Inaugural Medical Dissertation on the Procreation of Male Offspring

...more recent authors affirm, among whom Emilio Parisano in his Third Book of Exercises, Exercise V, says: For it is agreed among all that the male is generally warmer than the female. Moreover, the firmer something is, the more solid and impenetrable it is. If this can be said of males who are already born and grown compared to females, why should it not also be said in relation to the rudiments original: "staminibus," the structural threads or fibers of the embryo in preformationist theory. of a future male, and the egg original: "ovulo" itself? For the nature of the matter from which a thing is made must match the nature of the thing made: and since the male is warm and strong, while the female is relatively cold and weak, it is most certain that each is born from a seed similar to itself.

§. XXXV.

Daily experience proves this opinion even among common people. Although their women use the same food and air as the men and endure the same labors from a young age, they nonetheless—and not just the wealthier women who live like drones in leisure and luxury—are endowed with both a mind and a body that is more tender and delicate than those of men. Holy Scripture itself asserts this, calling the woman the weaker vessel original: "vas debile," a reference to the New Testament, 1 Peter 3:7.. This is supported by the consensus of nations which, scattered across the whole world, entrust military service—the most difficult of labors—not to women, as they are unequal to enduring such work, but to men; to say nothing of other examples.

§. XXXVI.

Therefore, the egg and the rudiments of a male fetus are more solid than those of a female. Consequently, they require a stronger driving force, for it is known from physics that a legitimate proportion must exist between the mover and the moved. This is confirmed by the hatching of chicks: the males leave behind a thicker shell after hatching than the females. Furthermore, males are primarily contained in a spherical egg, regarding which the Philosopher original: "Philosophus," a standard title for Aristotle in academic writing. and Avicenna believe the following:

From a round and short egg a male is produced; from long and pointed ones, a female.

§. XXXVII.

Therefore, for a male egg to be impregnated, greater elasticity In 18th-century medicine, "elasticity" referred to the tension or "tone" of the biological fibers. and more numerous and powerful spirits original: "spiritus," the "animal spirits" believed to be the active agents in bodily fluids. are required from the male than if a female egg is to be impregnated. For every force acts toward that place where there is less resistance. Yet with a weak...