It is of no inconsiderable use, upon examining any Subject, to observe particularly the Hypotheses upon which Authors seem to build Arguments for supporting what they publish to the World; because whether they follow the Sentiments of others or no, if any Absurdities should arise from such Reasonings, the Truth must still be remote, which is in its own Nature so clear as to shine forth without much Strife, when Arguments are founded upon Facts fairly stated. Let us therefore take notice of our Author professing, according to the Ancient Notions of Generation already hinted at, that an Hermaphrodite is produc’d from an equal Quantity of the Semina of both Male and Female, elaborated together with equal Force; which by virtue of the Vis Formatrix, or Vis Plastica, (the Author’s _Vertue Formatrice_) which he says, endeavouring always to form things alike, is the Reason why two Sexes are form’d in the same Body. The present Notions of Generation are greatly different from what is here the Faith of our Author, because a better Knowledge of the Structure of the Parts, which are the Instruments of it, has taken Place; and certainly an Hypothesis is better founded upon an experimental Fact, than upon bare Supposition; for the Ancients, who knew nothing of the Uses of Ovaria, nor Fallopian Tubes, had no other Way of accounting for Generation, but this of our Author, which they suppos’d from only being sensible of an Injection of something in the Coitus from the Male, and again, from believing something to exist in the Female, which they also called Semen, the natural Conclusion that arose from this Consideration was, that an admixtion was made of both, and in order to complete the Work, that occult Finisher, ‘the Vis Formatrix,’ was summoned to assist till the Fœtus was moulded out. The most illiterate Grooms have the same Opinion ’till this Day (tho’ they never knew it was said by any Author) drawn from the same natural Reason only; for I have taken notice of one thing they do instantly after a breeding Mare is cover’d by a Horse; which is to throw a large Quantity of Water, that is always prepar’d for that Purpose, about her back Parts, which they say is done in order to make her cringe, and keep what she has received. And I have further observ’d, that when any Part of it has been rejected, immediately after the Coitus, by the Mare, they have despaired of any Benefit from the Access of the Horse. Hence it is plain that the Causes assign’d by our Author for the Production of this double nature in human Bodies, can produce no such Effect; for the World is by this time assur’d, that the Mechanism of Generation is otherwise carry’d on, and that no animal Being whatsoever is generated in the Manner laid down by our Author and his Predecessors, therefore no Hermaphrodite can be the Effect of such a Scheme of Generation. But now to his Division[93]: