4. It has already been observed that this purification is more abundant in women than in any other creature. In animals that are not viviparous no symptoms of anything of the kind occur, for this superfluous matter is returned into their own body, for in many the females are superior to the males in size, and in many it is turned to the formation of plates, or scales, or abundance of feathers. In viviparous animals with feet, it is turned to the formation of hair and bulk of body (for man is the only animal that is smooth), or of urine; for in almost all animals this secretion is thick and abundant. In women, on the contrary, all the superfluous matter of the body is directed to this purification.
5. The case of the male is the same, for in proportion to his size, man emits more semen than other animals; (wherefore, also, man is the smoothest of all animals,) and among men those which abound in humours, and are not very full fleshed, and fair men more than dark ones. So also among women. For in those that are full fleshed, the greater part of the secretion goes to the supply of the body, and in the act of sexual intercourse, fair women have naturally more seminal fluid than dark ones. Liquid and acid foods also increase this kind of intercourse.
Chapter III.
1. It is a sign that women have conceived when the pudendum remains dry after coition. If the labia are smooth they will not conceive, for it slips out; nor will they if the labia are thick: but if there is a sensation of roughness and resistance when touched with the finger, and the labia are thin, they are then adapted for conception. In order that they may be able to conceive, such women must prepare the uterus, and the contrary that they may not conceive; for if the labia are smooth they do not conceive: so that some women, in order that the semen may fall outside the uterus, anoint themselves with oil of cedar, or with ceruse, or oil mixed with frankincense.
2. If it remain seven days, it is evident that conception has taken place, for in this period what are called the outpourings take place. The purification takes place in many women after conception. Thirty days afterwards in the case of conceiving a female child, and forty in the case of a male. After parturition, also, the purification lasts a similar number of days, though it is not exactly the same in all.
3. In the same number of days after conception the discharge no longer takes its usual course, but is turned towards the mammæ, in which the milk begins to make its appearance. At first the milk appears very small, and like a web in the mammæ. After conception, the first sensation generally takes place in the iliac region, which immediately appears more full in some persons. This is more conspicuous in slight persons. If the child is a male, a movement is usually felt on the right side of the groin, in about forty days; if a female, the movement occurs on the left side, in about ninety days. We must not suppose, however, that an accurate judgment can be formed in this way, for it often happens that the movement is felt on the right side when a female child, and on the left when a male child is conceived. All these, and such like things, vary in a greater or less degree.
4. About this period, also, the fœtus becomes divided; it previously existed as an undivided mass of flesh. If it perishes within seven days, it is called an effluxion; if in forty days, an abortion. The fœtus often perishes within this period. If the male fœtus is excluded within forty days, and is put out into any other fluid, it becomes dissolved, and disappears. If placed in cold water, it becomes, as it were, surrounded with a membrane. When this is taken off, the fœtus appears about as large as a large ant. Its parts are visible, both those of generation, and all the rest; and the eyes are very large, as in other animals. If the female fœtus perishes within the three months, it generally appears without divisions. If it survives to the fourth month, the parts appear formed.
5. The whole completion of the parts is more slow in the female than in the male, and parturition is more frequently delayed to the tenth month. After birth, females attain to youth, and puberty, and old age, more rapidly than males, and those that have borne many children more rapidly than others, as it was observed before.
Chapter IV.
1. When conception has taken place, the uterus usually closes immediately for seven months. In the eighth month it opens, and the fœtus, if properly developed, begins to descend in the eighth month. If the fœtus is not properly developed, but checked in the eighth month in parturition, women who bear in the eighth month do not exclude it, nor does the fœtus advance downwards in the eighth month, and the uterus does not open itself. It is a sign that it is not properly developed, when it is born before the circumstances I have described take place.