for any other use Wee ought not therefore to be condemned if being desirous of knowing things and upon that account walking in untrodden paths wee set before you something which at first blush may seem fabulous and fictitious For as all things are not to be swallowed with too much credulity so those things which have been exactly and long considered are not utterly to be despised though they doe not appeare so rare to sharp-witted men Aristotle himself wrote a Book de Mirabilibus Auditis of Heare-say Wonders And in another place hee saith That wee must not onely pay thankes to them to whose Opinions a man may safely subscribe but to those also who have spoken but superficially to the purpose For even they also are of some use for they exercise our habits For had not Timotheus been wee had lost a great deale of Musicke And yet if Phrynis had not been Timotheus had not been existent neither In like manner they who have delivered any kinde of truth for wee have received some Opinions from some Philosophers and yet some others were the occasion of these Philosophers And therefore being moved by the example and authority of so Gallant a person as Aristotle least I might seem made up of nothing but the subversion of other mens Doctrines I have chosen rather to propose a feigned Opinion then none at all and have contented my self in this place to play the Phrynis to Timotheus viz. to shake off the sloth and drowziness of the Age wee live in and to awaken the wits of Industrious heads permitting rather that abler men should sport themselves with my proposals then that any carefull Enquirer into the nature of Things should accuse mee of sluggishness Truth is a man cannot search after a more august Theorem nor learn any thing of more use then this namely How all things are produced by an Univocal Agent or after what manner the same thing doth still generate the same and that not onely in the productions of Art for so a House erects a House one Face limnes another and one Image formeth another Image but in those also which relate to the Minde as a Minde begets a Minde and one Opinion another Opinion Democritus his Atomes and Eudoxus his Chiefest Good placed in Pleasure did impregnate Epicurus Empedocles his Foure Elements Aristotle the Doctrine of antient Thebes Pythagoras and Plato and Geometrie Euclid Just in this manner is the Son borne like the Father and the Virtues which doe innoble a Family and the Hereditary Vices also are sometimes after many Generations transported to Posterity some Diseases also produce their like in other subjects as the Leprosie the Gout Syphilis or French-Pox and so forth But what talke I of Diseases since Succession hath at a vast remove repeated the very Moles Warts and Scarres which the Great-grand-sires formerly wore The marke of the Familie saith Plinie is repeated in the armes of the Daci every fourth Birth That Minde Opinion and those very Manners which are now out of use may many yeares hence when all those are decryed which are now received returne againe For the Eternall minde of the Divine Creatour which is imprinted in Things doth create the Image of it selfe in Humane Conceptions Having therefore overcome some difficulties which relate to this Subject I have a strong desire to discourse the Matter more closely that what I have hitherto delivered cursorily may seeme to carry a fairer probability at least with it and also to excite the Wits of Studious men to make a deeper search into the businesse Therefore that we may illustrate the thing the better let A stand for the fruitfull egge namely the matter of the fruitfull chicken which is alterable and convertible into a chicken or is a chicken in posse and let B stand for that which fructifieth the egge distinguishing it from a subventaneous egge namely the efficient cause of the chicken or that which doth alter the Egge and convert or terminate it into a chicken And C for the chicken it selfe or final cause for whose sake both the Egge and that which fructifieth the Egge doe exist namely the act or reason of the chicken Now we take it for granted which Aristotle doth demonstrate that every first Mover or Alterer is together with that thing which is moved or altered by it Now those things are most properly said to be simul together which are generated at the same time so that movens mobile the thing altering and the thing altered are actually together and in case one of them be the other must needs bee also for of necessity if the effect be in being the cause thereof must also be Whensoever therefore A namely the fruitful Egge is actually in Being B likewise namely the internal mover and efficient or fructifier is actually in being also But whensoever B is actually existent C also at least in some sort namely the Species of the chicken or the form without matter is existent For B is the internal efficient of the chicken that is to say that thing which doth move or alter A namely the Egge into C namely the Reason of the chicken That therefore every moving thing may be together with the thing that is moved and every cause with the thing caused it is necessary that C should exist together with B because the Final cause as well in Nature as Art is the first of all the causes for it moveth and is it selfe not moved But the efficient moveth because it is incited by the finall cause For there is in every efficient in some sort ratio finis the reason of the End or finall cause by which final cause the efficient operating with providence is moved Aristotles Authority is clearly on our side That seemeth saith he to be chiefest amongst Natural causes which we signifie under this notion Cujus Gratia for whose sake For that is the reason but the reason is the first cause as well in Natural as Artificial effects For when the Physitian doth define Health and the Mason a House by either the Intellect or by Sense he useth to render the reasons and causes of the thing which he doth effect and also subjoineth the reason why hee maketh it so though that cause which is the cause for whose sake which is the cause and reason of the good and faire is rather conjoined to the works of Nature then of Art But the End saith he is the thing for whose sake as the thing for whose sake we walk is Health For if you aske why a man doth walk we reply to continue his Health and having made that answer we conceive we have rendered the cause thereof And therefore whatsoever is interposed some other thing moving thereunto is done for the Ends sake as Extenuation is procured for Health sake or Purgation or Physick or any other instruments for all those are for the Ends sake And a while after But we ought alwayes to seek
of all other Animals but what kind of one it is we will here declare The first condition or qualification of the first and primary Efficient properly so called is that it be the first principal fructifier from whence all intermediate causes assume their derived fecundity For instance the chicken is derived from the Punctum saliens in the egg not only in regard of its bulk but also and that chiefly in regard of its soul the Punctum saliens or Heart is derived from the egg the egg from the Hens and the Hens fertility from the Cock Another requisite or condition of the primary Efficient is desumed ex opere facto from the production it self viz. the Chicken because that is the prime efficient in which the reason of the effect doth chiefly appear But because every Generative efficient doth generate its like and the issue is of a mixt nature the first efficient must needs be mixt too Now I therefore pronounce their issue to be of a mixt nature because the mixture of both parents is refulgent in it both in the figure and lineaments of the body and all its parts as in complexion or colors moles or spots diseases and other accidents of the body Likewise in the soul and actions and functions as in like manners docility gate and voice such a kinde of temperature is discoverable For as we say that a similar mixt body is made of the Elements because their virtues heat cold moisture and sâ—ccity are found compounded in the same similar body so likewise the paternal and maternal handy-work may be tracked and pointed out both in the body soul and other accidents of the Chicken which follow the temperature or happen unto it for instance In a Mule the soul body manners and voice of both parents viz. of the Mare and the Ass are apparent So also in those Chickens which are the Ofspring of the dunghill-hen and Cock-Pheasant and in that mungrel Curre which is produced by the sodomie of a Wolf and a Bitch Since therefore the Chicken resembles both parents and is a mixt Effect the generant primary cause which it resembles must needs be mixt likewise Therefore that which frames the Chicken in the Egge is a mixt nature as being united or compounded of both and the work of both parents And if any contagion do arise or remain in the female upon coition in which they two are mixt and become as it were one Animal that also will be of a mixt nature or power by which the egge shall afterwards become fertile and atchieve a plastical virtue which is an Agent of a mixt nature or a mixt efficient-Instrument producing a Chicken of a mixt nature also The contagion I say because Aristotles perswasion is altogether refractory to experience her self namely where he saith that some part of the Foetus is instantly made upon coition Nor is that true neither which some of the Moderns averre namely that the soul of the future chicken is in the egge for that is no whit the chickens soul which is in no part of the chickens body Nor can the soul be said either to be begotten or left behind presently upon coition for otherwise there should be two souls in a Woman with child Therefore till it be determined what the efficient of the egge is which is of a mixt nature and ought to remaine present upon coition give me leave to call it contagium Contact or contagion But where the contagion lurks in the female after coition and how it is communicated and