Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
according to Hippocrates and his adherents, “
…if then the coming
of the semen from the whole body is cause of the resemblance of the
whole, so the parts would be like because it comes from each of the
parts
” (GA p. 41). Now, these parts are anomeomere, that is to say
they are heterogeneous, composed of different homeomeric (homo-
geneous) elements which are tissues: flesh, bone, hair, nails, etc.
The resemblance of one part such as the head or the feet does not
depend so much on the resemblance of these tissues as on the way
in which they are arranged one with another. In the resemblance
between parents and children an organisational element is involved,
which is not material and which cannot be transmitted by a simple
material excrescence of such parts of the foam, as postulated by
Hippocrates' theory. For the latter, “
…the semen would come rather
from the elements than anything else, for how can it come from their
composition? Yet without this composition there would be no resem-
blance
” (GA p. 45). Relative to his historical context, Aristotle
adopts a similar point of view to that used twenty-four centuries
later by Schrödinger to justify the existence of a genetic code in
living systems (chapter 3). Both consider that organisation could
not come from the simple set of material processes and that an
additional principle of order is necessary. This argument is devas-
tating for Hippocrates' theory and allows Aristotle to put forward
his own.
He first of all establishes the nature of sperm. He believes it is
a unique digested food residue equivalent to blood, which serves to
produce all the parts of the body: “
…it is from the blood, when con-
cocted and somehow divided up, that each part of the body is made…
”
(GA pp. 66-67). As we can see, his conception differed considerably
from that of Hippocrates, in which there was a plurality of foams
from all parts of the body which were supposed to be added
together in the sperm, each of which could only recreate the part
from which it originated. Aristotle believed that there is but one
sperm, the substance of which is homogeneous and which is capa-
ble of re-forming the whole body. In addition, there is a qualitative
differentiation in the role of the two sexes. We saw that for
Hippocrates the contribution from the two sexes was identical and
