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Aristotle On Sterility 273not constitute the female contribution in a material sense, the mechanismof its emission does contribute, though perhaps indirectly, to the female’sability to receive the male seed. It might be objected to this interpretationthat it is questionable whether the fluid would then still qualify as ‘seed’.I see no immediate answer to this question, except that it is the kind ofdifficulty that, one could imagine, might cause Aristotle, in Generation ofAnimals, to be more specific and to conclude explicitly that the femaleemission during intercourse does not constitute the female contribution inthe material sense.As far as the role of pneuma is concerned, the view criticised in Gen.an. 737 b 28–32 62 is that pneuma is involved in the emission of seed by themale, 63 not that it is involved in the seed’s being drawn into the uterus,which is what ‘Hist. an. 10’ claims (634 b 34; 636 a 6; 637 a 17). As theuse of terms such as , , and in this Generation of Animals passage shows, Aristotle is not discussingcopulation but the transport of seed from various sections within the bodyof the discharging agent to the genital organ (the where itis discharged. 64As for the explanation of mola uteri in terms of heat, which seems tocontradict Gen. an. 776 a 2, where Aristotle insists that this is not dueto heat but to a deficiency of heat , ’ , it should be said thatthe author of ‘Hist. an. 10’ seems to toy with the idea rather than actuallycommit himself to heat as a cause. At 638 a 19f. he asks whether it is throughheat that this phenomenon occurs , but in the course of his answer he gets sidetracked;at 638 b 1 he addresses himself again to this possibility, but again fails tomake up his mind as to the actual cause: ‘But is heat the cause of theaffection, as we said, or is it rather because of fluid – something that infact constitutes the fullness of pregnancy – that it closes its mouth as itwere? Or is it when the uterus is not cold enough to discharge it nor hotenough to concoct it?’ 65 There is no clear answer, and this is again typicalProblemata-style, stating various alternative explanations that must have62 Cf. 739 a 3.63 A view which is incidentally advocated in Hist. an. 9 (7) 586 a 15.64 That this is the subject matter of this passage is also indicated by the fact that in the sequel Aristotleis discussing how the female residue reaches the uterus (which is also called in 739 a3–5) in order to be discharged.65 ’ ’ ’ ; (tr. Balme).