derived to the egge requires a more exact Disquisition and we will afterwards fall upon it when we treat generally of the conception of females It shall suffice in the mean time to have taken notice that it must needs be the fate of the first efficient in which the reason of the future off-spring doth abide that since its off-spring is mixt to be of a mixt nature it selfe and either to proceed from both Parents or from something which makes use of both as animate Instruments cooperative and mixt and moulded into one by coition The third condition of the Primary Efficient is that either it impart motion successively to all its intermediate instruments or else employ them otherwise but that it selfe be subservient to none whence a doubt arises whether the Cock be the Primary Efficient in the Generation of the chicken or have any before or superior to him For all generation seems to be derived from Heaven and issue from the motion of the Sun and Moon But we wil be positive in this matter when we have first declared what an instrument or the instrumental efficient cause is and how divided Now Instrumental Efficients are of diverse kinds some according to Aristotle are factiva Making and some activa Doing some do not operate but when they are conjoyned with a prior efficient as the hand foot and genital parts others operate disjoined as the Geniture and the Egge some Instruments have not motion or action but what is given them by the first Efficient others have proper internal principles of their own to which nature affords no motion in generation but yet employs their faculties and sets them the rule and law of their performances as the Cook employes fire and the Physitian herbs and the vertues of medicines to cures Sennertus to maintain his conceipt concerning the soul in the Seed and the formative faculty in the Egge affirms that not onely the Egge but the Cocks seed also is indowed with the soul of the future Chicken and is not the Instrumental Agent but the principal absolutely denying that any separate Efficient is Instrumental but pronouncing that onely that is to be reckoned an Instrument in propriety of speech which is conjoined with the primary efficient and that that onely is an Instrumental efficient which hath no other motion or action then that which is immitted or continually and successively received from the primary efficient by whose power it acts And upon that account he rejects the instance concerning things cast or hurled which receiving their force from the thing that doth hurle do yet notwithstanding move even when they are separated from it As if the Sword and Speare were to be counted Instruments of War but not Arrows and Bullets Hee also rejects the instance drawn from a Republick and denies that the Magistrates Counsellors or Officers of a Common-wealth are the Instruments of a Nation And yet Aristotle reckons a Counsellor for an Efficient and calls on Officer an Instrument in plain termes He likewise decries the instance of the Automata and many other things that so he may ratifie the seed or egge to be Animals and not an Instrumental but a Principal Agent And yet as if he were enforced by the truth he laies down such conditions for a Principal Agent as do absolutely prove contrary to his own fore-mentioned opinion Whatsoever produceth a work or effect more noble then it selfe or else an effect lake
Nature did so produce their effects as we do our artificial issues namely by consultation and rules desumed from the Minde and Intellect But Nature which is the Principle of Motion and Rest in all those things wherein she is and the vegetative soule which is the primary Efficient cause of every generation doe move and act by no acquired faculty as we doe which may be distinguished by the name of Art or Providence but work by a certain Destiny and Mandat according to rule after the same manner and constraint as light things fly up and heavy press downwards The Vegetative faculty of Parents doth generate and the seed arrives at last at the forme of the foetus after the same manner as the Spider spreads her Net the Bees and Ants build their Cottages and furnish their store-houses for future exigences Birds compile their Nests hatch and protect their young namely Naturally and by their Mother-wit not by any discursive providence discipline or consultation For that which is in us the Principle of Artificial operations is called Art Understanding or Prudence is in those naturall effects Nature which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her own Tutor and taught by no man and what is acquired and a purchase in us is in them inbred and a Birth-right And therefore they who look back to Art are incompetent and partial Judges of natural things for we are rather to judge of the contrary and compare artificial productions to their Sampler in Nature For all Arts are attained by an imitation and personating of Nature and our Reason or Intellect is derived from the divine understanding exercised in its works And when it is rooted in us by a compleat habit like another adventitious acquired soul reflecting a resemblance of the highest and divinest Agent it produceth like effects and operations Wherefore in my opinion he is the right and pious Philosopher who deduceth the generations of all things from that eternal and Omnipotent Deity upon whose pleasure the Universe dependeth Nor do I think we ought to contend by what notion we call or adore this first Agent to whom all the names of veneration are most due whether that of Deus or Natura naturans or Anima mundi For all men understand him to be that Beginning and End of all things which is Omnipotent and everlasting the Author and Creator of all things preserving and perpetuating the fluxibility of mortall creatures by the several vicissitudes of generations which being every where present is no less assistant to the particular operations of natural things then of the whole Universe that so he may propagate all Animals by his Deity Providence Art and divine Understanding Whereof some are spontaneous births without any Univocal efficient some born by the associat operations of male and female some from one Sex onely others by other intermediate Instruments which Instruments are sometimes fewer sometimes more sometimes univocal and sometimes equivocal and ex accidenti casual But all natural bodies whatever are both the productions and Instruments of that Great God and are either onely natural as Heat Spirit the tepidity or warmth of the Air or Putrefaction c. or animate also for he makes use in some sort of the motions faculties and souls of animals themselves in order to the perfection of the Universe and procreation of Animals It appears therefore in some proportion what the males contribution is towards generation namely the cock brings that same virtue to the egg by which of a subventaneous it becomes a fertile one as vegetable Fruits borrow from the Summer heat to ripen themselves and fructifie their seeds and which induceth fertility into spontaneous productions by which from worms they become a Canker-worm and from a Canker-worm they become the worm called Aurelia and from an Aurelia Butterflies common Flies and Bees c. And in this manner the Sun by his access to the earth is the Beginning of the motion and transmutation in the Increase of Fruits and the End also when he becomes the author of the fertility of their Seeds And as in the early Spring he is the primary efficient of Leaves Blossoms and Fruits so is he the last compleater of the maturity and fecundity of the Seed in the strength of Summer For confirmation of which amongst many other observations I shall insert this one There are some amongst us who manure their Orange-trees with a great deal of care and husbandry so that the Oranges which the first year grew to the bigness of the top of ones thumb are the next Summer mature and complete save onely that they have no kernels or seeds While my thoughts were bent upon this contemplation I fanfied these Oranges to be a Specimen of the Subventaneous eggs which are produced by the Hen without the Cocks assistance having all the sensible appearances or requisites of fruitful eggs bating onely the fecundity or propagating seed As if the same thing were conferred by the Cock upon a subventaneous egg to make it fruitful which the Sun contributes in hotter climats whereby the fruit of their trees are produced with kernels And as if the English Summer were no farther usefull to some fruit then the simple Hen to the Egge and were onely like the female an impotent progenitress which Summer in other Countries where they enjoy a greater bounty from the Suns presence were a masculine Summer and did complete her productions This by the by that by the eggs example it might appear what qualifications are required to a primary efficient in the generation of Animals For it is clear that there is in an egg an operator and also in every conception and rudiment which is not only infused into it from the fentale but is first communicated from the male by the gemture in coition but yet first of all contributed to the Male from the Heavens the Sun or the Almighty Creator It is likewise manifest that this Operator or Agent which is existent in the egge and in every seed is so inspired with power from the Parents that it fashions the chicken to the likeness of the Parents not of it self and that a mixt likeness too as proceeding from them both united in coition and since all things are transacted with an admirable providence and wisdom the presence of the divine Deity is clearly implyed But of this we shall more largely treat elsewhere when we shall endeavour to shew what remaines in the Female presently after coition and where it abideth and likewise because nothing at all is discoverable in the cavity of the womb after coition what that prolifical contagion or first conception is Whether it be any corporeal thing any where reserved in the female or something incorporeal And whether the conception of the womb be like the conception of the Brain and so Fecundity be attained as Science is for there are arguments not wanting to prove it and as Motion and Animal operations do take their rise from the
