Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten BooksAristotle
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle
Zoology -- Pre-Linnaean works
3. About the same period also the breasts of females enlarge, and the
catamenia make their appearance. They resemble the blood of a newly
killed animal. In young girls only do they appear white, especially
if they make use of fluid food. This complaint stops the growth and
weakens the body of girls. The catamenia usually appear when the mammæ
are about two fingers high. The voice of girls also becomes deeper at
this period, for on the whole the voice of women is more acute than
that of men, and the voice of girls than that of old women, as the
voice of boys is more acute than the voice of men. The voice of female
children also is more acute than that of males, and the windpipe is
more acute in girls than boys.
4. They also want especial care at this period, for their sexual
desires are very strong at the commencement, so that if they now take
care to avoid every excitement, except such as the change of their body
requires, without using venery, they generally remain temperate in
after-years. For girls who indulge in venery when young, generally grow
up intemperate; and so do males if they are unguarded either one way or
both ways; for at this age the ducts open and afford an easy passage
for the fluid through the body, and at the same time the memory of past
pleasures causes a desire for present gratification.
5. Some men never have hair on the pubes from their birth, nor seed,
on account of the destruction of the parts appropriated to the semen.
There are some women also who never have hair on the pubes. The male
and female also change their habits of sickness and of health, and the
proportions of their body, whether slight or stout, or of a good habit.
Some thin boys after they attain puberty become stout and healthy, in
others the contrary takes place. This is the case also with females;
for whether boys or girls have their bodies loaded with excrementitious
matter, this is separated in the one by puberty, in the other by the
catamenia. They become more healthy and thriving when that which had
prevented health and growth is removed.
6. Those which are of the contrary habit of body become more thin and
delicate; for their naturally healthy condition is separated in the
puberty of one sex, and the catamenia of the other. There is also
considerable variety in the bosoms of young girls, for in some they are
very large, in others small. This generally takes place in those girls
which have much superfluous humour, for when the catamenia are about to
appear, but before they arrive, the more fluid the patient is, the more
necessary it is that the breasts should increase until the catamenia
make their appearance, and the breasts, which then begin to increase,
remain so afterwards. In youths and aged men the breasts are more
conspicuous, and more like those of females; and in those who are of a
soft habit of body, and are smooth and not full of veins, and in dark
persons also more than fair ones.
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