[ 351 J 



SECT. XXXIX. 



OF CONCEPTION AND PREGNANCY. 



559. WE now come to the functions for which the 

 genital organs are given us, to conception and the 

 propagation of the species, in treating of which, we 

 shall first merely describe the phenomena that are ob- 

 served in that admirable and truly divine process, and 

 afterwards investigate the powers by which they are 

 produced. 



5GO. In the first place, it is worthy of remark that 

 the human race, unlike most animals, does not copulate 

 at certain periods of the year,* but that with it every 

 season is equally favourable to the flame of love. 



561. When a woman receives a manf and both burn 

 with that animal instinct which is superior to all others 

 in universality and violence, the uterus, swelling I ima- 

 gine with a kind of inflammatory orgasm, and ani- 



* Unless the observation first made by Wargentin, in Sweden, that there is 

 a greater proportion of births in September, which corresponds to the preceding 

 December, be considered as relative to this point. Swensk. Vetensk. Acad. 

 Hndlingar. 1767. vol. xxviii. p. 249 sq. 



f Of the various circumstances of this admission, I ha.ve spoken in my work 

 De gen. hum. variet. nat. p. 17 sq. ed. 3. 



v. the two instances seen by Ruysch, of uteri immediately after impregna- 

 tion. The one of a common woman, murdered by her paramour immediately 

 after connection. Advcrsar. Anat. Medico Chirurg. Dec. i. tab. ii. fig. 3. 

 The other of a married woman, impregnated a few hours previously, and killed 

 in the act of adultery by her husband. Thesanr, Anat. vi. page 23 sq. tab. v. 

 fig. 1. 