therefore these two things are sometimes apart And thus it is in all other artificial things for none of them have in themselves an Efficient Principle but some of them have such a Principle in others that are without themselves as a House and all other Manual Productions some indeed have it in themselves but not by themselves namely all those things which may by accident become causes to themselves Nature therefore is that thing which she hath â—â—eady been said to be And all those things have â—ature in them which have such a kind of Principle And all those things are substances For Nature is ever â—â—me subject and in some subject We have related these Passages more at large and in their Authors own words that so it may appear that what we attribute to the egge is â—â—ally in it namely the Matter the Organ the â—â—fficient Cause Place and what ever else is required to the Generation of the Pullus And chiefly for the clearing of some most difficult questions 〈◊〉 namely which is and what kind of Principle it is from whence Motion and Generation do proâ—â—d Also by what Power the Seed doth act according to Aristotle And lastly what it is that â—oth inspire and qualifie the Seed with its faecundity For Aristotle decrees that Nature is the Principle of Motion and Rest Innate in all bodies â—â—d not Accidental Whether that which in the â—gge is the Cause Efficient and Principle of Generation and of the Vegetative and Vital Operations be some Innate thing in it or something Added to it And whether it be in it first and by it selfe as a kinde of Nature or else by Accident as the Physitian is in the Cure Whether it be some Inâ—â—ed or some Acquired power which doth transform the Egge into a Chicken or nourish it when it was but begun in the Ovary augmenting and perfecting also preserving it while it is not Set upon by the Henne Moreover what it is that fructifies the egge whether it be to be called the Soul or a Part of the Soul or some faculty of the Soul or some thing that has a Soul or an Intellect or laâ—â— the Deity because it acts for some end 〈◊〉 disposes all things by providence and 〈◊〉 mitable art and after an incomprehenâ—â—â— manner and always provides what is best bâ—â—â— for the being and well-being as also for defence and ornament And this not onely in perfect egge which it fructifies but even in a subventaneous one too nourishing augmenting and preserving it And doth not onely supply and nourish the yolk in the Vitellary but that very leâ—â— speck whence that proceeds being of no greaâ—â— magnitude then Millet or Mustard-seed which iâ— feeds and enlarges and at last invests it with the White the Chalazae the Membranes and the Shâ—ll For it is probable that even an Improlifical barrâ—â— eggâ— by an innate and inbred principle though it be contained in the Bowels of the Henne and adhear to her doth feed conserve augment alter in like manner as Fishes and Frogs-egges which being exposed do grow and are perfected and transforme it self out of a small Whelke or speâ—k into a yolk and afterward take its journey from the Ovary to the Uterus though it have no Connexion to the Uterus and there inrobe it self in the White and at last compleat it self with the Membranes Chalazae and Shel But be it what it will which doth alike both in a Subventaneous and in a Fruitful equally produce the same effects after the same manner and from the same Causes or Principles whether it be the same Soul or the same Part of the Soul in both it is very well worth our inquiry Now in probability the same things do spring from the same Causes Though the egge while it is making is contained within the Henne and grows to its parent in 〈◊〉 Vitellary by the Pedunculus or stalk and is supplied from the Hens veines yet may it not be â—aid to be a Part of its mother nor to take life and â—â—getation from her soul but from its own proper power and intrinsecal principle As Mushâ—â—s Misletoe and several kindes of Moss are bred 〈◊〉 of Trees which though they adhere to the â—lant and are sustained by the same sap with its â—wn blossomes and leaves yet are they not Parts of those Trees nor are they called so Aristotle to salve these doubts allows a Vegetative soul to â—e even in the very Subventaneous Egge where he saith Both Females and all things that live have a Vegetative soul as hath been often said Wherefore this â—gge treating of a Subventaneous egge considered aâ— the Conception of a Plant is perfect of an Animal it is Imperfect And in another place he teacheth the same thing enquiring After what manner â—â— Subventaneous egges said to live for they cannot be said to live as fruitful egges live For then an Animal might be produced out of them Nor are they in the condition of Wood and Stones because they perish by a kinde of corruption as things that formerly did in some sort partake of life It is certain therefore that they have some Potential soul But what Soul is that doubtlesse that Soul which they last enjoyed which is a vegetable Soul for this is indifferently in all Plants as well as Animals And yet the same soul is not in Subventaneous Egges and in fruitful For if so A Chicken might alike be formed out of both But how their Souls differ and in what Aristotle doth not sufficiently declare in his enquiry Why all the parts of an egge are framed in a Subventaneous Egge and yet an Animal is not procreated thence Because saith he it is necessary it should have a sensative soul As if in fruitful Egges there were a sensative soul besides the vegetative Unlesse you apprehend it thus that the Vegetative soul is Actually in a fruitful egge which containes in it a sensative soul in Potentiâ out of which afterwards an Animal and the sensative parts of an Animal are produced But this doth not sufficiently salve the scruple not release the mind involved in perplexities and doubts For an Egge seems to be the true Sperâ—â— of an Animal according to that of Aristotle In those things that have life and no distinction of Sexes the Seed is a kind of Conception already I call that a Conception which bears proportion to Seed which is the mixture of Male and Female wherefore out of 〈◊〉 Seed proceedeth one Body v. g. out of one egge 〈◊〉 Animal One egge therefore seemes to have one Soul now whether is that Soul the soul of the Henne or of the Cock or a mixt soul of Both For the doubt chiefly concerns those egges which proceed from Animals of a distinct kind as out of a dunghill Henne and a Cock Pheasant I enquire whether such an egge participate of the soul of the Henne or of the Pheasant or is the soul of the Egge compounded of them
the egge one that no man hath hither to fondly pronounced that the one was the Cock and the other the Hens Seed But this popular error is soon blown over for the Chalazae are a like manner found both in the Subventaneous and Fertile egge That both the Male and Female are the Efficients of Generation EXERCIT. XXXIII THe Physitians do rightly maintain against the Aristotelians that both Sexes participate â—â— the Efficient power because that which is generated is a thing compounded of them both for it is mixt of them both in the figure and similitude of the Body and in the Species too as suppose it a thing mixt between a Partridge-Cock and a Dunghil-Hen And it is very consonant to reason for a man to conceive that those are the Efficient causes of a Conception whose com-mâ—â—ture that which is produced doth represent and express And this is Aristotles opinion In some creatures saith he it is apparent that that which generates is such like as that which is generated and yet not the â—ame not that very numerical thing but of the same Species as in natural productions For a Man begets â— man unless something befal praeturnatural as when â—â— Horse begets a Mule and the like For that which is common to a Horse and an Ass is not called Propinquissimum genus the Next Kind and yet they two may be commixed in one for such is a Mule And in the same place he saith The Generant is sufficient to generate and be the cause of the existence of the Species in the matter but such a Species being now in such particular flesh and Bones is now several persons is Callias and Socrates are Wherefore since such an entire forme as namely of a Mule is mixt of both namely Horse and Asse the Horse alone is not sufficient to produce this form of a Mule in the Matter but as the whole entire form is mixt so another efficient cause must be conferred and joyned to it from the Asse That therefore that doth produce a Mule mixed of both must be it self adequate and mixed too if it be Univocal As for example This Man and that Woman do beget this Socrates not under the capacity of being both of them Homines Men and so are of one and the same species but by reason that this particular Man and that particular Woman are of humane kind composed of this and that particular flesh and bones of both which since socrates is a kind of Mixture and is mingled of them both that of which Socrates is made must needs be as it were a compounded Univocal mixt â—â—ing that is to say the mixt Efficient of a mixt Effect And therefore the Male and Female are not generative apart but as they are united in Coition and made as it were one entire Animals and thence from them both as from one the true efficient immediate cause of the Conception doth result and is deduced The Physitians also while they minding onely what befalls humane kind give resolutions at large concerning Generation in general and it seeming probable to them that the Geniture flowing in Coition from both Parents is the true Sperme or Seed proportionable to the Seed of Plants doe not without reason constitute that mixture which is the next efficient cause of the future Foetus out of the mixture of the Seed of both Parents and therefore affirme that such a mixt body is