For
there are some who say that the semen, though one, is as it were a
common mixture (panspermia) of many elements; just as, if one should
mix many juices in one liquid and then take some from it, it would
be possible to take, not an equal quantity always from each juice, but
sometimes more of one and sometimes more of another, sometimes some of
one and none at all of another, so they say it is with the
generative fluid, which is a mixture of many elements, for the
offspring resembles that parent from which it has derived most. Though
this theory is obscure and in many ways fictitious, it aims at what is
better expressed by saying that what is called 'panspermia' exists
potentially, not actually; it cannot exist actually, but it can do
so potentially. Also, if we assign only one sort of cause, it is not
easy to explain all the phenomena, (1) the distinction of sex, (2) why
the female is often like the father and the male like the mother,
and again (3) the resemblance to remoter ancestors, and further (4)
the reason why the offspring is sometimes unlike any of these but
still a human being, but sometimes, (5) proceeding further on these
lines, appears finally to be not even a human being but only some kind
of animal, what is called a monstrosity.
For, following what has been said, it remains to give the reason for
such monsters. If the movements imparted by the semen are resolved and
the material contributed by the mother is not controlled by them, at
last there remains the most general substratum, that is to say the
animal.
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