And just the same thing is
true in regard to the generative faculty: for some while young are
childless, but have children when they grow older; and some have
children to begin with, and later on no more.
There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if
they do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again
conceive readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth.
Furthermore, some men and some women produce female offspring and some
male, as for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his
two and seventy children is said to have begotten but one girl.
Those women who are unable to conceive, save with the help of
medical treatment or some other adventitious circumstance, are as a
general rule apt to bear female children rather than male.
It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually
competent and afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their
former powers.
From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and
blind from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit
anything that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar
marks, such as pimples or scars.
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