In man, then, maturity is indicated by a change of the tone of
voice, by an increase in size and an alteration in appearance of the
sexual organs, as also in an increase of size and alteration in
appearance of the breasts; and above all, in the hair-growth at the
pubes. Man begins to possess seminal fluid about the age of
fourteen, and becomes generatively capable at about the age of
twenty-one years.
In other animals there is no hair-growth at the pubes (for
some animals have no hair at all, and others have none on the belly,
or less on the belly than on the back), but still, in some animals the
change of voice is quite obvious; and in some animals other organs
give indication of the commencing secretion of the sperm and the onset
of generative capacity. As a general rule the female is
sharper-toned in voice than the male, and the young animal than the
elder; for, by the way, the stag has a much deeper-toned bay than
the hind. Moreover, the male cries chiefly at rutting time, and the
female under terror and alarm; and the cry of the female is short, and
that of the male prolonged. With dogs also, as they grow old, the tone
of the bark gets deeper.
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