of Arteries In the Womans After-burden if you mind it well presently after she is delivered are many more Arteries then Veines and also larger too which are disseminated with almost innumerable propagations up and down even to its utmost superficies As also in the fungous Parenchyma or Affusion of the Spleen which is not unlike it the number of the Arteries exceedeth that of the Veins The exteriour Vterine vessels do as I say tend towards the Matrix and towards the Testicles which are seated in the suspensory ligament as some men imagine In the Gibbous or convex part of the caruncles which respect the Matrix I have observed a wonderful contrivance in Nature For in diverse of the Cavities and Cotyledones or Orifices of the vessels gaping outwards I found a white mucilaginous substance which did fill up the whole body of the caruncle as the Honey stuffs up the Honey-comb and was of a complexion consistence and tast much like the White of an Egge But if you pluck a sunder the conception from the caruncles you shall presently descry so many spriggs or capillary branches of the Vmbilical vessels which look like long threads or filaments to be drawn out also from every one of the Cotyledones and Combs as it were and out of their mucous substance just as Herbs plucked up from the Earth have their Roots trailing after them By which it is evident that the Extremities of the Vmbilical vessels are no way conjoined to the Vterine vessels by an Anastomôsis nor do extract blood from them but are terminated in that white mucilaginous matter and are quite obliterated in it attracting nourishment from it after the self same manner as they did formerly draw Aliment from the white moisture or sap which was concluded within the membranes of the conception And as the chicken in the Hen-egge is susteined by the White attracted by its Vmbilical vessels so the Conception also of Hinds and Does is nourished with a white substance like to that which is stored up in these litle Cells and not with blood Wherefore these Caruncles may be justly stiled the Vterine cakes or dugs that is to say Convenient and proportionate Organs or Instruments designed for the concocting of that Albuginous Aliment and for preparing it for the attraction of the Veins And therefore those Viviparous Animals which have not these Caruncles or After-birth as the Mare and the Sow have none their foetus is susteined even till the hour of their birth with the humours which are conteined in the Conception onely and their conception doth no where adhere or grow to the Vterus It is therefore manifest in those and also in these sorts or species of Viviparous Animals and perhaps in all other whatsoever that the Embryo is in no other manner susteined in the Vterus then the chicken in the Egge but out of the same Nutritive substance and of like kind to the Aliment in the White of an Egge For as in an Egge the extremities of the Vmbilical vessels are terminated in the White and Yolk so likewise in Hinds and Does and other Animals that are furnished with these Caruncles the extremity of the Orifices of the Vmbilical vessels are opened into terminated in the humour which is conteined in the Conception and in that white substance which is found in those Orifices or Cotyledones And this truth is hence also asserted in that the extremities of the threads or filaments of the Vmbilical vessels when they are drawn out of that mucous or white substance are all of them white likewise which is a forcible argument they do onely imbibe this gelly or mucilage and not blood And any man may prove the same Experiment in an Egge also if he desire it The After-burden or Vterine cake of a Woman is in its gibbous part wherewith it respects the Womb uneven hilly by reason of several tumors or mushroom-like substances and seems by their mediation to grow to the Womb. As if it were not fastned to the womb in every part but onely in those places where the vessels disseminated into it do extract Aliment and in which for that cause the extremities of the vessels are broken off Now whether those extremities or terminations of the vessels do suck blood from the Womb or rather some kind of concocted substance like to the White of an Egge such as we perceive plainly in Hinds and Does I am not yet satisfied Lastly that the truth in hand may be certainly confirmed if you squeeze those caruncles between your fingers you may easily Milk as much of that Nutritive juice as a spoon can contein out of any one of those Caruncles as out of a Nipple without any appearance of blood at all which blood you shall never squeez from them though you force them never so much Moreover the caruncle thus milked drained doth contract it self and flag like to a sponge that is squeezed and appears to be bored through with several perforations So that by all signs and tokens it appears that those Caruncles are Ubera Vterina the Breasts or Vdders of the Uterus or the receptacles and store-houses of that Nutritive white substance At the end of December these Caruncles do less firmly cleave to the Vterus then they did before and are with case divided from it And by how much the foetus doth improve and grow neerer to the birth so much the easier do those caruncles disjoin from the Womb and in the end as ripe fruit falls off from the Tree they depart from the Vterus of their own accord as being things which relate to the conception And when they are parted from the Womb you may in the impressions which they leave behind them perceive the points or terminations of the Arteries which pass on towards them breathing forth blood But if you force the conception from the caruncles no blood doth issue out from