Early Studies

Abstract

It was not until the early nineteenth century that the first penetration of a mammalian egg by a spermatozoon was observed. Prior to that time there was a great deal of misunderstanding even as to the role played by each sex in the process of reproduction. Among the ancient Greeks it was believed that the semen and the menstrual blood combined to form the embryo and fetal membranes (Austin, 1953). Aristotle suggested that the semen contributed in a nonmaterial sense, giving only form to the developing embryo, which he regarded as arising physically entirely from the female (Singer, 1950). However, opposed to this view was the Epicurean, Lucretius, who believed that the embryo was formed of the material elements of both parents. The naturalists of the Middle Ages and of the renaissance based their concepts in part on Aristotle and in part on the ideas of the Epicureans, as handed down by Galen and his Arabian followers.