Democritus of Abdera opposed Empedocles' view, and said that sex depended on the parent whose semen it was that predominated (G. A. 764 A6‑24). He maintained that the parts which are common to both sexes are engendered indifferently by one or the other, but the peculiar parts by the sex10 that is more prevalent (Plut. Mor. 905F). Hippon said that the compact and strong sperm produced one sex and the more fluid and weaker the other,11 and that if the spermatic faculty be more effectual the male is generated; if the nutritive element predominates, the female is generated12 (Plut. Mor. 905F). Hippocrates speaks in somewhat similar vein. He holds that there is both male and female semen, and that when females are born the stronger element is overpowered by the abundance of weaker, and vice versa, that the birth of males is due to the overpowering of the weaker element (Opera Hippocratis, Kuehn, 1.377‑78).13 The condition of the menses may also prove a factor, according to Hippocrates (op. cit. 1.476).
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