No More Learning

If
rain falls after intercourse, the ram impregnates the ewe again; and
it is the same with the she-goat. The ewe bears usually two lambs,
sometimes three or four. Both ewe and she-goat carry their young for
five months; consequently wherever a district is sunny and the animals
are used to comfort and well fed, they bear twice in the year. The
goat lives for eight years and the sheep for ten, but in most cases
not so long; the bell-wether, however, lives to fifteen years. In
every flock they train one of the rams for bell-wether. When he is
called on by name by the shepherd, he takes the lead of the flock: and
to this duty the creature is trained from its earliest years. Sheep in
Ethiopia live for twelve or thirteen years, goats for ten or eleven.
In the case of the sheep and the goat the two sexes have intercourse
all their lives long.

Twins with sheep and goats may be due to richness of
pasturage, or to the fact that either the ram or the he-goat is a
twin-begetter or that the ewe or the she-goat is a twin-bearer. Of
these animals some give birth to males and others to females; and
the difference in this respect depends on the waters they drink and
also on the sires. And if they submit to the male when north winds are
blowing, they are apt to bear males; if when south winds are
blowing, females. Such as bear females may get to bear males, due
regard being paid to their looking northwards when put to the male.
Ewes accustomed to be put to the ram early will refuse him if he
attempt to mount them late. Lambs are born white and black according
as white or black veins are under the ram's tongue; the lambs are
white if the veins are white, and black if the veins are black, and
white and black if the veins are white and black; and red if the veins
are red. The females that drink salted waters are the first to take
the male; the water should be salted before and after parturition, and
again in the springtime. With goats the shepherds appoint no
bell-wether, as the animal is not capable of repose but frisky and apt
to ramble. If at the appointed season the elders of the flock are
eager for intercourse, the shepherds say that it bodes well for the
flock; if the younger ones, that the flock is going to be bad.

20

Of dogs there are several breeds. Of these the Laconian hound of
either sex is fit for breeding purposes when eight months old: at
about the same age some dogs lift the leg when voiding urine. The
bitch conceives with one lining; this is clearly seen in the case
where a dog contrives to line a bitch by stealth, as they impregnate
after mounting only once. The Laconian bitch carries her young the
sixth part of a year or sixty days: or more by one, two, or three,
or less by one; the pups are blind for twelve days after birth.
After pupping, the bitch gets in heat again in six months, but not
before. Some bitches carry their young for the fifth part of the
year or for seventy-two days; and their pups are blind for fourteen
days. Other bitches carry their young for a quarter of a year or for
three whole months; and the whelps of these are blind for seventeen
days. The bitch appears go in heat for the same length of time.
Menstruation continues for seven days, and a swelling of the genital
organ occurs simultaneously; it is not during this period that the
bitch is disposed to submit to the dog, but in the seven days that
follow. The bitch as a rule goes in heat for fourteen days, but
occasionally for sixteen. The birth-discharge occurs simultaneously
with the delivery of the whelps, and the substance of it is thick
and mucous. (The falling-off in bulk on the part of the mother is
not so great as might have been inferred from the size of her
frame. ) The bitch is usually supplied with milk five days before
parturition; some seven days previously, some four; and the milk is
serviceable immediately after birth. The Laconian bitch is supplied
with milk thirty days after lining. The milk at first is thickish, but
gets thinner by degrees; with the bitch the milk is thicker than
with the female of any other animal excepting the sow and the hare.
When the bitch arrives at full growth an indication is given of her
capacity for the male; that is to say, just as occurs in the female of
the human species, a swelling takes place in the teats of the breasts,
and the breasts take on gristle. This incident, however, it is
difficult for any but an expert to detect, as the part that gives
the indication is inconsiderable. The preceding statements relate to
the female, and not one of them to the male. The male as a rule
lifts his leg to void urine when six months old; some at a later
period, when eight months old, some before they reach six months. In a
general way one may put it that they do so when they are out of
puppyhood. The bitch squats down when she voids urine; it is a rare
exception that she lifts the leg to do so. The bitch bears twelve pups
at the most, but usually five or six; occasionally a bitch will bear
one only. The bitch of the Laconian breed generally bears eight. The
two sexes have intercourse with each other at all periods of life. A
very remarkable phenomenon is observed in the case of the Laconian
hound: in other words, he is found to be more vigorous in commerce
with the female after being hard-worked than when allowed to live
idle.

The dog of the Laconian breed lives ten years, and the bitch
twelve. The bitch of other breeds usually lives for fourteen or
fifteen years, but some live to twenty; and for this reason certain
critics consider that Homer did well in representing the dog of
Ulysses as having died in his twentieth year. With the Laconian hound,
owing to the hardships to which the male is put, he is less long-lived
than the female; with other breeds the distinction as to longevity
is not very apparent, though as a general rule the male is the
longer-lived.

The dog sheds no teeth except the so-called 'canines'; these a dog
of either sex sheds when four months old. As they shed these only,
many people are in doubt as to the fact, and some people, owing to
their shedding but two and its being hard to hit upon the time when
they do so, fancy that the animal sheds no teeth at all; others, after
observing the shedding of two, come to the conclusion that the
creature sheds the rest in due turn. Men discern the age of a dog by
inspection of its teeth; with young dogs the teeth are white and sharp
pointed, with old dogs black and blunted.

21

The bull impregnates the cow at a single mount, and mounts with
such vigour as to weigh down the cow; if his effort be unsuccessful,
the cow must be allowed an interval of twenty days before being
again submitted. Bulls of mature age decline to mount the same cow
several times on one day, except, by the way, at considerable
intervals. Young bulls by reason of their vigour are enabled to
mount the same cow several times in one day, and a good many cows
besides. The bull is the least salacious of male animals. . . . The
victor among the bulls is the one that mounts the females; when he
gets exhausted by his amorous efforts, his beaten antagonist sets on
him and very often gets the better of the conflict. The bull and the
cow are about a year old when it is possible for them to have commerce
with chance of offspring: as a rule, however, they are about twenty
months old, but it is universally allowed that they are capable in
this respect at the age of two years. The cow goes with calf for
nine months, and she calves in the tenth month; some maintain that
they go in calf for ten months, to the very day. A calf delivered
before the times here specified is an abortion and never lives,
however little premature its birth may have been, as its hooves are
weak and imperfect. The cow as a rule bears but one calf, very
seldom two; she submits to the bull and bears as long as she lives.

