Wherefore her pallor and the absence of prominent
blood-vessels is most conspicuous, and the deficient development of
her body compared with a man's is obvious.
Now since this is what corresponds in the female to the semen in the
male, and since it is not possible that two such discharges should
be found together, it is plain that the female does not contribute
semen to the generation of the offspring. For if she had semen she
would not have the catamenia; but, as it is, because she has the
latter she has not the former.
It has been stated then that the catamenia are a secretion as the
semen is, and confirmation of this view may be drawn from some of
the phenomena of animals. For fat creatures produce less semen than
lean ones, as observed before. The reason is that fat also, like
semen, is a secretion, is in fact concocted blood, only not
concocted in the same way as the semen. Thus, if the secretion is
consumed to form fat the semen is naturally deficient. And so among
the bloodless animals the cephalopoda and crustacea are in best
condition about the time of producing eggs, for, because they are
bloodless and no fat is formed in them, that which is analogous in
them to fat is at that season drawn off to form the spermatic
secretion.
And a proof that the female does not emit similar semen to the male,
and that the offspring is not formed by a mixture of both, as some
say, is that often the female conceives without the sensation of
pleasure in intercourse, and if again the pleasure is experience by
her no less than by the male and the two sexes reach their goal
together, yet often no conception takes place unless the liquid of the
so-called catamenia is present in a right proportion.
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