Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Book 7. Concerning the generation of man, both the first generation in the female and its subsequent course up to old age, whatever happens to it through its own nature, the matter stands as follows. The difference between male and female, and their parts, has been discussed before; the male first begins to produce seed for the most part when it has completed twice seven years; and at the same time the growth of pubic hair begins, just as Alcmaeon of Croton says that plants first flower when they are about to produce seed. Around this same time the voice also begins to change to a rougher and more uneven quality, being no longer high nor yet low, nor uniform throughout, but appearing similar to strings that have been strained and roughened; this they call "goating." This happens more to those who attempt sexual activity; for in those who are eager about such things the voice changes into the voice of men, while in those who abstain it does the opposite; and if they even force this along further by careful practice, as some do who are devoted to choral dancing, the change persists for a long time and takes on only a very slight alteration in the end. And there occurs a swelling of the breasts and of the genitals, not only in size but also in form.
2| It happens that around this time, for those who practice handling themselves in order to bring on the emission of semen, not only pleasure arises as the semen comes out, but also pain. Around this same time, in females, both the swelling of the breasts occurs and what is called the menses bursts forth; this is blood like that freshly slaughtered. White discharges also occur in children while still quite young, more so if they use liquid food; and this hinders growth, and makes the children's bodies thin. The menses occur in most girls once the breasts have already risen about two fingers' breadth. And the voice changes in girls too around this time, toward the deeper. For in general a woman is higher-voiced than a man, and young women more than older ones, just as boys are more than men; but the voice of female children is higher-pitched than that of male children, and the girl's pipe is higher-pitched than the boy's. They need the most watching around this time; for they are most driven toward the use of sexual intercourse just as it is beginning in them, so that if they do not take careful precaution against stirring up anything further than that toward which their own bodies change even without any use of sexual intercourse, this tends to follow them into their later years.
3| For young women who have intercourse at all become more undisciplined, and so do males, whether they fail to guard against it in one direction or in both; for the passages open up, and make the flow of the body easy in that region; and at the same time the memory of the pleasure that then occurred creates a desire for the union that then took place. Some are born without pubic hair from birth and infertile, because of injury to the generative region; likewise women too are born without pubic hair from birth. Both males and females change their bodily condition as regards being healthier or more sickly, and as regards leanness and stoutness of body and good nourishment; for after puberty some grow stout from having been lean and become healthier, others the opposite; and this happens likewise in the case of girls too. For as many boys or girls as had bodies full of residue, when such residue is secreted off together with the rest — in boys in the semen, in girls in the menses — their bodies become healthier and better nourished, since what impeded health and nourishment goes out with it; but as many as have the opposite condition, their bodies become leaner and sicklier; for the secretion, in those who are in good condition, comes from nature itself, in the one case in the semen, in the other in the menses.
4| Further, in girls the condition of the breasts too comes about differently from one to another; some have quite large ones, others small. This happens for the most part in those who as children were full of residue; for while the womanly functions are still impending and not yet occurring, the more abundant the moisture is, the more it is forced to rise upward, until it bursts forth; so that the breasts, having then taken on bulk, remain so even afterward. And in males too the breasts become more conspicuous and more womanly, both in the younger and the older, in those who are moist and smooth-skinned and not veiny, and among these more in the dark-skinned than the light-skinned. So then, up to three times seven years, at first the semens are infertile; then, though now fertile, both young men and young women beget small and incomplete offspring, just as also happens with most of the other animals. Young women conceive more quickly; but if they do conceive, they suffer more in childbirth. And their bodies as a rule become less complete and age faster — both in the case of men given to sexual activity and of women who undergo many childbirths;
5| for growth seems no longer to occur after three childbirths. And those women who are undisciplined with regard to sexual intercourse become more settled and self-controlled once they have undergone many childbirths. After the three times seven years, women are now well-timed for bearing children, while men still have room for further growth. Thin semens are infertile, while those with a hail-like consistency are fertile and more apt to generate males; thin semens that do not clot generate females. And the growth of beard hair occurs in males around this same age.
