One point made in the De Secreta Mulierum, "Of the Secrets of Women," is that the fetus uses as a template (my word) not the limbs and physical features of the parents, because if a parents is deformed or blind the baby does not come out deformed or blind. Therefore, the template or "starting point" (again, my term) for a fetus must be:
...drawn from the four principal members, namely the cerebrum, heart, liver, and female womb or male testicles, and as a consequence it is in these members and not in other parts of the body that the fetus is said to resemble the parents.
So through what stages of development will the fetus go? You will be interested to know that:
The first matter received in the womb has the nature of milk for the first six days, for the natural heat in the male sperm and in the womb causes it to become white as milk. Then that matter is changed to the nature or color of blood that is thickened, as if it were well cooked, and this lasts nine days. During the next twelve days the members of the fetus begin to be formed.
Which organs develop first? Some say the liver, but the author of the Secreta agrees with Aristotle that it must be the heart, since the heart is "the first to live and the last to die." The heart is followed by the liver, then cerebrum, then sexual organs, etc. We also learn:
Note that with respect to the formation of the fetus the face comes first, that is of the extrinsic members, because the face of a human being is the noblest of these members.
After 33 days the form of a male or female appears, and after forty days the human nature is complete and the infant grows and opens his mouth, and his bones begin to enlarge from his natural heat.
Besides what is happening inside the womb, there are external forces that affect the fetus. Tomorrow we will look at how astrology is involved with fetal development.
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