the impressions which they leave behind them though it do seem more consonant to reason that blood should issue out of the caruncles then of the conception upon their divorce For since the caruncles are embroidered by several propagations of Arteries derived from the Vterus and are commonly conceived to convey blood for the nutriment of the Foetus they ought in consequence to abound with plenty of Blood And yet though you milk or compress them they effund no blood at all because they are not ful of blood but of this white substance nor do they seem to be instruments instituted for the concoction of the former but Promptuaries or Treasuries of the latter By which it is apparent that the foetus in the Womb is not susteined by the Mothers blood but by this white substance fitly prepared And perhaps even grown bodies are not nourished by blood but something which runs in the blood is their common and last Aliment as shall perhaps be elsewhere discovered in our Physiological Treatise and in the proper disceptation relating to the blood I
of Ingravidation have not onely deluded the silly Women but the experienced Midwives and the skilful Physitians themselves Wherefore since besides the deceits of Women themselves there are several false Indications of Gravidation we must not rashly determine of the Inordinate Birth before the Seventh Moneth or after the Eleventh The ordinary Computation of going with Child observeth that time which our blessed Saviour the perfectest of all men did fulfil in the Virgins Wombe namely from the day of the Annunciation which is in March to that blessed day of the Nativity which we celebrate in December And according to this Rule the Sager Matrons keeping their account while they cast in the wonted day in every moneth whereon they were accustomed to have their purgations they are seldom out of their Reckoning but ten Revolutions of the Moone beeng expired they are delivered and reap the fruit of their Wombe upon that very day whereon were it not for their Praegnation their Purgations would ensue As concerning the causes of the exclusion or delivery of the Foetus Fabricius besides that given by Galen wherein he delivers That the Foetus is so long continued in the Wombe till being now enlarged and made perfect he is capable of being sustained at the mouth by which argument the weaker sorts of Foetus ought to protract their continuance in the Wombe which yet is no such matter conceives the other reason and that the more rational one too to be the necessity that the Foetus standeth in of more large refrigeration procured by respiration because the Foetus so soon as it is borne doth presently respire but doth not so soon feed And this he affirmeth is not onely observable in Men and Beasts but chiefly in Birds which though they be small and have yet but a tender bill yet will the Chickens peck that part of the shell where they stand in most need of respiration which thing they doe being more streightned for Breath then Aliment Seeing that immediately as soon they are escaped out of the shell they doe respire but abstaine from meat two or three dayes together But whether Respiration be instituted for Refrigeration or for any other use we shall more largely debate elsewhere out of our Observations In the mean time I shall propose this Probleme to the Learned namely How the Embryo doth subsist after the seventh moneth in his Mothers womb when yet in case he were borne he would instantly breath nay he could not continue one small hour without it and yet remaining in the womb though he pass the ninth moneth he lives and is safe without the help of Respiration I shall deliver it yet more plainly How commeth it to pass that the Foetus being now borne and continuing yet covered over with his entire membranes and abiding still in his water can subsist for some hours space without any danger of suffocation and yet being shifted out of those membranes if he have but once attracted the Aire into his Lungs he cannot afterwards live a minute without it but dyeth instantly doubtless this is not for want of Refrigeration for in a difficult Delivery he sticketh fast in the streights without anȳ Respiration sometimes for some houres together and yet we find him alive but yet so soon as he hath escaped and tasted the vital air if you deprive him of it you destroy him in a moment So likewise in the Cesarean Section the Infant is taken out of his Mothers wombe many houres after his Mothers decease and yet he is found alive and continueth safe without the use of Aire though he lye intombed in the Secundines but having once attracted the Aire though you instantly restore him to the Secundines againe he will expire for want of breath Whosoever doth carefully consider these things and look narrowly into the nature of Aire will I suppose easily grant that the Air is allowed to Animals neither for refrigeration nor nutrition sake For it is a tryed thing that the Foetus is sooner suffocated after he hath enjoyed the Aire then when he was quite excluded from it as if the Heat within him were rather inflamed then quenched by the Aire But thus much we have discovered by the way concerning Respiration being perhaps resolved to discuss the debate more fully in its proper place then which disquisition you shall hardly meet with a more nice for it is debated with Arguments of almost equall weight on both sides I return to the Birth which Fabricius conceiveth to come to pass besides the fore-mentioned necessity of Respiration and want of Sustenance because the Foetus being grown bigger doth press out by his weight and also can be no longer conteined within by reason of his large bulk and likewise