THE PROCREATION

OF MALE OFFSPRING.

PREFACE.

So that I may resolve for you in advance, kind Reader, any doubt that might arise—namely, why I, a bachelor original: "coelebs." It was common in the early modern period for authors to justify why they, as unmarried men, were writing about the "marital duties" of procreation and sexual biology., take it upon myself to explain the duties of marriage—you have my reason. For I have seen families and illustrious houses grow, but even more of them decline. I long debated with myself in uncertainty whether the reason for this was discoverable, and whether this misfortune Refers to the "misfortune" of a family line dying out for lack of male heirs. could be helped by human skill, until at last some hope and a method of possibility shone forth for investigating this matter. The words of the Illustrious Wedel Georg Wolffgang Wedel (1645–1721) was a highly influential German physician and professor at Jena. His endorsement of such studies gave the author academic "cover" for the topic., which he wrote in a letter to Schnitter, appended to the Dissertation on Sterility, provided the spark for my inquiry when he said:

Creation surpasses all understanding; generation original: "generatio." In this context, "creation" refers to God’s initial act of making life from nothing, while "generation" refers to the biological process of reproduction., with a slightly more relaxed obedience, listens more to the bridle of reason, but one presupposes the other, and both illustrate each other in turn. Those minds are sterile which do not find delight in these things, or are not drawn to touch the omnipotence and further reach of the supreme divinity.

Therefore, through the consideration of this matter—concerning generation and specifically that of the male, about which I have not yet been able to hear or read anything certain or even probable—I wished to test the powers of my own wit. That I have begun the treatment of this from the work of the first parent A reference to the biblical creation of Adam. The author argues that to understand human reproduction, one must study the original "design" of the first human., Wedel was my authority in the words quoted above, because both [creation and generation] illustrate each other.