conteined in the Womb presently upon Coition and is the first Conception But our precedent History makes it appear that the thing is clean otherwise in an Egge which is a true Conception Concerning the Matter of the Egge contrary to Physitians and Aristotelians EXERCIT. XXXIV THat which Physitians deny in opposition to the Aristotelians namely that the Blood is the First Matter of the Conception doth evidently appear out of the Generation of the Egge For there is no Blood at all conteined in the Womb of the Hen either in Coition or before or after it Nor are the Rudiments of the Egge sanguine but white And many living Creatures conceive in whose Genitals if you open them nimbly not one drop of Blood is to be seen But while they contend that the Mothers Blood is the Nutriment of the Foetus in the Womb especially of the Partes Sanguineae the bloody parts as they call them and that the Foetus at first as if it were a part of the Mother is sustained by her blood and quickened by her spirits in so much that the Heart beats not and the Liver sanguifies not nor any part of the foetus doth execute any publick function but all of them make Holy-day and lie idle in this Experience it selfe confutes them For the Chicken in the egge enjoyes his own Blood which is bred of the liquors contained within the egge and his Heart hath its motion from the very beginning and he borrowth nothing either blood or spirits from the Hen towards the Constitution either of the Sanguineous parts or Plumes as those that strictly observe it may plainly perceive And I make no question fully to demonstrate in my succeeding Observations that the foetus of Viviparous creatures while they are yet imprisoned in the Womb are no way sustained by the Mothers blood nor vegetated by her spirits but do rejoice in their own Soules and indowments as the Chicken uses to do in the egg and sate themselves from their owne stocke of Blood But as for that which concerns the Matter of the foetus arising from Male and Female and that so magnified manner of Generation so much countenanced by the confident Schools namely that the Conception is rendered prolifical from the comâ—â—sture of the Genitures and their mutual Action and Passion as also those other Heresies of their concerning the Seed of Females and concerning the division of Parts into Spermatical and Sanguineous many and those very remarkable and excellent observations which shall be treated â—â— hereafter have compelled me to dissent from them I shall at present say onely this that I extreamly wonder how Physitians especially such as are skilfull Anatomists should prop up their opinion upon two arguments as most invincible â— when those very arguments if rightly understood â— do make against them rather As for Instance From that Concussion Solution and Profusion of Humour which befalls Women many times with delight in Coition they concludeâ— that all Women do emit a Semen in Coition and that that Semen is necessary to Generation Whereas to passe by this reply namely that the Female of all Animals nay all Women have not such a Profusion and that it is no way necessary that thâ—â— Conception must be frustrate without it for â— know many Women that are Mothers without it and some also which upon having it were indeed much affected with enjoyment but came much short of their former fruitfulnesse Besides infinite and innumerable examples of Women whâ—â— though they receive much satisfaction by their Husbands do yet emit
be treasured in the egge not onely the matter of the Chicken but his first feeding too that which is provided for a perfect animal ought it self to be perfect too and such is that egge which consists of two distinct complexioned parts whereof the one is the former and more simple and therefore of gentler digestion the other the latter or more remote and therefore translated into the substance of the Chicken with more difficulty now the yolk and white are thus different amongst themselves and therefore Perfect egges are Party-coloured compounded of a white and yolk as containing and storing up in them several provisions of harder or more friendly digestion according to the several age and ability of the Chicken How the Egge is supplied with its White EXER XXXVII IT appears by our History that the primordia of the eggs in the Ovary are wondrous litle resembling small whelks and lesse then the seed of Millet being full of a white watry moisture and that these Papulae or whelks do at length shoot up into yolks and that those yolks are at last invested and cloathed with a white Aristotle seemes to be of opinion that the white is generated out of the yolk by way of Separation Let us read his words The Sex saith he is not the cause of the party-colours as if the white did proceed from the Male and the yolk from the Female but both are derived from the female or Hen. But one is hot and the other cold And in those creatures that have good store of heat they are distinguished from one another but where that heat is fainter they are not distinguished And for that reason the conceptions of such Animals are of one onely colour as is said Now the Males seed onely doth constitute the egge and therefore at first the conception of all Birds is white and small but in process of time it is all yellow because now a larger quantity of blood is admixed and lastly the heat abating the whiter part environs it round as being a humor equally tempered on all sides For the white part of the egge is naturally moist containing in it an animal warmth and therefore it is placed about the egge and the yellow earthy part remains within But Fabricius conceives The White of the Egge to grow to the yolk by a juxt aposition meerly For while saith he the yolk rowleth through the second Uterus and falls down by degrees it doth by degrees gather to â— a part of the White which is purposely generated in the Uterus that it may cleave to the yolk untill the â—â—lke having now passed the intervening or middle â—â—ires and arriving at the last of all it is together with the White encompassed with the membranes also and thou assumes a shell He conceits therefore that the egge attaines its increase in a twofold manner partly by the Veines as it is with the yolke and partly by an additional accession or apposition as it is with the White And this perhaps did induce him to be of that judgement namely because the White being boyled hard doth easily part and distinguish into â—â—kes whereof the one lyes above the other But his also doth befall the yolk not yet departed from the Ovary if it be hard boyled as the former And therefore being otherwise instructed by Experience I rather join in opinion with Aristotle for the White is not adjoined as Fabricius would â—â—ave it but bred also and furnisht with the Chalazae and distinguished by several membranes and divided into two white liquors and all this by the same vegetative soul by whose industry the Egge it self is distinguished into two liquors a yolk and a white For every part of the Egge is formed and constituted by the same faculty which frames the whole Egge Nor is it true that the yolk is first made and then the white adjoyned to it For what wee see in the Ovary is not the yolke of an egge but rather some compound comprehending both liquors mixed together It resembles the yolk indeed in complexion but the white in considence for being boyled hard it is not friable as the yolk is but concrete and glutinous and consisting of several flakes as the White and hath as it were a white Papula or whelk in the 〈◊〉 Aristotle seems to erect this separation from 〈◊〉 diverse nature of the yolk and white For saith 〈◊〉 If you cast diverse egges into a bason or such like 〈◊〉 sel and prepare them over a Chafin-dish of coals in 〈◊〉 sort that the force of the fire be not nimbler the◠〈◊〉 distinction of the eggs the same thing will befall all the heap of eggs as happens to every particular eggs namely all the yolks will gather and assemble themselves into the middle and the Whites get round about thâ—â— And this I have often experimented and what ever will may try it provided he shake the yâ—â— and whites together and with a piece of butter â—â— gest them temperately into a Cake having mingled them between two dishes placed over a Chafin-dish of coales or in an Oven for he shall plâ—â—â—ly see the whites cover the yolks which are assembled at the bottom What the Cock and Henne do conferrâ— to the Generation of the Egge EXER XXXVIII BOth Cock and Hen are to be reputed the Chikens Parents for both of them are necessry principles of the Egge and both alike Efficient causes For the Egge it self is the Henns work aâ— the Fertility the Cocks Both are therefore Instruments of the plastick virtue by whose meanes thâ— species is continued to the world But since in some Animal species as if the 〈◊〉 were a useless thing and the Female alone did â—â—ffice to the perpetuity of the species there are no Males to be found at all but the whole race is female as in some species there are Males onely and no Females at all to be found for they do all by an emission of something out of them into the â—â—d the earth or water progenerate and preserve their species Nature seemes in these and the like creatures to have satisfied her selfe with one sex only using that alone as an instrument for procreation And now again some other creatures have a seed provided for them casually as it were without any distinction of sex at all namely those creatures whose Birth is spontaneous For as some things are the productions of art and the self same things are the issues of chance too as Health for one So likewise some kinde of Animal seed is not simply produced from an univocal Agent as a Man from a Man but onely in some sort univocal namely in all those creatures whose extract and matter out of which they spring is casual in relation to them and yet undergoes a mutation of it selfe as the seed doth namely Those Animals that are not produced by coition but are born of their own accord are produced from such an original as Insects have which