Cows live for about fifteen years, and the bulls too, if they
have been castrated; but some live for twenty years or even more, if
their bodily constitutions be sound. The herdsmen tame the castrated
bulls, and give them an office in the herd analogous to the office
of the bell-wether in a flock; and these bulls live to an
exceptionally advanced age, owing to their exemption from hardship and
to their browsing on pasture of good quality. The bull is in fullest
vigour when five years old, which leads the critics to commend Homer
for applying to the bull the epithets of 'five-year-old', or 'of
nine seasons', which epithets are alike in meaning. The ox sheds his
teeth at the age of two years, not all together but just as the
horse sheds his. When the animal suffers from podagra it does not shed
the hoof, but is subject to a painful swelling in the feet. The milk
of the cow is serviceable after parturition, and before parturition
there is no milk at all. The milk that first presents itself becomes
as hard as stone when it clots; this result ensues unless it be
previously diluted with water. Oxen younger than a year old do not
copulate unless under circumstances of an unnatural and portentous
kind: instances have been recorded of copulation in both sexes at
the age of four months. Kine in general begin to submit to the male
about the month of Thargelion or of Scirophorion; some, however, are
capable of conception right on to the autumn. When kine in large
numbers receive the bull and conceive, it is looked upon as prognostic
of rain and stormy weather. Kine herd together like mares, but in
lesser degree.

22

In the case of horses, the stallion and the mare are first
fitted for breeding purposes when two years old. Instances, however,
of such early maturity are rare, and their young are exceptionally
small and weak; the ordinary age for sexual maturity is three years,
and from that age to twenty the two sexes go on improving in the
quality of their offspring. The mare carries her foal for eleven
months, and casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of
days that the stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one,
two, three, or more. An ass in covering will impregnate more
expeditiously than a stallion. The act of intercourse with horses is
not laborious as it is with oxen. In both sexes the horse is the
most salacious of animals next after the human species. The breeding
faculties of the younger horses may be stimulated beyond their years
if they be supplied with good feeding in abundance. The mare as a rule
bears only one foal; occasionally she has two, but never more. A
mare has been known to cast two mules; but such a circumstance was
regarded as unnatural and portentous.

The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the
age of two and a half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it
has ceased to shed teeth, except it be naturally infertile; it must be
added, however, that some horses have been known to impregnate the
mare while the teeth were in process of shedding.

The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its first set of four, two
from the upper jaw and two from the lower, when two and a half years
old. After a year's interval, it sheds another set of four in like
manner, and another set of four after yet another year's interval;
after arriving at the age of four years and six months it sheds no
more. An instance has occurred where a horse shed all his teeth at
once, and another instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with
his last set of four; but such instances are very rare. It
consequently happens that a horse when four and a half years old is in
excellent condition for breeding purposes.

The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more
generatively productive. Horses will cover mares from which they
have been foaled and mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a
troop of horses is only considered perfect when such promiscuity of
intercourse occurs. Scythians use pregnant mares for riding when the
embryo has turned rather soon in the womb, and they assert that
thereby the mothers have all the easier delivery. Quadrupeds as a rule
lie down for parturition, and in consequence the young of them all
come out of the womb sideways. The mare, however, when the time for
parturition arrives, stands erect and in that posture casts its foal.

The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some
horses live for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be
treated with extreme care, it may last on to the age of fifty years; a
horse, however, when it reaches thirty years is regarded as
exceptionally old. The mare lives usually for twenty-five years,
though instances have occurred of their attaining the age of forty.
The male is less long-lived than the female by reason of the sexual
service he is called on to render; and horses that are reared in a
private stable live longer than such as are reared in troops. The mare
attains her full length and height at five years old, the stallion
at six; in another six years the animal reaches its full bulk, and
goes on improving until it is twenty years old. The female, then,
reaches maturity more rapidly than the male, but in the womb the
case is reversed, just as is observed in regard to the sexes of the
human species; and the same phenomenon is observed in the case of
all animals that bear several young.

The mare is said to suckle a mule-foal for six months, but not
to allow its approach for any longer on account of the pain it is
put to by the hard tugging of the young; an ordinary foal it allows to
suck for a longer period.

Horse and mule are at their best after the shedding of the
teeth. After they have shed them all, it is not easy to distinguish
their age; hence they are said to carry their mark before the
shedding, but not after. However, even after the shedding their age is
pretty well recognized by the aid of the canines; for in the case of
horses much ridden these teeth are worn away by attrition caused by
the insertion of the bit; in the case of horses not ridden the teeth
are large and detached, and in young horses they are sharp and small.

The male of the horse will breed at all seasons and during its
whole life; the mare can take the horse all its life long, but is
not thus ready to pair at all seasons unless it be held in check by
a halter or some other compulsion be brought to bear. There is no
fixed time at which intercourse of the two sexes cannot take place;
and accordingly intercourse may chance to take place at a time that
may render difficult the rearing of the future progeny. In a stable in
Opus there was a stallion that used to serve mares when forty years
old: his fore legs had to be lifted up for the operation.

Mares first take the horse in the spring-time. After a mare
has foaled she does not get impregnated at once again, but only
after a considerable interval; in fact, the foals will be all the
better if the interval extend over four or five years. It is, at all
events, absolutely necessary to allow an interval of one year, and for
that period to let her lie fallow. A mare, then, breeds at
intervals; a she-ass breeds on and on without intermission. Of mares
some are absolutely sterile, others are capable of conception but
incapable of bringing the foal to full term; it is said to be an
indication of this condition in a mare, that her foal if dissected
is found to have other kidney-shaped substances round about its
kidneys, presenting the appearance of having four kidneys.

