a Man is made out of a Boy and the Whole out of a Part and also tanquam ex Alimento as a thing may be said to be made of its nutriment and likewise as a contrary is made out of a contrary For when by Incubation by the Internal motive principle some clear part is liquefied which we call Ovi Oculum the Eggs-Eye we say that very thing is made tanquam ex contrario as a contrary out of a contrary as we suppose the Chyle to be made out of contraries by concoction namely out of crude unconcocted meats and in the same sense as we our selves are said to be nourished by contraries Just in that manner is the Colliquamentum and the Oculus Ovi made of the White and augmented and in that manner likewise is the Blood and the Vesicula pulsans which are the first particles of the Chicken made nourished and augmented out of that white liquor or Colliquamentum nourished I say the Nutriment being assimulated by concoction as out of its contrary by the power of the innate heat for that which is crude and unconcocted is contrary to that which is concocted and assimulated as a Man unskilled in Musick is contrary to a Musitian and a Sick man to a Sound And when Blood is made out of the white Colliquamentum or the Colliquamentum out of the Yolk or White it is called the generation of the one and the corruption of the other there being an alteration made from the contrary to the contrary the same subject matter remaining still For the proceeding form of the White being corrupted the Colliquamentum ariseth and from the privation of the form of the Colliquamentum resulteth the form of Blood in the same manner as nourishment is turned into the substance of that which is nourished Therefore in this sort the Chicken is said to be made out of the egge tanquam ex Contrario as out of a Contrary For the Chicken being nourished and increased in the Egg both the Yolk and the White are corrupted and consumed and afterwards all the substance of the Egg. It is therefore manifest that the Chicken is made out of the Egg as out of a contrary namely as out of Aliment and also tanquam exprivatione non ente as out of a Privation and non Ens. For the first particle of the Chicken namely the Blood or Punctum saliens is made ex non sanguine of that which is not blood and altogether its contrary the same subject Matter still remaining The Chicken also is made out of the Egg sicut vir ex puero as a Man is made out of a Boy For as out of Plants Seeds are made out of Seeds Blossomes Sprouts Stems Flowers and Fruits so also out of an Egge which is the Hens Seed is made the dilatation of the Macula the Colliquamentum the Blood and Heart as the first particle of the fatus or fruit And that tanquam ex nocte dies as the Night is made out of the Day the Sommer out of the Spring and a Man out of a Boy Where this thing is after that So that as the Fruit doth arise in the same Stem after the Flowers so likewise after the Egge the colliquamentum and after that as out of the Humor Primigenius out of the radical first moisture the Blood after the Blood and out of it the chicken as the Whole out of a Part. And again as by Epicharmus his Exaggeration ex calumniâ fiunt maledicta ex maledict is pugna out of slander come cursings and out of cursings fighting For the Blood together with the Punctum saliens is first existent and doth likewise seem to be a part of the chicken and a kind of Efficient or Instrument of its Generation inseparable from the Agent as Fabricius supposeth Now in what manner the Egge may be called the Instrument and Efficient of Generation is in part shewed already and shall appear more at large hereafter It is evident out of our History that the Punctum saliens and the Blood while they increase do assemble the rest of the body and all the other members of the chicken to themselves as the Yolk in the Womb descending from the Ovary encompasseth it self with the White and that by way of concoction and Nutrition Now all men conceive calor innatus aut calidum innatvm the innate or primigenial Heat or Spirit diffused through the whole and the Soul in that Spirit or the faculty of that Soul to be the common Instrument of the Vegetable Operations The egg therefore without all question hath its Operative soul which is all in the whole and all in every part and containes a spirit or Animal heat in it which is the immediate instrument of that soul If any man therefore ask how a chicken is made out at the egge We reply after all those ways recited by Aristotle or invented by any else after the which one thing may be made out of another Fabricius is mistaken concerning the Matter of the Generation of the Chicken out of the Egge EXER XLIV AS I decreed with my self from the beginning so I shal continue to take Fabricius along with me in my progress and therefore we shall consider with him of those three things which he saith are to be inquired after in the Generation of the chicken namely the Agent the Matter and the Aliment of the chicken All which ought to be in an egge concerning which he proposeth some doubts together with the opinions of Authors who are of another mind The first doubt relates to the Matter and Aliment of the chicken Indeed Hippocrates Anaxagoras Alcmaeon Menander and all the ancient Philosophers did conceive the Chicken to be born out of the Yolk and nourished by the White And Aristotle and Pliny contrary to that opinion did believe that the chicken did assume its body from the White and its Aliment from the Yolk But Fabricius for his own part conceived neither Yolk nor White to be the Matter of the chicken endeavouring to confute the former opinions and to shew that both Yolk and White did serve to nourish the Chicken And this besides other Arguments which I conceive to be of less force with this which is evincing enough namely that the propagations of the Umbilical Vessels by which without doubt the chicken doth attract his Aliment are disseminated both into the Yolk and white and that both those liquors accordingly as the chicken encreases and doth expend a greater stock of nourishment are quite exhausted And hereupon Fabricius for confirmation of his opinion saith There are three onely substances which do conduce to the fabrick of the egg and the generation of the chicken the White the Yolk and the Chalazae the White and Yolk are the Chickens substance therefore the Chalazae onely are the subject matter of the chicken But that the most excellent Fabricius is in an error we have demonstrated before in our History
is also certain that the said Vesicula as also the Auricula cordis the deaf-eare of the Heart afterwards from whom the Pulsation first begins are incited to the constrictive motion by the blood distending them The Diastole or Dilatation is made by the blood boyling or swelling by the spirits within it And so Aristotles Opinion concerning the pulsation of the Heart namely that it is made by a kinde of Ebullition is in some sort true For as in Milk set upon the fire and in Beere we see dayly a Fermentation working or Intumescence so is it in the pulse of the Heart in which the blood as by a kinde of fermentation working up is distended and then ebbs or falls down againe and that which befalls them per accidens from an external agent namely an adventitious heat that is accomplished in the blood by its own internal heat or innate spirit and is also regulated by the soul in a natural way and for the preservation of living creatures The Pulse therefore is performed by a twofold Agent namely the Distention or Dilatation proceeds from the Blood and the Constriction from the membrane of the vesicula in the Egge but in the Foetus when it is born from the Deaf-eares and Ventricles of the Heart and by the mutual performance of this alternate and interchanging motion the blood is driven round the whole body and so our lives continued Nor is the Blood therefore onely to be called the Primigenial and principal part because that in and from it the fountain of motion and pulsation is derived but also because the Animal heat or vital spirit is first radicated and implanted and the soul takes up her first mansion in it For wheresoever the immediate and principal Instrument of the vegetative faculty is first found there in probability the soul first resides and takes her Beginning as being inseparable from the spirit and the calidum innatum For however in Artificial Operations as Fabricius rightly admonisheth the Artificer and the Instruments are separated yet in the works of Nature they are conjoyned and one and the same so the Stomack is both the Author and the Instrument of chylification So in like manner the Soul with the Spirit her Instrument is immediately conjoyned and therefore be it in what part it will that heat and motion