[AB] See Ruysch, Thes. Anat. p. 90, tab. VI, fig. I.
Harvey makes another error in speaking of an abortion in the second month, where the mass was as large as a pigeon's egg, but without any fœtus regularly formed; whereas, it is maintained by Ruysch, and many other anatomists, that the fœtus is perceptible, even to the naked eye, in the first month. The History of the Academy mentions a fœtus, that was completely formed in twenty-one days after impregnation. If to these authorities we add that of Malpighius, who perceived the chicken in the cicatrice, immediately after the egg was laid by the hen, we cannot doubt, but that the fœtus is formed immediately after copulation; consequently, we must not pay any credit to what Harvey says on the parts increasing one after the other by juxta-position, since they are all existent from the first, and gradually expand until the whole is complete.
De Graaf took the acceptation of the word egg in a quite different light to Harvey: he insists that the testicles of women were true ovaries, and contain eggs like those of oviparous, animals, only that they are much smaller, do not quit the body, and are never detached till after impregnation, when they descend from the ovary into the horns of the matrix. The experiments of De Graaf have contributed most to establish the existence of these pretended eggs, which yet is not at all founded; for this famous anatomist is deceived, first, by mistaking the vesicles of the ovarium for eggs, whereas they are inseparable from it, form parts of its substance, and are filled with a kind of lymph. Secondly, he is also deceived when he considers the glandular bodies to be the covering of those eggs, or vesicles; for it is certain, by Malpighius's, Valisnieri's, and my own observations, that the glandular bodies neither surround nor contain one of those vesicles. Thirdly, he is deceived still more when he supposes the glandular body is never formed till after fecundation; as they are invariably found in every female who has attained the age of puberty. Fourthly, he is no less deceived when he believes that the globules which he saw in the matrix, and which contained the fœtuses, ware the same vesicles, or eggs, which had fallen from the ovariam, and which, he remarks, were become ten times smaller than they were in the ovary. This remark alone, one would imagine, Should have made him perceive his error. Fifthly, he is wrong in saying that the glandular bodies are only the coverings of the fecundated eggs, and that the number of coverings, or empty follicles, always answer to the number of fœtuses. This assertion is entirely contrary to truth: for on the testicles of all females we find a greater number of glandular bodies, or cicatrices, than there are productions of fœtuses, and they are also found in those which have never brought forth. To this we may add, that neither he, Verheyen, nor any other person, have ever seen these eggs, much less these pretended coverings, on which they have, notwithstanding, established their system.
Malpighius, who perceived the growth of the glandular bodies in the female testicles, was deceived when he thought he had seen the egg in their cavities, since they contain only liquor; nor indeed has anything like an egg ever been discovered.
Valisnieri, who was not deceived in facts, has yet drawn false conclusions in asserting that, although neither himself, nor any anatomist in whom he could confide, ever found the egg in the cavity of the glandular body, yet it must there exist.
Let us, therefore, examine what may be fairly called the real discoveries of these naturalists. Graaf was the first who perceived there were alterations in the female testicles; and he had reason to affirm, they were parts essential and necessary to generation. Malpighius demonstrated that these alterations were occasioned by the glandular bodies which grew to perfect maturity, afterwards they become flaccid, obliterated, and left only a slight cicatrice remaining. Valisnieri has placed this discovery in a very clear light; he has shewn that these glandular bodies are found in the testicles of every female; that they are augmented considerably in the season of love, that they increase at the expence of the lymphatic vesicles of the testicles, and that at the time of their maturity they were hollow and filled with liquor. This, then, is all that can be reduced to truth on the subject of the pretended ovaries and eggs of viviparous animals. What must we conclude therefrom? Two things appear very evident: the one, that there does not exist any eggs in the female testicles; the other, that there exists a liquor in the vesicles of the testicle, and in the cavity of the glandular bodies. We have demonstrated by the preceding experiments, that this last liquor is the true seed of the female, since it contains, like that of the male, spermatic animals, or rather organic moving particles.
We must, therefore, now be assured, that females have, as well as males, a seminal liquor. After all that has been advanced, we cannot doubt but the seminal liquor is the superfluity of the organic nutriment, which is sent back from all parts of the body into the testicles and seminal vesicles of the males, and into the testicles and glandular bodies of females. This liquor, which issues by the nipple of the glandular bodies, continually sprinkles the horns of the matrix, and may easily procure admission either by the suction of the membrane of these horns, or by the little opening which is at the upper extremity, and thus enter into the matrix; but in the supposition of these pretended eggs, which were ten or twenty times larger than the opening of the horns of the matrix, we cannot comprehend how they could enter therein.
The liquor emitted by females, when they are excited, and which, according to de Graaf, issues from the neck of the matrix, and the orifice of the urethra, may be a superabundant portion of the seminal liquor which continually distills from the glandular bodies on the trunks of the matrix. But, possibly, this liquor may be a secretion of another kind, and perfectly useless in generation. To decide this question observations with a microscope are requisite; but all experiments are not permitted even to philosophers. I can only say, that I am inclined to believe that the same spermatic animals would be met with in this liquor as in that of the glandular bodies. I can quote an Italian doctor on this subject, who made this observation with attention, and which is thus related by Valisnieri: "Aggiugne il lodato fig. Bono d'avergli anco veduti (animali spermatici) in questa linfa o siero, diro cosi voluttuoso, che nel tempore dell'amorosa zuffa scappa dalle femine libidinose, senza che si potesse sospettare che fossero di que' del maschio, &c." If this circumstance is true, as I do not doubt, it is certain, that this liquor is the same as that found in the glandular bodies, and that, consequently, it is the true seminal liquor: and although anatomists have not discovered the communication between the vacuities of de Graaf and the testicles, that does not prevent it being once in the matrix, from issuing out by the vacuities about the exterior orifice of the urethra.
From hence we must conclude that the most abandoned women will be the least fruitful, because they emit that liquor which ought to remain in the matrix for the formation of the fœtus. Thus we see why common prostitutes seldom have children, and why women in hot countries, where they have stronger desires than in the cold, are much less fertile; but we shall have occasion to speak of this hereafter.
It is natural to think that the seminal liquor of the male or female would not be fertile but when it contains moving bodies; nevertheless that is still a question, and I should be led to think, as there are different states of this liquor, that in which these organic particles are seen in motion is not absolutely necessary for the purpose of generation. The Italian physician, above quoted, never perceived spermatic animals in his semen till he had attained a middle age, although he was father of several children before, and continued to have them afterwards.