and Species of an Animal And againe the Female may seem to have most â—ight to the title of Efficient for he saith in Proâ—â—sse of time these diverse Parents produce a diverse 〈◊〉 the off-spring at length assuming like form with the Hen. As if the Seed of the Male were lesse powerful and did in time lose the Species which it imprints as being razed out and expunged by 〈◊〉 more potent Efficient And this that instance concerning the soil doth more strengthen For â—â—reign Seed is at last transformed according to the â—â—ture of the soile where it growes By all which it 〈◊〉 probable that the Female is a stronger 〈◊〉 in Generation then the Male For in the Universe likewise the Earth is held to be as it were the Female and the Mother But the Heavens and the Sun and the other Bodies of that kind Philosopherâ— call by the name of Father and Genitor Now the Earth also produceth many things of its own accord without any Seed And amongst Animals some Females do procreate of themselves without a Male thus the Henne generates a Subventaneous Egge but the Male never begetteth any thing without a Female Nay by those very Arguments which contend to prove the Male to be the Principle of Generation and the primary Efficient the energy or efficiency of the Female seems to be confirmed and ratified For that is to be counted the Primary Efficient in which the reason of the foetus and form of the Production is most eminent and whose apparent similitude is discovered in the foetus and also which hath an existence it self before and then generates Since therefore the Form Reason and Similitude of thè foetus is no lesse not more in the Female then in the Male and she also is in being before as a Primary Mover We may well conclude that the Female is as eminent an Efficient of Generation as the Male. And though Aristotle truly say that the Conception or egge assumes no part of its body from the Male but onely its form species and soul and that the Female contributes onely the body and quantity Yet it doth no way appear to the contrary 〈◊〉 that the Female doth contribute in some sâ—â— both Form Species and Soul and not the Maâ—â— singly As is evident in the Hen which produâ—â— Egges without a Male as the Trees beare the Fruits Herbs and Seed without any distinction of Sexes at all And Aristotle himself confessâ— that even a Subventaneous Egge hath a Soul The Female therefore must be the Efficient Cause of the Egge And yet though there be a Soul in the Subventaneous Egge yet that Soul is not Prolifical and therefore we must acknowledge that the Henne is not properly the Efficient of a Perfect Egge but that she is so made by Authority and Commission procured from the Cock For an Egge except it be Prolifical cannot justly be said to be Perfect Now such an Egge is produced onely by the Male or rather by the Henne having received such instructions from the Cock as if from his Coition the Female did receive the Art Reason Forme lawes Rule and Model of the future Foetus Thus the Female like a fruitful Tree being made fertile by Coition is made Oviparous bearing perfect and Prolifical Egges For though the Henne have at present no rudiment of Egges at all ready in the Ovary yet being fructified upon Coition â—he suddainly after both hath and layes Egges and those also Prolifical ones And here the experiment of poor Women is of use Which having a Hen at home but never a Cock they commit her for a day or two to a neighbours Cock and from that small communication all her egges succeed fruitful for all that seson That is not onely those Egges which now are Yolks and onely want a White or else have some Rudiment of their future growth though never so litle but even those Egges also which are not yet begun at all and are to be conceived a great while hence are all rendered fruitfull by the same vertue The Benefit of this Disquisition con cerning Fecundity EXERCIT. XXX THe Disquisition wherein we examine What it is in the Egge that renders it fruitful is very subtle and difficult and of exceeding great use As also what is in the Conception what in the Seed and what in the Hen that confers Fecundity upon them Likewise what in the Cock distinguisheth him from a barren cock Is it the same cause which we call the Soule in the Foetus or some part of the Vegetative Soul For the knowledge of the First Cause conduceth much to the compleat science of Generation For Science springs from Known Causes especially those that are the first Causes Nor is this indagation lesse useful to the knowledge of the Nature of the Soul But when once the verity of this is throughly discovered not onely Aristotles opinion concerning the Causes of Generation is refuted and chastised but even those things also which Physitians have written against him are easily disproved Our Quere therefore is whether that which affords the Fertility to the Egge Yolk Papula or Whelke Cock Hen and to its Womb be one and the same thing or diverse Likewise whether it be a Substance from whence this vertue flowes For it seems to be susceptible of Powers Faculties and Accidents Or whether it be also a Corporeal thing For that seems to be mixt it self which generates a mixt thing namely a similitude common to both Cock and Hen such as is that ambiguous Species produced by a Cock-Phesant and a Dung bil Hen. It seems also to be a Corporeal thing which suffers from without in so much that it doth not onely produce feeble issues but deformed also and sickly ones and such as are obnoxious to and do inherit the Virtues and Vices of their Parents We may also make a question concerning each particular whether that which confers the Fertility be ingenerated or comes from without Namely whether it be transferred from the Egge to the Chicken from the Hen to the Egge and from the Cock to the Hen. For it seemes to be a thing ex Traduce namely which is transferred from the Cock to the Hen and from Her to the Egge the Womb and the Ovary From the Seed to the Plant and back again from the Plant to the Seed For this is common to all things that are perpetuated by Generation namely that their first rise should result from Seed Now the Seed the Conception and the Egge are all of one and the same kinde and that which renders these Fruitful is in all of them the same thing or something of a like nature and that is some divine thing and hath an analogy to the Heavens to Art Intellect and Providence As is plain by the wonderful operations artifice and counsel of those creatures in whom nothing is constituted in vain rashly or by chance but all for some Good and to some End We shall hereafter be
