Thus much for the Dimensions of the Privities: I now proceed to Generation. When the Fancy warm’d with an Idea of Pleasure, occasions a diffusion of the Animal Juice, of Consequence ensues Erection: An Erection being effected, and the Yard lodg’d in the Neck of the Womb; the Seed taking leave of the seminal Vesicles, passes through the Ejaculatory Vessels, and enters the Urethra; from whence ’tis squirted out with a Jirk, by vertue of the Convulsions that then seize the Yard: And as Ejaculation the last point of the Man’s Action, is the critical moment of pleasure, so ’tis the principal aim, he has in View, and all the Circumstances that usher it in, have an eye upon that Instant: The sanguine Person is the most amorous, and produces the greatest quantity of laudable Seed.
The Seed of a Man being syring’d into the Privy Parts of a Woman by the Yard, it repairs to the bottom of the Womb, and its inner Orifice shuts it self close: ‘After which the Seed being embrac’d and press’d by the Womb, all its Particles begin to take their respective Posts; the subtilest continue in the Center, and consequently the grosser and superfluous Parts are thrust towards the Surface, where they produce the After-birth, the Navel-string, and the Membranes, in which the Fœtus is wrapt. In the mean time all the Particles calculated for forming the different parts of the Body, disengage themselves by the force of their motion, and either part or join according to their mutual Disparity or Conformity; so that those design’d for the head Assemble in the place where they ought to be; and those for the rest of the Body do the like: And at the same time among those calculated for the Head, the Particles qualify’d for forming the Eyes, Ears, &c. rendezvous in their proper places: The same may be said of the Particles of which the Breast, Belly, and Limbs are compos’d. The Form, Structure, Order and Connection of all these parts, depends chiefly upon the Spirit enclos’d within the Seed; which by the meer necessity of its Motions, and without any Knowledge or Understanding, unravels the Chaos where the Particles lay confus’d, and ranks them in the same Order, that they had when lodg’d in the Body of the Animals, from which they sprung. The parts of the Fœtus being thus form’d, the subtilest part of the Spirit continues in the Center of the new-form’d Body, i. e. the Heart; and there makes a sort of Fire without Light (being the natural Heat that gives Life) which is fed by the circular motion of the Blood that passes there incessantly.’ This is the most probable Idea of forming the Fœtus, and what passes in the Womb, that is given by any Ancient or Modern Writers.
Some are of Opinion, that the Fœtus is form’d of a mixture of the Male and Female Seed; and that these two Seeds impregnated with the Spirit of Life, are the agent and matter of Generation. Some alledge that the Male Seed is sufficient of it self to form a Fœtus; and that the Woman only gives it a lodging, and furnishes the necessary Blood for its nourishment in the Womb: The Male being in this sense, look’d upon as an accomplish’d and perfect piece of Work, and the Female only a fertile Ground, which produces good Seed where the Labourer sows it well: And others are of opinion, that the Woman’s Seed contains the first, and the true Model of the Fœtus; there being small seminal Vesicles in the Testicles of a Woman, call’d the Eggs; which contain within themselves, all that is necessary to give the Fœtus a Being.
But the most common and rational Opinion is, that of the Fœtus being form’d by the mixing of the two Seeds in the Womb; that Man and Woman are equally perfect; and that both of them being furnish’d with Testicles, which make a secretion of Seed, both of them must supply; and a Woman cannot be got with Child, unless she and the Man ejaculate their Seed at the same time.
Those enclining to believe, that the Male Seed is sufficient of it self to form a Fœtus, plead that the Seed of a Man differs vastly from that of a Woman: That the former is white, and of a thick consistence, compos’d of all the parts that are capable to form a Body; and that the latter is only a sharp and yellowish serosity, which cannot contribute any thing towards the form of the Fœtus. But this is esteem’d by other Persons a groundless fancy; for the Structure of a Woman’s Testicle is more admirable than that of a Man, which shews that the Seed separated by it, is of considerable use: And several Children have their Mothers Features and Humour, which demonstrates that the Father, to whom they oftentimes bear no resemblance, does not furnish all himself.
Those Persons who pretend that the Woman’s Seed contains the first, and the true Model of the Fœtus, compare the Female Testicles to a bunch of Grapes, or a Bee-hive; consisting of Vesicles, each of which contains a little Animal, almost compleated in all its Parts, after the same manner as the Egg of a Fowl: And that Man’s Seed contributes to Generation, no otherwise than as it animates the Egg: But the Opinion which is generally receiv’d, is that both the Male and the Female Seed contain such Particles, as are qualify’d to form a Body and a Spirit capable of all the Motions perform’d by the Animal, from which they have Being; and that Generation depends upon an exact mixture of the two Seeds.
The Opinions relating to the matter whereof the Seed is compos’d, are no less various than those of the forming of the Fœtus; some Anatomists say, ’tis prepar’d by the concoction and conversion of Blood, effected in this manner. The Blood imported to the Testicles by four spermatick Vessels, two Arteries and two Veins: The Vein and Artery of the same side, having a mutual Communication, blend the arterious and venous Blood together; and this mixture of arterious and venous Blood boyl and convert into Seed by the peculiar faculty and virtue of the Organs of the Testicles: This was the Opinion of the Antients.
Others say, that the Seed is a Juice imported by the Nerves to the Organs of Generation; and that it distills from the Brain to the Privities; that in the time of Ejaculation one may feel it trickling along the Spina of the Back; that when the Adventure is over, the Animal is feeble and dejected through the great Dissipation of the Spirits that are hurry’d along with the Seed; and that the Seed is of the same colour with the animal juice of the Nerves.
Other Anatomists tell ye the Seed is compos’d of an infinity of little Animals, which they call seminary; that these swim and flutter about in the Liquor, and may be easily discover’d with a Microscope; that these seminal Animals are so many Seeds of Men, which being convey’d to the Ovarium, strike at the first Egg they meet with; upon which one of them perforates the Membrane, or gets into the Egg by a suppos’d Orifice, and presently shuts it self up, leaving the rest to perish without Doors, unless some of them have the good Fortune to slip into another Egg. The Animal that enters the Egg, serves for Sperm, which by swelling it up, prompts it to disengage it self from the Ovarium, and tumble into the Tuba, which conducts it to the Womb.
But the most substantial reasons given for the composure of the Seed are grounded upon Circulation, that the seminal Particles are separated and filtrated from the Blood by the Testicles; and Anatomists acquainted with the Structure of the Testicles, say, that the Seed is produc’d by a continual Filtration of several Particles, which being gather’d into a Body, make a Liquor that is qualify’d for the forming of a Man.