But still in most men and as a general rule the result of
intercourse is exhaustion and weakness rather than relief, for the
reason 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 they do not sufficiently concoct their
food, 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.
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 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
wantonly 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 them, and say that the vines 'play the goat', so calling
it from the condition of the goats.
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