DIFFERENT SYSTEMS. 8i 



tion: Again, another of his principles is, that 

 matter, in itfelf, has no foriii, and thai form is 

 a being diftinCt from matter; he therefore main- 

 tains, that the male furniflies the form, and, of 

 courfe, that he contributes nothing material. 



Defcartes, on the contrary, admitted into his 

 phllofophy a few mechanical principles only. 

 By thefe he attempted to explain the formation 

 of the foetus; and he imjgined that he under- 

 llood, and was able to communicate to others, 

 the manner in which a living organized body 

 could be formed by the laws of motion alone. 

 The principles he employed w^ere different from 

 thofe of Ariftotle. But both of them, inftead 

 of diredling their inquiries to thefubjedl itfelf, in 

 place of examining it with impartiality, confi- 

 dered it only in relation to theirphilofophic prin- 

 ciples, which could never be applied vAih fuc- 

 cefs to the nature of generation, becaufe it de- 

 pends, as has been already ihown, upon very 

 different principles. Defcartes, however, admits 

 the exidence and neceffary concurrence of the 

 feminal fluids of both fexes. He allows that both 

 furniih fomething material for the purpofes of 

 generation; and that the I'crmentation occafion- 

 cd by a mixture of the two fluids, is tlie caufe 

 of the formation of the foetus. 



Hippocrates, who lived about five or fix hun- 

 dred years before Ariilotie, taught an opinion, 

 which was adopted by Galen, and by moft phy- 

 ficians, for many ages, lie maintained the ex- 

 ,. Vol. II. V illeuce 