After parturition the mare at once swallows the after-birth, and
bites off the growth, called the 'hippomanes', that is found on the
forehead of the foal. This growth is somewhat smaller than a dried
fig; and in shape is broad and round, and in colour black. If any
bystander gets possession of it before the mare, and the mare gets a
smell of it, she goes wild and frantic at the smell. And it is for
this reason that venders of drugs and simples hold the substance in
high request and include it among their stores.

If an ass cover a mare after the mare has been covered by a
horse, the ass will destroy the previously formed embryo.

(Horse-trainers do not appoint a horse as leader to a troop, as
herdsmen appoint a bull as leader to a herd, and for this reason
that the horse is not steady but quick-tempered and skittish. )

23

The ass of both sexes is capable of breeding, and sheds its
first teeth at the age of two and a half years; it sheds its second
teeth within six months, its third within another six months, and
the fourth after the like interval. These fourth teeth are termed
the gnomons or age-indicators.

A she-ass has been known to conceive when a year old, and the
foal to be reared. After intercourse with the male it will discharge
the genital sperm unless it be hindered, and for this reason it is
usually beaten after such intercourse and chased about. It casts its
young in the twelfth month. It usually bears but one foal, and that is
its natural number, occasionally however it bears twins. The ass if it
cover a mare destroys, as has been said, the embryo previously
begotten by the horse; but, after the mare has been covered by the
ass, the horse supervening will not spoil the embryo. The she-ass
has milk in the tenth month of pregnancy. Seven days after casting a
foal the she-ass submits to the male, and is almost sure to conceive
if put to the male on this particular day; the same result, however,
is quite possible later on. The she-ass will refuse to cast her foal
with any one looking on or in the daylight and just before foaling she
has to be led away into a dark place. If the she-ass has had young
before the shedding of the index-teeth, she will bear all her life
through; but if not, then she will neither conceive nor bear for the
rest of her days. The ass lives for more than thirty years, and the
she-ass lives longer than the male.

When there is a cross between a horse and a she-ass or a jackass
and a mare, there is much greater chance of a miscarriage than where
the commerce is normal. The period for gestation in the case of a
cross depends on the male, and is just what it would have been if
the male had had commerce with a female of his own kind. In regard
to size, looks, and vigour, the foal is more apt to resemble the
mother than the sire. If such hybrid connexions be continued without
intermittence, the female will soon go sterile; and for this reason
trainers always allow of intervals between breeding times. A mare will
not take the ass, nor a she ass the horse, unless the ass or she-ass
shall have been suckled by a mare; and for this reason trainers put
foals of the she-ass under mares, which foals are technically spoken
of as 'mare-suckled'. These asses, thus reared, mount the mares in the
open pastures, mastering them by force as the stallions do.

24

A mule is fitted for commerce with the female after the first
shedding of its teeth, and at the age of seven will impregnate
effectually; and where connexion has taken place with a mare, a
'hinny' has been known to be produced. After the seventh year it has
no further intercourse with the female. A female mule has been known
to be impregnated, but without the impregnation being followed up by
parturition. In Syrophoenicia she-mules submit to the mule and bear
young; but the breed, though it resembles the ordinary one, is
different and specific. The hinny or stunted mule is foaled by a
mare when she has gone sick during gestation, and corresponds to the
dwarf in the human species and to the after-pig or scut in swine;
and as is the case with dwarfs, the sexual organ of the hinny is
abnormally large.

The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record
cases of mules living to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at
the time of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its
age was let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens,
and would go side by side with the other draught-beasts and
stimulate them to their work; and in consequence a public decree was
passed forbidding any baker driving the creature away from his
bread-tray. The she-mule grows old more slowly than the mule. Some
assert that the she-mule menstruates by the act of voiding her
urine, and that the mule owes the prematurity of his decay to his
habit of smelling at the urine. So much for the modes of generation in
connexion with these animals.

25

Breeders and trainers can distinguish between young and old
quadrupeds. If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes
back to its place, the animal is young; if it remains long wrinkled
up, the animal is old.

26

The camel carries its young for ten months, and bears but one at
a time and never more; the young camel is removed from the mother when
a year old. The animal lives for a long period, more than fifty years.
It bears in spring-time, and gives milk until the time of the next
conception. Its flesh and milk are exceptionally palatable. The milk
is drunk mixed with water in the proportion of either two to one or
three to one.

27

The elephant of either sex is fitted for breeding before
reaching the age of twenty. The female carries her young, according to
some accounts, for two and a half years; according to others, for
three years; and the discrepancy in the assigned periods is due to the
fact that there are never human eyewitnesses to the commerce between
the sexes. The female settles down on its rear to cast its young,
and obviously suffers greatly during the process. The young one,
immediately after birth, sucks the mother, not with its trunk but with
the mouth; and can walk about and see distinctly the moment it is
born.

28

The wild sow submits to the boar at the beginning of winter, and
in the spring-time retreats for parturition to a lair in some district
inaccessible to intrusion, hemmed in with sheer cliffs and chasms
and overshadowed by trees. The boar usually remains by the sow for
thirty days. The number of the litter and the period gestation is
the same as in the case of the domesticated congener. The sound of the
grunt also is similar; only that the sow grunts continually, and the
boar but seldom. Of the wild boars such as are castrated grow to the
largest size and become fiercest: to which circumstance Homer
alludes when he says:-

'He reared against him a wild castrated boar: it was not like a
food-devouring brute, but like a forest-clad promontory. '

Wild boars become castrated owing to an itch befalling them in
early life in the region of the testicles, and the castration is
superinduced by their rubbing themselves against the trunks of trees.