first begin there also the Life doth first arise and last expire and out of question the most intimate domestick Deities and Soul it selfe are there enshrined Life therefore consists in the blood as we read in Holy Scripture because in it the Life and Soule do first dawn and last set For I have experimented in the dissection of many live Animals that when the body was now a dying and breathing done the Heart continued its pulse a while and kept up life in it And when the Heart hath now given over you shall discern a motion yet surviving in the Auriculae or Deaf-eares and though the other faile yet the Right will still be stirring and when that submits to Fate too yet you shall perceive a kinde of undulation or waving to and fro and obscure trepidation or palpitation in the champion blood proclaiming that he gave the last blow And any man may plainly see that the blood retaines heat that deriver of Life and Palsation when all the other parts are chilled and cold which heat when it is quite extinct as the blood is then no longer sanguis sed cruor Blood but Gore so now no longer hope of returning back to lise But both in an Egge and in gasping Animals after all pulsation is expunged if you apply a gentle warmth either to the Punctum saliens or the right Auricle of the Heart you shall presently see the motion pulsation and life set on foot again by the Blood except he have quite fore-gone all his innate heat and vital spirit By all which it is most evident that the blood is the Genital Part the fountain of Life Primum vivens ultimum moriens the First-born and the Longest Liver and the chief Palace and Court of the soul in which as in its Spring-head the heat doth first and chiefly flow and flourish and from which all the other parts of the Body derive their life and influent warmth For that heat streaming with the blood doth sprinckle cherish and preserve the whole as we have heretofore demonstrated in our Booke de Motu sanguinis And therefore Blood is found in every particle of the Body nor can you find footing for the point of a needle or the edge of your naile where you shall not immediately start the blood as if were it not for the blood the body would enjoy no heat nor life Therefore the blood being never so little concentrated and fixt Hippocrates calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Swouning frights extream cold weather and the approach of the Paroxysme or fit of an Ague you shall presently behold the whole body freeze and grow stiff and languish in a pale and livid complexion but the blood being summoned back by applied Fomentations exercise or affections of the Mind as Joy or Anger how nimbly do all parts recover their Heat Floridnesse Vigour and Beauty And hereupon the ruddy sanguine parts alone are called the Hot parts as the Flesh but the white and bloodless parts as the Nerves and Ligaments the Cold. And as Sanguineous Animals exceed the bloodless so even in the parts those that are more liberally indowed with Blood are counted the Eminent parts And the Liver Spleen Reins Lungs and Heart it self if you strain all the blood out of them for whose sake they are chiefly called Viscera they presently grow pale and wan and are to be registered amongst the colder parts The Heart himselfe I say doth by the Coronary Arteries receive the Blood it s influent heat and life both which it enjoyes upon no other account then the meer bounty of the Blood Nor can the Liver proceed in its publick office without the influence of blood and heat from the Coeliacal Artery For there is no where any affluence of heat without an Influence or influx of blood by the Arteries And therefore in the first Confirmation of all the parts before they put themselves into publick undertakings they are to be discovered pale and blood-lesse hereupon the old Physitians and Anatomists supposed them to be spermatical parts and this speech was wont to obtain amongst them that in Generation Aliquot in Lacte dies absumuntur some daies are spent in the Milk that is about the Constitution of the white Spermatical parts The very substance of the Liver it self the Lungs and the Heart at their first appearance are exceeding white Nay the Cone of the Heart and the walls or sides of its Ventricles are even then white when the Auriculae are full and dyed with Scarlet-blood and the Coronary Vein looks ruddy So likewise the Parenchyma of the Liver is it selfe white when the
middle region Now is it most certain that not onely that part but all the blood nay the very flesh it self as may be observed in Bodyes hanged in Chains may may be corrupted into ichorous whey As being resolved into that substance of which they were first compounded so Salt is resolved into Lie from whence it first sprung So likewise in every Cachexie the blood that is let abounds with plenty of Serum so that sometimes there scarce appears any grumous part at all but all the blood seems to be one entire washy gore as we finde in that kinde of Dropsie called Anasarca and it is also natural in creatures that are bloodless Likewise if you breath a veine immediately after you have eat and drank before the second concoction be finished and the Serum descended through the Kidnies or upon the first approach of a fit of an Ague you shall finde the blood to be washy inconcocted and mingled with much whey But on the contrary if upon an empty Stomack or discharge of the Urine or a large Sweat you open a Veine you shall finde the blood thick as being quite destitute of Serum and being almost all condensed into a lump And as when the blood growes raw and crude you shall perceive but very litle of this gelly floating a top So if you poure out the Serum separated from the lump or mass and let it simper upon a gentle fire you shall soon see it changed into this gelly which is a manifest signe that that washy or serous substance which is now divided from the rest of the blood is perhaps some matter of the Urine but not the Urine it self though in colour and consistence it look like it For the Urine being boyled is not thickned into a fibrous Gelly but rather into a Lie but this washy or serous part being a while gently heated condenseth into a gelly like that above as on the contrary that â—uâ—ago or gelly degenerating into more crudity by corruption is dissolved into Serum And thus farre have I brought this part of the blood which is my own Observation upon the Stage of which and the other parts of blood which are apparent to sense and allowed by the authority of Aristotle and Physitians I shall more copiously discourse hereafter In this place not to digress farther I conceive the blood to be taken with Aristotle not as it is simply understood and called Cruor but as it is a living part of an Animal body For so Aristotle The blood is hot in such a sense as if we could call hot water by one onely word and not as a subject receiving heat into it For heat is in the essence of the blood as whiteness in a white man But when blood is made hot by any distemper or passion of the Minde it is not then calidus perse hot by its own heat And thus we may say of that which is moist or dry Wherefore partly a hot and partly a moist substance is in the nature of such kinde of things but if you divide them they then grow cold and congeale and such is blood Blood therefore as it is a living part of the Body is of a doubtfull nature and falls under a two fold consideration And therefore materialiter per se it is called nutriment but formaliter as it is endued with heat and spirits which are the immediate instruments of the Soul and with the Soul it self it is to be counted the Bodies Genius and Conserver the Principal Primogenit and Genital part And as a Prolifical egg is the Matter Instrument and Efficient cause of the Chicken and as all Physitians count the geniture of both Sexes mingled in the womb after coition both for the material and efficient of the Foetus so upon a better right may we affirm That the Blood is both the Matter and Preserver of the Body and not the bare Aliment For it is a known thing in Creatures that are starved by hunger and Men also that dye of Consumptions that a great quantity of blood remains in their Veins even after death And also Young men that are in their growth and Old men that are declining have a proportionable quantity of blood namely according to the increase or diminution of their Flesh So that the blood is a part and not the nutriment onely of the Body For if that were the onely use of it no man would be starved so long as any drop of the blood remains in the veins as the flame of a Lamp doth not expire so long as any oyle at all remains to support it But while I affirm the soul to reside first and principally in the blood I would not