XCI. But with all this, the argument is evidently fallacious; for if it was not, it would prove, not that the minds of women were less discerning than those of men, but that they were more slow and dull of comprehension than them, which is false; for most men allow, that in point of quickness they have the advantage. XCII. Further; many men, who are keen, ready, and profound, abound with habitual defluxions and catarrhs, which are caused by a quantity of excrementitious moisture collected in the most remote recesses of the head, and within the very substance of the brain, as may be seen in Riberius, where he treats of catarrhs. The excessive humidity of the brain then, does not obstruct the ready or right use of the understanding; and if an excrementitious moisture does not obstruct it, much less can a natural one have that effect. XCIII. And as a reason why a natural one does not hinder it, we may add, that, according to the doctrine of Pliny, the brain of a man is more humid than that of every other living creature: _Sed homo portione maximum & humidissimum._ Lib. 11, Cap. 37. Nor is it credible, that Nature should place in an organ destined for our most perfect knowledge, a temperament, capable of obstructing, or making the operations of our reason slow and defective. If I should be told, that, notwithstanding this native humidity, in which the brain of man exceeds that of a brute, it remains tempered in the exact proportion which is best suited to the operations of reason, and that the humidity of the brain of a woman exceeds that proportion; I answer, even supposing that humidity, by means of its natural quality, does not obstruct, nobody knows in what proportion, or to what degree, the brain, for the best exercising its functions should be moist; and therefore it is vague to say, there is a greater proportion of it in women than in men, or in men than in women.