saith he the Excrements are so multiplied that there is no longer place for them in the membranes But we have already proved that the humours in the Wombe are not Excrementitious Nor is the reason deduced from the Weight and Magnitude of the Foetus more available then the former for the Foetus swimming aloof in the humours is scarce any burden at all to the After-birth or Womb for some Infants of nine moneths are very litle and less then some others of eight moneths onely yet can they no longer subsist in the Womb. And as to the Weight Twins of eight moneths do preponderate any one single Foetus whatsoever though of nine moneths abode in the Womb yet are they not born till the nineth moneth Nor can we quarrel at the scarcity of Aliment since at that time there is entertainment enough even for Twins and sometimes for more Infants and also the milk which is conducted to the Breasts of Women in Child-bed being recalled to the Uterus would as conveniently supply the foetus in the Womb as out of it I shall rather impute the cause of being born to the juice conteined in the Amnion which being most proportionate to the nourishing of the Foetus doth either much faile or else is depraved by the admixture of the superfluities As I have also hinted before But as for the diversity of going with Child which is contrary to the time allotted by Nature which diversity doth chiefly respect Women I do ascribe it to the custome of living the infirmity of the constitution and the several passions incident to Women And therefore those tame Animals which live amongst us by reason of their lazy lives and plenty of food are of more incertainty in their times of Coition and production then wild Beasts which live according to Natures intent Likewise sickly Women have easier and greater dispatch in their Travaile then others but it falls out clean contrary to such Women whose strength is very much consumed For the same thing befalls them as happeneth to Plants whose fruits and seeds do more slowly and seldom arrive to maturity in cold Countries then to other Plants of the same kind which are in a fat and warm soile So Orenges in England adhere
is placed below and neer to these humours being alwaies present with them Adde also moreover that a certain mucous and pituitous substance is alwaies found about the orifice of the womb But in my opinion this worthy man is mistaken for the Neck of the womb is not hard by complication but of its own essence and nervous constitution and likewise those accidental Causes which he alledgeth are of litle advantage to this purpose For doubtless this is done by the Divine Providence of Nature as well as the rest of the wonderfull Fabrick of the Body which doth direct her workmanship to a certain End Action and Use The Wombs constitution therefore is such that in the first Conception it should have its nervous Orifice constringed for retention sake which afterwards in the delivery of the foetus like the fruit in the Tree doth of hard become soft and mellow for the convenience of expulsion and that not from any unfolding but from the alteration of its Temper for even the connexion of the bones themselves namely the Synchondrosis of the Haunch-bone with the Share and Holy-bone the synneuresis or natural union or coalition of the Rump or utmost end of the Os Sacrum is dissolved and mollified It is indeed a wonderfull thing that the litle bud of a growing Nut as suppose of the Kernel of an Almond or other Fruit should break those bones which a Malet can hardly bruise and that the tender fibers of the Ivy-root crawling along the narrow chinks or crannies of stones should at last demolish large walls But it is nothing so wonderfull that the genital parts of Women which are relaxed in the birth should afterward harden and draw themselves together because it is natural to those parts especially if we consider that the Yard of the Male is in coition very much stretched and hardened and anon doth flagge and soften We are more to admire which is beyond all plicature or folding that the substance of the Uterus is not onely dayly amplified and distended according to the growth of the foetus as if it were according to the opinion of Fabricius unfolded but doth grow thicker more carnous and stronger then before That indeed is more wonderfull yet as Fabricius admireth it that the so large bulk of the Uterus should in so few dayes space by the customary purgations of Child-bed return to its pristine dimensions since it is not so in other â—umours and impostumations which consisting of praeternatural and digestive faculties which rebell against the expulsive are longer under cure And yet this is no more admirable then the other works of Nature for all things are filled with the Deity and the God of Nature displayeth himself in all things In the last place Fabricius doth most admire that those Vessels of the Embryo namely the Oval perforation out of the Hollow-vein into the Venal Arterie and the passage from the Arterial Vein into the Aorta whereof we have treated at large in our Tract of the Circulation of the Blood should presently after the birth wither and be obliterated and is enforced to betake himself to that reason cited by us before out of Aristotle namely that all parts are constituted for some Action ot other and that Action being taken away the parts also themselves do vanish As the Eye seeth the Eare heareth the Braine perceiveth the Stomack concocteth not because they are endowed with such a kinde of temper and fabrick but those organs are therefore endowed with such a kinde of temper and fabrick that so they may perform the Functions assigned them by Nature By which argument it