have any man hastily to conclude from hence that all Blood-letting is dangerous or hurtfull or believe with the Vulgar that as much of blood so much of life is taken away because Holy-writ placeth the life in the blood For dayly experience shewes that Letting blood is a safe cure for several Diseases and the chiefest of Universal Remedies because the default or superfluity of the blood is the seminary of most distempers and a seasonable evacuation of it doth often rescue men from most desperate maladies and Death it self For look how much blood is according to Art taken away so many years are added to the Age. Nature her self was our Tutor here whom Physitians transcribe for She of her own accord doth many times vanquish the most mortal Infirmities by a plentifull and critical evacuation either at the Nose Haemorrhoids or by menstruous Purgations And therefore young people who feed high and live idlely unless about the eighteenth or twentieth yeare of their age at which time the stock of blood encreases together with the bulk of their bodies they be disburdened of the load and oppression of their blood either by a spontaneous release at the Nose or Inferiour parts or by breathing a Vein they are dangerously set upon by Feavers Small-pox Head-aches and other more grievous Distempers and Symptomes Alluding to which the Farriers do begin almost all Cures of Beasts with Letting blood What Observations are to be collected from the Ramifications of the Umbilical veines in the Egge EXERCIT. LIII WE see the Blood is made in the Egge and Conception before any thing else and neere upon that time doe its Receptacles that is the Veines and Vesicula pulsans appear And therefore if we admit the Punctum saliens together with the blood and veines as one and the same Organical part visible in the first dawning of the Foetus to stand for the Heart whose Parenchyma doth afterwards in the formation of the Foetus grow to the Vesicula it is clear then that the Heart under this acceptation namely as an Organ compounded of a Parenchyma Ventricles Deaf-ears Vessels and Blood is truly according to Aristotles owne minde the principal and primary part of the body and yet its first and chief part is blood and that not onely in order
some of them it was quite empty But as to the order of the production of the Parts we have still found the same to be observed in all Viviparous Embryo's whatsoever as Experience hath revealed to us in that of the Egge the Hinde and the Doe Of the Innate Heat EXER LXXI BEcause there is much talk of the Calidum Innatum or Innate Heat we do intend in this place by way of second course or addition to discourse a while concerning both it and the Humidum Primigenium the Radical or Primigenial moisture and that the rather because I perceive many men to please themselves much with those two Notions when as according to my judgement they do not understand their meaning The truth is there is no need at all to enquire after any kinde of spirit distinct from the Blood it self or to introduce any forraign heat or invoke the Deities to appear in the fable and so trim up Philosophie with vain opinions and fictions for what we commonly derive from the Starres is bred and born at home and within us For the Blood alone is the true Galidum Innatum or first-born Animal heat as it is made apparent by our observations concerning the Generation of Animals especially of the Chicken out of the Egge and therefore to multiply Entities is meerly frivolous For indeed there is nothing either before or more excellent in the Animal body then Blood nor are those spirits which some men distinguish from Blood any where to be found a part from the blood and the Blood it self without spirit and heat is no longer to be called Blood but Gore The Blood saith Aristotle is in a manner hot and in such a manner as it hath the essence of Blood in being hot just as if we should express Hot water under one word but yet being considered as the subject of Heat and such a substance as when it is in being is Blood so it is not hot for it is in some respect hot per se or essentially in some respect it is not hot per se for Heat is of its essence as Whiteness is of the essence of a white man but for asmuch as it is blood in relation to Action or Passion so it is not calidus per se or essentially hot We Physitians call that Spiritus a Spirit which Hippocrates called Impetum faciens that is whatsoever doth attempt any thing proprio conamine by its own proper endeavour and doth set upon any action or excite any motion with agility and vehemence and under that capacity the spirits of Wine or of Vitriol are called spirits And hereupon Physitians count as many spirits as principal parts or operations namely Animal Vital Natural Visory Auditory Concoctive Generative Implanted Influent Spirits c. But the Blood the primogenit and principal part of the Body is furnished with all these respective qualities and endowed with active power beyond all other parts of the body and doth therefore deserve the name of a spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger Fernelius others having not throughly considered the excellent endowments implanted in the Blood have phansied other Aerial or Aetherial spirits composed of an Aetherial and Elementary substance to be a more excellent and diviner Innate heat then blood which they conceited to be the most immediate instrument of the Soul most proportionable to all its operations grounding their opinion upon this opinion namely that the Blood as being a substance compounded out of the Elements only cannot perform any action beyond the sphere or activity of the Elements and such bodies as are framed out of them Hereupon they feigned a distinct spirit and innate heat which is of a celestial extract namely a most simple most subtle most thin swift lucid and aetherial substance partaking of a fift essence But yet they have no where demonstrated that there is any such substance or that it doth act beyond the power of the Elements or execute greater things then the Blood alone is able to accomplish But we who examine the nature of things according to sense have never discovered any such substance Nor are there in the Body any receptacles designed to the conservation or generation of such matters and they themselves also have not assigned any Feruelius indeed saith That whosoever hath not yet attained to the knowledge of the substance and condition of the Innate Heat must first consider the structure of our bodies and then address himself to the arteries which are seated in the cavity of the Heart and to the Ventricles of the Braine which when he shall discover void and empty and without any humour contained therein yet can be not imagine that such worthy matters are made by Nature rashly and to no use and upon this consideration I conceive he will presently conclude that while the Animal was alive they were replenished by some thin Aerial substance which when the animal Soul departed being exceeding light did insensibly vanish Now to support this substance the faculty of Inspiration is bestowed upon us which doth not onely coole the body for that might be derived to us by other meanes but also administer a kinde of nourishment But we affirm that so long as the Animal is alive the Arteries Ventricles of the Heart are filled with blood reputing the Ventricles of the Brain to be too mean instruments for so noble a work conceiving them rather allotted to the reception of excrements For what shall we say of those several Animals whose Brain hath no Ventricles at all And though we should admit that a kinde of Aire or vapour may be there found because Nature doth decline a vacuity yet that that substance is of a celestial extract and heir apparent to such excellent performances hath no semblance of truth at all But that which we most admire is How this so exquisite so divine a Spirit should be sustained and fed by our common elementary aire especially since themselves assure us that none of the Elements can perform any thing beyond their own abilities These men do likewise confess that the spirit is in continual declension and quickly dissipated and corrupted and that it could not subsist one moment of time were it not repaired by the plentiful accession of outward aliment and that therefore like the Primum Vivens the first particle inspired with life it must continually be fed And now what need of this forraign guest this Innomate Spirit or etherial heat Since the blood is of ability to execute whatsoever is attributed thereunto and since these spirits cannot recede from the blood without their dissolution Nay they do not move any whither or insinuate themselves into any part as distinct bodies without the company of the blood For whether you conceive them to be framed nourished and increased out of the thinner part of the blood as some imagine or out of the primigenial moisture as others yet all confess that they are no where to be found out
