In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. The Twelfth Book contains a summary of the structure of the generative organs. The Twelfth Book of the writing on Anatomical Dissection.

THE GONADS. NOMENCLATURE OF GLANDS.

In this Book I describe the structure of the generative organs. The significance of the anatomists’ expression ‘generative organs’ is the organs which are designed for the generation of children. They are the uterus and the testicles [ovaries], the penis of the male and the vulva of the female, together with the seminal ducts [uterine tubes and vasa deferentia]. For these are organs which are found in males and in females, though some say that the female possesses no testicles. This, then, is the first matter of which we must speak. For this is not one of those theories which are substantiated only by cogent argument, but it can be proved sound by visual inspection. This is something done by those peoples amongst the Greeks who practice witchcraft, and it also occurs among us in many districts, such as Cappadocia and elsewhere. Thus the village folk take sows, and tie them upon ladders. Then upon both sides, I mean on the right and left side, in the situation of the flanks, they make an incision in the longitudinal direction of these, of an extent which renders it possible to pull out the ovaries, of which they must know the situation, so that the incision is not made too long.