GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. xvii. 



come to be out of semen, and semen comes fromofpan- 

 the parents. -And so one and the same inquiry will examined. 

 include the two questions : (1) Do both the male and 

 the female discharge semen, or only one of them ? 

 and (2) Is the semen drawn from the whole of the 

 parent's body" or not ? — since it is reasonable to hold 

 that if it is not drawn from the whole of the body it 

 is not drawn from both the parents either. '' There 

 are some who assert that the semen is drawn from 

 the whole of the body, and so we must consider the 

 facts about this first of all. There are really four 

 Unes of argument which may be used to prove that 

 the semen is drawn from each of the parts of the body. 

 The first is, the intensity of the pleasure involved ; 

 it is argued that any emotion, when its scope is 

 widened, is more pleasant than the same emotion 

 \t-hen its scope is less wide ; and ob\iously an emotion ^ . 

 which affects all the parts of the body has a wider 

 scope than one which affects a single part of a few 

 parts only. The second argument is that mutilated 

 parents produce mutilated offspring, and it is alleged 

 that because the parent is deficient in some one part 

 no semen comes from that part, and that the part 

 from which no semen comes does not get formed in 

 the offspring. The third argument is the resem- 

 blances shown by the young to their parents : the 

 offspring which are produced are like their parents 

 not only in respect of their body as a whole, but part 

 for part too ; hence, if the reason for the resemblance 

 of the whole is that the semen is drawn from the 



carriers of heredity move centripetally from all the parts of 

 the body to the germ, thus involving the inheritance of ac- 

 quired characteristics (for which inheritance, however, there 

 is no evidence). — See also Hippocrates, -nepl depcav vSarcov 

 roTTUiv 16. " Cf. 724 a 9-10. 



51 



