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Aristotle

"History Of Animals"


So much then for sensation and for the phenomena of sleeping and
of awakening.
11
With regard to sex, some animals are divided into male and female,
but others are not so divided but can only be said in a comparative
way to bring forth young and to be pregnant. In animals that live
confined to one spot there is no duality of sex; nor is there such, in
fact, in any testaceans. In molluscs and in crustaceans we find male
and female: and, indeed, in all animals furnished with feet, biped
or quadruped; in short, in all such as by copulation engender either
live young or egg or grub. In the several genera, with however certain
exceptions, there either absolutely is or absolutely is not a
duality of sex. Thus, in quadrupeds the duality is universal, while
the absence of such duality is universal in testaceans, and of these
creatures, as with plants, some individuals are fruitful and some
are not their lying still
But among insects and fishes, some cases are found wholly devoid
of this duality of sex. For instance, the eel is neither male nor
female, and can engender nothing. In fact, those who assert that
eels are at times found with hair-like or worm-like progeny
attached, make only random assertions from not having carefully
noticed the locality of such attachments.


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