GENERATION OF ALL KINDS OF TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Bipedum solus homo animal gignit. homini tantum primi coitus paenitentia, augurium scilicet vitae a paenitenda origine. ceteris animalibus stati per tempora anni concubitus, homini, ut dictum est, omnibus horis dierum noctiumque; ceteris satias in coitu, homini prope nulla. Messalina Claudi Caesaris coniunx, regalem hanc existimans palmam, elegit in id certamen nobilissimam e prostitutis ancillam mercenariae stipis eamque nocte ac die superavit quinto atque vicensimo concubitu. in hominum genere maribus deverticula veneris, excogitata omnia scelere naturae, feminis vero abortus. quantum in hac parte multo nocentiores quam ferae sumus! viros avidiores veneris hieme, feminas aestate Hesiodus prodidit.

Coitus aversis elephantis, camelis, tigribus, lyncibus, rhinoceroti, leoni, dasypodi, cuniculis, quibus aversa genitalia. cameli etiam solitudines aut secreta certe petunt, neque intervenire datur sine pernicie; coitus toto die, et his tantum ex omnibus. quibus solida ungula in quadripedum genere, mares olfactus accendit. avertuntur et canes, phocae, lupi, in medioque coitu invitique etiam cohaerent. supra dictorum dasypodum plerumque feminae priores superveniunt, in reliquis mares. ursi autem, ut dictum est, humanitus strati, irenacei stantes ambo inter se conplexi, feles mare stante, femina subiacente, vulpes in latera proiectae maremque femina amplexa. taurorum cervorumque feminae vim non tolerant; ea de causa ingrediuntur in conceptu. cervi vicissim ad alias transeunt et ad priores redeunt. lacertae ut ea, quae sine pedibus sunt, circumflexu venerem novere.

Omnia animalia quo maiora corpore, hoc minus fecunda. singulos gignunt elephanti, cameli, equi; acanthis duodenos, avis minima. ocissime pariunt quae plurimos gignunt. quo maius est animal, tanto diutius formatur in utero. diutius gestantur quibus longiora sunt vitae spatia, neque crescentium tempestiva ad generandum aetas. quae solidas habent ungulas, singulos; quae bisulcas, et geminos pariunt; quorum in digitos pedum fissura divisa est, et numerosiora in fetu. sed superiora omnia perfectos edunt partus, haec in- choatos, in quo sunt genere leaenae, ursae; et vulpes informe etiam magis quam supra dicta parit, rarumque est videre parientem. postea lambendo calefaciunt fetus omnia ea et figurant. pariunt plurimum quaternos. caecos autem gignunt canes, lupi, pantherae, thoes.

Canum plura genera. Laconicae octavo mense utrimque generant; ferunt LX diebus et plurimum III. ceterae canes et semenstres coitum patiuntur. inplentur omnes uno coitu. quae ante iustum tempus concepere, diutius caecos habent catulos, et omnes totidem diebus. existimantur in urina attollere crus fere semenstres; id est signum consummati virium roboris. feminae hoc idem sidentes. partus duodeni quibus numerosissimi, cetero quini, seni, aliquando singuli, quod prodigiosum putant, sicut omnes mares aut omnes feminas gigni. primos quosque mares pariunt, in ceteris alternant. ineuntur a partu sexto mense. octonos Laconicae pariunt. propria in eo genere maribus labore salacitas. vivunt Laconici annis denis, feminae duodenis, cetera genera XV annis, aliquando et XX, nec tota sua aetate generant, fere a duodecimo desinentes.