former After the former way doth the generation of Insects proceed as when by a Metamorphosis a Worm is made of an Egge or as when out of a putrifying matter the moisture drying or the dry part growing moist the primordia or rudiments are generated out of which as out of a Canker-worm now grown to its just magnitude or out of the worm called Aurelia by a Metamorphosis ariseth a Butter-flie or common Flie in its just magnitude or stature being nothing augmented since its first birth But the more perfect Animals which have blood are made by an Epigenesis or superaddition of parts and do grow and attain their just stature or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after they are born In those other Casus seu Fortuna Chance or Fortune seemeth chiefly to promote the generation in which the form ariseth ex potentiâ materiae prae-existentis out of the power or potentiality of the pre-existent matter and the matter is rather the first cause of the Generation then any external Efficient And hence it is that these kinde of Animals are more imperfect and do less continue their kinde or are less durable then Terrestrial or Aquatile creatures that have Blood which attain a Perpetuity from an Univocal principle that is from the same Species the chief cause whereof we ascribe to Nature and the Vegetative Virtue Some Animals therefore suâ sponte nascuntur are born of their own accord out of a Matter digested of it self or else casually as Aristotle seems to assert Whose Matter is capable of mutation of it self undergoing that mutation by Chance which seed doth in the generation of other Animals And the same thing falls out in the generation of Animals as in Art for some things are accomplished by Art and those very things by chance too as Health and other things againe are never produced without Art as a House Bees Waspes Butterflies and all those creatures that are generated out of a Worm by a Metamorphosis are said to be Casu orta creatures bred by chance and therefore things not preserving their kind but a Lyon or a Cock are never made by chance or of their own accord but have their existence from Nature or a more divine operative faculty at whose hands they rather require that it produce a Species like to themselves then supply a fit Matter In Generation by Metamorphosis creatures seem to be fashioned like things wrought off with a Mould or the Print of a Seale where the whole Matter is transformed But an Animal produced by Epigenesis attracts prepares concocts and applies the Matter at the same time and is at the same time formed and Augmented In those the Plastical vertue divides the same fimilar Matter and being divided disposes and reduces it into members out of a similar Matter making a dissimilar or out of a similar subject Matter dissimilar Organs But in these while it produces diverse parts and those parts diversly disposed one after another it requires and makes a diverse Matter and that Matter diversly disposed or qualified such as may be convenient to the production of different parts For which cause we conceive that the Perfect Egge is constituted and made up of several parts It therefore is clear by our History that the generation of the Chicken out of the Egge proceeds rather per Epigenesin quam per Metamorphosin by an Epigenesis then by a Metamorphosis and that all its parts are not constituted at once but successively in Order and that while it is augmented it is also formed while it is formed it is also augmented as likewise that some parts are superadded to others and distinguished from others and that the beginning increase and perfection of it do proceed by way of growth till at the last the Foetus doth result For the forming Faculty of the Chicken doth rather acquire and temper its own Matter then find its Matter ready tempered and fitted to its hand and the Chicken seems more to be framed and increased by his own self then by any other And as all things are increased or nourished by the same things out of which they are made so likewise the Chicken is in all likelyhood made by the same thing be it the Soule or some faculty of the Soul by which he is preserved and sustained For the same Efficient and Preserver is found both in the egg in the Chicken and out of the same Matter of which it doth constitute the first particle or rudiments of the Chicken it nourisheth augmenteth and superaddeth all the other parts Lastly in Generation by Metamorphosis the whole is distributed and distinguished into parts but by Epigenesis the whole is constituted and made of parts by a certain order and succession Wherefore Fabricius did erroniously seek after the Matter of the Chicken as if it were some distinct part of the egge which went to the imbodying of the Chicken as though the Generation of the Chicken were effected by a Metamorphosis or transfiguration of some collected lump or mass and that all parts of the body at least the Principal parts were wrought off at a heat or as himself speaks did arise and were corporated out of the same Matter and not by Epigenesis in which an order is observed according to