Concerning the Causes of Impotence in Men

Know, O Vizir (God be good to you!) that there are men whose sperm is vitiated by the inborn coldness of their nature, by diseases of their organs,187 by purulent discharges, and by fevers. There are also men with the urinary canal in their verge deviating owing to a downward curve; the result of such conformation is that the seminal liquid cannot be ejected in a straight direction, but falls downward.188

Other men have the member too short and too small to reach the neck of the matrix, or their bladder is ulcerated or they are affected by other infirmities, which prevent them from coition.

Finally, there are men who arrive quicker at the crisis than the women, in consequence of which the two emissions are not simultaneous; there is in such cases no conception.

All these circumstances serve to explain the absence of conception in women; but the principal cause o............