The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher

I.-Of

k. When a woman is not with child, it is a little oblong, and of substance very thick and close; but when she is with child it is shortened, and its thickness diminished proportionably to its distension; and therefore it is a mistake of anatomists who affirm, that its substance waxeth thicker a little before a woman's labour; for any one's reason will inform him, that the more distended it is, the thinner it must be; and the nearer a woman is to the time of her delivery the shorter her womb must be extended. As to the action by which this inward orifice of the womb is opened and shut, it is purely natural; for were it otherwise, there could not be so many bastards begotten as there are, nor would any

ted in the middle of the hypogastrium (or lower parts of the belly between the bladder and the belly, or right gut) by which also it is defended from any hurt t

, in part resembling a pear; for being broad at the bottom, it

they have had children, it is larger in them than in such as have had none; but in women of a good stature and well shaped, it is (as I have said before), from the entry of the privy parts to the bottom of the womb usually about eight inches; but the length of the body of the womb a

ive, is gradually dilated by the growth of the foetus or young one, and is afterwards contracted or closed again, to thrust forth both it and the after-bur

unless grown in ground proper to excite and awaken their vegetative virtue so likewise the seed of man, though potentially containing all the parts of the child, would never produce so admiss

oneum or caul, and is very thin, without it is smooth, but within equal, that it may the better cleave to the womb, as it is fleshier and thicker than anything else we meet with within the body, when the woman is not preg

d the terms in ripe virgins, and the blood which nourisheth the embryo in breeding women. The branches which issue from the spermatic vessels, are inserted on each side of the bottom of the womb, and are much less than those which proceed from the hypogastrics, those being greater and bedewing the whole substance of it. There are some other small vessels, which arising the one from the other are conducted

ath so great a sympathy with the stomach, which is likewise very considerably furnished from the same part; so that the womb cannot be afflicted w

les, and as well, safely conduct the different vessels, as the ejaculatories, to the womb. The lowermost are called round ligaments, taking their origin from the side of the womb near the horn, from whence they pass the groin, together with the production of the peritoneum, which accompanies them through the rings of the oblique and transverse muscles of the belly, by which they divide themselves into many little branches resembling the foot of a goose, of which some are inserted into the os pubis, the rest are lost and confounded with the membranes which women and children feel in their thighs. These two ligaments are long, round and nervous, and pretty big in their beginning near the matrix, hollow in their ri

the infant; and it is, therefore, absolutely necessary for the conservation of the species. It also seems by accident to receive and expel the impurities of

and modern Physicians, touching the woman's co

child, as well as the man; the ancients strongly affirming it, but our modern authors being generally of another judgment. I will not make myself a

ain, it must be granted that they were formed for the use of the seed and procreation, and fixed in their proper places, to operate and contribute virtue and efficiency to the seed; and this, say they, is further proved from hence, that if women at years of maturity use not copulation to eject their seed, they often fall into strange diseases, as appears by young women and vi

h them; and from hence one or more, as they are fecundated by the man's seed, are conveyed into the womb by the oviducts. And the truth of this, say they, is so plain, that if you boil them, the liquor shall have the same taste, colour and consistency with the taste of bird's eggs. And if it be objected that they have no shells, the answer is easy; for the eggs of fowls

s seed; for to say that women have true seed, say they, is erroneous. But the manner of conception is this; the most spirituous part of the man's seed, in the act of copulation, reaching up to the ovarium or testicles of the woman (which contains divers eggs, sometimes fewer) impregnates o

emselves take it ill to be thought merely passive in the act wherein they make such vigorous exertions; and positively affirm, that they are sensible of the emission of their seed in that action, and that in

k of conception, and of those things which are necessary to be observed