the dignity and worth and use of the Parts where first a small foundation is laid which at the same time while it doth increase grows distinct and formed and so attains all its parts by degrees according to their proper order which are supergenerated and born to it For as the litle top or point which jets forth or protuberateth from the Acorne taking heat and encreasing multiplies into a Root Wood Sap Bark Shoots Tendrels Boughs Blossoms and Fruits and at last ariseth into a compleat Tree such is the progress of the Chicken in the Egge the Cicatricula or small speck which is in the foundation of the future Pile increases in Oculum into an Eye and at the same instant is distinguished into a Colliquamentum or dissolved substance in whose Center is born the Punctum sanguineum pulsans the Bloody panting point together with the Ramifications of the Veins from these doth by and by result the Nebula or litle cloudy Substance and first concrete Matter of the future Body which also as it grows is divided and distinguished into parts but not all at once but such as give place and eldership to one another To conclude therefore in the Generation of those Animals which are produced by Epigenesis as the Chicken in the Egge is we are not to enquire a particular or distinct matter out of which the productions should be imbodyed different from that out of which they are nourished and increased for it is nourished and encreased by the same matter whereof it is made and so on the othe hand the Pullus in the Egge is constituted out of the same matter by which it is susteined and augmented And potentiâ animal an Animal in potentiâ is
that so they may attend the future eggs and chickens which are to be born in their order We have deduced these passages out of Aristotle that from them it might appear how the Cocks seed doth according to him produce the Chicken out of the Egge that so some light might be afforded to this perplext disquisition But seeing they do not explaine how this business is accomplished nor yet salve his own objections we are still sticking in the same mire and involved in the same doubts concerning the Efficient cause of the Foetus in the Generation of Animals nay so far are we from receiving any clear satisfaction that we are rather more perplext and to seek then we were before And therefore no wonder this excellent Philosopher was in the streights concerning this matter and did therefore range together so many several sorts of efficient causes of Animals and sometims betake himself to examples drawn from Automata things seeming to move of themselves sometimes to coagulatedmatter sometimes to Art Instruments and Motion sometimes to the soul in the egge and in the seed of the Male to illustrate the thing and where he seems to be positive and settle upon some determination concerning what it may be that should render the Seed be it of Plants or Animals fertile he renounces Heat and Fire as improper Agents nor doth he admit any such like faculty nor can he find out any thing in the seed it self which should be fit for the undertaking but is compelled to admit of a certain Incorporeal extrinsecal thing which should like Art or the Minde form the foetus by wisedom and providence and ordain and institute all things relating to it to some end and purpose and to its better subsistence He takes I say sanctuary in an obscure and ignote thing namely in a spirit contained in the seed and frothy substance and a certain nature in that spirit answerable in proportion to the substance of the Stars But what that should be he no where reveals Fabricius his Opinion concerning the Efficient cause of the Chicken is confuted EXERCIT. XLVIII SInce I have proposed Aristotle the chiefest of the old Philosophers and Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente an eminent Anatomist amongst the Modern to be my Leaders that from them I might chiefly be enlightened concerning the generation of Animals and since I cannot better my self by Aristotle I have resolved to set upon Fabricius to see what account he can give of it Now he attempts to give resolution to three doubts arising in the case namely First What is the Efficient of the Chicken and that he concludes to be the Males seed 2. How this appears in the egg to be so and by what means the Cocks seed doth rinder the egge fertile Lastly In what Order are the parts of the Chicken procreated As for the first it appears out of our Observations that the Cock and his seed are indeed the Efficicient cause of Generation but not the adaequate cause but that the Henne also comes in for a share In this place therefore we must chiefly enquire how the Cocks seed doth fructifie the Egge and raise a Chicken out of it which would else be subventaneous and improlifical But let us give ear to Fabricius Those creatures saith he that are produced out of an egge are different from those which are born out of seed in this that Oviparous creatures have a matter out of which the Chicken is corporated distinct and separate from the Agent but Viviparous creatures have both the material and efficient cause adjoyned and concorporated together For the Agent in Oviparous creatures is the seed of the Cock in the feathered kind which neither is nor can be in the Egge but the matter out of which the Chicken is corporated is the Chalaza These two are much distant one from another for the Chalaza is in the Yolk now formed and fallen into the second Uterus and is adjoyned intimately to the egge on the contrary the Cocks seed remains neer the fundament and is removed from the Chalaza by a large chasme and yet by its irradiating faculty it fructifies both the Uterus and all the egge But in a Viviparous animal the seed is both the Matter and the Efficient too both being contracted into one body He seems to have introduced this difference between