of the blood but that they continually cleave to the blood as to their support as the flame cleaveth to the oyle in the lamp And therefore their tenuity subtlety and mobility c. are of no more use then the blood whose inseparable companions they are So that the blood is sufficient to become the proportionate and immediate instrument of the Soul because it is every where present and doth fly to and fro with an admirable agility Nor are there any other bodies or spirital incorporeal qualities or any diviner heat to be allowed of as lux lumen the Light and Shine as Caesar Cremoninus a man excellently versed in Aristotles Philosophy doth solidly contend against Albertus If these men pretend that these spirits do reside in the primigenial moisture as in the last Aliment and from thence insinuate themselfs into the whole body thereby to nourish all the parts they then conclude upon an impossibility namely that the Calidum Innatum the Innate Heat which is the primigenial part of the body and stands it self in need of sustenance doth nourish the whole body For upon this account the same thing is both the thing that is nourished also the thing by which it is nourished and the self same substance under the same respect should both feed it self and be fed also which is indeed impossible for in probability the thing which doth feed and the thing which is fed are not so much as mixed together for miscible things must be of equal power and operate one upon the other And Aristotles position is Ubi nutritio ibi nulla mistio est Where there is Nutrition there is no Mistion For wheresoever Nutrition is there the Aliment is one thing and the thing nourished another and a necessity of the transmutation of the one into the other But whereas they conceive that the Spirits and the last or primigenial Aliment or some other thing what ever it be in an Animal can more then the blood operate above the power of the Elements they seem not to understand what it is to operate above the power of the Elements nor do they rightly interpret that place of Aristotle where he saith Every vertue or faculty of the Soul seemeth to partake of another substance and that more divine then those substances which are called Elements And likewise where he saith There is a certain thing in the seed of all things causing them to be fruitful which thing is called heat which is not fire nor no such faculty but a spirit which is conteined in the seed and frothy body and the nature which is in that spirit is answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars For fire doth not generate any Animal nor doth any thing seem to be constituted by thick moist or dry qualities But the heat of the Sun and of Animals not that onely which is conteined in the seed but also whatsoever excrement there be though of a different nature yet even that also hath a vital principle Wherefor it appeareth by what hath been said that the heaâ— conteined in Animals neither is it self fire nor doth take its original from fire For I also do affirm the same of the Innate Heat and of Blood namely that they are not Fire neither do they take their original from fire but do partake of a different and more divine substance then fire is and therefore do not act by any elementary faculty but as in the seed there is something which doth make it fruitful and exceeds the vertues or powers of the Elements in constituting an Animal body namely the spirit and the nature which is in that spirit answerable in proportion to the element or substance of the Stars So likewise in the Blood there is a spirit or virtue which doth act above the power of Elements most conspicuous in the nutrition or preservation of each particular part and also a nature nay a soul in that spirit and blood answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars And lastly it is most evident and my observations do plainly shew it that there is a Heat in the Blood of Animals whilest life continueth which is neither fire nor doth derive its original from fire But for the clearer illustration of these matters give us leave to digress a while from our purpose and declare briefly what a spirit is and what it is to act above the power of Elements and likewise what is meant by these words namely to partake of a different body and that more divine then those bodies which are called Elements as likewise what is that nature in that spirit which is answerable in proportion to the element or substance of the Stars What A Spirit and Vital principle is we have partly spoken already and shall now handle something more largely There are three several simple bodies which do chiefly seem to challenge the name or function at least of a spirit namely the Fire the Aire and the Water and every one of these doth seem to partake of a life or other body by reason of their perpetual motion and flux I mean the Flame the Wind and the Floud The Flame is the Flux or Stream of Fire the Wind of Aire and the Flood of Water Flame like an Animal doth move it self nourish and increase it self and is an Embleme of humane life And therefore it is much used in divine Ceremonies and was religiously kept as a sacred thing in the Temples dedicated to Apollo and Vesta by Virgins and amongst the Persians and diverse other Nations it was from all Antiquity honoured with divine worship As if God were more visible in Fire and did converse with us as heretofore with Moses out of the Fire The Air also seems to merit the name of a spirit too for a spirit is called spiritus a spirando from breathing and Aristotle confesseth in plain tearms that there is a kind of life and death of Winds And lastly the Water of the Flood or River is called Viva living Water Those three bodies therefore in as much as they enjoy a kind of life do seem to operate above the power of Elements and so partake of a diviner body or substance and hereupon were by the Heathen ranked amongst the gods who conceived that whatsoever did perform any eminent effects which did surpose the naked abilities of the Elements those effects did proceed from some diviner Agent As if it were the same thing to act above the power of the Elements and to partake of a more divine essence which did not deduce it selfe from the Elements Thus in like manner the Blood doth act above the Power of the Elements when now being the Primogenite part and Innate Heat as it is in the Seed and in the Spirit it doth constitute the other parts in order and this with an eminent providence and understanding acting in order to a certain end as if it did exercise a kind of Ratiocination or discourse
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
those much unlike one another and therefore their Actions are divers yet it iâ— apparent which action is peculiar to each For 〈◊〉 Superior is ordained for the Generation of the Yolk the Inferior of the White and the other parts â—â— the whole as is evident even to sense For in the Superior nothing is contained but a throng of Yolks but the Inferior the entire perfect egge And yet this is not all the employment of the Womb but the Augmentation of the egg which presently insueth after the egge is generated and continueth till it be compleated and have attained its just stature or magnitude is also implyed herein For a Hen doth not naturally lay her egge till it be perfect and have its just proportion The Action therefore of the Womb is both the Generation and Augmentation of the Egge Now Augmentation includeth and supposeth Nutrition But since all Generation is effected by two namely the Agent and the Matter The Agent in the procreation of Egges is nothing else but the Instrument or proposed Organs namely the twofold Uterus But the Matter is nothing else but Blood Now we though we acknowledge the Action of the Uterus to be in some sort the Generation of the Egge yet we do not agree upon any termes in the world that the Egge is nourished and encreased by the Uterus And this both for the reasons before alledged when we discoursed concerning the soul of the Egge which nourisheth it and also because it is an improbable thing that an External Agent as the Womb is in regard of the Egge should form nourish and angment all the interior parts of the Egge according to their several dimensions nay according to Aristotle it is altogether impossible For how can an agent that is extrinsecal in respect of the patient work upon the Aliment that is elsewhere provided and restore it into the place of that which is wasted away according to all dimensions