that so they may attend the future eggs and chickens which are to be born in their order We have deduced these passages out of Aristotle that from them it might appear how the Cocks seed doth according to him produce the Chicken out of the Egge that so some light might be afforded to this perplext disquisition But seeing they do not explaine how this business is accomplished nor yet salve his own objections we are still sticking in the same mire and involved in the same doubts concerning the Efficient cause of the Foetus in the Generation of Animals nay so far are we from receiving any clear satisfaction that we are rather more perplext and to seek then we were before And therefore no wonder this excellent Philosopher was in the streights concerning this matter and did therefore range together so many several sorts of efficient causes of Animals and sometims betake himself to examples drawn from Automata things seeming to move of themselves sometimes to coagulatedmatter sometimes to Art Instruments and Motion sometimes to the soul in the egge and in the seed of the Male to illustrate the thing and where he seems to be positive and settle upon some determination concerning what it may be that should render the Seed be it of Plants or Animals fertile he renounces Heat and Fire as improper Agents nor doth he admit any such like faculty nor can he find out any thing in the seed it self which should be fit for the undertaking but is compelled to admit of a certain Incorporeal extrinsecal thing which should like Art or the Minde form the foetus by wisedom and providence and ordain and institute all things relating to it to some end and purpose and to its better subsistence He takes I say sanctuary in an obscure and ignote thing namely in a spirit contained in the seed and frothy substance and a certain nature in that spirit answerable in proportion to the substance of the Stars But what that should be he no where reveals Fabricius his Opinion concerning the Efficient cause of the Chicken is confuted EXERCIT. XLVIII SInce I have proposed Aristotle the chiefest of the old Philosophers and Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente an eminent Anatomist amongst the Modern to be my Leaders that from them I might chiefly be enlightened concerning the generation of Animals and since I cannot better my self by Aristotle I have resolved to set upon Fabricius to see what account he can give of it Now he attempts to give resolution to three doubts arising in the case namely First What is the Efficient of the Chicken and that he concludes to be the Males seed 2. How this appears in the egg to be so and by what means the Cocks seed doth rinder the egge fertile Lastly In what Order are the parts of the Chicken procreated As for the first it appears out of our Observations that the Cock and his seed are indeed the Efficicient cause of Generation but not the adaequate cause but that the Henne also comes in for a share In this place therefore we must chiefly enquire how the Cocks seed doth fructifie the Egge and raise a Chicken out of it which would else be subventaneous and improlifical But let us give ear to Fabricius Those creatures saith he that are produced out of an egge are different from those which are born out of seed in this that Oviparous creatures have a matter out of which the Chicken is corporated distinct and separate from the Agent but Viviparous creatures have both the material and efficient cause adjoyned and concorporated together For the Agent in Oviparous creatures is the seed of the Cock in the feathered kind which neither is nor can be in the Egge but the matter out of which the Chicken is corporated is the Chalaza These two are much distant one from another for the Chalaza is in the Yolk now formed and fallen into the second Uterus and is adjoyned intimately to the egge on the contrary the Cocks seed remains neer the fundament and is removed from the Chalaza by a large chasme and yet by its irradiating faculty it fructifies both the Uterus and all the egge But in a Viviparous animal the seed is both the Matter and the Efficient too both being contracted into one body He seems to have introduced this difference between Oviparous and Viviparous Animals that so he might countenance the opinion of Physitians concerning the Generation of Man or at least not subvert it who conceive that the seeds of both Sexes ejected together in coition are mingled and according as the one prevailes over the other so the one approves it self the Efficient and the other submits it self to become the Matter so that they both conspiring together do constitute the conception in Viviparous Animals But when he had observed that neither Seed nor Blood is attracted by means of coition into the womb of the Hen nor contained there and could not believe that any thing emitted from the cock in coition could possibly arrive so farre nor could finde any thing in the Egge that is adjoined to the males seed he was enforced to doubt how the seed which is no where present with nor mingled amongst the feminine geniture nor is adjoined to it nor doth so much as touch it at all should constitute the Chicken or fructifie the Egge especially when he had before delivered that from some premised coitions all the eggs that were to be layed that year were made prolifical For how could it chuse but seem impossible that from the seed of the cock received in the Spring but now departed lost and consumed the posthume eggs layed possibly in Summer or Autumne should be rendered fruitfull and produce chickens That he might rid his hands of this grand difficultie he coined the fore-said distinction and to ratifie his opinion he adds three farther Assertions First that though the cocks seed were neither in the Egge nor at any time in the Womb nor adjoined to the material cause as it is in Viviparous Animals yet it continues for a whole year in the hen Secondly to reserve this seed in he invents a dark perforation neer the door of the Womb wherein the cock should deposite his seed and in which as in a pouch it should be concluded that thence all the eggs might receive their fertility Lastly though the seed in that pouch neither touch the womb the egge nor the Ovary that by that means it might fructifie the egge or raise a Chicken out of it yet he saith that it gains addresses into the very egge by the insinuation or irradiation of a certain spiritual substance in it and by those arts doth fructifie the Chalazae and so model a Chicken And yet by that assertion lie seems to confirme Aristotles opinion who assures us that the female contributes the matter and the male the efficiency to generation which is contrary to the Physitians position concerning the commixture of seeds for whose sake
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
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