This Notion is drawn from
_Plato_; and though some part of the Scripture may at first seem to
favour it, yet, strictly consider'd, one may find a quite different
Sense; and this Opinion was condemn'd by Pope _Innocent_ III.
The Ancients were of Opinion, that there is a certain Cell in the Womb
of some Women, into which the Seed falling, when _Mercury_ and _Venus_,
or _Mercury_ and _Luna_ are in Conjunction, an Hermaphrodite is
engender'd; or that the Conjunction of _Mars_ and _Venus_ disposes the
Matter that serves for the forming of the Child so confusedly in the
Mother's Womb, that it becomes the Cause of the Birth of an
Hermaphrodite. In answer to this, those Planets are too remote from us
to be the proximate Causes, and to have an absolute Influence on the
Body of the Child that is forming in its Mother's Womb; and admitting
such a Conjunction might cause a Deformity, it would not appear however
in two Hermaphrodites born at different Seasons: But in _Turkey_, and
other Eastern Countries, where these Planets have the greatest
Influence, Hermaphrodites are more numerous than in the Western Parts of
the World, and they are oblig'd to go in different Habits from other
People (_viz_.
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