or how can any thing be affected and altered by that which doth not touch it Therefore doubtlesse the same things befall the Generation of Egges as happen to the exordiums of all living creatures namely that they should be constituted by some preexistent external thing but presently upon the reception of life nourish and augment themselves and that by â— proper inspired efficacy proceeding from a Principle which is now borne and implanted in them What we have lately delivered concerning the soul doth seem to evince clearly that the Egge is neither the Workmanship of the Uterus nor controuled or governed by it For it is apparent that even a Subventaneous egge is furnished with a Vegetative Soul because we discover even such an egge also to enjoy Vegetation Nutrition Augmentation and Conservation which are infallible sight of the fore-said Soul Now these faculties cannot issue out of the Mother or Matrix because the Egge hath no Coherence or Union to it but tumbles and roules in its Cavity free and disjoyned like a Son who hath obtained his Freedom and growes up to perfection as the Seeds of Plants do in the Womb of the Earth by an internal Vegetative Principle which can be no lesse then a Vegetative Soul Much more will it appear that it hath a Soul when we consider after what manner and by whose impulsion the Round and Ample Yolk being new loose from the Vitellary maketh its descent through the Infundibulum which is a slender Tunnel wrought with a niost thin membrane which hath no provision of motory fibres working out its own way till through all those streights it arrive at the Uterus where it nourisheth augmenteth and invests it self in the White And yet all this while there is no Motory Instrument at all in the Vitellary which should expell it thence nor in the Infundibulum which should transmit it or in the Uterus which should attract it Nor is the Egge fastned by veins to the Uterus as in the Ovary nor hath any dependance upon it by the Umbilical Vessels as Fabricius truely affirms and is obvious to every eye What then remains but that upon discovery of such wonderful Operations we should cry out with the Poet Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem An innate Spirit feeds an Infus'd Soul Into each part doth the whole Mass controul And though the first ground-workes of Egges which we have proved to be but Whelkes as it were and of the magnitude of the Seed of Millet do cohear to the Vitellary by the mediation of Veins and Arteries as the Seeds of Plants are born adhearing to the Plants and thereupon seem to be Parts of the Henne and to be nourished and live after the manner of other Parts yet it is evident that as the Seeds of Plants being dis-united from the Plants are no more accounted parts of them no more are Egges now come to maturity impowred with fertility and separated from the Vitellary any longer to be ranked amongst the Parts of the Henne but like a Son come to age and at his own dispose are regulated and enliven'd by their own proper soul But of this morefully hearafter when we shall discourse concerning the Soul of an Embryo in general and of the excellence and divinity of the Vegetative Soul ordering all things after a wonderful manner which providence art and divine discretion as farre exceeding our capacity as God excells Man and therefore are confessed by all truly admirable not to be gazed upon by our cloudy apprehensions by reason of their ineffable lustre What shall we say then of those litle Animals which are begotten in our own bodies which no man ever doubted to be regulated and vegetated by their own proper soul And of this kind are Worms in the Stomack Guts and Fundament Lice Nittes litle Wormes in the Flesh Mites Or what shall we resolve concerning those Wormes which proceed from Plants and their fruit such as you may finde in Galls Nuts the Scarlet-Berry and Eglantine c. For an Animal may be created almost in all drye things growing moist or moist things growing drye It is impossible that those Animals which are bred in the Galls should be enlivened by the Okes soul though they live joyned to the Oke and provide their Aliment out of the Sap of the Oke And so it is credible that the very Rudiments of the Eggs while they are yet in the Cluster do subsist by their own and not by the Hennes Soul though they are united to her by Veins and Arteries and she also do administer nourishment to them For as we have observed in our History the Whelkes do not all grow at once as Grapes grow in the Bunch and Graines in the Eare of Corne as if they were inspired by the same concocting and formative faculty but are increased one after another as by their own efficacie and that which first separates its selfe from its fellowes changeth colour and consistence and of a White Whelke is made
it is a perplext business and Authors do no where more cavil and contend and Aristotle himself is wonderful intricate in explaining it and also many doubts not to be despised do interpose I conceive it worth the while as we have done in making search after the Matter in the first place to set down how many ways a thing may be said to be Efficient or Effective that so it may more certainly and distinctly appear what is to be enquired after under the name of Efficient as also what is to be resolved concerning the opinion of Authors about this matter and that it may likewise appear out of our own observations what is to be truely and properly called an Efficient Aristotle defines an Efficient cause to be that from whence the first beginning of Mutation or Rest proceeds as an Adviser a Father and simply he that doth a thing of the thing that is done that which is the transmutor of that which is transmuted Whereupon many and sundry kinds of causes from whence a motion or mutation doth proceed are brought and amassed in the Generation of Animals sometimes an accident or quality is assigned the Efficient and so the animal heat and forming faculty are alledged as the Efficient Sometimes an external substance before existent in which the plastical power and forming faculty resides as the father or the seed of that creature by whose efficacy the Chicken is procreated of the egge Sometimes some internal substance existent by it self as the spirit or Calidum innatum And sometimes some other substance as the Form or Nature or Soul or some Vegetative part of the Soul which kinde of principle we have said is in the Egge Moreover because some things from which mutation doth proceed are neerer causes of it and some more remote thereupon sometimes media the things between the first efficient and the last effect and also the Instruments are counted Efficients as also subordinate ends or the principles of subsequent things are ranked amongst efficient causes and hereupon is it that some parts are called Genital parts as the Heart from which Aristotle affirms the other parts to proceed as is clear also by our History I say the Heart or at lest the rudiment of the Heart namely the Vesicula and Punctum saliens doth erect and set up the rest of the Body as a future habitation for it self and when it is built takes possession enlivens and swayes it and fortifies it with the superaddition of the Ribs and Breast-bone as with a Bulwark and becomes as it were a Tutelar God the first chamber that entertaines the soule the first receptacle of the primigenial heat and the Vestal animal-fire the source and fountain of all the Faculties and the only solace in Afflications Again since the Efficient is so called in order to the Effect seeing by Epigenesis some parts are after other in order and divers also spring from those that are before them it is therefore probable that as the Effects so the Efficients are also diverse which produce diverse works from which also diverse mutations do proceed So Physitians in the Physiological part of Physick do constitute some Instruments of Chylification some of Sanguification and some of Generation and some Anatomists an Ossifical Carnifical and a Nervifical faculty which they depute to make the Bones the Flesh and the Nerves But in the Generation of the Chicken the efficient causes must needs differ by reason of the several actions relating to it which differ very much which though they may seem Efficientes per accidens contingent Efficients of Generation yet are they necessarily required since nothing could be done without their associat ayd For while they remove external Impediments or do cherish or awaken the conception and de potentiâ in actum deducunt raise it from possibility into actual being they are justly stiled efficients And in this Rowle the Incubation of the Hen the temper and warmth of the Place and Air the Spring-time and the approach of the Sun by