GENERATION OF ANIMALS, IV. i. 



reference to right and left, although they can see 

 for themselves that male and female differ in fact by 

 the entirety of the parts concerned. By what cause, 

 then, will the uterus " be present in those which 

 come from the left side but not in those which come 

 from the right ? Supposing dne comes (from the 

 left) ^vithout ha\ing got this part, there ^vill be a 

 female without a uterus — or if it so chance, a male 

 with one ! [Again, as has in fact been said before, 

 a female embryo has actually been observed in the 

 right part of the uterus, and a male one in the left 

 part, and both male and female in the self-same part, 

 and that not once but several times over ; or the 

 male one on the right side, and the female on the 

 left, and no less both are formed on the right side].** 

 There are some who are firmlv con\-inced of a similar 

 view to this, and maintain that males who copulate 

 with the right or left testicle tied up produce male 

 or female offspring respectively : this used in fact 

 to be maintained by Leophanes."^ Some allege that 

 the same occurs in the case of those who have one 

 testis excised. This statement is untrue, and is a 

 mere piece of guesswork on their part. They start 

 from probabihties and guess what will occur ; they 

 prejudge that it is so before they see it happen. 

 Added to which they do not know that these parts 

 of animals contribute nothing at all to generation so 

 far as producing male and female offspring is con- 

 cerned ; and a proof that this is so is that many 

 animals, although thev are themselves male and 

 female and generate male and female offspring, 



4. 11 ; and the fact that in Aetius' Placita V. 7. 5 {Doxogr. 

 420 a 7) he comes between Anaxagoras and Leucippus may 

 give a rough indication of his date. 



383 



