On the Secrets of Women

the menstrual flow is of a sanguine color. The cause of this is because the menses are the superfluity of the second digestion, namely of the liver, but the liver is a red, extremely hot organ, and therefore it assimilates to itself that same thing in color and form insofar as it can. But it seems to the contrary that the menses ought to be white, because it is extremely cold and coldness is the mother of whiteness. I answer according to Albertus: insofar as it would be from the nature of the menses, it would be white, but because its producer is red, namely the liver, therefore it assimilates to it. Then it is a doubt why the sperm of the man is not red, since it is nevertheless hot and well digested. It is said that the man's sperm is of itself red, because it is blood of the third digestion, but in the testicles it is whitened because of the coldness of the testicles; therefore, it does not spermatize unless it is heated through the motion of the testicles. Note that red heat is generated from the fact that in humid terrestrial [matter], humidity is consumed by the burning of the humid, as is evident in a red brick. For the brick before combustion is not red, but it is made red through the consumption of the humid by the heat, so that the dry terrestrial [element] predominates. Thus it is with the menses of a woman, in that in the liver the humid is not consumed by the heat of the liver into dry terrestrial [matter], so that in a certain way it becomes red. But in very coarse and terrestrial women, there is so much unconsumed humid and terrestrial [matter] that their menses are livid, that is, black. For earth is black,