Inaugural Medical Dissertation on the Procreation of Male Offspring

...works, they have tried to defend [these ideas], but with fruitless effort. Nor is the opinion of Robert Fludd Robert Fludd (1574–1637) was an English Paracelsian physician who blended science with mysticism and alchemy. of any greater weight, who writes in his Universal Medicine original: "Medicina Catholica": There is no generation without the assistance of the moon and the sun.

§. XVIII. Since it is true what the Famous Heucher Johann Heinrich von Heucher (1677–1747), a German physician and botanist. says in the cited place: Boiling in water is a deceptive criterion when one must distinguish hydatids from small eggs; In the 18th century, physicians struggled to distinguish between actual ova (follicles) and "hydatids," which we now know as fluid-filled cysts. hence, I believe that hydatids differ from true eggs solely in this: that the eggs contain the threads of the future fetus, while the hydatids lack them.

§. XIX. Because the woman both contains the rudiment of the fetus (through the structures mentioned) and provides nourishment to that which is being formed within her, yet no animal is generated from any small egg without the concurrence of the male—nor does a hen lay an egg if she has not experienced the rooster; indeed, says the Famous Heucher in the cited place: Hens themselves certainly lay few eggs without a rooster, and other small birds lay none without a male. It follows that the female bestows the matter, while the male bestows the form—that is, the motion to the "leaping point" original: "puncto salienti." This refers to the first visible sign of life in an embryo, traditionally the beating heart.—and thus grants life to the fetus. This can happen through no other cause than the active principle, that is, the sensitive soul or the animal spirits 18th-century medical theory held that "animal spirits" were a subtle fluid or energy that carried out the functions of the nervous system and life itself. hiding abundantly within the fertile seed. Gouey Louis-Gérard de Goueÿ (1650–1730), a French surgeon. agrees with this in his Hypotheses on the Generation of the Fetus.

§. XX. The structure of the testes clearly shows that animal spirits flow to them in abundance. These spirits, by their own action and a copious influx of arterial blood, inflate the penis original: "colem", make the semen frothy, and through their more vehement motion during the carnal act, produce heat throughout the entire body. That these spirits flow out more largely with the semen—especially if this occurs in the woman’s genital field—is abundantly attested by the great exhaustion of strength that follows sexual intercourse original: "venerem," referring to the act of Venus.. Jakob Rueff Jakob Rueff (1500–1558), a Swiss surgeon and author of famous texts on midwifery. acknowledged this in some way long ago in Book 1, Chapter 4; and the Most Celebrated Hoffmann Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742), one of the most influential European physicians of the early 18th century. asserts that from the untimely and immoderate use of venery, not only do the animal functions suffer harm, but the vital strength of the parts is also weakened.

§. XXI. So that what has been said thus far may be more clearly understood, I will briefly add the manner of conception. Others think that this consists in motion, life...