LIBER X · CAPUT 64
THE POSITION OF ANIMALS IN THE UTERUS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Quaecumque animalpariunt, in capita gignunt circumacto fetu sub enixum, alias in utero porrecto. quadripedes gestantur extentis ad longitudinem cruribus et ad alvum suam adplicatis; homo in semet conglobatus inter duo genua naribus sitis. molas, de quibus ante diximus, gigni putant, ubi mulier non ex mare, verum ex semet ipsa tantum conceperit. ideo nec animari, quia non sit ex duobus, altricemque habere per se vitam illam quae satis arboribusque contingat.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
All those animals that are viviparous produce their young with the head first, the young animal about the time of yeaning turning itself round in the womb, where at other times it lies extended at full length. Quadrupeds during the time of gestation have the legs extended, and lying close to the belly; while, on the other hand, man is gathered up into a ball, with the nose between the knees. With reference to moles, of which we have previously spoken, it is supposed that they are produced when a female has conceived, not by a male, but of herself only. Hence it is that there is no vitality in this false conception, because it does not proceed from the conjunction of the two sexes; and it has only that sort of vegetative existence in itself which we see in plants and trees.