the Zodiack may be well listed as also the preparing causes which cause the Yolk to ascend the Macula to be dilated and the resolution or melting of the humours in the Egge may be mustered amongst efficients And then the Generative and Architectonical faculties which Fabricius calls parts are to be numbred with the efficient causes as the Immutatrix Concoctrix Formatrix Auctrix the Altering Concocting Forming and Augmenting faculty as also those causes that are efficients in the Accidents relating to the Chicken as that by which the Chicken is either a Cock or a Henne resembling the He or Shee-parent and that in relation to the form of the Cock which was concerned in the former or latter coition whence it comes to pass that the Chicken is an animal and that an entire one and not dismembered sturdy and sound not diseased and crasie but a long liver and retaining the Species or degenerating from it or proves a Monster or of a mixt race Lastly since in treating of the efficient cause of the foetus we discover the notable structure of it and the actions functions uses and benefits of all the parts and members and with what prudence skill and judgment by how divine an inspiration all things are managed and artificially composed for the advantage of Life we must not only amuse our selves in inquiring which is the Efficient Architect and Projector but also adore and admire the Omnipotent Author and Preserver of so great a Fabrick as justly merits the title of a Microcosme We also enquire when and whence it proceedeth and where this divine Vicar and Vice-Roy of the deity which is analogous to the substance of Stars and neer allyed to Art and Intellect takes up its residence and keeps its Court. It is apparent therefore by what hath been said that it is a difficult thing to enumerate all the efficient causes of the Pullus and we must needs referre the fuller disquisition of the thing to a general consideration nor is it possible to treat fully and profitably of those things which agree to all in general out of the single generation of the Chicken without a clearer light borrowed by experience from other Animals And that the rather because Aristotle himself hath recounted so many various efficient principles of Animals For sometimes he ordaines the Male the chief efficient cause as in whom the Ratio pulli the Reason or ground of the Made Chicken consists according to that all things are made by the same Univocal Sometimes the Males seed or the Nature of the Male ejecting seed Sometimes that which is in the seed causing seed to be fruitfull namely the Spirit and the nature in that Spirit answerable in proportion to the substance of the Starres Else where heat moderate heat a certain proportionable degree of heat the heat in the Blood and in some places the heat of the Ambient Aire Likewise
the Winds the Sun the Heavens Jupiter the Soul and in general Nature which is the Principle of Motion and Rest And so by the same rule Any of the Stoicks who thought the Soul to be fire may decree fire the efficient cause of Animals because fire doth nourish and augment it self and seems in some sort to live at its own dispose and liberty though not our destructive culinary fire but the Natural Celestial Vegetative Generating and Healthy fire which the Heathen worshipped by the name of Jupiter whom they called the Father of Men and Things not his lame Brother Vulcan whose ayd and benefit we notwithstanding daily use in several employments to our great advantage but the divine Animal Spirit the Author of Living creatures And therefore Aristotle saith That this question concerning the Efficient is very dubious namely Whether it be an extrinsecal thing or something inserted in the Geniture or Seed and Whether it be a part of the soul or the soul or something which hath a soul Wherefore that we may deliver and rid our selves of the maze and labyrinth of the manifold Efficient causes in this disquisition of the Efficient of the Chicken we have need of Ariadnes Clew woven and cunningly wrought of the Observations of almost all Creatures living And therefore it is to be deferred to a more general Inquest In the mean time we shall recount those things which relating to the particular generation of the Chicken out of the egge do manifestly appear or are strangers to the common perswasion or else do require any further search How the Efficient cause of the Chicken doth operate according to Aristotle EXERCIT. XLVII ALl men generally confess the Male to be the primary efficient cause in Generation as in whom the Species or Form resides And they farther affirm that his Geniture being emitted in coition doth cause both the being and fertility of the Egge But how the seed of the Cock doth produce the chicken out of the Egge neither the Antient nor Modern Philosophers and Physitians have sufficiently explained nor yet solved the question proposed by Aristotle Nay Aristotle himself hath not done it He saith The Male doth not conduce to the Quantity but the Quality and is Principium Motûs the Principle of Mutation but the Female contributes the matter And a while after Every Male doth not emit seed nor is it any part of the Foetus in those that do emit it As nothing which passeth from the Carpenter contributes to the matter of the Wood nor is there any part of the Carpenters art in that which is made but the form and species doth exist in the matter per motum ab illo by the motion or mutation which proceeds from him Now the soule in which the form and knowledge is moves the hands or other members by the motion of a certain quality which motion is either diverse in such as make a diverse thing or the same in such as make the same But the hands and instruments move the matter So the Nature of the Male which emitteth seed imployes that seed as an Instrument and having motion actually in it as in the productions of Art the Instruments are moved for in them in some sort the motion of Art is implanted By which words he seems to imply that Generation is made by the motion of a certain Quality As in Art though the first cause namely ratio operis the reason or ground of the work be in the soul of the Artist yet afterward the work is effected by the motion of the hands or other Instruments and though the first cause be removed as in automatis things that seem to move of themselves yet is it in some sort said to move that which at present it doth not touch but hath touched formerly so long as the motion goes on in the Instruments And in the following Book he hath these words The seed of the Male when now it hath access into the womb of the Female it doth coagulate and cause a consistence in the purest part of the excrement meaning the menstruous blood residing in the womb and doth transmute the matter which lies ready in the womb by such a motion or mutation that at last though the seed vanish after the motion is performed some part of the foetus is existent and that an animate part as the heart which now doth augment and dispose it self as a Son who is free from his Father and hath taken a house of his own It is necessary therefore that there be some principle by which afterwards the order of the members may be delineated and all things disposed which pertain to the absolution and complement of the Animal and from which growth and motion may arrive to the rest of the parts and be the author of all the similar and dissimilar parts and of their last aliment For that which is now an Animal doth increase but the last aliment of the Animal is blood or something proportionable to blood whose vessels and receptacles are the Veines Now the principle or original of the veines is the Heart But the Veines like Roots extend even to the womb by which the Foetus draweth his aliment The Heart also being the beginning of the whole nature and also the containing End ought to be made first as being a genital part of its own nature which must needs be the first as the original of the rest and of the whole Animal and of Sense in whose heat because all the parts are in the matter potentially since the principle of motion did abide that which follows afterwards is stirred up by it as in those self-moving miracles and the parts are moved not shifting their places but altering in softness hardness heat and other distinctions of similar parts being now actually made which were potentially before This is Aristotles opinion almost word for word by which he conceives the foetus to be made of seed by motion though it do not at present continue touching it but hath touched it formerly a nice opinion and of a fine thread and according to those things which are discovered in the order of the generation of the parts not improbable For the heart together with the ramifications of the Veins is discerned first as being an animate principle in which both sense and motion reside and being also like a free Son and a Genital part by which the order of the member is delineated and all things conducing to the accomplishment of an Animal are disposed and having all those attributes which Aristotle bestowes upon it But it seems impossible that the heart should be made in the egge by the males seed since that seed is neither in the egge nor doth touch nor ever did touch it because it neither enters the womb where the egge is made as Fabricius confesseth nor is any way attracted by it and besides this the mothers blood is not in the egge neither nor any other prepared
