Inaugural Medical Dissertation on the Procreation of Male Offspring

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...be retained within, and thus either a female or a male is formed. For the genital parts of both sexes are so dissimilar in their substance—and even more so in their composition, position, shape, action, and use—that it is difficult to find anything more different.

But among all these theories, Aetius Aetius of Amida (6th century), a Byzantine physician whose encyclopedic work was a standard medical reference for centuries. in his Tetrabiblos original: "Tetrabibli," meaning "Four Books," a massive medical compilation. Book 4, Chapter 32, seems the most foolish—nay, he is certainly truly foolish—when he says: if a man, having bound his right foot with a white bandage, has intercourse with a woman, he will, as they say, procreate a male. If, however, he binds his left foot with a colored bandage, he will procreate a female. Anyone who wishes to read a collection of similar tall tales, as if in a compendium, should please look through Emilio Parisano's Work on Microcosmic Subtlety original: "Aemylii Parisani Opus de microcosmica subtilitate" (1623), an exhaustive and often criticized anatomical text.; it is quite large indeed, but let the reader judge its true value. Jakob Rüff A 16th-century Swiss surgeon and author of a famous manual for midwives. also pursued the business of generation in greater detail; however, the consensus of the learned shows with what success he did so.

§. XXXIX. Therefore, the driving force original: "elater," a term used in early modern medicine to describe a spring-like or vital tension in fluids. or the male spirit of the seed, which is composed of ethereal sulfurous original: "sulfureo," denoted by the alchemical symbol 🜍. In this context, sulfur represents the active, combustible, and formative principle of life. particles (as described in §. 13, 19, and 31), is not only the producer of all generation in general, but specifically, in a higher degree (§. 37), is the sole and true architect of a male offspring; yet, it acts not according to its own measure of activity, but according to the receptivity of the subject.

The ancients themselves assert that sex emerges from the warm or moist quality [of the seed]; indeed, even the supreme authority Hippocrates The most famous physician of antiquity, whose works were still treated as semi-divine authority in the 18th century. says in several places, and specifically in Book 1 on Regimen original: "de diaeta," a work concerning diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Chapter 19, folio 14: females come more from water, while males come more from fire. For this reason, I cannot agree with the opinion of a great medical authority of our time, who holds the following regarding the cause of the diversity of sex: Regarding the female egg, that a male is procreated, it proceeds thus in our judgment: if the organic particles of the male seed are endowed with greater motion and activity than those contained in the egg, then one of them is nourished and becomes a male; if, however, there is greater motion in the organic particles of the female fluid enclosed in the egg, a female is born. As for what I think of these "organic particles" of the male [seed], I have explained my view on this whole matter in §. 26.

§. In addition to what has already been said, it must be considered what those things are...