Note 444 — ON AIRS, WATERS, AND PLACES.
Francis Adams translation
A fat condition of the body was also supposed adverse to conception in the case of cattle. Virgil alludes to this opinion, and the means used to counteract the effects of an excessively fat state of the body in the following verses, which have been always admired as an example how delicately a great genius can touch upon an indelicate subject:
“Ispa autem macie tenuant armenta volentes, Atque, ubi concubitus primos jam nota voluptas Sollicitat, frondesque negant, et fontibus arcent. Sæpe etiam cursu quatiunt et sole fatigunt; Hoc faciunt nimio ne luxu obtusior usus Sit genitali arvo, et sulcos oblimet inertes; Sed rapiat sitiens venerem, interiusque recondat.” Georg., iii., 136.