Felium et ichneumonum reliqua ut canum. vivunt annis senis. dasypodes omni mense pariunt et superfetant, sicut lepores. a partu statim inplentur; concipiunt quamvis ubera siccante fetu. pariunt vero caecos. elephanti, ut diximus, pariunt singulos magnitudine vituli trimenstris. cameli XII mensibus ferunt; a trimatu pariunt vere iterumque post annum inplentur a partu. equas autem post tertium demum aut post unum ab enixu utiliter admitti putant coguntque invitas. asinas et septimo die concipere facillime creditur. equarum iubas tondere praecipiunt, ut asinorum coitum patiantur humilitate; comantes enim gloria superbire. a coitu solae animalium currunt exadversus aquilonem austrumve, prout marem aut feminam concepere. colorem ilico mutant, rubriore pilo vel quicumque sit pleniore: hoc argumento desinunt admittere, etiam volentes. nec inpedit partus quasdam ab opere falluntque gravidae. vicisse Olympia praegnantem Echecratidis Thessali invenimus. equos et canes et sues initum matutinum adpetere, feminas autem post meridiem blandiri diligentiores tradunt. equas domitas LX diebus equire ante quam gregales, sues tantum coitu spumam ore fundere, verrem subantis audita voce, ni admittatur, cibum non capere usque in maciem, feminas autem in tantum efferari, ut hominem lancinent, candida maxime veste indutum. rabies ea aceto mitigatur naturae adsperso. aviditas coitus putatur et cibis fieri, sicut viro eruca, pecori caepa. quae ex feris mitigentur, non concipere, ut anseres, apros vero tarde et cervos nec nisi ab infantia educatos mirum est. quadripedum praegnantes venerem arcent praeter equam et suem; sed superfetant dasypus et lepus tantum.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

The only one among the bipeds that is viviparous is man. Man is the only animal that repents of his first embraces; sad augury, indeed, of life, that its very origin should thus cause repentance! Other animals have stated times in the year for their embraces; but man, as we have already observed, employs for this purpose all hours both of day and night; other animals become sated with venereal pleasures, man hardly knows any satiety. Messalina, the wife of Claudius Cæsar, thinking this a palm quite worthy of an empress, selected, for the purpose of deciding the question, one of the most notorious of the women who followed the profession of a hired prostitute; and the empress outdid her, after continuous intercourse, night and day, at the twenty-fifth embrace. In the human race also, the men have devised various substitutes for the more legitimate exercise of passion, all of which outrage Nature; while the females have recourse to abortion. How much more guilty than the brute beasts are we in this respect! Hesiod has stated that men are more lustful in winter, women in summer.

Coupling is performed back to back by the elephant, the camel, the tiger, the lynx, the rhinoceros, the lion, the dasypus, and the rabbit, the genital parts of all which animals lie far back. Camels even seek desert places, or, at all events, spots of a retired nature; and to come upon them on such an occasion is not unattended with danger. Coupling, with them, lasts a whole day; the only animal, indeed, of all those with solid hoofs, with which such is the case. Among the quadrupeds, it is the smell that excites the passions of the male. In this act, dogs also, seals, and wolves turn back to back, and remain attached, though greatly against their will. In the greater part of the animals above mentioned, the females solicit the males; in some, however, the males the females. As to bears, they lie down, like the human race, as previously mentioned by us; while hedgehogs embrace standing upright. In cats, the male stands above, while the female assumes a crouching posture; foxes lie on the side, the female embracing the male. In the case of the cow and the hind, the female is unable to endure the violence of the male, consequently she keeps in motion during the time of coupling. The buck goes from one hind to another in turn, and then comes back to the first. Lizards couple entwined around each other, like the animals without feet.

All animals, the larger they are in bulk, are proportionably less prolific: the elephant, the camel, and the horse produce but one, while the acanthis, a very small bird, produces twelve. Those animals, also, which are the most prolific, are the shortest time in breeding. The larger an animal is, the longer is the time required for its formation in the womb; those, also, which are the longest-lived, require the longest gestation; the growing age, too, is not suitable for the purposes of generation. Those animals which have solid hoofs bear but a single young one, while those which have cloven hoofs bear two. Those, again, whose feet are divided into toes, have a still more numerous offspring; but, while the others bring forth their young perfect, these last bear them in an unformed state, such, for instance, as the lioness and the she-bear. The fox also brings forth its young in an even more imperfect state than these; it is a very uncommon thing, however, to find it whelping. After the birth, these animals warm their young by licking them, and thereby give them their proper shape; they mostly produce four at a birth.