Oviparous and Viviparous Animals that so he might countenance the opinion of Physitians concerning the Generation of Man or at least not subvert it who conceive that the seeds of both Sexes ejected together in coition are mingled and according as the one prevailes over the other so the one approves it self the Efficient and the other submits it self to become the Matter so that they both conspiring together do constitute the conception in Viviparous Animals But when he had observed that neither Seed nor Blood is attracted by means of coition into the womb of the Hen nor contained there and could not believe that any thing emitted from the cock in coition could possibly arrive so farre nor could finde any thing in the Egge that is adjoined to the males seed he was enforced to doubt how the seed which is no where present with nor mingled amongst the feminine geniture nor is adjoined to it nor doth so much as touch it at all should constitute the Chicken or fructifie the Egge especially when he had before delivered that from some premised coitions all the eggs that were to be layed that year were made prolifical For how could it chuse but seem impossible that from the seed of the cock received in the Spring but now departed lost and consumed the posthume eggs layed possibly in Summer or Autumne should be rendered fruitfull and produce chickens That he might rid his hands of this grand difficultie he coined the fore-said distinction and to ratifie his opinion he adds three farther Assertions First that though the cocks seed were neither in the Egge nor at any time in the Womb nor adjoined to the material cause as it is in Viviparous Animals yet it continues for a whole year in the hen Secondly to reserve this seed in he invents a dark perforation neer the door of the Womb wherein the cock should deposite his seed and in which as in a pouch it should be concluded that thence all the eggs might receive their fertility Lastly though the seed in that pouch neither touch the womb the egge nor the Ovary that by that means it might fructifie the egge or raise a Chicken out of it yet he saith that it gains addresses into the very egge by the insinuation or irradiation of a certain spiritual substance in it and by those arts doth fructifie the Chalazae and so model a Chicken And yet by that assertion lie seems to confirme Aristotles opinion who assures us that the female contributes the matter and the male the efficiency to generation which is contrary to the Physitians position concerning the commixture of seeds for whose sake
another thing and meerly upon this account that the time was when it did touch For Aristotles argumentation seems false or lame at least where he contends That Generation cannot be without an Agent and a Patient and those things cannot act and suffer which do not mutually touch each other but those things do mutually touch which having each their particular magnitude and place apart have their extremities meeting one another But since the case is plain that Contagion where the things touch not nor have their extremities kissing one another can destroy living creatures what should hinder but that it should be as powerful to conduce to the life and generation of animals The Efficient in an Egge by a plastical vertue because the male did but onely touch though he now be far from touching and have no extremity reached out towards it doth frame and set up a foetus in its own species and resemblance And this author of fecundity this peircing power is translated through so many mediums or instruments that one cannot pattern it neither by that mutation procured by instruments as in the productions of Art nor by Aristotles Automata nor our Clocks or Watches nor by the instance of a King in his own dominions where his command is every where a law nor can you ratifie this our doctrine by introducing a soul into the seed or geniture And hereupon many controversies and problemes are started concerning the attractive power of the Load-stone and Jet concerning Sympathy and Antipathy concerning Poyson and the contagion of pestilential diseases concerning Alexipharmacal Medicines and such as cure or kill from an occult or rather ignote quality and propriety all which seem to execute their pleasures without any touching And chiefly this What is there in generation that by a momentany touch nay not touching at all unlesse through the sides of many mediums can orderly constitute the parts of the Chicken by an Epigenesis and produce an Univocal creature and its own like and for no other reason but because it touched heretofore How I say can that which is not present and did onely touch outwardly constitute orderly dispose and limne all the members of the Chicken in an egg which is now exposed to the wide world and oftentimes transported a great way off For nothing can make and generate it selfe into anothers likeness What the Efficient cause of Animals is and what its Conditions EXERCIT. L. THat therefore we may in some proportion dive into the knowledge of the efficient cause so far forth as concerns our present contemplation we must take notice first of the Instruments or Mediums which pertain to the efficient or forming cause and into this rank is the Male and Female for to be reduced likewise the Geniture and the egg and its first rudiment For some males and females too are barren or unfruitful And likewise the males geniture is sometimes more and sometimes less fertile for the Semen Virile as it is barely conteined in the Seminal Vesicles except it be rarified into froth by the spirits and forceably leap out is unfruitful And this too possibly is not always successful Nor are the Papulae or Yolks bred in the Cluster of the Ovary or the Egges conteined in the Womb all presently fruitfull Now I call that fruitful which except some impediment happen from