6| The onset of the womanly discharge occurs around the waning of the months; hence some of those given to clever theorizing say that the moon too is female, because it happens that at the same time as one has her purification the other has her waning, and after the purification and the waning there follows a filling of both. In some women the menses come frequently, a small amount each time; in most, every third month. Those for whom it lasts a short time, two or three days, get through it more easily; those for whom it lasts many days, more painfully. For they suffer through these days; in some the purification occurs all at once, in others little by little, but in all the body grows heavy until it has passed. And in many, when the menses are stirring and about to break forth, choking sensations occur, and a noise in the womb, until it breaks forth. By nature, then, conception occurs in women after these have finished; and those in whom this does not occur remain childless for the most part. Nevertheless, even when this does not occur, some do conceive — namely those in whom there collects as much moisture as is left behind in women who have given birth, after the purification, but not so much as to go out the door as well. And even while it is still occurring, some conceive;
7| but afterward do not conceive, those whose wombs close up immediately after the purification. In some women the womanly discharge occurs continuously even while they are pregnant; it happens, however, that these bear inferior offspring, and either the offspring are not preserved so as to grow, or they turn out weak. In many women, too, because of needing intercourse, or because of youth and age, or because of abstaining for a long time, the womb comes down, and the womanly discharge occurs often three times a month, until they conceive; and then it withdraws again to its proper place above. Sometimes too, even if a woman happens to be pregnant, if she happens to be of a moist constitution, she expels the more liquid part of the semen. Of all animals, as has been said before too, the purification occurs in women more than in the other females. For in those that do not bear live young nothing of this sort shows itself, because this residue is turned instead to the body (for some females are larger than the males, and further, in some it is spent on scales, in others on shell-plates, in others on the mass of feathers), while in land-dwelling live-bearers it is spent on hair and on the body (for a human alone is smooth-skinned) and on urine (for such animals produce a thick and copious excretion of this kind);
8| but in women, in place of these, the residue is turned to the purification. And this holds likewise for males too; for a human emits the most semen relative to size of all the other animals (hence also a human is the smoothest-skinned of the animals), and among humans themselves, those who are more moist by nature and not overly fleshy do so more, and the lighter-skinned more than the dark. And it is the same way with women too; for in those of good flesh, most of the excretion goes toward the nourishment of the body. And in sexual intercourse the lighter-skinned women exude moisture more by nature than the dark ones do. Among foods, the moist and pungent kinds tend to bring on this kind of exuding intercourse more.
9| A sign that women have conceived is this: the place becomes dry immediately after intercourse. Now if the lips of the mouth of the womb are smooth, it does not want to conceive (for the seed slips off), nor if they are thick; but if, when touched with the finger, they are rougher and hold on to it, and if the lips are thin, then it is well-timed for conception. So for conceiving, the womb needs to be constructed in this way, and for not conceiving, the opposite; for if the lips are smooth, it does not conceive. This is why some women anoint the part of the womb on which the seed falls with oil of cedar, or with white lead, or with frankincense dissolved in oil. If it remains in place for seven days, it is clear that conception has occurred; for what are called discharges happen within these days. In most women the menstrual purgations continue for some time after conception has occurred—for about thirty days when the fetus is female, and about forty when it is male. And after childbirth the purgations tend to return for this same number of days, though not all women show this with equal precision. After conception and the days mentioned, the purgation no longer follows its natural course, but turns instead to the breasts and becomes milk.
10| The first sign of this is that the milk in the breasts is small in amount and web-like. When women have conceived, the sensation occurs most of all in the flanks; for in some women these become fuller right away, and this happens more noticeably in thin women. And in the groins, in the case of males the movement occurs mostly on the right side, around the fortieth day, and in the case of females on the left side, around the ninetieth day. Still, one must not suppose any precision in these matters; for in many women who bear females the movement occurs on the right, and in those who bear males on the left; but these and all such things vary, as a rule, only in the more and the less. It is around this time, too, that the fetus divides into parts; before this it is unarticulated and consists of flesh-like matter. What are called discharges are the destructions that occur up to the seventh day, and miscarriages are those up to the fortieth day; and most fetuses perish within these days. So when the male fetus comes out on the fortieth day, if one puts it into anything else it dissolves and disappears, but if into cold water it holds together as if in a membrane;
11| and when this membrane is pricked open, the embryo is visible, the size of one of the large ants, with its limbs plain to see, and everything else including the genitals, and the eyes—as in the other animals—largest of all. As for the female, whatever is destroyed within the three months appears for the most part unarticulated; but whatever survives past the fourth month becomes divided into parts and quickly takes on the rest of its articulation. Up to that point the female lags behind the male in the completion of all its parts, and females are more often carried the full ten months than males; but once born, females reach youth, prime, and old age sooner than males, and this is more true of those who bear more often, as has been said before.
