576 ON CONCEPTION. 



Yet it is a matter of wonder where this faculty abides after in- 

 tercourse is completed, and before the formation of the ovnm or 

 " conception/' To what is this active power of the male com- 

 mitted ? is it to the uterus solely, or to the whole woman ? or 

 is it to the uterus primarily and to the woman secondarily ? or, 

 lastly, does the woman conceive in the womb, as we see by the 

 eye and think by the brain ? 



For although the woman conceiving after intercourse some- 

 times produces no foetus, yet we know that phenomena occur 

 which clearly indicate that conception has really taken place, al- 

 though without result. Over-fed bitches, which admit the dog with- 

 out fecundation following, are nevertheless observed to be slug- 

 gish about the time they should have whelped, and to bark as they 

 do when their time is at hand, also to steal away the whelps from 

 another bitch, to tend and lick them, and also to fight fiercely 

 for them. Others have milk or colostrum, as it is called, in 

 their teats, and are, moreover, subject to the diseases of those 

 which have actually whelped ; the same thing is seen in hens 

 which cluck at certain times, although they have no eggs on 

 which to sit. Some birds also, as pigeons, if they have ad- 

 mitted the male, although they lay no eggs at all, or only 

 barren ones, are found equally sedulous in building their nests. 



The virtue which proceeds from the male in coitii has 

 such prodigious power of fecundation, that the whole woman, 

 both in mind and body, undergoes a change. And although 

 it is the uterus made ready for this, on which the first influ- 

 ences are impressed, and from which virtue and strength are 

 diffused throughout the body, the question still remains, how 

 it is that the power thus communicated remains attached to 

 the uterus ? is it to the whole uterus or only to a part of it ? 

 nothing is to be found within it after coitus, for the semen in 

 a short time either falls out or evaporates, and the blood, its 

 circle completed, returns from the uterus by the vessels. 



Again, what is this preparation or maturity of the uterus 

 which eagerly demands the fecundating seed ? whence does it 

 proceed ? Certain it is, unless the uterus be ready for coition 

 every attempt at fecundation is vain ; nay, in some animals, at 

 no other time is the male admitted. It happens occasionally, 

 I allow, that this maturity arrives earlier in some from the 



