SECT, i] EMBRYOLOGY IN ANTIQUITY 6i 



dissected the human embryo. He refers in one place to an "aborted 

 embryo", and as he was able to obtain easily all kinds of animal 

 embryos without waiting for a case of abortion, it is likely that this 

 was a human embryo. Ogle brings forward six or seven passages 

 which all contain statements about human anatomy and physiology 

 only to be explained on the assumption that he got his information 

 from the foetus. So it is probable that his knowledge of biology was 

 extended to man in this way, as would hardly have been the case if 

 he had lived in later times, when the theologians of the Christian 

 Church had come to very definite conclusions about the sanctity of 

 foetal as well as adult life. 



The Trept i^wcov ^eveaeoo<;^ the first great compendium of embryology 

 ever written, is not a very well-arranged work. There are a multitude 

 of repetitions, and the order is haphazard, so that long digressions 

 from the main argument are common. The work is divided into 

 five books, of which the second is much the most important in the 

 history of embryology, though the first has also great interest, and 

 the third, fourth, and fifth contain much embryological matter mixed 

 up among points of generation and sexual physiology. 



Book I begins with an introduction in which the relative significance 

 of efficient and final causes is considered, and chapters i to 7 deal 

 with the nature of maleness and femaleness, the nature and origin 

 of semen, the manner of copulation in different animals and the 

 forms of penis and testes found in them. Chapter 8 continues this, 

 and describes the different forms of uterus in different animals, speaks 

 of viviparity and oviparity, mentions the viviparous fishes (the 

 selachians) and draws a distinction between perfect and imperfect 

 eggs. Chapter 9 discusses the cetacea; 10, eggs in general; and 11 

 returns to the differences between uteri. In chapter 12 the question 

 is raised why all uteri are internal, and why all testes are not, and 

 in chapter 13 the relations between the urinary and the genital 

 systems are discussed. Copulation now receives attention again, in 

 14 with regard to Crustacea, in 15 with regard to cephalopoda, and 

 in 16 with regard to insecta. After this point the argument Hfts 

 itself on to a more theoretical plane, and opens the question of 

 pangenesis, into which it enters at length during the course of 

 chapters 17 and 18, refuting eventually the widely-held view that 

 the semen takes its origin from all the parts of the body so as to be 

 able to reproduce in the offspring the characteristics of the parent. 



