Kitap 2
3
I would then ask Erasistratus himself to inform me what the altering, coagulating, and shaping agent is. He would doubtless say, Either Nature or the semen, meaning the same thing in both cases, but explaining it by different devices. For that which was previously semen, when it begins to procreate and to shape the animal, becomes, so to say, a special nature.The spermatozoon now becomes an organism proper. For in the same way that Phidias possessed the faculties of his art even before touching his material, and then activated these in connection with this material (for every faculty remains inoperative in the absence of its proper material), so it is with the semen: its faculties it possessed from the beginning,Galen attributed to the sperma or semen what we should to the fertilized ovum: to him the maternal contribution is purely passive — mere food for the sperm. The epoch-making Ovum Theory was not developed till the seventeenth century. cf. p. 19, note 3. while its activities it does not receive from its material, but it manifests them in connection therewith.
3
And, of course, if it were to be overwhelmed with a great quantity of blood, it would perish, while if it were to be entirely deprived of blood it would remain inoperative and would not turn into a nature. Therefore, in order that it may not perish, but may become a nature in place of semen, there must be an afflux to it of a little blood — or, rather, one should not say a little, but a quantity commensurate with that of the semen. What is it then that measures the quantity of this afflux? What prevents more from coming? What ensures against a deficiency? What is this third overseer of animal generation that we are to look for, which will furnish the semen with a due amount of blood? What would Erasistratus have said if he had been alive, and had been asked this question? Obviously, the semen itself. This, in fact, is the artificer analogous with Phidias, whilst the blood corresponds to the statuary's wax.