The dog, the wolf, the panther, and the jackal produce their young blind. There are several kinds of dogs; those of Laconia, of both sexes, are ready for breeding in the eighth month, and the females carry their young sixty or sixty-three days at most; other dogs are fit for breeding when only six months old; the female, in all cases, becomes pregnant at the first congress. Those which have conceived before the proper age, bear pups which are longer blind, though not all the same number of days. It is thought that dogs, in general, lift the leg when they water at six months old; this, too, is looked upon as a sign that they have attained their full growth and strength; when doing this, the female squats. The most numerous litters known consist of twelve, but more generally five or six is the number; sometimes, indeed, only one is produced, but then it is looked upon as a prodigy, and the same is the case, too, when all the pups are of one sex. In the dog, the males come into the world first, but in other animals, the two sexes are born alternately. The female admits the male again six months after she has littered. Those of the Laconian breed bear eight young ones. It is a peculiarity in this kind, that after undergoing great labour, the males are remarkable for their salacity. In the Laconian breed the male lives ten years, the female twelve; while other kinds, again, live fifteen years, and sometimes as much as twenty; but they are not fit for breeding to the end of their life, as they generally cease at about the twelfth year. The cat and the ichneumon are, in other respects, like the dog; but they only live six years.

The dasypus brings forth every month in the year, and is subject to superfœtation, like the hare. It conceives immediately after it has littered, even though it is still suckling its young, which are blind at their birth. The elephant, as we have already stated, produces but one, and that the size of a calf three months old. The gestation of the camel lasts twelve months; the female conceives when three years old, and brings forth in the spring; at the end of a year from that time, she is ready to conceive again. It is thought advisable to have the mare covered so soon as three days, and indeed, sometimes, only one, after she has foaled; and, however unwilling she may be, means are taken to compel her. It is believed also, that it is by no means an uncommon thing for a woman to conceive on the seventh day after her delivery. It is recommended that the manes of mares should be cut, so as to humble their pride, in order to make them submit to be covered by the male ass; for when the mane is long, they are liable to be proud and vain. This is the only animal, the female of which, after covering, runs, facing the north or the south, according as she has conceived a male or a female. They change their colour immediately after, and the hair becomes of a redder hue, and deeper, whatever the colour may naturally be; it is this that indicates that they must no longer be covered, and they, themselves, will even resist it. Gestation does not, however, preclude some of them from being worked, and they are often with foal long before it is known. We read that the mare of Echecrates, the Thessalian, conquered at the Olympic games, while with foal.

Those who are more careful enquirers into these matters, tell us that in the horse, the dog, and the swine, the males are most ardent for sexual intercourse in the morning, while the female seeks the society of the male after mid-day. They say also, that mares in harness desire the horse sixty days sooner than those that live in herds; that it is swine only that foam at the mouth during the time of coupling; and that a boar, if it hears the voice of a sow in heat, will refuse to take its food,—to such a degree, indeed, as to starve itself, if it is not allowed to cover—while the female is reduced to such a state of frantic madness, as to attack and tear a man, more especially if wearing a white garment. This frenzy, however, is appeased by sprinkling vinegar on the sexual parts. It is supposed also that salacity is promoted by certain aliments; the herb rocket, for instance, in the case of man, and onions in that of cattle. Wild animals that have been tamed, do not conceive, the goose, for instance; the wild boar and the stag will only produce late in life, and even then they must have been taken and tamed when very young; a singular fact. The pregnant females, among the quadrupeds, refuse the male, with the exception, indeed, of the mare and the sow; superfœtation, however, takes place in none but the dasypus and the hare.