29

The hind, as has been stated, submits to the stag as a rule only
under compulsion, as she is unable to endure the male often owing to
the rigidity of the penis. However, they do occasionally submit to the
stag as the ewe submits ram; and when they are in heat the hinds avoid
one another. The stag is not constant to one particular hind, but
after a while quits one and mates with others. The breeding time is
after the rising of Arcturus, during the months of Boedromion and
Maimacterion. The period of gestation lasts for eight months.
Conception comes on a few days after intercourse; and a number of
hinds can be impregnated by a single male. The hind, as a rule,
bears but one fawn, although instances have been known of her
casting two. Out of dread of wild beasts she casts her young by the
side of the high-road. The young fawn grows with rapidity.
Menstruation occurs at no other time with the hind; it takes place
only after parturition, and the substance is phlegm-like.

The hind leads the fawn to her lair; this is her place of
refuge, a cave with a single inlet, inside which she shelters
herself against attack.

Fabulous stories are told concerning the longevity of the
animal, but the stories have never been verified, and the brevity of
the period of gestation and the rapidity of growth in the fawn would
not lead one to attribute extreme longevity to this creature.

In the mountain called Elaphoeis or Deer Mountain, which is in
Arginussa in Asia Minor-the place, by the way, where Alcibiades was
assassinated-all the hinds have the ear split, so that, if they
stray to a distance, they can be recognized by this mark; and the
embryo actually has the mark while yet in the womb of the mother.

The hind has four teats like the cow. After the hinds have
become pregnant, the males all segregate one by one, and in
consequence of the violence of their sexual passions they keep each
one to himself, dig a hole in the ground, and bellow from time to
time; in all these particulars they resemble the goat, and their
foreheads from getting wetted become black, as is also the case with
the goat. In this way they pass the time until the rain falls, after
which time they turn to pasture. The animal acts in this way owing
to its sexual wantonness and also to its obesity; for in summer-time
it becomes so exceptionally fat as to be unable to run: in fact at
this period they can be overtaken by the hunters that pursue them on
foot in the second or third run; and, by the way, in consequence of
the heat of the weather and their getting out of breath they always
make for water in their runs. In the rutting season, the flesh of
the deer is unsavoury and rank, like the flesh of the he-goat. In
winter-time the deer becomes thin and weak, but towards the approach
of the spring he is at his best for running. When on the run the
deer keeps pausing from time to time, and waits until his pursuer
draws upon him, whereupon he starts off again. This habit appears
due to some internal pain: at all events, the gut is so slender and
weak that, if you strike the animal ever so softly, it is apt to break
asunder, though the hide of the animal remains sound and uninjured.

30

Bears, as has been previously stated, do not copulate with the
male mounting the back of the female, but with the female lying down
under the male. The she-bear goes with young for thirty days. She
brings forth sometimes one cub, sometimes two cubs, and at most
five. Of all animals the newly born cub of the she bear is the
smallest in proportion to the size of the mother; that is to say, it
is larger than a mouse but smaller than a weasel. It is also smooth
and blind, and its legs and most of its organs are as yet
inarticulate. Pairing takes Place in the month of Elaphebolion, and
parturition about the time for retiring into winter quarters; about
this time the bear and the she-bear are at the fattest. After the
she-bear has reared her young, she comes out of her winter lair in the
third month, when it is already spring. The female porcupine, by the
way, hibernates and goes with young the same number of days as the
she-bear, and in all respects as to parturition resembles this animal.
When a she-bear is with young, it is a very hard task to catch her.

31

It has already been stated that the lion and lioness copulate
rearwards, and that these animals are opisthuretic. They do not
copulate nor bring forth at all seasons indiscriminately, but once
in the year only. The lioness brings forth in the spring, generally
two cubs at a time, and six at the very most; but sometimes only
one. The story about the lioness discharging her womb in the act of
parturition is a pure fable, and was merely invented to account for
the scarcity of the animal; for the animal is, as is well known, a
rare animal, and is not found in many countries. In fact, in the whole
of Europe it is only found in the strip between the rivers Achelous
and Nessus. The cubs of the lioness when newly born are exceedingly
small, and can scarcely walk when two months old. The Syrian lion
bears cubs five times: five cubs at the first litter, then four,
then three, then two, and lastly one; after this the lioness ceases to
bear for the rest of her days. The lioness has no mane, but this
appendage is peculiar to the lion. The lion sheds only the four
so-called canines, two in the upper jaw and two in the lower; and it
sheds them when it is six months old.

32

The hyena in colour resembles the wolf, but is more shaggy,
and is furnished with a mane running all along the spine.
What is
recounted concerning its genital organs, to the effect that every
hyena is furnished with the organ both of the male and the female,
is untrue. The fact is that the sexual organ of the male hyena
resembles the same organ in the wolf and in the dog; the part
resembling the female genital organ lies underneath the tail, and does
to some extent resemble the female organ, but it is unprovided with
duct or passage, and the passage for the residuum comes underneath it.
The female hyena has the part that resembles the organ of the male,
and, as in the case of the male, has it underneath her tail,
unprovided with duct or passage; and after it the passage for the
residuum, and underneath this the true female genital organ. The
female hyena has a womb, like all other female animals of the same
kind. It is an exceedingly rare circumstance to meet with a female
hyena. At least a hunter said that out of eleven hyenas he had caught,
only one was a female.

33

Hares copulate in a rearward posture, as has been stated, for
the animal is opisthuretic. They breed and bear at all seasons,
superfoetate during pregnancy, and bear young every month. They do not
give birth to their young ones all together at one time, but bring
them forth at intervals over as many days as the circumstances of each
case may require. The female is supplied with milk before parturition;
and after bearing submits immediately to the male, and is capable of
conception while suckling her young. The milk in consistency resembles
sow's milk. The young are born blind, as is the case with the
greater part Of the fissipeds or toed animals.

34

The fox mounts the vixen in copulation, and the vixen bears
young like the she-bear; in fact, her young ones are even more
inarticulately formed. Before parturition she retires to sequestered
places, so that it is a great rarity for a vixen to be caught while
pregnant. After parturition she warms her young and gets them into
shape by licking them. She bears four at most at a birth.

