HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE, - Horntip

60 i
after the fame manner. Bartholommus Montagnana,
in his examination of the paffage of Avicenna, fays.
We mull diligently obferve why Avicenna declares,
That the imbecility of the reins may be faid to be the
caufe of the defe& of coition ; and after he has
affirmed that the feminal matter has acquired an
adequate perfeEtion from the difpofition and tempera-
ment of the tefticles, he subjoins—That 'tis neceffary
that the fame matter fhould be predifpofed in the
fuperior member, where the digeftive faculty is more
powerful, as in the liver and reins, in the one more
remotely, in the other more nearly ; and from whence,
he concludes, it is impoffible that a genuine feed
fhould be formed, unlefs thofe parts, the liver and
the reins, are duly organized and complexioned in-all
its properties. But Nerefius is of opinion that there
is only a kind of faltnefs tranfmitted from the reins to
the tefticles, which excites a defire, or rather a titilla-
tion, in the genitals, and fo in the fame manner con-
tributes to venery. His words are—The reins are the
purgers of the blood, and the caufe of the appetite to
coition : for the veins, which, defcending to the
tefticles, pafs through the reins, and there imbibe a
falt humour and an irritating faculty, after the fame
manner