it is a perplext business and Authors do no where more cavil and contend and Aristotle himself is wonderful intricate in explaining it and also many doubts not to be despised do interpose I conceive it worth the while as we have done in making search after the Matter in the first place to set down how many ways a thing may be said to be Efficient or Effective that so it may more certainly and distinctly appear what is to be enquired after under the name of Efficient as also what is to be resolved concerning the opinion of Authors about this matter and that it may likewise appear out of our own observations what is to be truely and properly called an Efficient Aristotle defines an Efficient cause to be that from whence the first beginning of Mutation or Rest proceeds as an Adviser a Father and simply he that doth a thing of the thing that is done that which is the transmutor of that which is transmuted Whereupon many and sundry kinds of causes from whence a motion or mutation doth proceed are brought and amassed in the Generation of Animals sometimes an accident or quality is assigned the Efficient and so the animal heat and forming faculty are alledged as the Efficient Sometimes an external substance before existent in which the plastical power and forming faculty resides as the father or the seed of that creature by whose efficacy the Chicken is procreated of the egge Sometimes some internal substance existent by it self as the spirit or Calidum innatum And sometimes some other substance as the Form or Nature or Soul or some Vegetative part of the Soul which kinde of principle we have said is in the Egge Moreover because some things from which mutation doth proceed are neerer causes of it and some more remote thereupon sometimes media the things between the first efficient and the last effect and also the Instruments are counted Efficients as also subordinate ends or the principles of subsequent things are ranked amongst efficient causes and hereupon is it that some parts are called Genital parts as the Heart from which Aristotle affirms the other parts to proceed as is clear also by our History I say the Heart or at lest the rudiment of the Heart namely the Vesicula and Punctum saliens doth erect and set up the rest of the Body as a future habitation for it self and when it is built takes possession enlivens and swayes it and fortifies it with the superaddition of the Ribs and Breast-bone as with a Bulwark and becomes as it were a Tutelar God the first chamber that entertaines the soule the first receptacle of the primigenial heat and the Vestal animal-fire the source and fountain of all the Faculties and the only solace in Afflications Again since the Efficient is so called in order to the Effect seeing by Epigenesis some parts are after other in order and divers also spring from those that are before them it is therefore probable that as the Effects so the Efficients are also diverse which produce diverse works from which also diverse mutations do proceed So Physitians in the Physiological part of Physick do constitute some Instruments of Chylification some of Sanguification and some of Generation and some Anatomists an Ossifical Carnifical and a Nervifical faculty which they depute to make the Bones the Flesh and the Nerves But in the Generation of the Chicken the efficient causes must needs differ by reason of the several actions relating to it which differ very much which though they may seem Efficientes per accidens contingent Efficients of Generation yet are they necessarily required since nothing could be done without their associat ayd For while they remove external Impediments or do cherish or awaken the conception and de potentiâ in actum deducunt raise it from possibility into actual being they are justly stiled efficients And in this Rowle the Incubation of the Hen the temper and warmth of the Place and Air the Spring-time and the approach of the Sun by the Zodiack may be well listed as also the preparing causes which cause the Yolk to ascend the Macula to be dilated and the resolution or melting of the humours in the Egge may be mustered amongst efficients And then the Generative and Architectonical faculties which Fabricius calls parts are to be numbred with the efficient causes as the Immutatrix Concoctrix Formatrix Auctrix the Altering Concocting Forming and Augmenting faculty as also those causes that are efficients in the Accidents relating to the Chicken as that by which the Chicken is either a Cock or a Henne resembling the He or Shee-parent and that in relation to the form of the Cock which was concerned in the former or latter coition whence it comes to pass that the Chicken is an animal and that an entire one and not dismembered sturdy and sound not diseased and crasie but a long liver and retaining the Species or degenerating from it or proves a Monster or of a mixt race Lastly since in treating of the efficient cause of the foetus we discover the notable structure of it and the actions functions uses and benefits of all the parts and members and with what prudence skill and judgment by how divine an inspiration all things are managed and artificially composed for the advantage of Life we must not only amuse our selves in inquiring which is the Efficient Architect and Projector but also adore and admire the Omnipotent Author and Preserver of so great a Fabrick as justly merits the title of a Microcosme We also enquire when and whence it proceedeth and where this divine Vicar and Vice-Roy of the deity which is analogous to the substance of Stars and neer allyed to Art and Intellect takes up its residence and keeps its Court. It is apparent therefore by what hath been said that it is a difficult thing to enumerate all the efficient causes of the Pullus and we must needs referre the fuller disquisition of the thing to a general consideration nor is it possible to treat fully and profitably of those things which agree to all in general out of the single generation of the Chicken without a clearer light borrowed by experience from other Animals And that the rather because Aristotle himself hath recounted so many various efficient principles of Animals For sometimes he ordaines the Male the chief efficient cause as in whom the Ratio pulli the Reason or ground of the Made Chicken consists according to that all things are made by the same Univocal Sometimes the Males seed or the Nature of the Male ejecting seed Sometimes that which is in the seed causing seed to be fruitfull namely the Spirit and the nature in that Spirit answerable in proportion to the substance of the Starres Else where heat moderate heat a certain proportionable degree of heat the heat in the Blood and in some places the heat of the Ambient Aire Likewise
the Winds the Sun the Heavens Jupiter the Soul and in general Nature which is the Principle of Motion and Rest And so by the same rule Any of the Stoicks who thought the Soul to be fire may decree fire the efficient cause of Animals because fire doth nourish and augment it self and seems in some sort to live at its own dispose and liberty though not our destructive culinary fire but the Natural Celestial Vegetative Generating and Healthy fire which the Heathen worshipped by the name of Jupiter whom they called the Father of Men and Things not his lame Brother Vulcan whose ayd and benefit we notwithstanding daily use in several employments to our great advantage but the divine Animal Spirit the Author of Living creatures And therefore Aristotle saith That this question concerning the Efficient is very dubious namely Whether it be an extrinsecal thing or something inserted in the Geniture or Seed and Whether it be a part of the soul or the soul or something which hath a soul Wherefore that we may deliver and rid our selves of the maze and labyrinth of the manifold Efficient causes in this disquisition of the Efficient of the Chicken we have need of Ariadnes Clew woven and cunningly wrought of the Observations of almost all Creatures living And therefore it is to be deferred to a more general Inquest In the mean time we shall recount those things which relating to the particular generation of the Chicken out of the egge do manifestly appear or are strangers to the common perswasion or else do require any further search How the Efficient cause of the Chicken doth operate according to Aristotle EXERCIT. XLVII ALl men generally confess the Male to be the primary efficient cause in Generation as in whom the Species or Form resides And they farther affirm that his Geniture being emitted in coition doth cause both the being and fertility of the Egge But how the seed of the Cock doth produce the chicken out of the Egge neither the Antient nor Modern Philosophers and Physitians have sufficiently explained nor yet solved the question proposed by Aristotle Nay Aristotle himself hath not done it He saith The Male doth not conduce to the Quantity but the Quality and is Principium Motûs the Principle of Mutation but the Female contributes the matter And a while after Every Male doth not emit seed nor is it any part of the Foetus in those that do emit it As nothing which passeth from the Carpenter contributes to the matter of the Wood nor is there any part of the Carpenters art in that which is made but the form and species doth exist in the matter per motum ab illo by the motion or mutation which proceeds from him Now the soule in which the form and knowledge is moves the hands or other members by the motion of a certain quality which motion is either diverse in such as make a diverse thing or the same in such as make the same But the hands and instruments move the matter So the Nature of the Male which emitteth seed imployes that seed as an Instrument and having motion actually in it as in the productions of Art the Instruments are moved for in them in some sort the motion of Art is implanted By which words he seems to imply that Generation is made by the motion of a certain Quality