LIBER VII · CAPUT 11
THE CONCEPTION AND GENERATION OF MAN
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Praeter mulierem pauca animalia coitum novere gravida; unum quidem omnino aut alterum superfetat. extat in monimentis et medicorum et quibus talia consectari curae fuit uno abortu duodecim puerperia egesta. sed ubi paululum temporis inter duos conceptus intercessit, utrumque perfertur, ut in Hercule et Iphicle fratre eius apparuit et in ea quae gemino partu alterum marito similem alterumque adultero genuit, item in Proconnesia ancilla, quae eiusdem diei coitu alterum domino similem, alterum procuratori eius, et in alia, quae iusto partu quinque mensum alterum edidit, rursus in alia, quae septem mensum edito puerperio insecutis in mensibus geminos enixa est.
Iam illa vulgata sunt: varie ex integris truncos gigni, ex truncis integros; eadem parte truncos, signa quaedam naevosque et cicatrices etiam regenerari, quarto partu Dacorum originis nota in brachio reddita
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Few animals, except the female of the human species, receive the male when pregnant. In only one or two species, and no more, does superfœtation ever take place. Cases are to be found stated in the journals of physicians, and of others who have paid particular attention to the subject, in which twelve embryos have been removed at a single abortion. When, however, but a very short time has intervened between two conceptions, the embryos both of them proceed to maturity; as was seen to be the case with Hercules and his brother Iphicles. This was the case also with the woman who brought forth two children at a birth, one of whom bore a resemblance to her husband, and the other to her paramour. So too, with a female slave in Proconnesus, who was delivered of two children at one birth, one of whom bore a strong resemblance to her master, and the other to her master’s steward, with both of whom she had had connection on the same day; with another woman who was delivered of two children at a birth, the one after the usual period of gestation, the other an embryo only five months old: and again, with another female, who, having been delivered of one child at the end of seven months, in due course, two months afterwards, brought forth twins.
It is universally known that well-formed parents often produce defective children; and on the other hand, defective parents children who are well formed, or else imperfect in the same part of the body as the parents. It is a well-known fact also, that marks, moles, and even scars, are reproduced in members of the same family in successive generations. The mark which the Daci make on their arms for the purpose of denoting their origin, is known to last even to the fourth generation.