without will attaine its designed end by the efficient power implanted in it and compass that for whose sake it is ordained So that Cock is reputed fertile who causes his Hens to lay oftner and more constantly and also renders their egges generative So likewise that Hen is fruitful which is useful in laying egges and hath a good retention in order to the prolifical vertue imparted to her from the Cock So the Cluster of the Papulae and Ovary it self are counted fertile when they are well fraught with store of rudiments and foundations of egges and those mature Likewise that egge is fertile which is farthest from being subventaneous or addle and doth less faile in producing a Chicken howsoever you dispose of it either to Incubation or any other fostering-heat Therefore such an efficient of the Chicken is required as may impart virtue to all these by which they may be fructified and obtain an efficient power for the same thing or at least something proportionable to it is in them all bestowing fecundity upon them And the Inquiry is the same namely what it is in the Egge that renders it fertile what in the Ovary and what in the Papula likewise what in the female and lastly in the seed and Cock himself c. What in the Blood and Punctum saliens or first genital particle from whence afterwards the rise fabrick and order of all the other parts is derived as also what is it in the Chicken it self from whence it grows sturdy and active attains its youth and maturity lives a healthy life and a long Nor is that inquiry unlike this which demands what both male and female Cock and Hen confer to the fertile egge or what it is which proceeds from both towards the perfection and similitude of the chicken as whether the egge conception matter and nutriment proceed from the female and the Operative virtue from the male whether a certain contagion sent forth by coition or created by it or received from it remaining in the Hen or Egges work upon the matter of the egge or attract a nutriment from the Hen concocting and distributing it to the encrease of the egge and afterwards to the production of the chicken Or lastly whether all that which relates to the form soul and fecundity do proceed from the male but from the female whatever relates to the matter constitution place and sustenance For in animals whose Sexes are distinct it is so contrived that because the female cannot alone generate nourish protect the foetus the male is joined as yoke-fellow in the task as the Superior and more eminent progenitor to supply her failings and so to correct the infirmity of the Subventaneous eggs and inspire them with fertility For as a chicken born of an egge is indebted to that egge for his body soul and principal or genital part So is the egge for all it has to the Henne and the Henne also for her fecundity to the Cock. But whether the male be the first and principal cause of the progeny or whether the male and the female are intermediate and Instrumental causes set awork by nature or the first and Supreme Genitor we have here an occasion offered to enquire and it is a very worthy and necessary one because all perfect science depends upon the knowledge of all causes and therefore to the plenary comprehension of Generation we must ascend from the last and lowest efficient to the very first and most supreme and know them all But as for the first and highest Efficient of the chicken we shall determine what that is afterwards when we treat of the Efficient
work about the Generation of other parts or else to remove some Obstructions in her proceedings which in case they continue the Generation may be retarded and others are under another capacity therefore it comes to pass that according to the disposition of the matter and other requisites the parts are diversly made some after other and some of them are in hand before but are not finished till afterwards some are begun and finished before others are begun and others are as soon begun as their fellows but finished after them And therefore in the generation of some Animals the same order is not always observed but it is much different and various and in some no order at all but all the parts are begun and finished at a heat namely by a Metamorphosis as we shewed And lastly hence it happens that the Primogenit part is such that in it is concluded both the Beginning and the End as well that for whose sake all are made namely the soul as also that which is its cause in chief and Genital part The Heart therefore or according to my perswasion the Blood is the first throne of the Soul the fountain of life the Vestal fire the Genital warmth and the very Calidum Innatum the first Efficient of all his ministring parts having atcheived the soul for his end which commands them all as her leige-people The Heart I say as Aristotle will have it is he for whose sake the whole Fabrick and Family of the parts are provided and who also is the Fountain and Father of them all Of the Order of Parts in Generation as it appears by our Observations EXER LVI THat we may at last propose our own opinion of the Order of Parts as we have collected it out of several Observations of our own we intend to distinguish the whole work of Generation in all Animals whatsoever into two Fabricks Whereof the first is that of the Egge namely of the Conception and Seed or of that whatsoever it is which in Spontaneous productions answereth in proportion to Seed whether we understand it under the notion of Calidum nativum coeleste in humido primigenio the Innate celestial substance in the Primigenial moist with Fernelius or with Aristotle of Calor Vitalis in humors comprehensus the vital heat concluded in moisture For the Conception in Viviparous Animals as we have said is answerable to the Seed and Fruit of Plants as also the Egge in Oviparous in Spontaneous productions the Worme