Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle On Sterility 271why menstrual blood is mentioned in ‘Hist. an. 10’, but only in the contextof irregularities in menstruation, which are to be taken as signs pointingto a certain cause of failure to conceive. 50 In fact, throughout ‘Hist. an.10’ it remains unclear what exactly the female contribution consists of.To be sure, there is frequent mention of an emission, by the female, offluid, 51 indeed of seed ; 52 but on two occasions (636 b 15–16 and637 b 19) the female is said to ‘contribute to the seed’ . 53 And in the only apparently unambiguous statement to thiseffect, in 637 b 30–1 ’ , the text does not make clear what actuallyhappens at the moment of conception. Interpreters have usually assumedthat the author believes that both male and female seed mix in the mouthof the uterus and that this mixture is subsequently drawn into the uteruswith the aid of pneuma. Now, if this was his position, it would be tantamountto the view which Aristotle vigorously combats in Gen. an. 727 b 7 , , 54 and we wouldhave a serious inconsistency. Yet on looking closer at the actual evidence forthis, it is by no means certain that this is what the author has in mind. Thestatement in 637 b 30–1 quoted above can also be taken to mean that femaleejaculation brings about a favourable condition – but does not necessarilyconstitute the material agent – for fertility, which would explain why itis so often mentioned as an indicator: 55 the fact that she ejaculates (alsoin sleep), indicates that she is ready to receive the male seed and draw itinto the uterus, because it shows that the uterus is positioned in the rightdirection. 56 This does not contradict Aristotle’s statement in Gen. an. 739 a21 that the fluid women discharge during intercourse does not represent thefemale material contribution to conception, nor his insistence that the factthat women also discharge this fluid while having erotic dreams is no signof it actually contributing to conception. To be sure, Hist. an. 638 a 8 and a20ff. speak of a mixture (‘Why do not the females generate by themselves,since it is granted that the uterus draws in the male emission too when it50 634 a 12ff.51 634 b 29, 37; 635 a 21; 635 b 37; 636 a 6, 10ff.; 636 b 4–5, 37; 637 a 2–3; 637 a 15; 637 a 37; 637 b 12;637 b 19; 637 b 31; 638 a 1.52 634 b 37; 635 b 37; 636 a 11–12; 637 b 31.53 Cf. the use of in Gen. an. 739 a 21 and in Gen. an. 729 a 21f.54 See also Gen. an. 739 b 16ff. 55 634 b 30ff.; 635 b 2; 635 b 22ff.; 637 b 25–32.56 See 635 b 2: . Cf.Gen. an. 739 a 35.