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
say that there is a soul in the Blood and seeing it is the first begotten first moved first nourished why should we doubt to affirm that the soul is first raised kindled out of it Blood is that wherein the Vegetal and sensative operations first shine forth in which the primary and immediate officer of the soul is bred which is the common tye of soul and body and in which as in her Chariot the soul visits and scattereth influence upon all the parts of the body Besides since the contemplation of Geniture is as we have seen already so difficult namely how the fabrick of the body should be built by it with providence art and divine understanding why should we not by the same right admire the excellent nature of blood and harbour as worthy thoughts concerning it as seed especially seeing the Geniture it self as appears by the egge is made of the blood and all the whole body as from its Genital part seems not onely to desume its first Foundation but Preservation also from it Thus much by the way concerning this matter being to treat more fully and exactly of it elsewhere Nor do I conceive it worth the trouble to dispute here whether the definition of a part in its proper acceptation agree to blood which some deny upon these grounds chiefly because it hath not sense and because it flowes and insinuates into all the parts of the body to cater convenient dyet for them But I have found many things about the manner of Generation by which being convinced I shall establish the contrary to those things which Philosophers Physitians commonly affirm or deny At present I will onely say that in case we should consent that the blood hath not sense yet it cannot be thence inferred that it is no part of the sensitive body and that the chifest too For neither the Braine nor the Spinal Marrow or the Crystalline or Glassie humour of the Eye have any sense and yet all Philosophers and Physitians do to this day with one consent allow them to be parts of the body But Aristotle did number it amongst the similar parts and Hippocrates also for while he constitutes the Animal body out of conteining and conteined parts and impetum facientibus spirits he did necessarily own the blood amongst the conteined parts But of this more at large when we enquire what a part is and how many several acceptations there are of it In the mean time we will not conceale this Admirable Experiment by which it shall appear that the most principal member of all namely the very Heart it self may seem to be insensible A Noble young Gentleman Son and Heire to the honorable the Vice-Count of Mountgomery in Ireland when he was a childe had a strange mishapp by an unexpected fall causing a Fracture in the Ribs on the left side the Bruise was brought to a Suppuration whereby a great quantity of putrified matter was voided out and this putrefaction gushed out for a long while together out of the wide wound I deliver it from his own mouth and the testimony of other creditable persons who were eye-witnesses This person of Honour about the eighteenth or nineteenth year of his Age having been a Traveller in Italy and France arrived at last at London having all this time a very wide gap open in his Breast so that you might see and touch his Lungs as it was believed Which when it came to the late King Charles his ear being related as a miracle He presently sent me to the Young Gentleman to inform Him how the matter stood Well what happened When I came neer him and saw him a sprightly Youth with a good complexion and habit of body I supposed some body or other had framed an untruth But having saluted him as the manner is and declared unto him the Cause of my Visit by the Kings Command he discovered all to me and opened the void part of his left side taking off that small plate which he wore to defend it against any blow or outward injury Where I presently beheld a vast hole in his breast into which I could easily put my three Fore-fingers and my Thumb and at the first entrance I perceived a certain fleshy part sticking out which was driven in and out by a reciprocal motion whereupon I gently handled it in my hand Being now amazed at the novelty of the thing I search it again and again and having diligently enough enquired into all it was evident that that old and vast Ulcer for want of the help of a skilfull Physitian was miraculously healed and skinned over with a membrane on the Inside and guarded with flesh all about the brimmes or margent of it But that fleshy substance which at the first sight I conceived to be proud flesh and every body else took to be a lobe of the Lungs by its pulse and the differences or rythme thereof or the time which it kept and laying one hand upon his wrest and the other upon his heart and also by comparing and considering his Respirations I concluded it to be no part of the Lungs but the Cone or Substance of the Heart which an excrescent fungous Substance as is usual in soul Ulcers had fenced outwardly like a Sconce The Young Gentlemans Man did by dayly warm injections deliver that fleshy accretion from the filth pollutions which grew about it and so clapt on the Plate which was no sooner done but his Master was well and ready for any journey or exercise living a pleasant and secure life Therefore instead of an Account of the Business I brought the Young Gentleman himself to our late King that he might see and handle this strange and singular Accident with his own Senses namely the Heart and its Ventricles in their own pulsation in a young and sprigtly Gentleman without offense to him Whereupon the King himself consented with me That the Heart is deprived of the Sense of Feeling For the Party perceived not that we touched him at all but meerly by seeing us or by the sensation of the outward skin We likewise took notice of the motion of his Heart namely that in the Diastole it was drawn in and retracted and in the Systole came forth and was thrust out and that the Systole was made in the heart when the Diastole was sensible in the wrest and also that the proper motion of the heart is the Systole and lastly that the heart then beats upon the breast and is a litle prominent when it is lifted upwards and contracted into it self Nor is that other Controversie namely whether the Blood do onely serve to nourish the Body to be much insisted upon in this place Aristotle indeed doth in several places contend that the blood is Alimentum ultimum the last Aliment and with him the whole School of Physitians give suffrage And yet many things hard to be unfolded and of bad coherence will ensue upon that opinion For when
For it doth not these offices as as it is Elementary and deriveth its original from Fire but in as much as it is made the Primigenial Heat and most immediate and convenient instrument of life it self by being impowred by the Plastical virtue and function of the Vegetative soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Blood is the Vegetal part of Man saith Suidas which is true also of all other Animals And Virgil seemeth to have intended as much where he saith Unâ eâdemque viâ sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Both Soul and Blood Stream in one Flood The Blood therefore is a Spirit in regard of its excellent power and virtue and also celestial because the Soul is an Inne-mate in that spirit which Soul is of a nature answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars that is something which beareth an Analogy to the Heavens as being the Instrument and Deputy of the Heavens And so in this manner all natural bodies fall under a double consideration namely as they are considered in their private capacity concluded within the bounds of their own proper nature or else as they are the Instruments of a nobler Agent and superiour power For being considered in their own proper abilities it is perhaps no question but that being all subject to generation and corruption they do derive their original from the Elements and act according to their rule but being