35

The wolf resembles the dog in regard to the time of conception and
parturition, the number of the litter, and the blindness of the
newborn young. The sexes couple at one special period, and the
female brings forth at the beginning of the summer. There is an
account given of the parturition of the she-wolf that borders on the
fabulous, to the effect that she confines her lying-in to within
twelve particular days of the year. And they give the reason for
this in the form of a myth, viz. that when they transported Leto in so
many days from the land of the Hyperboreans to the island of Delos,
she assumed the form of a she-wolf to escape the anger of Here.
Whether the account be correct or not has not yet been verified; I
give it merely as it is currently told. There is no more of truth in
the current statement that the she-wolf bears once and only once in
her lifetime.

The cat and the ichneumon bear as many young as the dog, and
live on the same food; they live about six years. The cubs of the
panther are born blind like those of the wolf, and the female bears
four at the most at one birth. The particulars of conception are the
same for the thos, or civet, as for the dog; the cubs of the animal
are born blind, and the female bears two, or three, or four at a
birth. It is long in the body and low in stature; but not withstanding
the shortness of its legs it is exceptionally fleet of foot, owing
to the suppleness of its frame and its capacity for leaping.

36

There is found in Syria a so-called mule. It is not the same as
the cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild
ass resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the
resemblance. Like the wild ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its
speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and
a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain
number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces, the
father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. The number
originally introduced was nine, and there are three there at the
present day.

37

The phenomena of generation in regard to the mouse are the most
astonishing both for the number of the young and for the rapidity of
recurrence in the births. On one occasion a she-mouse in a state of
pregnancy was shut up by accident in a jar containing millet-seed, and
after a little while the lid of the jar was removed and upwards of one
hundred and twenty mice were found inside it.

The rate of propagation of field mice in country places, and the
destruction that they cause, are beyond all telling. In many places
their number is so incalculable that but very little of the
corn-crop is left to the farmer; and so rapid is their mode of
proceeding that sometimes a small farmer will one day observe that
it is time for reaping, and on the following morning, when he takes
his reapers afield, he finds his entire crop devoured. Their
disappearance is unaccountable: in a few days not a mouse will there
be to be seen. And yet in the time before these few days men fail to
keep down their numbers by fumigating and unearthing them, or by
regularly hunting them and turning in swine upon them; for pigs, by
the way, turn up the mouse-holes by rooting with their snouts. Foxes
also hunt them, and the wild ferrets in particular destroy them, but
they make no way against the prolific qualities of the animal and
the rapidity of its breeding. When they are super-abundant, nothing
succeeds in thinning them down except the rain; but after heavy
rains they disappear rapidly.

In a certain district of Persia when a female mouse is dissected
the female embryos appear to be pregnant. Some people assert, and
positively assert, that a female mouse by licking salt can become
pregnant without the intervention of the male.

Mice in Egypt are covered with bristles like the hedgehog. There
is also a different breed of mice that walk on their two hind-legs;
their front legs are small and their hind-legs long; the breed is
exceedingly numerous. There are many other breeds of mice than are
here referred to.

Book VII

1

As to Man's growth, first within his mother's womb and afterward
to old age, the course of nature, in so far as man is specially
concerned, is after the following manner. And, by the way, the
difference of male and female and of their respective organs has
been dealt with heretofore. When twice seven years old, in the most of
cases, the male begins to engender seed; and at the same time hair
appears upon the pubes, in like manner, so Alcmaeon of Croton remarks,
as plants first blossom and then seed. About the same time, the
voice begins to alter, getting harsher and more uneven, neither shrill
as formerly nor deep as afterward, nor yet of any even tone, but
like an instrument whose strings are frayed and out of tune; and it is
called, by way of by-word, the bleat of the billy-goat. Now this
breaking of the voice is the more apparent in those who are making
trial of their sexual powers; for in those who are prone to
lustfulness the voice turns into the voice of a man, but not so in the
continent. For if a lad strive diligently to hinder his voice from
breaking, as some do of those who devote themselves to music, the
voice lasts a long while unbroken and may even persist with little
change. And the breasts swell and likewise the private parts, altering
in size and shape. (And by the way, at this time of life those who try
by friction to provoke emission of seed are apt to experience pain
as well as voluptuous sensations. ) At the same age in the female,
the breasts swell and the so-called catamenia commence to flow; and
this fluid resembles fresh blood. There is another discharge, a
white one, by the way, which occurs in girls even at a very early age,
more especially if their diet be largely of a fluid nature; and this
malady causes arrest of growth and loss of flesh. In the majority of
cases the catamenia are noticed by the time the breasts have grown
to the height of two fingers' breadth. In girls, too, about this
time the voice changes to a deeper note; for while in general the
woman's voice is higher than the man's, so also the voices of girls
are pitched in a higher key than the elder women's, just as the
boy's are higher than the men's; and the girls' voices are shriller
than the boys', and a maid's flute is tuned sharper than a lad's.

Girls of this age have much need of surveillance. For then in
particular they feel a natural impulse to make usage of the sexual
faculties that are developing in them; so that unless they guard
against any further impulse beyond that inevitable one which their
bodily development of itself supplies, even in the case of those who
abstain altogether from passionate indulgence, they contract habits
which are apt to continue into later life. For girls who give way to
wantonness grow more and more wanton; and the same is true of boys,
unless they be safeguarded from one temptation and another; for the
passages become dilated and set up a local flux or running, and
besides this the recollection of pleasure associated with former
indulgence creates a longing for its repetition.

Some men are congenitally impotent owing to structural defect;
and in like manner women also may suffer from congenital incapacity.
Both men and women are liable to constitutional change, growing
healthier or more sickly, or altering in the way of leanness,
stoutness, and vigour; thus, after puberty some lads who were thin
before grow stout and healthy, and the converse also happens; and
the same is equally true of girls. For when in boy or girl the body
is loaded with superfluous matter, then, when such superfluities are
got rid of in the spermatic or catamenial discharge, their bodies
improve in health and condition owing to the removal of what had acted
as an impediment to health and proper nutrition; but in such as are of
opposite habit their bodies become emaciated and out of health, for
then the spermatic discharge in the one case and the catamenial flow
in the other take place at the cost of natural healthy conditions.