appeareth that the Uterus is the chiefest of the Parts dedicated to Generation for the Testicles are constituted for the geniture or seed but the seed for coition and coition it self or emission of seed that the Uterus may receive fecundity and so generation ensue thereby We have formerly said that the Egge is as it were the fruit of Animals and as it were an exposed Womb. Now on the contrary we shall contemplate the Uterus as an Egge residing within For as Trees at set times do flourish with leaves flowers and fruits and Oviparous Animals do sometimes generate eggs and lay but sometimes they grow emerit and the place or part which did contain them is not to be found so also Viviparous Animals have their Spring and Autumne At the Seasons of fecunditie and generation the Genital parts especially in Females are very much altered insomuch that the Ovary in Birds which at other times is conspicuous doth then appear something turgid and the Belly of Fishes about the time of Spawning doth much exceed all the rest of their body by reason of the multitude of their eggs and affluence of their seed or spawne In many Viviparous Animals the Genitals namely the Uterus and Spermatical Vessels are perceived to be at some times of a diverse Constitution Temper and Fabrick but as they grow pregnant or forbear to be so so do they diversly change so that a man can hardly know them for the same things For as in Nature nothing is wanting so there is no superfluity And therefore the Genital parts when there is no more use of them do wither are retracted and as it were obliterated and expunged At the times of Coition the Testicles are conspicuous in male Hares and Moles and the Hornes are then visible in the Uterus of their females It were strange to relate how great an affluence of seed is then conspicuous in the larger sort of Moles and Mice in which at other times no seed at all is to be seen but their Testicles are extenuated and retracted into their Bellies but when they forgoe impregnation there is hardly any such thing as a Uterus to be perceivd insomuch that it is a difficult matter to distinguish Male from Femal The Womb doth chiefly in Women exceedingly vary both in Temper as also in those Adjuncts which follow the Temper namely Scituation Magnitude Figure Colour Thickness Hardness Density Unripe Virgins as their Breasts are no bigger then the Breasts of Boyes so is their Uterus very small white of a skinny substance destitute of Veines and in magnitude not exceeding the top of ones Thumb or a large Bean. So also antient Women as their breasts do sink so have they a retreated flaggy lank pallid Womb void of Veins and Blood Which I also conceive to be the cause why Women growing Antient have not their monthly Termes but that they descend into the Haemorrhoides or else do abruptly forsake them and so endanger their health But when the Womb is now chill and as it were defunct all the Veins and Arteries thereof are expunged the superfluous blood when it boileth doth either restagnate or divert its course into the neighbouring Haemorrhoids But on the contrary in pale Virgins and such as have the Green sickness whose Womb is slender and their Terms are at a stay by Coition with
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
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
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
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
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
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
sleepy that nothing could recover her I being called in to her cure finding that Clysters and other proper remedies had been applied to no purpose and that nothing could go down her throat I put up a feather which was dipped in a strong Sneezing medicine into her Nose by which being moved though she was so overwhelmed with a deep stupidity that she could neither sneeze nor be awaked she began to be seized by a kind of general Convulsion all her body over which beginning at the shoulders did by degrees extend it self to the lower parts But as often as I applied this provocation to her her delivery was advanced and came on and at last the Mother being insensible of it her self and remaining still in her sleepy condition a healthy and sprightly Child was born into the world We may observe the manner of their throwes in other Animals as in the Ewe the Bitch and in great Cattel wherein we shall discover that it is not by the sole action of the Uterus or Belly either but is the joint conflict of all the whole body And how much the Foetus doth conferre to the acceleration and facilitating of his owne Birth is cheifly evident in Oviparous Creatures for it is apparent that the Foetus it self and not the Mother doth break through the shell By which it is probable that in Viviparous births also the chiefest cause of being born is owed to the Foetus it self and that to his industry and indeavour and not to his weight as Fabricius conceiveth For what doth the weight thereof conduce to the birth in four-footed beasts which stand upright or sit down or in Women which lye along nor doth the endeavour of the foetus proceed as he supposeth from its largeness of bulk or the plenty of the water the Water indeed is the cause of the delivery of the foetus which is dead and putrified in the womb in that by its corruption and acrimony it doth extimulate the Uterus to relieve it self but the foetus himself sets open the Gates of the Womb with his head turned downward and unlocks their inclosure by his own force and so struggleth himself into the world by conquest And therefore that kind of birth is counted the nimbler and more fortunate