APPENDIX B 



pneuma 



analogous 



to aitlier : 



both are 



generative. 



will a motive agent which possesses the actuality make 

 an X out of any chance material. Heat is present in 

 the seminal residue, possessing the right movement and 

 actuality (evepyeia) to suit each of the parts ; and in the 

 case of spontaneous generation the heat and movement 

 of the season fulfil this same function." 

 Connate (13) G.A. II. 736 b 30 fF. Every faculty of ./mx^ is connected 

 with ^ a physical substance more divine than any of the 

 four "elements " Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and this sub- 

 stance differs according to the degree of value of the 

 tlivxT] concerned. There is present in the semen of 

 every animal and in "the foam-like stuff" " the so- 

 called " hot substance," which causes the semen to be 

 generative : this is not of course Fire, but it is the 

 pneuma which the semen contains, " the substance in 

 the pneuma," '' which is " analogous to the element of 

 the heavenly bodies," viz., the aither. That is why the 

 heat of the Sun {cf. App. A §§ 9, 10) and the heat of 

 animals (as contained in semen or any other such 

 " residue ") is able to generate, whereas Fire cannot : 

 the Sun, as we know already, consists of aither, and 

 here we are told that there is in semen " something 

 analogous " to aither. 

 (14) It is now possible to see what Aristotle means when he 

 says (737 a 17) : " It has now been determined in what 

 way fetations and semen have i/fux^ '■ they have it 

 potentially, but not in actuality." This pneuma or 

 vital heat is not in actuality ifivx^ ? but semen Kivelrai 

 with a movement that is identical with that which moves 

 the animal's body when the body is growing out of the 

 " ultimate nourishment " (blood), and therefore when 

 the semen gets into the uterus it sets in movement the 



" See further, § 17 and additional note appended tliere. 



6 eoiKe KeKOLi'iovrtKevai, a usefully vague temi ; but at any rate it must 

 be intended to denote a close relationsWp. We miglit express it per- 

 haps by saying that this substance (viz., the pneuma, or more precisely 

 "the substance in the pneuma") with which i/^vx^ 's thus a.ssociatP(i 

 is the pliysical vehicle par excellence of ^vxv ; anyway, it is the first 

 physical substance to give expression to the movements of tj/vxv ; it 

 is its immediate instrument. 



" Perhaps intended to include the " frothy bubble " concerned in 

 spontaneous generation ; see §§ 17, 19 below. 



'' Of. the substance wiiich is " in " Air, Water, etc., which is also 

 "in" aither, and wliich makes Air, Water, etc., transparent (§ 26). 



582 



