GENERATION OF ANIMALS, IV. i. 



concoction of the ultimate nourishment (in blooded 

 animals this is known as blood, in the bloodless ones 

 it is the counterpart of blood) ; (4) that the reason 

 for this hes in the " principle," i.e., in the part of the 

 body Avhich possesses the principle of the natural 

 heat. From this it follows of necessity that, in the 

 blooded animals, a heart must take shape and that 

 the creature formed is to be either male or female, 

 and, in the other kinds " which have male and female 

 sexes, the counterpart of the heart. As far, then, as 

 the principle and the cause of male and female is 

 concerned, this is what it is and where it is situated ; 

 a creature, however, really is male or female only 

 from the time when it has got the parts by which 

 female differs from male, because it is not in \-irtue of 

 some casual part that it is male or female, any more 

 than it is in virtue of some casual part that it can 

 see or hear.* 



To resume then ^ : We repeat that semen has been Consequent 

 posited to be the ultimate residue of the nourish- fo^^'a\^on^° 

 ment. (By " ultimate " I mean that which gets car- of sexual 

 ried to each part of the body — and that too is why ^'^* 

 the offspring begotten takes after the parent which 

 has begotten it, since it comes to exactly the same 

 thing whether we speak of being drawn from every 

 one of the parts or passing into every one of the 

 parts, though the latter is more correct.**) The 

 semen of the male, however, exhibits a difference, 



* The following paragraph is a short recapitulation, with 

 additions, of the main points of the preceding argument, 

 765 b 8 — 766 b 7. (For the use of imoKinai with jjarticiple, 

 c/. 778 b 17 ~oi.6vh€ t,iuov vnoKfiTcu 6v.) 



"* See Bk. I. 721 b 13 ff., and especially the conclusion of 

 that discussion, 725 a i?l if. 



393 