12| When the womb has taken hold of the seed, it closes up immediately in most women, until seven months have passed; in the eighth it opens up, and the embryo, if it is viable, descends further down in the eighth month. Fetuses that are not viable but are stifled, women do not carry to term and deliver at eight months, nor do their embryos descend in the eighth month, nor do their wombs open at that time; rather, it is a sign that the fetus is not viable, if birth occurs without these things having taken place as described. After conception women feel heaviness throughout the whole body, and darkness comes before their eyes and pains occur in the head. In some women this happens quickly, around the tenth day, in others more slowly, depending on whether they happen to be more or less full of residue. Further, nausea and vomiting take hold of most women, and especially those of this kind, when the purgations have stopped and have not yet turned to the breasts. Some women suffer more at the beginning, others later, once the fetus is already growing more; and many women, and often, also suffer strangury toward the end. As a rule, then, women who are carrying males get through it more easily and generally keep a better complexion, while with females it is the opposite;
13| for such women are generally paler, and pass the time more heavily, and in many of them swellings and puffiness of the flesh occur around the legs; still, in some women the opposite of this happens. Pregnant women are prone to all sorts of cravings and to changing them rapidly, which some people call pica; and in the case of females the cravings are sharper, but when they are satisfied the women are less able to enjoy them. In a few women it happens that their body is actually in better condition while pregnant. They feel sickest of all when the children begin to grow hair. As for the mother's own hair during pregnancy, in some it grows thinner in its usual places and falls out, while in places where it does not usually grow, it grows thicker. And as a rule the male produces more movement in the body than the female, and is born sooner, while females are born more slowly. And the labor pain with females is continuous and more sluggish, while with males it is sharp, but much harsher. Women who have intercourse with men shortly before childbirth give birth more quickly. Women sometimes seem to be in labor when no labor is actually occurring, but because the embryo turns its head, this appears to be the beginning of labor.
14| The other animals bring their birth to completion in a single way; for one fixed time of birth is set for all of them; but man alone among animals has many. For births occur at seven months, eight months, and nine months, and most often at ten months; and some women even go into the eleventh month. Now whatever is born before seven months cannot survive in any way at all; but seven-month births are the first that are viable, though most are weak (which is why people wrap them in wool), and many even have some of their passages unopened, such as those of the ears and nostrils; but as they grow further these become articulated, and many such infants do live. Eight-month births, in Egypt and in some other places where women give birth easily and both carry and bear many children without difficulty, and where infants born can survive even if deformed—there the eight-month births live and are reared; but in the regions around Greece very few survive at all, and most perish; and because of this assumption, even if one is saved, people suppose that what was born was not really an eight-month child, but that the women were mistaken about themselves and had conceived earlier. Women suffer most in the fourth month and the eighth month, and if they miscarry in the fourth or eighth month, they themselves generally perish along with it, so that not only do the eight-month infants not survive, but the mothers too are in danger when the fetus is destroyed.
15| In the same way it seems that women are also mistaken about cases that appear to be born after more than eleven months; for in these cases too the beginning of conception escapes the women's notice. For often, when the womb has previously been in a windy condition, women who afterward have intercourse and conceive suppose that to be the beginning of the conception, because they used the same signs for it. Now as for the number of offspring at a completed birth, mankind differs from the other animals in this respect: whereas some animals bear one at a time and others bear many, the human race falls into both categories. For in most cases, and among most peoples, women bear one child; but often, and in many places, they bear twins, as for example in Egypt. They also bear three and four, in some places quite regularly, as has been said before. The largest number ever borne is five; for this has actually been observed, and in more than one case. One woman, in four births, bore twenty children; for she bore five each time, and most of them were reared. Now among the other animals, even if the twins are male and female, they are reared and survive no less than if they were both males or both females;
16| Among humans few twins survive, if one is female and the other male. Woman and mare, more than any other animals, accept mating while already pregnant. The others, once they are filled, avoid the males — those that are not naturally capable of superfetation, as the hare is. But the mare, if she conceives the first time, does not become superfetated again, but bears only one, in most cases; in the case of woman it is rare, but it has happened. Now those conceived much later come to no completion, but cause trouble and destroy along with themselves the one that already existed (for it has actually happened that, when a miscarriage occurred, as many as twelve superfetated embryos were expelled); but if the conception occurred close in time, women have carried the superfetated child to term, and they give birth as if to twins from one begetting, just as the story is told of Iphicles and Heracles. For this too has clearly happened: a woman committing adultery bore one of her children resembling her husband, and the other resembling her lover. Also, a woman already pregnant with twins once superfetated a third; and when the due time came, she bore the two that had gone their full term, and the third at five months — and this one died at once. And it happened to another woman that she first bore a seven-month child, and later bore two full-term children —
17| and of these one died, but the others lived. And some women who miscarried had conceived twins at the same time, and expelled the one and bore the other. In most women, if intercourse occurs with them while pregnant after the eighth month, the child comes out covered all over in a sticky, mucous substance. And it often appears covered too, from the foods that are taken in. And when women make more lavish use of salt, the children are born without nails. The milk that forms before the seventh month is useless; but the children become viable and the milk becomes useful at the same time. And the first milk is also salty, just as with sheep. Most women are especially sensitive to wine during pregnancy; for if they drink it, they become weak and lose their strength. For women, the beginning of being able to bear children, and for males the beginning of being able to beget, and likewise the end for both, is marked — for males by the emission of semen, for females by the menses — except that offspring are not fertile as soon as these begin, nor any longer once they become scanty and weak. The age of the beginning has been stated. In most women the menses cease around forty years; in those for whom it continues beyond this time, it persists up to fifty years, and some have even given birth at that age; but none does so for a longer time.
