strength; the former prevents concoction of the nutriment, the latter causes it to be all consumed, as said above. In like manner other animals produce much semen through weakness as well [10] as through strength, [when a great quantity of a useless residue is mixed with it; this sometimes results in actual disease when a passage is not found to carry off the impurity, and though some recover of this, others actually die of it. For they are affected by waste-products here as in the urine, which also has been known to cause [15] disease.

  Further, the same passage serves for residue and semen; and whatever animals have both kinds of excrement, that of liquid and that of solid nutriment, discharge the semen by the same passage as the liquid excrement (for it is a residue of a liquid, since the nutriment of all animals is rather liquid than solid), but those which have [20] no liquid excrement discharge it at the passage of the solid residua. Moreover, waste-products are always morbid, but the removal of the residue is useful; now the discharge of the semen participates in both characteristics because it takes up some of the non-useful nutriment. But if it were a waste-product it would be always harmful; as it is, it is not so.]21 [25]

  From what has been said, it is clear that semen is a residue of useful nutriment, and that in its last stage, whether it is produced by all or no.

  19 · After this we must distinguish of what sort of nutriment it is a residue, and must discuss the menstrual discharges which occur in certain of the vivipara. [30] For thus we shall make it clear whether the female also produces semen like the male and the foetus is a mixture of two semens, or whether no semen is secreted by the female, and, if not, whether she contributes nothing else either to generation but only provides a receptacle, or whether she does contribute something, and how and [726b1] in what manner she does so.

  We have previously stated that the final nutriment is the blood in the sanguinea and the analogous fluid in the other animals. Since the s
emen is also a residue of the nutriment, and that in its final stage, it follows that it will be either blood or that which is analogous to blood, or something formed from this. But since [5] it is from the blood, when concocted and somehow divided up, that each part of the body is made, and since the semen if properly concocted is quite of a different character from the blood when it is separated from it, but if not properly concocted has been known in some cases to issue in a bloody condition if one forces oneself too [10] often to coition, therefore it is plain that semen will be a residue of the nutriment when reduced to blood, being that which is finally distributed to the parts of the body. And this is the reason why it has so great power, for the loss of the pure and healthy blood is an exhausting thing; for this reason also it is natural that the offspring should resemble the parents, for that which goes to all the parts of the [15] body resembles that which is left over. So that the semen which is to form the hand or the face or the whole animal is already the hand or face or whole animal undifferentiated, and what each of them is actually such is the semen potentially, either in virtue of its own mass or because it has a certain power in itself. (For we have not yet made it clear from the distinctions drawn hitherto whether it is the [20] matter of the semen that is the cause of generation, or whether it has in it some faculty and efficient cause thereof). For the hand also or any other bodily part is not hand or other part in a true sense if it be without soul or some other power, but is only called by the same name.