or some Bulla teeming by the Vital heat of the conteined moisture In all which the same thing is comprehended which may truly call them Seeds namely out of which and by which as the matter and Efficient and pre-existent Organ every Animal is first made and borne The Other Fabrick is of the Foetus born out of the Seed or Conception For the Matter and the Final and Efficient causes and the Instruments necessary to the worke must first be before any part of the Production can begin The Fabrick of the Egge we have already seen but that of the Foetus so far as we could discover out of dissections is perfected especially in the more perfect race of Animals and such as have blood chiefly by four degrees or processions which according to the several times of generation we shall reduce into as many Orders demonstrating withall that the same thing which is discerned in the Egge is alike in every conception and seed The First progress is of the Primogenit and Genital part namely of the blood with its receptacles or if you will have it so of the Heart and his Veins Now this part is first begotten chiefly for two reasons both because it is the principal part which makes use of all the rest as its Instruments and for whose sake the other parts seem to be produced as also because it is the Chiefe Genital part the Fountain and Author of the rest The part in which is concluded both the Beginning and End of Generation the same being Pater Rex Parent and Sovereign In the Generation of these Parts which is determined in the Egge the Fourth day though I could not observe any Order because all its particles Blood Veins and Vesicula pulsans appear at once yet I believe as I said that the blood is in it before the Pulse and that it also in Natures Law is before it receptacles the Veins for the substance and structure of the Heart namely the one with its Ventricles and Auricles as it is generated long after with the other Intrals so ought it to be registered in their Classis which is the Third In this structure the veines are conspicuous before the Arteries at least as farre as we could observe The Second Journal which sets out after the fourth day discovers a certain Concrementum or coagulated substance which I call Vermiculum seu Galbam the litle Worm or Magot for it seems to enjoy the life and obscure motion of a Galba and this as it congeals into a gelly is divided into two parts whereof the upper and the larger is conglobated and distinguished into three Vesicles namely that of the Brain After-brain and one of the Eyes but the lesser carinam referens resembling the Keel of a Ship is superinduced upon the Vena Cava and is extended according to its length In the structure of the Head the Eyes are first discerned and anon a white spot starts up for the Bill and the filme drying about it becomes protected by a membrane At this time also the adumbration or rough draft of the rest of the Body seems to succeed where first upon the Carina the sides or plancks as it were of a Boat seem to arise being at first of a similar consistence but afterwards by most white streaks they are signified to be the lines of the Ribs After this the members of Motion namely the Wings and Legs do appear and at last the Keel and Limbs born by a kinde of Superfoetation are distinguished into Muscles Bones and Joints Those two first mishapen materials of the Head and Body do together appear and are together distinguished but afterwards when they tend towards growth and perfection the body gets the start and is much sooner grown and shaped so that the Head which did at first out-strip the whole body beside in bulk and magnitude is now very much short of it And this is likewise natural to humane productions The like Disparity is between the Body it selfe the Limbs for in an Infant from that time that the Embryo exceeds not the length of the Nail of the litle Finger till he be encreased to the stature of a Frog or a Mouse his Arms are so short that if you stretch out his fingers over his breast to their farthest extent they will not be able to touch one another and his thighs are so short that being reflected upon his Abdomen they will hardly reach to his Navel Nay in Children lately born the
In as much as it is a Spirit so it is the Fire the Vesta the Houshold deity the Calidum Innatum the Sun of the Microcosme and Platoes Fire not because like ordinary fire it shineth burneth and destroyeth but because it doth conserve nourish and encrease it self by a free perpetuall motion It doth also challenge the name of Spirit in as much as it doth primarily and before the other parts abound with Radical moisture which is the last and neerest aliment thereof and doth dispence and provide the same sustenance for all the rest of the parts wherewith it self is supported namely while it doth nimbly dart it self through the whole body and nourish cherish and keep alive all the parts thereof which it self doth first frame and adjoin to it selfe after the same manner as the superiour Orbes but especially the Sun and Moon do by their continual motions quicken and preserve the inferiour world Seeing therefore that the Blood doth act above the power of the Elements and is inspired with such notable virtues being also the Instrument of the Omnipotent Agent no man can worthily magnifie and extol its wonderful and divine faculties In it the soul doth first and principally reside and that not the Vegetative soul onely but the Sensitive and Motive also it penetrates every part and is every where present and that being taken away the soul is presently gone so that the blood seems to differ nothing from the soul or ought at least to be counted that substance whose act the soul is For such is the soul that it is not altogether a body nor yet wholly without a body it comes partly from without and is partly born at home in some