For (1) another kind cannot be, because the product of male and
female of the same species is also of the same species, and (2) a mule
cannot be, because that is the product of horse and ass which are
different in form, [and it was laid down that from parents
different in form is born a different animal]. Now this theory is too
general and empty. For all theories not based on the special
principles involved are empty; they only appear to be connected with
the facts without being so really. As geometrical arguments must start
from geometrical principles, so it is with the others; that which is
empty may seem to be something, but is really nothing. Now the basis
of this particular theory is not true, for many animals of different
species are fertile with one another, as was said before. So we must
not inquire into questions of natural science in this fashion any more
than any other questions; we shall be more likely to find the reason
by considering the facts peculiar to the two kinds concerned, horse
and ass. In the first place, each of them, if mated with its own kind,
bears only one young one; secondly, the females are not always able to
conceive from the male (wherefore breeders put the horse to the
mare again at intervals). Indeed, both the mare is deficient in
catamenia, discharging less than any other quadruped, and the
she-ass does not admit the impregnation, but ejects the semen with her
urine, wherefore men follow flogging her after intercourse.
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