As in Art though the first cause namely ratio operis the reason or ground of the work be in the soul of the Artist yet afterward the work is effected by the motion of the hands or other Instruments and though the first cause be removed as in automatis things that seem to move of themselves yet is it in some sort said to move that which at present it doth not touch but hath touched formerly so long as the motion goes on in the Instruments And in the following Book he hath these words The seed of the Male when now it hath access into the womb of the Female it doth coagulate and cause a consistence in the purest part of the excrement meaning the menstruous blood residing in the womb and doth transmute the matter which lies ready in the womb by such a motion or mutation that at last though the seed vanish after the motion is performed some part of the foetus is existent and that an animate part as the heart which now doth augment and dispose it self as a Son who is free from his Father and hath taken a house of his own It is necessary therefore that there be some principle by which afterwards the order of the members may be delineated and all things disposed which pertain to the absolution and complement of the Animal and from which growth and motion may arrive to the rest of the parts and be the author of all the similar and dissimilar parts and of their last aliment For that which is now an Animal doth increase but the last aliment of the Animal is blood or something proportionable to blood whose vessels and receptacles are the Veines Now the principle or original of the veines is the Heart But the Veines like Roots extend even to the womb by which the Foetus draweth his aliment The Heart also being the beginning of the whole nature and also the containing End ought to be made first as being a genital part of its own nature which must needs be the first as the original of the rest and of the whole Animal and of Sense in whose heat because all the parts are in the matter potentially since the principle of motion did abide that which follows afterwards is stirred up by it as in those self-moving miracles and the parts are moved not shifting their places but altering in softness hardness heat and other distinctions of similar parts being now actually made which were potentially before This is Aristotles opinion almost word for word by which he conceives the foetus to be made of seed by motion though it do not at present continue touching it but hath touched it formerly a nice opinion and of a fine thread and according to those things which are discovered in the order of the generation of the parts not improbable For the heart together with the ramifications of the Veins is discerned first as being an animate principle in which both sense and motion reside and being also like a free Son and a Genital part by which the order of the member is delineated and all things conducing to the accomplishment of an Animal are disposed and having all those attributes which Aristotle bestowes upon it But it seems impossible that the heart should be made in the egge by the males seed since that seed is neither in the egge nor doth touch nor ever did touch it because it neither enters the womb where the egge is made as Fabricius confesseth nor is any way attracted by it and besides this the mothers blood is not in the egge neither nor any other prepared
he seems to have introduced his fore-said distinction between Oviparous and Viviparous Animals And that this his opinion may seem more probable he recites what changes and alterations the seed reserved in the Testicles and seminary Vesicles not yet emitted doth procure in Animals But to take no notice that all this makes litle to his purpose for the question in chief is not How the Cocks seed doth render the egge fertile but rather How it doth frame and erect a Chicken out of the Egge all those things which he hath conjured up to guard his opinion seem for the most part false or very suspicious as appears by our Observations delivered in this History For neither is that blinde perforation in the root of the rump which he calls the purse or pouch destined to cubbard up the Cocks seed nor is there as we have said any seed at all found in it but it is an empty unprovided thing both in the Cock and Henne But what he would have by his spiritual substance and irradiation he is yet to acquaint us as also what substance hee understands that to be which he affirms doth by its virtue vivifie the egg Whether a corporeal or formal substance which should proceed from the irradiation of the seed which lies at roost in the pouch and which is chiefly required should fashion the Chicken out of the egge To conclude in my minde he saith no more in substance then this It makes the Chicken because it irradiates the Egge and forms it because it vivifies it and so he labours to reveal and illustrate the obscure manner of formation by one more obscure then it self For the same scruple returns entire namely how the Cocks seed a meer nontangent an external efficient and disjoyned by place remaining in the pouch can fashion the interiour parts that is the Heart Liver Lungs and Guts c. in the egge out of the Chalazae by Irradiation Unless he will have it sitting in its chair of State like the Creator of all only by this word of comman Fiant Let all things be so namely the Bones for Support the Muscles for Motion the Organs for Sense the Members for Action the Intrals for Concoction and the like and so order and by its beams or influence constitute all things to their proper end with providence wisdom and art For neither doth Fabricius expound the manner nor yet demonstrate the seed to be of such force and virtue that without coming neer it can effect all this especially since an egge can by Incubation of a stranger fowle or any other fostering warmth as in dung in a matt or an oven though never so remote from the pouch of its own mother-hen be quickened and produce a foetus The same difficulty therefore lyes still upon our hands namely How the Cocks seed is the Efficient cause of the Chicken nor is it any whit salved by the influence of this spiritual substance For though we should grant that the seed is reserved in the purse and that by a Metamorphosis and Irradiation it did corporate the chicken out of the Chalazae yet the scruple would stick no less by us namely How the Intrals of the Chicken are modelled But these things are long since confuted by us Wherefore when we are in quest of the efficient cause of the Chicken we must look for it in the Egge and not dormant in a pouch and for such a one which though the egg now grown stale were distant many miles from the Hen and laid under an other Hen as a Turkey-hen or African-hen to be hatched or as in Aegypt under warm sand or dung or in an Oven proper for the purpose would still raise up a chicken of the same species and very like the Cock and Hen that were its natural parents or else in case the Cock were of a different kinde a mungrel of-spring of a mixt species and resemblance Wherefore the knot remains to be united which neither Aristotle nor Fabricius have loosened namely How the seed of the Male or Cock doth produce the chicken out of the egge or is to be named the Efficient cause of the chicken especially since it is neither present tangent nor adjoined to the Egge And though almost all men conclude that the Male and its seed are the Efficient cause of the Foetus no man yet hath sufficiently declared how it can be done especially in our Hen-egg The Efficient cause of the Chicken is hard to be found out EXER XLIX THe disquisition of the Efficient is exceeding difficult as we have said and that the rather because so many names are attributed to it Whereupon Aristotle doth recount very many efficient causes of Animals And many controversies are risen amongst authors chiefly between Physitians and Aristotelians who contend very earnestly about it endeavouring by different opinions to explain both the Efficient cause and the manner of its Efficiency And indeed the Omnipotent Creator doth in none of his works more manifestly reveale the presence of his Deity then in the Fabrick and Structure of Animals And though it be a known thing subscribed by all that the foetus assumes its original and birth from the Male and Female and consequently that the Egge is produced by the Cock and Henne and the Chicken out of the Egge yet neither the Schools of Physitians nor Aristotles discerning Brain have disclosed the manner how the Cock and its seed doth mint and coine the Chicken out of the Egge For it is evident enough by what we have delivered concerning the Generation of Oviparous Animals and others that neither the Opinion of Physitians deducing Generation from the mixture of the Seeds of both Sexes nor Aristotles neither establishing the seed of the Male for the Efficient and the Menstruous Blood for the material Cause are to be embraced because that neither in Coition nor presently upon Coition any thing doth part from the Female into the Cavity of the Uterus out of which as out of the Matter any thing relating to the Foetus should be suddenly produced nor doth the Geniture of the Male whether it be animate it self or an animate Instrument enter into the Womb or is attracted thither or any where else reserved in the Female but doth either vanish or retract nor is there any thing else to be found in the Uterus presently after Coition which issuing either from the Male or Female may be fansied to be the Matter or Original of the future Foetus Nor is the Cocks seed surviving in Fabricius his Pouch or any where else in the Henne that thence either by the irradiation and influence of spiritual substance or by contact the egge is made or a Chicken out of the Egge Nor doth the Hen contribute any other seed then the Papulae the Yolk and the Egge And therefore the contemplation is rendered more intricate by our Observations because by them all those suppositions upon which both the other opinions were supported are thrown