18| Most men beget children up to sixty years of age, and when this is exceeded, up to seventy; indeed some have already fathered children at seventy years old. It happens to many men and women that, when joined together with one another, they are unable to produce children, but when separated, they can. The same thing happens with respect to producing male or female offspring: for sometimes women and men, when together with one another, produce only female or only male offspring, but when separated the opposite occurs. And they also change according to age: when young, couples produce female offspring together, but when older, male; while for others the opposite happens in this respect too. And the same holds generally for the capacity to beget children at all: for some, none are produced while young, but are when older; while others produce children at first, but afterward produce none. There are also some women who conceive only with difficulty, but if they conceive, carry to term; while others, conversely, conceive easily but are unable to carry to term. There are also men who produce only female offspring and women who produce only male offspring, as is told in the story of Heracles, who among seventy-two children fathered only one daughter. Women unable to conceive, if they do conceive either through treatment or through some other coincidence, in most cases bear female rather than male offspring.
19| It also happens to many men that, although able to beget, they later become unable, and then are restored to the same condition again. Maimed offspring are also born from maimed parents, as lame from lame and blind from blind, and in general offspring often resemble their parents in features contrary to nature, and bear inherited marks, such as growths and scars. Something of this sort has already reappeared even across three generations: for example, a man had a birthmark on his arm; his son was not born with it, but his grandson was, having in the same place a blurred dark mark. Such cases, then, are rare; most offspring are born whole even from maimed parents, and none of these things is fixed by rule. And offspring resemble either their parents or their ancestors further back, and sometimes resemble no one at all. Resemblance also reappears across several generations: for example, in Sicily, a woman who had committed adultery with an Ethiopian — her daughter was not born an Ethiopian, but her daughter's child was. And for the most part female offspring resemble the mother more, and male offspring the father; but the opposite also occurs, females resembling the father, males the mother. And offspring also come to resemble each parent in different parts of the body. Twins have on occasion been born unlike each other, but most are, for the most part, alike; indeed a woman who had intercourse and conceived on the seventh day after giving birth later bore a child resembling the first one, as if they were twins.
20| There are also women who bear offspring resembling themselves, and others resembling the husband, just as the mare in Pharsalus called "the Just." In the emission of semen, breath leads the way first (and the manner of the emission itself shows that it occurs by means of breath, since nothing is projected to a distance without the force of breath); and when the seed takes hold of the womb and remains there for a time, a membrane forms around it. This is clear whenever it is expelled before being articulated into distinct parts: it appears like an egg enclosed in a membrane once the shell has been removed; and the membrane is full of veins. All creatures — swimming, flying, and walking — whether they bear live young or lay eggs, develop in the same way; except that live-bearing creatures have the navel-cord attached to the womb, while others have it attached to the egg, and others in both ways, as in a certain kind of fish. And in some the enclosing structures are like membranes, in others like chorions; and the animal first comes to be inside the innermost membrane, then another membrane surrounds this one, for the most part attached to the womb, but in part standing apart from it and containing fluid. Between them is a watery or blood-like fluid, called by women the "forewaters."
21| All animals that have a navel-cord grow by means of the navel-cord. The navel-cord, in those animals that have cotyledons, is attached to the cotyledon; in those whose womb is smooth, it is attached to the womb, upon a vein. As for posture in the womb, all four-footed animals lie stretched out, and footless ones lie sideways, as fish do; two-footed ones lie curled up, as the bird does, and the human being too lies curled up: the nose between the knees, the eyes upon the knees, and the ears outside. All animals alike have the head uppermost at first; but as they grow and move toward the exit they turn downward, and birth that accords with nature is, for all, head first; while a curled birth, feet first, is contrary to nature. Those of the four-footed animals, once already fully formed, also have residues — both liquid and pellets, the pellets in the lowest part of the intestine, and urine in the bladder. In those animals whose wombs have cotyledons, the cotyledons continually become smaller as the embryo grows, and in the end they disappear. The navel-cord is a sheath around veins, whose origin is from the womb — in those that have cotyledons, from the cotyledons; in those that do not, from a vein.
