GENERATION OF ANIMALS, II. iv. 



perfect animals, which means the viviparous ones; 

 and the first of these is Man. 



In all of them the semen is secreted in precisely the (<») The 

 same way as any other residue. Each of the residues residues. 

 is carried to its proper place without the exertion of 

 any force from the pneiima and without compulsion 

 by any other cause of that sort, although some people 

 assert this, alleging that the sexual parts draw the 

 residue like cupping-glasses " and that we exert force 

 by means of the pneuma, as though it were possible 

 for the seminal residue or for the residue of the liquid 

 or of the solid nourishment to take any other course 

 unless such force were exerted. The reason given 

 for this view is that our discharge of these residues 

 is accompanied by the collecting of the pneutna (the 

 holding of the breath). But this is a phenomenon 

 which is common to all cases where something has to 

 be moved, because holding the breath is the way in 

 which the required strength is obtained. Besides, 

 even without the exertion of this force residues are 

 actually discharged during sleep, if the places con- 

 cerned are relaxed and full of residue. Such state- 

 ments are on a par with saying that the seeds of 

 plants are on each occasion secreted to the places 

 where they commonly bear their fruit by means of 

 pneuma. No, the real reason for this, as has been 

 said, is that in all animals there are parts for the 

 reception of the residues, both for the useless (and 

 for the useful ones) [e.g., both for the solid and the 

 fluid ; and for the blood there are the blood-vessels 

 as they are called].'' 



The region of the uterus in females. — Higher up 

 in the body the two blood-vessels, the Great Blood- 



* This phrase is an interpolation. See p. 562. 



179 



