Demoniality; or, Incubi and succubi; a treatise ... - Visit WordPress

Demoniality 6
the pen of such a learned man. Medical
men are well aware that the size of the
fetus depends, not indeed on the quantity
of matter, but on the quantity of virtue,
that is to say of spirits held by the sperm;
there lies the whole secret of generation,
as is well observed by Michael EttmuUer,
Institut. Medic. Physiolog. : « Generation)),
says he, « entirely depends upon the genital
spirit contained within an envelope of
thicker matter; that spermatic matter
does not remain in the uterus, and has no
share in the formation of the fetus ; it is
but the genital spirit of the male, combined
with the genital spirit of the female,
that permeates the pores, or, less frequently,
the tubes of the uterus, which it fecundates
by that means. )) Of what moment
can therefore the quantity of sperm be for
the size of the fetus? Besides, it is not
always a fact that men thus begotten by
Incubi are remarkable for the huge proportions
of their body : Alexander the
Great, for instance, who is said to have
been thus born, as we have mentioned,
was very short ; as the poet said of him :
Magnus Alexander corpore parvus erat.
Besides, although it is generally a fact
that those who are thus begotten excel
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