Furthermore, in the case of maidens the condition of the breasts
is diverse in different individuals, for they are sometimes quite
big and sometimes little; and as a general rule their size depends
on whether or not the body was burthened in childhood with superfluous
material. For when the signs of womanhood are nigh but not come, the
more there be of moisture the more will it cause the breasts to swell,
even to the bursting point; and the result is that the breasts
remain during after-life of the bulk that they then acquired. And
among men, the breasts grow more conspicuous and more like to those of
women, both in young men and old, when the individual temperament is
moist and sleek and the reverse of sinewy, and all the more among
the dark-complexioned than the fair.

At the outset and till the age of one and twenty the spermatic
discharge is devoid of fecundity; afterwards it becomes fertile, but
young men and women produce undersized and imperfect progeny, as is
the case also with the common run of animals. Young women conceive
readily, but, having conceived, their labour in childbed is apt to
be difficult.

The frame fails of reaching its full development and ages
quickly in men of intemperate lusts and in women who become mothers of
many children; for it appears to be the case that growth ceases when
the woman has given birth to three children. Women of a lascivious
disposition grow more sedate and virtuous after they have borne
several children.

After the age of twenty-one women are fully ripe for
child-bearing, but men go on increasing in vigour. When the
spermatic fluid is of a thin consistency it is infertile; when
granular it is fertile and likely to produce male children, but when
thin and unclotted it is apt to produce female offspring. And it is
about this time of life that in men the beard makes its appearance.

2

The onset of the catamenia in women takes place towards the end of
the month; and on this account the wiseacres assert that the moon is
feminine, because the discharge in women and the waning of the moon
happen at one and the same time, and after the wane and the
discharge both one and the other grow whole again. (In some women
the catamenia occur regularly but sparsely every month, and more
abundantly every third month. ) With those in whom the ailment lasts
but a little while, two days or three, recovery is easy; but where the
duration is longer, the ailment is more troublesome. For women are
ailing during these days; and sometimes the discharge is sudden and
sometimes gradual, but in all cases alike there is bodily distress
until the attack be over. In many cases at the commencement of the
attack, when the discharge is about to appear, there occur spasms
and rumbling noises within the womb until such time as the discharge
manifests itself.

Under natural conditions it is after recovery from these
symptoms that conception takes place in women, and women in whom the
signs do not manifest themselves for the most part remain childless.
But the rule is not without exception, for some conceive in spite of
the absence of these symptoms; and these are cases in which a
secretion accumulates, not in such a way as actually to issue forth,
but in amount equal to the residuum left in the case of
child-bearing women after the normal discharge has taken place. And
some conceive while the signs are on but not afterwards, those
namely in whom the womb closes up immediately after the discharge.
In some cases the menses persist during pregnancy up to the very last;
but the result in these cases is that the offspring are poor, and
either fail to survive or grow up weakly.

In many cases, owing to excessive desire, arising either from
youthful impetuosity or from lengthened abstinence, prolapsion of
the womb takes place and the catamenia appear repeatedly, thrice in
the month, until conception occurs; and then the womb withdraws
upwards again to its proper place. . .

As we have remarked above, the discharge is wont to be more
abundant in women than in the females of any other animals. In
creatures that do not bring forth their young alive nothing of the
sort manifests itself, this particular superfluity being converted
into bodily substance; and by the way, in such animals the females are
sometimes larger than the males; and moreover, the material is used up
sometimes for scutes and sometimes for scales, and sometimes for the
abundant covering of feathers, whereas in the vivipara possessed of
limbs it is turned into hair and into bodily substance (for man
alone among them is smooth-skinned), and into urine, for this
excretion is in the majority of such animals thick and copious. Only
in the case of women is the superfluity turned into a discharge
instead of being utilized in these other ways.

There is something similar to be remarked of men: for in
proportion to his size man emits more seminal fluid than any other
animal (for which reason man is the smoothest of animals),
especially such men as are of a moist habit and not over corpulent,
and fair men in greater degree than dark. It is likewise with women;
for in the stout, great part of the excretion goes to nourish the
body. In the act of intercourse, women of a fair complexion
discharge a more plentiful secretion than the dark; and furthermore, a
watery and pungent diet conduces to this phenomenon.

3

It is a sign of conception in women when the place is dry
immediately after intercourse. If the lips of the orifice be smooth
conception is difficult, for the matter slips off; and if they be
thick it is also difficult. But if on digital examination the lips
feel somewhat rough and adherent, and if they be likewise thin, then
the chances are in favour of conception. Accordingly, if conception be
desired, we must bring the parts into such a condition as we have just
described; but if on the contrary we want to avoid conception then
we must bring about a contrary disposition. Wherefore, since if the
parts be smooth conception is prevented, some anoint that part of
the womb on which the seed falls with oil of cedar, or with ointment
of lead or with frankincense, commingled with olive oil. If the seed
remain within for seven days then it is certain that conception has
taken place; for it is during that period that what is known as
effluxion takes place.

In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after
conception has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in
the case of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child.
After parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld
for an equal number of days, but not in all cases with equal
exactitude. After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are
past, the discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its
way to the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk
in the breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or
interspersed with little threads. And when conception has taken place,
there is apt to be a sort of feeling in the region of the flanks,
which in some cases quickly swell up a little, especially in thin
persons, and also in the groin.

In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs
on the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, but
if the child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the
ninetieth day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an
accurate statement of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which
the movement is manifested on the right-hand side though a female
child be coming, and on the left-hand side though the infant be a
male. And in short, these and all suchlike phenomena are usually
subject to differences that may be summed up as differences of degree.

About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct
parts, it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without
distinction of parts.

What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within
the first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and
the greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of
these forty days.