to it selfe is not an Efficient but an Instrumental cause Which being granted who will not conclude that Seed and an Egge are Instruments Since a chicken is an effect nobler then the egge and neither like an Egge nor Seed Wherefore when this most Learned Man denies the Seed or Egge to be an Instrument because they are separated from the Primary Agent he stands upon a false bottom For since the first generant produceth its off-spring by several mediums whether any of those mediums be conjoined to it as the Hand to the Artist or whether it be separated from it as the Arrow shot from the Bow yet both are called Instruments From these recited Conditions of the Instrumental cause it may seem to insue that the cock or at least the cock with the hen are the Primary efficients in the Generation of the chicken for the chicken is like them nor can it be thought to be more noble then its Efficients or Parents I shall therefore adde one condition more to the Primary efficient by which perhaps it may appear that the Male is not the Primary but the Instrumentall cause namely that it is required of the Primary efficient in the fabrick of the Chicken that he employ Skill Providence Wisdome Goodness and Understanding far above the capacity of our rational soules as that in which the Reason or Idea of the future work ought to consist and which ought likewise to act for some destinated end disposing and perfecting all parts forming the smallest and most inconsiderable appendixes of the Chicken for some use and employment not providing onely for the structure of the creature but for its wellfare ornament and defence Now the male or his seed either in or after coition is not so qualified that Art Understanding and Providence may be attributed to it Which things being pondered the Male seems to be an Instrumental efficient as well as his seed and the Hen likewise as well as the Egge she laies And therefore we must take our flight to a more Primary Superior and more excellent cause to which we may justly attribute Providence Understanding Art and Goodness and such a one as is as much superiour to its effects and Workmanship as an Architect is better then a Barn he sets up a Prince then his Officers or an Artist then his owne hands And therefore both Male and Female are but Instrumental efficients subservient to the high Creator or Protogenitor And in this sense it is truly said that the Sun and Man beget an Animal because the Spring and Autumn do insue upon the Approaching and Receding Sun at which times commonly the generation and corruption of Animals happen So the chiefest of Philosophers The first Movers motion is not the cause of generation and corruption but the motion of the Oblique circle for that is continual and hath also two Motions for if generation and corruption were to be always continual it were necessary that something should be always moved least those mutations should fail but yet it must have two motions least one onely of the two mutations should succeed The cause therefore of the continuity is the motion of the Universe but the declivity it selfe is the cause of the Approach and the Recesses For it comes to pass that He namely the Sun is sometimes neerer and sometimes farther from the earth And when the Interval is inequal the motion must be inequal too If then he therefore generate because he approaches neerer and cause corruption because he remotes and recedeth farther from the earth Then it follows that if he often do generate it is because he often approacheth and if he often cause corruption it is because he often recedeth For contraries have contrary causes And therefore in the Spring all things flourish and grow namely from the Approach of the Sun who is the Common Father and Parent or at least the immediate and Common Instrument in Generation imployed by the high Creator and that not Vegetables onely but Animals too nor they onely which are Spontaneous issues but those also which are generated by Male and Female As if at the approach of this noble Planet soft Venus did descend from the Skie with Cupid and the Graces entertained for her Retinue inciting and provoking all living things by their Allegeance to Love to propagate their kind Or as it is in the Fable as if Saturne did then become an Eunuch and threw his masculine evidences into the Sea to raise a Foam which might give birth to Venus For in the Generation of Animals Superat tener omnibus humor A gentle dew doth moisten all as the Poet hath it and the genital parts doe foam and strut with Seed And therefore the cock and Hen are chiefly fruitfull in Spring as if the Sun or Heavens Nature the Soul of the Universe or the Omnipotent Deity for these are Synonoma's were a Superiour and Diviner cause of Generation then they So Sol homo generant hominem The Sun and Man beget a Man that is to say the Sun by Man as its Instrument And so the Creator of all things and the cock beget an egge and out of an egge a chicken namely by the constant approach and recesse of the Sun who according to the will and decree of the Almighty is emploied in the generation of all things We conclude therefore that the male though he be a Primary and more excellent efficient then the female is only an Instrumental Efficient and doth himselfe no less then the Female owe his fecundity or generative Virtue to the Sun his Creditour and therefore the artifice and providence which we discover in his workmanship doth not proceed from him but God For the Male uses neither counsel nor understanding in generation nor doe Men generate by any part of their reasonable soule but by a faculty of their vegetative which is not inrouled amongst the primary and more devine powers of the soule but the meanest and basest Since therefore in the structure of a chicken Art and Providence are no less visible then in the Fabrick of Man himselfe and the creation of the Universe we must needs acknowledge that in the generation of Man there is an Efficient cause more excellent then man himselfe or else that the vegetative faculty or that part of the soule which raiseth this pile of man and doth conserve it is much more divine and excellent and doth more personate the Image of God then the Rational part it selfe whose worth and dignity we more cry up then all the faculties of the soule beside though she were Regent and Empress of the rest and held them all as Tributaries to her Or at least wee must confess that there is neither prudence nor skill nor understanding in the workes of Nature but they seem such onely to our apprehensions who iudge of the divine productions of nature by our owne Arts and Faculties or copies drawne by our own fancies as if the active principles of
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
ascititious Wardrobe or some few daies Pageantry or Masquingstuff but a lasting one and Natures liberal Dowry which delights not onely in the Embroidery of Animals and chiefly of Birds but hath imploied her Pencil upon Flowers and Plants adorning them with wonderful Art and variety of colours Certain Paradoxes and Problemes to be considered of concerning this Subject EXEECIT LVII THus far have we spoken concerning the Order of Generation by which the difference between those creatures which are produced by a Metamorphosis and those which are borne by an Epigenesis hath been discovered as also between those that spring from a Worme and those that arise from an Egge for these are bodied out of one part of the prepared matter and fed with the other But they take up the whole matter in their frame or Constitution these are together augmented and formed they are augmented first and from a Canker-Worme grow into an Aurelia and are afterwards formed and made consummate Animals as Butterflies Silk-wormes and such like Animals And therefore Aristotle as Fabricius observes as he constitutes a kind of twofold nature of the egge and a kind of twofold Egge in these creatures so he laies down a twofold action and a twofold Animal produced by it For saith he out of the first egges which are the first rudiments of the Generation a Worm constantly doth proceed namely out of the Egges of Files Ants Bees Silk-wormes c. in which a certain fluid matter is conteined and out of all that fluid matter is the Worme made But out of the second Egges which are layed by the Worm himselfe the Butterflie is born and proceeds that is a Volatile Animal which is concluded in a kind of Shell Skin little bag or egge and when that bag is broken it departs thence as Aristotle delivereth concerning the Locusts egges Lastly these are perfected by a succession of parts but they namely such as are generated by a Metamorphosis are made intire at once And in the same manner are both Spontaneous productions generated which obtain their first matter and first extraction from putrefaction filth dew excrements or out of the parts of Plants or Animals as also those issues which proceed from the seed of Univocal Animals For it is common to all Animals to desume their Original from seed or an egge whether that seed proceed from other Animals of the same species or happen there casually from some thing else For as it sometimes befalls in Art so also in Nature namely that the same things are sometimes casuall which at other times are effected by Art as Aristotle doth instance in Health so in like manner is the Generation of any Animals as far as they proceed from Seed whether their seed be casuall or else proceed from an Univocal Agent of the same kind For even in casuall seed there is a motive principle of Generation which can generate out of it self and by it self and the same thing is found in it as in Univocal Animals namely a power to form a living creature But of this more at large hereafter Now some Paradoxes do here arise to be examined For since the Macula is dilated the Colliquamentum concocted and prepared and many other things not without great providence ordered towards the formation and growth of the Chicken before any particle of the Chicken appear what should