HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF REPRODUCTION: ANCIENT SCINTISTS
In ancient times, the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-540 B.C.) attempted to clarify the respective roles of the sperm and the egg in the procreative process. When he cut open a 24-hour-old chicken egg, he discovered a chick embryo in a recognizable shape. Startled by his discovery, Hippocrates proposed that the chicken egg contained a tiny, preformed chicken ready for development. While this seemed clear in the case of egg-laying chickens, the situation was not so obvious in the case of humans who did not seem to produce eggs. Impressed by their mentor's discovery, Hippocrates' students sought to apply it to human beings. Interestingly, however, they proposed not that the human egg but that the human sperm contains an outline for the parts of the body prior to birth.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) agreed with Hippocrates' students that the sperm is virtually all-important in human procreation. He described the process of reproduction as one in which the passive female principle waits to be molded by the active male principle. The male principle, he said, is active because it is potent. Originally derived from red blood, male semen has enough internal heat to transform itself from a diffuse red substance into a concentrated white substance. In contrast, female semen (which Aristotle identified with women's menstrual flow) remains always red because it is not hot enough to boil itself to the point of white perfection. Lacking heat, women also lack activity. In comparison to hot, active men, they are cold, passive creatures who contribute very little to the process of human reproduction.
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Womens Health
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PUBERTY
All of a sudden, strange things start to happen to our young Miss as she begins to grow up.
It can commence anywhere from nine years of age onwards. In recent years, for reasons unknown, it seems to be commencing at a younger and younger age in western lands. No doubt it is tied up with today's sophisticated way of living, earlier psychological development and earlier mental stimulation, all of which play a potent part. It is referred to as puberty.
Suddenly the system starts to develop potent chemicals, called sex hormones, and these have a rapid and far-reaching effect on many parts of the system.
Suddenly breast development commences. The unnoticed, flat, pinkish nipples become more marked, rounded and protrude as they rapidly increase in size. This is most noticeable between the ages of 8 and 15. Pubic hair commences to grow, this becoming obvious in the 8-14 age group at any time. Underarm hair also makes an appearance.
Menstrual periods make a tentative start, and anywhere from 10 to 161?2 years they will become more and more regular. There is usually a dramatic increase in height; this is called a 'height spurt' and takes place in the 9-141?2 age bracket.
The skinny, school-age child is transformed within a few short years into a modern young woman of vastly different appearance and shape. Most tend to put on weight, but there is an alteration of the system's fat deposits, giving the body the characteristic female curves which tend to remain for life. In brief, Nature has transformed her into an adult, with the physical and psychological issues that this involves.
But although the ages quoted are 'averages', the range is enormous and varied. Many develop sexually at an early age. Others are late developers, and often they may reach the age of 18 or 20 before some of the typical secondary sexual characteristics (as the doctors say) have appeared. This is especially so in regard to breast development.
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Womens health
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