A lecture on the generation, increase, and improvement of the human species / [Anon].

  • James Graham
Date:
[1782?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the generation, increase, and improvement of the human species / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I l» 1 Gentlemen, we (hall now proceed to enquire into jpe caufbs of generation; likewife the caufe of barren- hefs, and point out the moft effectual means of remove Ing it. But that I may be the better tinderfiood, it taay not be amifs to take up the various hypothecs vhich have been adopted on the fubjeft, and endeavour :o eftablifh a theory of generation on a more rational ground than the do&rine of tile ancients. : Man, either from curiofity or an inquisitive difpqfb* 'ion, has been led to enquire into the caufe of his own 'ixiftence. In following up Nature to its fource, the )hilofopher finds himfeif fkill in the dark; but though inable to unfold her myfterious procefs, and demon- «r . Irate upon clear ground, imagination Supplies the want \f fa&s; hence originates falfe notions, which for a Ime have been univerfally received; and upon a more daufible conjecture being offered, have again been as tniverfelly rejected, They confide red that the male-? eed was fufficient of itfelf, without the afliftance of he female fern in a; that the male-feed contained the .betus, and was only lodged the uterus of the woman |S a place of nourishment; fo that the child had no more dependance on the mother for its exigence, than , plant has upon the ground upon which it grows 5 Aut we find children to rcfemble both parents. This »ruth fuggeHed another, and occafioned a fecond hy¬ pothecs, of the child being produced from a mixture W the femina of both parents-, This was the opinion '»f the great Ariftctle; but this did not long prevail, t was foon overturned when Anatomy came to be bet-? ■fcr yncjerflood. It is well known that many women
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