“Forty Drops of Blood Make One Drop of Semen”

A Well-Traveled Aphorism

Janssen, Diederik F.

¹ Maastricht University, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Diederik F. Janssen, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht, 6200 MD, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

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Journal of Psychosexual Health 7(2):p 187-191, April 2025. | DOI: 10.1177/26318318251326159

The aphorism “Forty Drops of Blood Make One Drop of Semen” has often been cited as sexual lore that is both Indian and ancient. The idea appears to be medieval Arab lore, however, being recorded in work by Ibn Sina, which explains its ubiquity in early modern Europe. The dictum may have traveled to Asia (India, but also China) via much later European texts. This historical vignette raises broader questions concerning the global dissemination of sexual lore, past and present.