But when the Child comes into the world thrusting his feet formost saith Pliny the birth is counted unnatural and those that are so born are called Agrippae quasi aegre parti born with much difficulty For their birth is slow and painful And yet notwithstanding in abortment and where the foetus is dead or that there would be a hard delivery any other way so that there is necessity of handy-work in the business the more convenient way of comming forth is with the feet formost for by that means the streights of the Uterus are opened as it were by a Wedge Wherefore when the hope of delivery relieth chiefly upon the foetus as being strong and lively we must endeavour to further his comming out with his head fore-most but in case the task is like to depend upon the Uterus we must procure his comming out with his feet fore-most That the assistance of the foetus is chiefly required in the birth is evident not in Birds onely which do by their own industry without the help of their Parent break up the shell but also in other Animals for all Flies and Butterflies doe perforate the litle membranes in which they did lurk when they were the Worme Aurelia and likewise the Silk-worm doth at his appointed time mollifie and erode the litle Silken bagge which he had weaved for his defence and security and so gets out without any forraign aide And in like manner Wasps Beetles and other Insects and all Fishes are borne without others helps as doth chiefly appear in the Raie the Fork-fish the Lamprey and all cartilagineous Fishes which do conceive their Egges within themselves and those perfect ones and party-coloured being furnished with a Yolk and White and concluded in a strong cartilagineous quadrangular shell out of which being detained within the Belly and the Uterus they do form their young which breaking open the shell by force do get abroad as also the young Vipers by their erosion of the membrane which conteineth the Egge do sometimes in their Mothers Bowels and sometimes as they stick in the very passage and other times at the end of two or three daies after their nativity expose themselves to the wide World From whence that Fable that the Vipers do eat their way through their Mothers bowels and so revenge the death of their Father took its foundation When yet they do no more then all other issues which come into the world breaking through the membranes which encompass them either in their very Birth it self or a litle after it But how great furtherance the foetus doth conferre to its own Birth several observations doe clearly evince A certain Woman here amongst us I speak it knowingly was being dead over night left alone in her Chamber but the next morning an Infant was there found between her Leggs which had by his own force wrought his release Gregorius Nymmanus hath collected certaine examples of this nature out of approved Authors I also knew a Woman who had all the interiour part of the neck of her Womb excoriated and torne by a difficult and painful delivery so that her time of Lying in being over though she proved with Child againe afterward yet not onely the sides of the Orifice of the Neck of the Womb neer the Nymphae did close together but all the whole Cavity thereof even to the inner Orifice of the Matrix whereby there was no entrance even for a small probe nor yet any egress to her usual fluxes Hereupon the time of her delivery being now arrived the poor soul was lamentably tortured and laying aside all expectation of being delivered she resigned up her keys to her Husband and setting her affairs in order she took leave of all her friends When behold beyond expectation by the strong contest of a very lusty Infant the whole tract was forced open and she was miraculously delivered the lusty Child proving the author of his own and his Parents life leaving the passage open for the rest of his Brethren who should be borne in time to come For proper applications being administered his Mother was restored to her former health I shall adde one example more memorable then this The Queen had an exceeding white Mare excellently shaped presented unto her whose genitall parts lest by going to Horse shee might endanger the beauty of her proportions and become unfit for use were as the custome is locked up all with iron rings Notwithstanding which this Mare by what accident I cannot tell nor could the Groomes inform me was made big with Foale and at last when they feared no such matter she foaled by night and the Foale was found alive next morning by the mares side
onely imitations of the natural are thus produced by the Braine how much more probable is it that the Exemplars of Animal Generation and conception are in like manner produced by the Uterus And because Nature all whose works are admirable and divine doth institute such an Organ namely the Braine by whose sensitive faculty and virtue the conceptions of the rational soule doe exist namely Desires and Arts and the Principles and Causes of so many several productions whereof man by the motive faculty of the Braine is the Author by Imitation why shall we not think that the same Nature which hath contrived the Womb which is a no lesse admirable Organ then the Braine and hath framed it of a like constitution to execute the office of Conception hath designed it also to a like function or at least to one which beareth an Analogy with it and that Nature did intend an Organ which is every way like the Braine to an imployment like to that to which the Braine is assigned For since a skilful Artificer doth accomplish his Workmanship by his ingenious proportioning one Instrument to one thing and the same to the same and the like to the like