sort it is a part of the body and in some the beginning and cause of all things which are contained in the Animal body namely nutrition sense and motion and so consequently of Life and Death also for whatsoever is nourished doth also live and so on the contrary Likewise whatsoever is plentifully nourished is also inlarged but that which is too sparingly nourished doth diminish that also which is perfectly nourished doth continue in health but that which is not doth incline to diseases The blood therefore as well as the soul is to be reputed the cause and author both of Youth and Old Age of Sleep and Waking and of Breathing also especially since in Natural productions the first Instrument doth contein in it self the internal moving cause And therefore it comes all to the same reckoning whether we say that the soul and the blood or the blood with the soul or the soul with the blood doth performe all the effects in an Animal We use as persons that neglect the things themselves to pay much reverence to the specious names The blood which is still at hand and daily in our view makes no great noise in our ears but at the magnificent name of Spirits and of an Innate Heat we are strangely amused But when once the vizour is plucked from before them as our errour so our wonder ceaseth That miraculous Stone rendered so venerable to Mizaldus by the commendation of Pipinus did not onely fill him with admiration but Thuanus also who was an eminent Historiographer in his time I shall here adjoin the Riddle it self I saw saith he a Stone which was lately brought hither to our King out of the East Indies which Stone did dart forth light and brightness after a wonderful manner sparkling and shining with so much incredible lustre as if it were all burning and in a flame This stone doth by his rayes scattered into every corner illustrate the ambient aire with so clear a shine that the firmest sight is scarce able to behold it It is also most impatient of earth for if you attempt to cover it it doth of its own accord with an impetuous violence fly upward All the Art of man cannot confine and shut it up into a narrow room for it seemeth to be affected with free open places onely The infinite purity and brightness thereof is not tainted by the least spot or blemish It hath no certain shape or figure but varieth and is altered in an instant And though it be most faire and beautiful to the Eye yet will it not endure to be touched and if you attempt too long to handle it and continue too obstinate in your resolution it will mischiefe you as many in my presence have deerly found And if any thing be by violence taken from it it remaines for all that which is very wonderful nothing less then it was before The stranger who brought it addes farther to all this that its virtue and power is exceeding useful to sundry emploiments but will not discover them without a great reward This travailer also might have added to his description that this Stone is neither soft nor hard that it puts on several shapes and complexions that it hath a continual trembling and palpitation and doth like an Animal though it be an Inanimate thing daily devour great store of food converting it to its own nutriment and augmentation and that he hath been told by men of good credit that this Stone did long ago fall down from heaven and is to this day the cause of Thunders and Lightnings being some times begotten by the refraction of the Sun-beams through the Waters Who can but admire so strange a Stone and conceive less of it then to be above the power of the Elements and so to partake of another body and of an etherial spirit especially when he finds that it is answerable in proportion to the Element or substance of the sun himself And yet if Fernelius may be the Oedipus all this is but a Riddle of the Flame In like manner if I should describe the Blood under the veil and covering of a Fable calling it the Philosophers stone and displaying all its endowments operations and faculties in an aenigmatical manner doubtless every body would set a greater price upon it and believing it to act beyond the Activity of the elements would ascribe another and more divine body unto it Of the Primigenial Moisture EXER LXXII WE have now adorned the Blood with the Title of Calidum Innatum and do likewise conceive it proper to dignifie the Colliquamentum Crystallinum as we cal it out of which the foetus and its first parts do immediately arise by the name of Humidum radicale Primigenium the Radical and Primigenial moisture For we meet with nothing in the Generation of Animals to which this title doth upon better right belong We have stiled it the Radical moisture because out of it the first particle of the foetus namely the Blood and all the post-genit parts do arise as out of their Root and do owne the same as the matter out of which they are procreated sed increased and conserved We likewise call it Primigenial because it is first generated in the constitution of every Animal and is as it
