43° 



OF PUBERTY. 



for them to Brazil, where whole nations are 

 faid to be perpetuated, though not a fingle wo- 

 man be fubjed to the menftrual difcharge ; an 

 evident proof that it is not the menftrual blood, 

 but the feminal fluid of the male and female, 

 which are eflentially necefTary to generation. It 

 is likewife kncwn, that the ceflation of the 

 menfes, which generally happens about the age 

 of forty or fifty years, does not difqualify every 

 woman for conception ; for fome women have 

 become pregnant at fixty or feventy, and even 

 at an age ftill more advanced. Thefe examples, 

 though pretty frequent, may be regarded as ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule; but they are fuffi- 

 cient to demonftrate that the menftrual blood is 

 by no means effentlal to generation. 



In the ordinary courfe of Nature, women 

 conceive not before the menfes appear, nor af- 

 ter they have ceafed. The age at which men 

 lirft acquire the faculty of generating is not fo 

 diftindly marked. His body muft attain a cer- 

 tain growth before femen is fecreted ; and, be- 

 fore this fluid be fully maturated, the degree 

 of growth muft be ftill greater. This generally 

 happens between the twelfth and eighteenth 

 years. But the period when man lofes the ge- 

 gerative faculty. Nature feems to have left un- 

 determined. At fixty or feventy, when old age 

 begins to enervate the body, the femen is lefs 

 abundant, and often unprolific. In the collec- 

 tions of public focieties, however, there are 



many 



