APPENDIX B -* 



happens, when the corporeal liquids get heated, a sort 

 of " frothy bubble " is formed. Now the differences 

 between the various creatures which are produced in 

 this way are due to the stuff which makes up the envelope 

 around the Soul-dpx^ (<•/. also 738 b 34: foreign seeds pro- 

 duce plants varying according to the soil in which they 

 are sown, for it is the soil that provides them with their 

 material and their body). We can now answer the 

 question. What corresponds in cases of spontaneous 

 generation to the " residue " of the female and the 

 semen of the male in cases of sexual generation ? Just 

 as in sexual generation the female by means of its heat 

 concocts the " residue " (the menstrual fluid) out of the 

 nourishment, so here the heat of the season by a similar 

 process of concoction puts into shape a substance out 

 of the seawater and the earth (762 b 14). That which 

 corresponds here to the male principle in sexual genera- 

 tion is "that portion of the Soul-ap^^ which is enclosed 

 in the pneuma " as described above ; this, just as the 

 semen does, makes a fetation out of the material and 

 implants movement in it." 



[Note. — It is, however, not clear in what sense there is 

 anything in the case of spontaneous generation which is X 

 in actuality {i.e., which possesses the " form " of X) com- 

 parable to the parent in ordinary sexual generation. The 

 relationship of agent and material here would appear to 

 resemble rather that of carpenter and timber (for which see 

 § 15) ; but even so, granted that the requisite " movement " 

 is present, it is difficult to see whence its specific character is 

 derived ; for the Sun, etc., are " motive," not " formal," 

 causes (App. A § 9). 



In the case of the carpenter, of course, the " form " is in 

 the carpenter's i/'u^'? (§ 15). From the passage referred to 

 in § 17 it looks as though Aristotle falls back on the surprising 

 explanation that it is the material only that determines what 

 sort of creature is to be formed. If so, then we must assume 

 that, given the agents, or " motive " causes, viz., ij'^xii pneutna, 

 and the movement therein contained, though they are of no 

 specific quality, the matter is formed by them into whatever 

 creature it happens potentially to be. 



^' Cf. § 12 above. 

 584. 