presaging the approaching delivery are in part the preparation and disposition of the Childing Woman whereby she may bring forth and in part the scite or proper position of the Infant in order to the Birth As concerning the Position Fabricius saith that it is of a conglobated and inflex figure left the Foetus by his extream and eminent parts might injure the Womb or the conteining membranes and likewise that so he may be comprehended in the lesser roome But I am not of opinion that the foetus doth still observe the same scite or positure of his members in the Womb for the fore-scited causes For he swimmeth in a water and moveth himself to and fro he stretcheth himself now this way and anon that and so is variously inflected and tumbled up and down in so much that sometimes being entangled in his own Navel-string he is strangely insnared True it is that all Animals while they lye still and sleep do for the most part draw in and contract themselves and direct themselves toward an Oval or Conglobated figure So likewise Embryo's which pass their time most in slumbers do compose their bodies in that posture wherein they are formed as being the most natural most easie and most advantagious for their sleep And therefore the Infant in the Womb is commonly found with his Knees drawn up to his Belly his Thighs bent backwards his Feet hanging down and his Hands elevated to his Head whereof the one is placed about his Temples or Ears and the other at his Cheek in which parts there are white spots discovered in the skin as being the signes of his confrication His Spine is bent round and his Neck being inflected his Head hangs neer his Knees The Embryo is scituated with that position of parts wherewith we commonly apply our selves to rest with his Head uppermost and his Face directed towards his mothers Spine But a litle before his Birth his head being bent downwards he dives towards the bottom and the Orifice of the Matrix as if he were seeking his way out So Aristotle All Animals do naturally come into the world with their head formost but those that lye cross or come with their heels formost are unnatural births But yet this is not constant in all Animals but according to their several site or position in the Womb so is their Birth various as in Bitches Sows and other Multiparous Animals And the Great-bellied Women know full well that even the humane Embryo doth sometimes acquire a different scituation when they find the Child kick sometimes above sometimes below and now on this side and at other times on that So also the Matrix being neer delivery doth bear down groweth soft and openeth its Orifice The Waters also as they commonly call them are Gathered that is a certain part of the Chorion in which the fore-said humour is conteined doth usher in the Foetus and slide down from the Matrix into the Vagina or Sheath of the Womb and the neighbouring parts also are loosened and ready to distend also the Articubation of the Holy bone and the Share-bone to the Hanch-bone which Copulation or Articulation is by Synchondrosis or a gristly ligament is so softened and losened that the fore-said bones do easily give way to the parting Infant and by gaping open do amplifie the whole region of the Hypogastrium or Lower belly And when these things are in this condition it is certain that the Birth is at hand And that so the Foetus like a ripe fruit may come forth into the World Nature makes this provision of dilating the parts as she likewise concocteth the Milk which is sent before into the Breasts that the Infant now ready to be born may have his entertainment ready to wellcome him being now to be susteined from without And these are the fore-runners of the Birth Wherefore the Milk is counted amongst the chiefest signes of an imminent birth I mean such Milk which both for store plenty and consistence is convenient to feed the Child which according to Aristotle is never so qualified but neer the time of the Birth and therefore is never found before the seventh moneth Fabricius concludeth upon two queries chiefly in order to the Foetus namely how the birth is and when the last whereof relates to the time of Bearing the first to the manner of the Birth it self The times of bearing are by Aristotle conceived to be various There are saith he peculiar times of bearing to all kind of Animals for the greatest part as long as they live for the race of Animals which is longer liv'd then others must of necessity be more durable But the magnitude of the Animals is by him assigned as the chiefest cause of the variety of the times of bearing For saith he the great fabrick either of Animals or any thing else cannot be easily absolved in a short space Wherefore Mares and those Animals that are of kin to them though they live but a shorter time yet they are longer in bringing forth And therefore the Elephant as they say is two years in her production because of its excessive magnitude But every Animal hath certain bounds of magnitude which it cannot exceed and therefore they have a definit matter out of which they are made he addeth moreover But there is exceeding good reason why Animals do receive the dimension or measure of their times of ingravidation generation and their lives also by certain Circulations Now I call a Circulation a day a night a moneth a year and all those times which are described by them as also the motions of the Moon for these are the common beginnings of Generation to all Animals For it stands to good reason that the Circulations of less principal things should follow the Circulations of more principal And therefore Nature hath defined or limited the generation and decease of Animals by their motions And as the Births of Animals do depend upon the Revolutions or Circuits of the Sun and Moon so do their times of Coition and bearing their young vary and are either more prolixe or breifer The time of going with young saith Aristotle in the same place is enormous onely in Women For all other creatures have some one time but a Woman hath several for a Child may be borne either the Seventh or the Tenth moneth and likewise in the moneths intervening between the Seventh and the Tenth For they that are borne in the Eighth moneth though they do seldom live yet they may live Diverse Animals have indeed a set time of bringing forth and specially in the Spring when the Sun returnes diverse in the Summer and some in the Autumne as the Gristley Fishes And hence it happens that when the time of bringing forth approacheth they direct themselves to their wonted places where they may safely build their Stalls or Nests where they may bring forth cherish and sustaine their young Hence it is that those Winds which