Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-16T16:34:54.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The reproductive and the infertile body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2014

Get access

Summary

‘I shall proceed to unravel the mystrey [sic] of Generation’, promised the anonymous author of Aristoteles master-piece in 1684. He, like other medical writers across the early modern period, expected that nearly all men and women wanted to know about sex and reproduction. There were many different models and theories about the process of producing new life, termed ‘generation’. Medical treatises debated the relative contributions that men and women made to reproduction, the function and nature of menstrual blood, the form of the womb and the differences between the sexes. General medical treatises and treatises devoted to obstetrics also considered in detail the reasons why generation failed. There is not scope in this book for a comprehensive discussion of how reproduction and the development of the child in the womb were thought to occur in this period. Rather this chapter will consider some of the elements of sexual difference and reproduction that were questioned and debated in early modern England. Having illuminated which elements of the reproductive body were particularly controversial, the chapter will then consider what was believed to cause infertility in women and in men. It will emphasise the stability that existed across the period in the theories of reproduction with regard to the importance of seed, heat and sexual pleasure. Although numerous elements of the reproductive body and process were questioned, the elements that were thought to cause fertility remained relatively consistent.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×