84 EXAMINATION OF 



pothefis, that the femen proceeds from every part 

 of the body, and particularly from the head ; be- 

 caufe he remarks, thofe who have had the veins 

 behind their ears cut, fecrete only a vreak and of- 

 ten an unfertile femen. The female likewife flieds 

 a feminal fluid fometimes within the uterus, and 

 fometimes without it, when the orifice is too o- 

 pen. The male femen enters the uterus and mix- 

 es with that of the female ; and as each has two 

 fpecies of fluid, the one flirong and the other 

 weak, if both of them furnilh the ftrong kind, 

 a male foetus is the confequence ; and, if both 

 furnifli the weak kind only, the refalt is a fe- 

 male : Befides, if in the mixture there are more 

 particles of the male than of the female fluid, 

 the child will refemble the father more than the 

 mother ; et e contra. Here we might alk him, 

 •what would happen, when the fluid of the one 

 was ftrons: and that of the other weak ? I can- 

 not conceive what reply could be made to this 

 queftion; and, therefore, v^^e arc warranted to 

 reje£t the opinion of two diilind]; fluids in each 

 fex as perfectly chimerical. 



Let us now attend to liis account of .the for- 

 mation of the foetus. The leminal fluids fir ft 

 mix in the uterus, and gradually thicken by the 

 lieat of the mother. The mixture extracts the 

 fpirit of heat, and, when too warm, part of the 

 heat efcapes into the air. But a cold fpirit is 

 fikewife conveyed to it by the refpiration of the 

 mother: Th-- - ■ ' ' --d a hot fpirit alternately 



