GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. vi.-vin. 



portion of it in man and other such animals (i.e., the 

 latter portion of that length of it which is doubled 

 back). 



Serpents copulate by t^^-isting round each other, VII 

 but they have no testes and not even a penis, as I said 

 earUer : no penis, because they have no legs either," 

 and no testes because of their length — instead, they 

 have passages just as fish do — since as their bodies 

 are so very long, if there were to be yet further delay 

 in the region of the testes, the semen would be cooled 

 off owing to its slow rate of progress. This does in 

 fact happen with men who have a large penis : they 

 are less fertile than those who have a moderately 

 large one, because the semen gets cooled off by 

 being transported too great a distance, and cold 

 semen is not generative. I have now stated why 

 some animals have testes and others not. 



* [Serpents intertwine because they are not natur- 

 ally fitted for placing themselves alongside each 

 other ; their bodies are so long, and the part by 

 which they unite is so small, that they find difficulty 

 in achie\'ing union ; and so, as they have no parts by 

 which they can take hold of each other, they make 

 use of the suppleness of their bodies instead, and 

 t\^ist around each other. On this account, they 

 seem, too, to take longer to ejaculate than fish do, 

 not only because of the length of the passages but 

 also because of the intricacy of the manoeuvre.] 



One may well be puzzled concerning the arrange- VIII 

 ment of the uterus in the various female animals ; C^) sexual 

 many instances of quite contrary arrangements female. 



conclusion of the chapter, the remarks which follow are 

 probably a supplementary note, or an alternative version, 

 incorporated in the text. 



27 



