Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 2 of 2).djvu/58

 576 ON CONCEPTION.

Yet it is a matter of wonder where this faculty abides after in- tercourse is completed, and before the formation of the ovnm or " conception/' To what is this active power of the male com- mitted ? is it to the uterus solely, or to the whole woman ? or is it to the uterus primarily and to the woman secondarily ? or, lastly, does the woman conceive in the womb, as we see by the eye and think by the brain ?

For although the woman conceiving after intercourse some- times produces no foetus, yet we know that phenomena occur which clearly indicate that conception has really taken place, al- though without result. Over-fed bitches, which admit the dog with- out fecundation following, are nevertheless observed to be slug- gish about the time they should have whelped, and to bark as they do when their time is at hand, also to steal away the whelps from another bitch, to tend and lick them, and also to fight fiercely for them. Others have milk or colostrum, as it is called, in their teats, and are, moreover, subject to the diseases of those which have actually whelped ; the same thing is seen in hens which cluck at certain times, although they have no eggs on which to sit. Some birds also, as pigeons, if they have ad- mitted the male, although they lay no eggs at all, or only barren ones, are found equally sedulous in building their nests.

The virtue which proceeds from the male in coitii has such prodigious power of fecundation, that the whole woman, both in mind and body, undergoes a change. And although it is the uterus made ready for this, on which the first influ- ences are impressed, and from which virtue and strength are diffused throughout the body, the question still remains, how it is that the power thus communicated remains attached to the uterus ? is it to the whole uterus or only to a part of it ? nothing is to be found within it after coitus, for the semen in a short time either falls out or evaporates, and the blood, its circle completed, returns from the uterus by the vessels.

Again, what is this preparation or maturity of the uterus which eagerly demands the fecundating seed ? whence does it proceed ? Certain it is, unless the uterus be ready for coition every attempt at fecundation is vain ; nay, in some animals, at no other time is the male admitted. It happens occasionally, I allow, that this maturity arrives earlier in some from the

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