So that by the materials and shape of his Instruments a man may easily judge of their use and actions no less then Aristotle hath instructed us to know the nature of Natural Bodies by their conformation and the Fabrick of their Parts and the Art of Physiognomy doth by lineaments and parts of the face as the Eye Nose Fore-head c. give judgement of the manners and dispositions of Men What shall hinder us out of the same fabrick of parts to pass our conjecture that their Office is also the same But such is the preposterous success of things that when we come to debate customary and familiar things their frequency doth diminish their greatness and admiration which is due unto them but when matters of less consequence but such as are more unusual do present themselves wee instantly magnifie them because of their novelty and rarity Whosoever shall weigh with himself how the brain of the Artist or the Artist himself by virtue of his brain doth form things which are not present with him but such as he only hath formerly seen so much to the life and how litle birds which immure themselves all winter long do exactly chant and recall to minde those Ditties the next Spring which they had learned the Summer before though they did never practise them all the while and which is yet more strange how a litle bird will most artificially contrive a Nest whereof shee never saw any platform before and that not from her memory or any habit implanted in her but onely by meere phansie and how a young Spider without any pattern or brain by the help of phansie onely doth dispose her web whosoever I say doth diligently ponder these things will I conceive not think it an absurd or monstrous matter for a woman to become the efficient cause of Generation being impregnated by the conception of a generall immateriall Idea I know full well that some scoffing persons will laugh at these conjectures approving nothing but their owne private inventions Yet this is the wont of Philosophers when they cannot clearly discover how things themselves are brought about to conceive some way consonant to the course of nature and the next borderer upon truth her selfe how such matters may be atchieved And indeed all those Opinions which we now cry up were at first meere figments and imaginations untill they wrought a solid credit in us by sensible experiment and were ratified by their necessary knowne causes Aristotle saith That Philosophers are in some sort lovers of Fables because a Fable doth consist of strange things And indeed those who were first possessed with the admiration of things did advance Philosophy And for my owne particular since I plainly see that nothing at all doth remaine in the Uterus after coition whereunto I might ascribe the principle of generation no more then remaines in the braine after sensation and experience whereunto the principle of Art may be reduced but finding the constitution to be alike in both I have invented this Fable Let the Learned and ingenious stock of men consider of it let the supercilious reject it and for the scoffing ticklish generation let them laugh their swinge Because I say there is no Sensible thing to be found in the Uterus after coition and yet there is a necessity that something should be there which may render the female fruitfull and that in probability can be no corporeal essence we have no refuge left us but to fly to meere Conception and reception of Species without any matter namely to apprehend that the same thing is effected in the womb as in the Braine unless some cunning Philosopher whom the Gods have better provided for can finde out some efficient cause which is not concluded in our recapitulation Some Philosophers even of our owne time have furbushed over the old opinion concerning the Atomes and doe therefore conceive that this Contagion as also all other doth proceed from the most subtle effluviums or emanations of the masculine seed which do easily transpire after the manner of Odours and so are shot into the Uterus at the time of coition Some againe raise up certaine incorporeal spirits like so many Agents Angels or Daemons Others understand a Contagion like to a kinde of ferment or sower levening Others phansie and imagine otherwise Allow therefore amongst others some place for this conjecture of mine untill there be some certainty established in the business I have observed many things which will easily extirpate the recited opinions of other men so that now it is much more obvious to say what it is not then what it is but those Observations relate not to this place but must be proposed elsewhere At the present I shall say this onely If that which we commonly call Contagion as being derived from the spermatical contact in coition and remaining behinde in the female when the Geniture it selfe is not then in presence is the efficient and operatour of the future procreation if I say this Contagion whether it be Atomes or Odour or Ferment or whatsoever else be free from the nature of a body it must of necessity be an incorporeal thing And if moreover upon enquiry it do appear to be neither a Spirit nor a Daemon nor a Soul nor any part of a Soul nor yet something which hath a Soul as I conceive I can demonstrate by several arguments and experiments What remains since I can imagine nothing else nor no man hath hitherto dreamed of any other thing but freely to profess my self to be at a stand But He that doubts admires saith Aristotle doth confess he doth not know Wherefore if to avoid the stain of Ignorance ingenuous Men turn Philosophers it is cleare that they pursue Knowledge for Knowledge sake and not
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