74 EXAMINATION OF 



Nati3re; and, therefore, however complicated it 

 may appear, it is, in fad:, the moft fimple ; be- 

 Caufe, as I formerly remarked, whatever moft 

 frequently happens is, in itielf, however it may 

 feem to us, the moft fimple. 



Befides, the notion of the Ariftotelians, that 

 females have no feminal fluid, cannot receive our 

 aflTent, if we confider the ftrong refemblance of 

 children to their mothers, and that mules, mu- 

 lattoes, and mongrels of every kind, uniformly 

 refemble the mother more than the father ; and, 

 if it be farther confidered, that the generating 

 organs of the female, like thofe of the male, are 

 properly formed for preparing and receiving a 

 feminal fluid, v^e Ihall be eafily induced to be- 

 lieve the exiftence of fuch a fluid, whether it re- 

 lides in the fpermatic vefl!els, the tefticles, or the 

 ovaria, or proceeds, by irritation, from the la- 

 cunae of De Graaf, which are fituated at the neck 

 and near the orifice of the uterus. 



But w^e muft examine Ariftotle's ideas more 

 fully, as, of all the ancients, this great philofopher 

 has treated the fubjed: of generation in the moft 

 extenfive manner. He diftinguifhes animals 

 into three clafles : i. Thofe that have blood, 

 and, wath few exceptions, propagate by copula- 

 tion ; 2. Thofe that have no blood, and, being 

 hermaphrodites, produce of themfelves without 

 copulation ; and, 3. Thofe that proceed from 

 putrefadion, and have no parents of any kind. 

 I fliall firft remark, that this divifion is exceed- 



