ON GENERATION. 311 



The shortness and straight course of the spermatic vessels 

 in the cock also assist the rapid emission of the spermatic 

 fluid : anything that must pass through lengthened and tor- 

 tuous conduits of course escapes more slowly and requires a 

 greater exercise of the impelling power or spirit to force it away. 



Among male animals there is none that is more active or 

 more haughty and erect, or that has stronger powers of di- 

 gestion than the cock, which turns the larger portion of his 

 food into semen ; hence it is that he requires so many wives, 

 ten or even a dozen. For there are some animals, single males 

 of which suffice for several females, as we see among deer, 

 cattle, &c. ; and there are others, of which the females are so 

 prurient that they are scarcely satisfied with several males, 

 such as the bitch and the wolf; whence prostitutes were called 

 lupa or wolves, as making their persons common ; and stews 

 were entitled lupanaria. Whilst some animals, of a more 

 chaste disposition, live, as it were, in the conjugal estate, so 

 that the male is married to a single female only, and both take 

 part in providing for the wants of the family ; for since nature 

 requires that the male supply the deficiencies of the female in 

 the work of generation, and as she alone in many cases does 

 not suffice to cherish and feed and protect the young, the male 

 is added to the wife that he may take part in the burthen of 

 bringing up the offspring. Partridges lead a wedded life, be- 

 cause the females alone cannot incubate such a number of eggs 

 as they lay, (so that they are said, by some, to make two nests,) 

 nor to bring up such a family as by and by appears without 

 assistance. The male pigeon also assists in building the nest, 

 takes his turn in incubating the eggs, and is active in feeding 

 the young. In the same way many other instances of conjugal 

 life among the loAver animals might be quoted, and indeed we 

 shall have occasion to refer to several in what yet remains to 

 be said. 



Those males, among animals, which serve several females, 

 such as the cock, have an abundant secretion of seminal fluid, 

 and are provided with long and ample vasa deferentia. And 

 at whatever time or season the clustered rudimentary papulae 

 in the ovary come to maturity and require fecundation, that they 

 may go on to be turned into perfect eggs, the males will then 

 be found to have an abundance of seminal fluid, and the testicles 