hinder the Innate beat and vegetative soul of the Chicken to be existent before the Chicken it self For what can produce the effects and operations of Life but that which is the cause and efficient of those Effects and Operations namely the heat and faculty of the Vegetal soul And therefore the soul doth not seem to be Actus corporis Organici vitam habentis in potentiâ the Act of an Organical body which hath life in it in potentiâ for we conceive the form of the Chicken to be such an Act. Now in what can we imagine the form or soul of the Chicken to be but in the Chicken it self unless we allow the forms to be separate or grant a Metempsychôsis But this is most manifest where the same Animal lives by a succession of forms as Aristotle speaks as for example Out of a Canker-worm an Aurelia and then a Butterfly For the same Efficient Nutritive and Preserving principle must needs be in each of these unless we will place one soul in the Boy another in the Young man and a third in the Old or affirm that the Canker-worm and that worm which becomes a Silk-worm also the Silk-worm and the Butterfly have the same form of which matter Aristotle hath accurately written and whereof more largely hereafter Again it seems a Paradox that the blood should be made and move and be endowed with Vital spirits before any sanguifying or Motive Organs are constituted at all Nor is it less new and unheard of that there should be Sense and Motion in the Foetus before his brain is made for the Foetus moves contracts and extends himself when there is nothing yet appears for a brain but clear water Besides the body is nourished and encreased before the Organs dedicated to Concoction namely the Stomack and Liver are formed And likewise Sanguification which is the second Concoction is performed before the first which is by the Stomack and called Chylification The Excrements of the first and second Concoction namely in the Guts and the two bladders of Urine one the other of Gall are coetaneous to the concocting Instruments themselves Lastly there is a Minde Providence and Understanding not onely in the Vegetal part of the soul but even before the soul it self procuring disposing and ordering all things and artificially molding the future foetus to a resemblance with his parents even from the very first original and all this to advance the being and well being of the Foetus Concerning which Resemblance we may enquire what should be the cause why the Foetus sometimes resembles the Father sometimes the Mother and sometimes also the Progenitors and those either of the Father or Mothers side And this the rather since upon one single coition and at the same moment of time many Egges are fructified together This also is a wonderful thing that the Virtues and Vices the Diseases the Marks the Moles or Spots should be transferred to Posterity and that into some onely of the Progeny and not unto all In the race of Cocks some are of a generous spirit and born to battle who will dye rather then turn their backs upon their Adversaries and yet their Nephews unless they proceed of like parents do by degrees forfeit their galantry according to that saying Fortes creantur fortibus In many other Animals and especially in Man the Bravery of the Succession or Family is observable and many of the Indowments both of body and soul are derived down to it ex traduce This I have often admired that when the Issue hath obtained a mixt fabrick or composition from both Parents and that in
doth not salve the doubt which is why the Blood and sanguineous parts may not for the fore-cited reasons be as well nourished by the White as the Yolk If he had said that the hotter parts are rather nourished by that blood or Aliment conteined in the blood which is proportionable to the Chyle which is attracted out of the Yolk then out of the White and so on the contrary that the cold parts are supplied rather by that Nutriment which the Veins transport from the White then from the Yolk I should not have much opposed him The main thing that disturbs him in this business is this how the Blood can be made in the Egge or what Artificer can transform the two Liquors into blood when there is yet no Liver in Being For he could not say that the blood in the Egge is derived from the Mothers blood But saith This blood is rather wrought in the Veins then in the Liver but it becomes a bone a gristle or flesh c. in the parts themselves where it is exactly concocted and assimulated without any farther addition at all not signifying by whom the blood which is in the Veins dispersed both into the Yolk and White is concocted elaborated and made perfect when as yet no Liver at all is extant or any particle of the body that might concoct or compleat it And when he had formerly said that the cold parts are nourished by the White the hot by the Yolk not mindful of his assertion he here concludes the quite contrary viz. that the same blood doth transmigrate into bones gristles flesh and other parts But he lets that grand difficulty which so much disouiets the Physitians minds glide by in silence without taking any knowledge of it namely how the Liver can be the Original and Author of the blood seeing that blood is not onely found in the egge before any one of the bowels are framed at all but Physitians themselves do teach that all the substance or Parenchyma of the bowels themselves are meerly so many affusions or confluxes of blood Is the Effect the Author of its own Efficient If the Parenchyma of the Liver is made of blood how can the Liver be the cause of blood And the insuing passages are of the same batch where he saith There is also another use of the White when it is now segregated from the Yolk namely that the foetus may swimme in it and so be susteined lest tending downwards by his own weight hee might incline to one part rather then another and so drawing the Vessels along with him might break them in sunder and to this use the purity and tenacity of the White do conduce For if the foetus should take up his residence in the Yolk he would easily descend down into the bottome and so disorder and break the Yolk also A very weak construction this For what doth the purity of the White availe to the sustentation of the Chicken Or how can the White which is more thin better support the Chicken then the Yolk which is thicker and more gross then it Or what danger is there that the Chicken should fall down Since the egge in Incubation lies always side-long so that there is no fear of ascent or falling down True it is indeed that not only the Chicken but every foetus whatsoever while it is forming doth swim but that innatation is in the Colliquamentum spoken of by us and not in the Yolk or White and we have rendered the reason thereof elsewhere Aristotle saith he Writes that when the Chicken is conceived the Yolk ascends to the Obtuse Angle of the Egge and the reason is because the Chicken is formed out of the Chalaza which adhereth to the Yolk whereupon it behooves the Yolk which is placed in the middle to mount up to the larger part of the Egge that so the Chicken may be there made where there is a natural cavity very necessary to the welfare of the Chicken But the Chalaza is more fastened to the White then to the Yolk But the reason of that ascent of the Yolk is this the Macula or litle cicatrice which appears in the coat of the Yolk is by reason of the spirituous colliquamentum which is bred in it dilated and thereupon requiring more roome doth tend towards the Obtuse Angle of the Egge and so likewise that portion of the Yolk and White which is melted is distended and being now grown more concocted and spirituous doth swimme upon the other parts that remaine crude as those parts of water which are warmed in any vessels arise from the bottome up to the top an experiment approved by all Physitians who holding the Urinal conteining a thick and troubled Urine in warm water do perceive the upper part thereof to clear and grow transparent first This following Instance will explain the matter There is a device known to most men which is intended rather for a jocular bable to gaze upon and laugh at then for any useful implement namely a certain Glass-globe which is almost filled up with clear water wherein several Glass-balls which are fraught with nothing but Air do swim upon the surface of that water which by reason of their levity do support several figures of quivered Cupids armed Centaures Chariots of the Sun and the like which else would all sink down to the bottom So in like manner this Oculus pulli this Eye of the Chicken as I terme it or first Colliquation being dilated by the heat of the Sitting-Hen and the Genital vertue in the Egge and so made lighter ascends to the top and draws up the Yolk to which it adheres together with it Hereupon the thicker White gives place to it and the Chalazae retire to the sides of the Egge because the Cicatricula which was formerly fituate in the side of the egge now mounteth directly upward Of the Uses of the other parts of the Egge EXER LXI THe Shell is hard and thick that so it may fence the Liquors and the Chicken which dwells in them from outward injuries But yet it is brittle and especially in the Obtuse end and neer the time of the exclusion of the Chicken lest it might obstruct the Chickens Exit This Shell is also porous for while an egge especially a new-laid one is in roasting before the fire it doth breath out a kind of sweat trickling down as it were drop by drop Now these pores are useful for Ventilation as also for the more easie penetration of the heat which results from the Sitting Hen and likewise that the Chicken may attract aire from without for as we have said before the chicken doth without all question both breath and cry before his exclusion The Membranes serve to contein the Liquors and therefore they are as many in number as the liquors are And the Colliquamentum also so soon as it is in being is presently invested in its owne proper tunicle as Aristotle did imply in these words A membrane