22| In the larger embryos, such as those of oxen, there are four blood vessels; in the smaller ones, two; and in the very small ones, such as birds, one vessel. Two of these run into the embryo through the liver, at the point called the gates, toward the great vein, and two run toward the aorta, where the aorta splits and becomes two out of one. Around each pair of vessels there are membranes, and around the membranes the navel-cord serves as a kind of sheath. As the embryo grows, these vessels increasingly come together. The embryo, as it grows stronger, moves into the cavities of the uterus, and there it can plainly be seen moving, and sometimes it rolls about near the genital region.
23| When women go into labor, the pains fix upon many different places, but in most women they fix upon one or the other thigh. Those in whom the pains become most intense around the belly give birth most quickly; those who first feel pain in the loins have a hard labor, while those who feel it in the lower abdomen give birth quickly. If the child is a boy, the discharge that comes first is watery and pale; if a girl, it is bloody, though this too is liquid. In some women, however, neither of these occurs around the time of labor. In the other animals births are not painful, but the animals show only moderate signs of distress from the labor-pains; in women the pains that occur are stronger, and especially so in women who lead sedentary lives and in those who are not deep-chested and cannot hold their breath. Labor goes worse, too, if they lose their breath partway through while straining. First, then, watery fluid comes out as the child is being born and the membranes rupture; then the embryo itself comes, as the uterus turns and the afterbirth turning its inner side outward.
24| The midwife's practice of cutting the umbilical cord is no part of thoughtless routine; for she must be able not only to give ready help in difficult births, but also to be quick-witted about what happens, including the tying-off of the navel-cord for infants. For if the afterbirth comes out along with the child, the cord is tied off from the afterbirth with wool, and cut above the tie; wherever it is tied, it grows together, and the part beyond the tie falls away. But if the knot comes undone, the child dies as the blood drains out. And if the afterbirth does not come out at once, while it is still inside and the child is already out, the cord is cut after being tied off. Often a child has seemed to be born dead, when, being weak, and before the cord was tied, its blood happened to drain out into the cord and the area around it; but some skilled midwives have pressed the blood back in from the cord, and at once the child, though it had seemed bloodless before, came back to life. And, as was said earlier, the other animals are naturally born head first, and so are children, with their arms stretched along their sides. As soon as they come out they cry, and bring their hands to their mouths.
25| Children also pass waste matter, some at once and some soon after, but all within a day; and this waste is large in proportion to the size of the child — what women call meconium. Its color is bloody and very dark, and pitch-like, but after this it already becomes milk-like, for the child at once draws at the breast. Before it comes out, the child does not cry, even if in a difficult birth its head is protruding while its whole body is still inside. In women whose purgings rush out too soon during the cleansings, they have more difficulty being delivered of their offspring. But if the purgings after birth are fewer, and occur only as a first flow and do not continue up to the fortieth day, women are stronger and conceive again sooner. As for the children, once born, for the first forty days they neither laugh nor cry while awake, though sometimes they do both at night; nor do they, for the most part, perceive being pinched, but sleep most of the time. As the child grows, it increasingly shifts toward wakefulness; and it becomes clear that it dreams, though it remembers its dream-images only later. In the other animals there is no differentiation in the bones — all are complete from birth; but in children the crown of the head is soft, and hardens only later.
26| Some animals are born already having teeth, but children begin to cut teeth in the seventh month; the front teeth come first, and in some children the upper ones come first, in others the lower. All children cut teeth faster whose nurses have warmer milk. After childbirth and the cleansings, milk increases in women, and in some it flows not only from the nipples but over much of the breast, and in some even at the armpits; and knots remain there for a later time, when the fluid is not concocted and does not come out but instead fills up — for the whole breast is so spongy that even if a hair gets into it along with drink, pain arises in the breasts (which they call having a hair), until it either comes out by itself under pressure or is drawn out by suckling along with the milk. Women have milk until they conceive again; then it stops and dries up, the same in humans as in the other live-bearing, four-footed animals. While the milk is coming, the purgings generally do not occur, though in some women who were nursing a purging did occur. In general, the flow of fluid does not happen in many directions at once — for instance, in women who have hemorrhoids the purgings that follow are worse. In some women it comes out even through the hips, when it is discharged from the loins before reaching the uterus. And women in whom, the purgings not occurring, it happens that blood is vomited up instead suffer no harm from this.