A MEDIEVAL TEST FOR FERTILITY

[摘要] The curious fertility test quoted below comes from an eleventh century manuscript on gynecology attributed to Trotula of Salerno. This test can be traced back to Egyptian papyri; it was also mentioned by Galen.1If the woman or the man be sterile you will ascertain it by this method: take two jars and into each put bran. Into one of them put the urine of the man and into the other put the urine of the woman and let the jars be left for nine or ten days. If the barrenness be from a defect of the woman you will find many worms and the bran foul in her jar. On the other hand you will have similar evidence from the other urine if the barrenness be through a defect of the man. But if you have observed such signs in neither urine, neither will be the cause of the barrenness and it is possible to help them to conceive by the use of medicines.

[学科分类] 儿科学