Whenever then an animal, for
the cause assigned, discharges more of the female secretion than is
needed for beginning the existence of a single animal, it is not
possible that only one should be formed out of all this, but a
number limited by the appropriate size in each case; nor will the
semen of the male, or the power residing in the semen, form anything
either more or less than what is according to Nature. In like
manner, if the male emits more semen than is necessary, or more powers
in different parts of the semen as it is divided, however much it is
it will not make anything greater; on the contrary it will dry up
the material of the female and destroy it. So fire also does not
continue to make water hotter in proportion as it is itself increased,
but there is a fixed limit to the heat of which water is capable; if
that is once reached and the fire is then increased, the water no
longer gets hotter but rather evaporates and at last disappears and is
dried up. Now since it appears that the secretion of the female and
that from the male need to stand in some proportionate relation to one
another (I mean in animals of which the male emits semen), what
happens in those that produce many young is this: from the very
first the semen emitted by the male has power, being divided, to
form several embryos, and the material contributed by the female is so
much that several can be formed out of it.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202