ABSTRACT
Especially on the subjects of conception, sexuality, pregnancy and menstruation during this time, it is often impossible to tell whether a scientific 'fact' has passed into common knowledge and become a generally received opinion. Dr Chamberlain explained how the clitoris by attrition communicated lustful imaginations to the ligaments and thence to the leading vessels of the seed, and thus stimulated women to emit their seed. According to the two seeds theory, the 'greedy womb' explained conception without actual penetration. The seminal vapour idea explained even better than the greedy womb how conception could occur without actual penetration. The older theory held that conception arose from the material union of two substances, one from the male, and one from the female. Dionis in the early eighteenth century found the ovum theory the more convincing. In 1755 the ovum explanation of conception was received in Aristotle's masterpiece, though older ideas were mentioned as true.