In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if
it be placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane,
but if it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If
the membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one
of the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see,
including the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other animals
are of great size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during
the first three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated;
if however it reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and
quickly attains further differentiation. In short, while within the
womb, the female infant accomplishes the whole development of its
parts more slowly than the male, and more frequently than the
man-child takes ten months to come to perfection. But after birth, the
females pass more quickly than the males through youth and maturity
and age; and this is especially true of those that bear many children,
as indeed I have already said.

4

When the womb has conceived the seed, straightway in the
majority of cases it closes up until seven months are fulfilled; but
in the eighth month it opens, and the embryo, if it be fertile,
descends in the eighth month. But such embryos as are not fertile
but are devoid of breath at eight months old, their mothers do not
bring into the world by parturition at eight months, neither does
the embryo descend within the womb at that period nor does the womb
open. And it is a sign that the embryo is not capable of life if it be
formed without the above-named circumstances taking place.

After conception women are prone to a feeling of heaviness in
all parts of their bodies, and for instance they experience a
sensation of darkness in front of the eyes and suffer also from
headache. These symptoms appear sooner or later, sometimes as early as
the tenth day, according as the patient be more or less burthened with
superfluous humours. Nausea also and sickness affect the most of
women, and especially such as those that we have just now mentioned,
after the menstrual discharge has ceased and before it is yet turned
in the direction of the breasts.

Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their
pregnancy and some at a later period when the embryo has had time to
grow; and in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from
strangury towards the end of their time. As a general rule women who
are pregnant of a male child escape comparatively easily and retain
a comparatively healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose
infant is a female; for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer
more pain, and in many cases they are subject to swellings of the legs
and eruptions on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to
exceptions.

Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to
rapid changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness';
and with the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute,
and they are less contented when they have got what they desired.

In a certain few cases the patient feels unusually well during
pregnancy. The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is
beginning to grow.

In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow
thin and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts
of the body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a
man-child is more prone to movement within its mother's womb than a
female child, and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of
female children is apt to be protracted and sluggish, while in the
case of male children it is acute and by a long way more difficult.
Women who have connexion with their husbands shortly before childbirth
are delivered all the more quickly. Occasionally women seem to be in
the pains of labour though labour has not in fact commenced, what
seemed like the commencement of labour being really the result of
the foetus turning its head.

Now all other animals bring the time of pregnancy to an end in a
uniform way; in other words, one single term of pregnancy is defined
for each of them. But in the case of mankind alone of all animals
the times are diverse; for pregnancy may be of seven months' duration,
or of eight months or of nine, and still more commonly of ten
months, while some few women go even into the eleventh month.

Children that come into the world before seven months can
under no circumstances survive. The seven-months' children are the
earliest that are capable of life, and most of them are weakly-for
which reason, by the way, it is customary to swaddle them in wool,-and
many of them are born with some of the orifices of the body
imperforate, for instance the ears or the nostrils. But as they get
bigger they become more perfectly developed, and many of them grow up.

In Egypt, and in some other places where the women are
fruitful and are wont to bear and bring forth many children without
difficulty, and where the children when born are capable of living
even if they be born subject to deformity, in these places the
eight-months' children live and are brought up, but in Greece it is
only a few of them that survive while most perish. And this being
the general experience, when such a child does happen to survive the
mother is apt to think that it was not an eight months' child after
all, but that she had conceived at an earlier period without being
aware of it.

Women suffer most pain about the fourth and the eighth months, and
if the foetus perishes in the fourth or in the eighth month the mother
also succumbs as a general rule; so that not only do the eight-months'
children not live, but when they die their mothers are in great danger
of their own lives. In like manner children that are apparently born
at a later term than eleven months are held to be in doubtful case;
inasmuch as with them also the beginning of conception may have
escaped the notice of the mother. What I mean to say is that often the
womb gets filled with wind, and then when at a later period
connexion and conception take place, they think that the former
circumstance was the beginning of conception from the similarity of
the symptoms that they experienced.

Such then are the differences between mankind and other
animals in regard to the many various modes of completion of the
term of pregnancy. Furthermore, some animals produce one and some
produce many at a birth, but the human species does sometimes the
one and sometimes the other. As a general rule and among most
nations the women bear one child a birth; but frequently and in many
lands they bear twins, as for instance in Egypt especially.
Sometimes women bring forth three and even four children, and
especially in certain parts of the world, as has already been
stated. The largest number ever brought forth is five, and such an
occurrence has been witnessed on several occasions. There was once
upon a time a certain women who had twenty children at four births;
each time she had five, and most of them grew up.

Now among other animals, if a pair of twins happen to be male
and female they have as good a chance of surviving as though both
had been males or both females; but among mankind very few twins
survive if one happen to be a boy and the other a girl.

Of all animals the woman and the mare are most inclined to
receive the commerce of the male during pregnancy; while all other
animals when they are pregnant avoid the male, save those in which the
phenomenon of superfoetation occurs, such as the hare. Unlike that
animal, the mare after once conceiving cannot be rendered pregnant
again, but brings forth one foal only, at least as a general rule;
in the human species cases of superfoetation are rare, but they do
happen now and then.

An embryo conceived some considerable time after a previous
conception does not come to perfection, but gives rise to pain and
causes the destruction of the earlier embryo; and, by the way, a
case has been known to occur where owing to this destructive influence
no less than twelve embryos conceived by superfoetation have been
discharged. But if the second conception take place at a short
interval, then the mother bears that which was later conceived, and
brings forth the two children like actual twins, as happened,
according to the legend, in the case of Iphicles and Hercules. The
following also is a striking example: a certain woman, having
committed adultery, brought forth the one child resembling her husband
and the other resembling the adulterous lover.

The case has also occurred where a woman, being pregnant of twins,
has subsequently conceived a third child; and in course of time she
brought forth the twins perfect and at full term, but the third a
five-months' child; and this last died there and then. And in
another case it happened that the woman was first delivered of a
seven-months' child, and then of two which were of full term; and of
these the first died and the other two survived.

Some also have been known to conceive while about to miscarry, and
they have lost the one child and been delivered of the other.

If women while going with child cohabit after the eighth month the
child is in most cases born covered over with a slimy fluid. Often
also the child is found to be replete with food of which the mother
had partaken.

5

When women have partaken of salt in overabundance their children
are apt to be born destitute of nails.

Milk that is produced earlier than the seventh month is unfit
for use; but as soon as the child is fit to live the milk is fit to
use. The first of the milk is saltish, as it is likewise with sheep.
Most women are sensibly affected by wine during pregnancy, for if they
partake of it they grow relaxed and debilitated.

The beginning of child-bearing in women and of the capacity to
procreate in men, and the cessation of these functions in both
cases, coincide in the one case with the emission of seed and in the
other with the discharge of the catamenia: with this qualification
that there is a lack of fertility at the commencement of these
symptoms, and again towards their close when the emissions become
scanty and weak. The age at which the sexual powers begin has been
related already. As for their end, the menstrual discharges ceases
in most women about their fortieth year; but with those in whom it
goes on longer it lasts even to the fiftieth year, and women of that
age have been known to bear children. But beyond that age there is
no case on record.

6

Men in most cases continue to be sexually competent until they are
sixty years old, and if that limit be overpassed then until seventy
years; and men have been actually known to procreate children at
seventy years of age. With many men and many women it so happens
that they are unable to produce children to one another, while they
are able to do so in union with other individuals. The same thing
happens with regard to the production of male and female offspring;
for sometimes men and women in union with one another produce male
children or female, as the case may be, but children of the opposite
sex when otherwise mated. And they are apt to change in this respect
with advancing age: for sometimes a husband and wife while they are
young produce female children and in later life male children; and
in other cases the very contrary occurs. And just the same thing is
true in regard to the generative faculty: for some while young are
childless, but have children when they grow older; and some have
children to begin with, and later on no more.

There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if
they do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again
conceive readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth.
Furthermore, some men and some women produce female offspring and some
male, as for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his
two and seventy children is said to have begotten but one girl.
Those women who are unable to conceive, save with the help of
medical treatment or some other adventitious circumstance, are as a
general rule apt to bear female children rather than male.

It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually
competent and afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their
former powers.

From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and
blind from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit
anything that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar
marks, such as pimples or scars. Such things have been known to be
handed down through three generations; for instance, a certain man had
a mark on his arm which his son did not possess, but his grandson
had it in the same spot though not very distinct.

Such cases, however, are few; for the children of cripples are
mostly sound, and there is no hard and fast rule regarding them. While
children mostly resemble their parents or their ancestors, it
sometimes happens that no such resemblance is to be traced. But
parents may pass on resemblance after several generations, as in the
case of the woman in Elis, who committed adultery with a negro; in
this case it was not the woman's own daughter but the daughter's child
that was a blackamoor.

As a rule the daughters have a tendency to take after the
mother, and the boys after the father; but sometimes it is the other
way, the boys taking after the mother and the girls after the
father. And they may resemble both parents in particular features.

There have been known cases of twins that had no resemblance
to one another, but they are alike as a general rule. There was once
upon a time a woman who had intercourse with her husband a week
after giving birth to a child and she conceived and bore a second
child as like the first as any twin. Some women have a tendency to
produce children that take after themselves, and others children
that take after the husband; and this latter case is like that of
the celebrated mare in Pharsalus, that got the name of the Honest
Wife.

7

In the emission of sperm there is a preliminary discharge of
air, and the outflow is manifestly caused by a blast of air; for
nothing is cast to a distance save by pneumatic pressure. After the
seed reaches the womb and remains there for a while, a membrane
forms around it; for when it happens to escape before it is distinctly
formed, it looks like an egg enveloped in its membrane after removal
of the eggshell; and the membrane is full of veins.

All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon
dry land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg,
develop in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached
to the womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have it
attached to the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain
sort of fishes. And in some cases membranous envelopes surround the
egg, and in other cases the chorion surrounds it. And first of all the
animal develops within the innermost envelope, and then another
membrane appears around the former one, which latter is for the most
part attached to the womb, but is in part separated from it and
contains fluid. In between is a watery or sanguineous fluid, which the
women folk call the forewaters.

8

All animals, or all such as have a navel, grow by the navel. And
the navel is attached to the cotyledon in all such as possess
cotyledons, and to the womb itself by a vein in all such as have the
womb smooth. And as regards their shape within the womb, the
four-footed animals all lie stretched out, and the footless animals
lie on their sides, as for instance fishes; but two-legged animals lie
in a bent position, as for instance birds; and human embryos lie bent,
with nose between the knees and eyes upon the knees, and the ears free
at the sides.

All animals alike have the head upwards to begin with; but as
they grow and approach the term of egress from the womb they turn
downwards, and birth in the natural course of things takes place in
all animals head foremost; but in abnormal cases it may take place
in a bent position, or feet foremost.

The young of quadrupeds when they are near their full time
contain excrements, both liquid and in the form of solid lumps, the
latter in the lower part of the bowel and the urine in the bladder.

In those animals that have cotyledons in the womb the cotyledons
grow less as the embryo grows bigger, and at length they disappear
altogether. The navel-string is a sheath wrapped about blood-vessels
which have their origin in the womb, from the cotyledons in those
animals which possess them and from a blood-vessel in those which do
not. In the larger animals, such as the embryos of oxen, the vessels
are four in number, and in smaller animals two; in the very little
ones, such as fowls, one vessel only.

Of the four vessels that run into the embryo, two pass through
the liver where the so-called gates or 'portae' are, running in the
direction of the great vein, and the other two run in the direction of
the aorta towards the point where it divides and becomes two vessels
instead of one. Around each pair of blood-vessels are membranes, and
surrounding these membranes is the navel-string itself, after the
manner of a sheath. And as the embryo grows, the veins themselves tend
more and more to dwindle in size. And also as the embryo matures it
comes down into the hollow of the womb and is observed to move here,
and sometimes rolls over in the vicinity of the groin.