considered as they are the Instruments of a more worthy Agent and regulated thereby they do not now act of themselves but by the guidance of another and thereupon seem to participate of another more divine Essence and so exceed the power of the Elements So likewise the heat of the blood is an animal heat inasmuch as it is guided in its operations by the soul and also a Celestial heat as being subservient to the Heavens and lastly a Divine heat in that it is the Instrument of Almighty God as we have formerly said where we also did demonstrate that the Male and Female are the Instruments of the Sun the Heavens and of God himself as being subservient to the generation of Animals The Inferiour World according to Aristotle is so continuous to the Superiour Orbes that all its motions and mutations do seem to borrow their original and regulation from them And truly in this World which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the beauty of its order the inferiour and corruptible things are subservient to the superior and incorruptible and yet they all are obedient to the will of the Almighty and Eternal Creator They therefore who conceive that in a body compounded of the Elements it cannot act beyond the power of the Elements except it do also participate of another more divine body and upon that ground do suppose those Spirits whereof they treat to be constituted partly out of the Elements and partly out of a certain Aetherial and Celestial substance do seem to have built their reasons upon a very shallow foundation For you can hardly finde out any Elementary body which doth not in its actions surpass its own proper power Not to seek farre for an instance which is every where obvious the Aire and the Water while they carry ships to the farthest Indies and round the world and many times also into contrary parts while they Grinde Bake Sift drain deep Wells cut Timber in sunder kindle fires bear up some things and overwhelm others and perform many other innumerable and wonderfull offices do they not seem to act above the power of Elements So also Fire how many and how strange employments doth it undergo viz. in the Kitchen and also in the Shops of such as deal in Mettles and in the Chymists furnace by subâ—â—â—ation fusion concoction corruption coagulation and infinite other uses What shall we say of it when Iron it self is produced by its assistance quod terram domat quaetit oppida bello Which tills the Field And makes Towns yeild When the Load-stone to which Thales did therefore ascribe a Soul draws Iron unto it and that Mettle which subdueth all opposers as Pliny speaketh pursueth after I know not what vanity and the Needle also being only touched by this Loadstone doth still direct it self towards the Poles of the world When our Clocks do faithfully strike all the houres both of Day and Night do they not seem to partake of another Body besides the Elements and that more divine then the Elements Since then such excellent Operations are produced by the dominion and sway of Art which operations do farre exceed the power of the Materials themselves what shall we then think may be produced by the prescript and regiment of Nature whom Art doth onely imitate And if they effect such wonderfull things in obedience to Men what performances may we expect from them when they are instruments in the hands of God himself In short therefore this distinction is necessary namely that no Primary or first Agent doth act any thing beyond its own power but every Instrumental Agent doth exceed its own power for it acts not onely by its own power but also by the virtue of the superiour efficient They therefore which deny such eminent endowments to the blood and flye up to Heaven to fetch down I know not what Spirits to whom they may ascribe those divine operations they do not know or at least do not consider that the work of Generation and of Nutrition also which is indeed a Species of Generation for whose sake they attribute such notable prerogatives to those Spirits doth much exceed the power of those spirits themselvs not of those spirits only but even of the Vegetal Soul nay of the Sensitive in a word of the Rational soul her self and not the power only but the very apprehension of the Rational soul for the Nature and Order of Generation is truly admirable and divine beyond the comprehension and grasp of our thoughts or understanding That it may therefore more clearly appear that those eminent attributes which learned men bestow upon the Spirits and the Innate Heat do belong to the blood alone These few following considerations do offer themselves over and above those things which are wonderfully evident in an Egge before any rudiment of the Chicken appear and also in a perfect and adult Foetus Namely that the blood being considered absolutely in it self out of the Veins as it is an elementary substance and composed of several parts namly of serous thin crass and concrete parts is called Cruor Gore and doth possess a few onely and those obscure abilities But being in the veins as it is a part of the body and that also an Animate and Genital part and the Immediate Instrument and primary seat of the soul and also as it seemeth to partake of another more divine body and is inspired with a divine animal heat it is then endowed with excellent abilities and answerable in proportion to the element of the Stars
the egge one that no man hath hither to fondly pronounced that the one was the Cock and the other the Hens Seed But this popular error is soon blown over for the Chalazae are a like manner found both in the Subventaneous and Fertile egge That both the Male and Female are the Efficients of Generation EXERCIT. XXXIII THe Physitians do rightly maintain against the Aristotelians that both Sexes participate â—â— the Efficient power because that which is generated is a thing compounded of them both for it is mixt of them both in the figure and similitude of the Body and in the Species too as suppose it a thing mixt between a Partridge-Cock and a Dunghil-Hen And it is very consonant to reason for a man to conceive that those are the Efficient causes of a Conception whose com-mâ—â—ture that which is produced doth represent and express And this is Aristotles opinion In some creatures saith he it is apparent that that which generates is such like as that which is generated and yet not the â—ame not that very numerical thing but of the same Species as in natural productions For a Man begets â— man unless something befal praeturnatural as when â—â— Horse begets a Mule and the like For that which is common to a Horse and an Ass is not called Propinquissimum genus the Next Kind and yet they two may be commixed in one for such is a Mule And in the same place he saith The Generant is sufficient to generate and be the cause of the existence of the Species in the matter but such a Species being now in such particular flesh and Bones is now several persons is Callias and Socrates are Wherefore since such an entire forme as namely of a Mule is mixt of both namely Horse and Asse the Horse alone is not sufficient to produce this form of a Mule in the Matter but as the whole entire form is mixt so another efficient cause must be conferred and joyned to it from the Asse That therefore that doth produce a Mule mixed of both must be it self adequate and mixed too if it be Univocal As for example This Man and that Woman do beget this Socrates not under the capacity of being both of them Homines Men and so are of one and the same species but by reason that this particular Man and that particular Woman are of humane kind composed of this and that particular flesh and bones of both which since socrates is a kind of Mixture and is mingled of them both that of which Socrates is made must needs be as it were a compounded Univocal mixt â—â—ing that is to say the mixt Efficient of a mixt Effect And therefore the Male and Female are not generative apart but as they are united in Coition and made as it were one entire Animals and thence from them both as from one the true efficient immediate cause of the Conception doth result and is deduced The Physitians also while they minding onely what befalls humane kind give resolutions at large concerning Generation in general and it seeming probable to them that the Geniture flowing in Coition from both Parents is the true Sperme or Seed proportionable to the Seed of Plants doe not without reason constitute that mixture which is the next efficient cause of the future Foetus out of the mixture of the Seed of both Parents and therefore affirme that such a mixt body is conteined in the Womb presently upon Coition and is the first Conception But our precedent History makes it appear that the thing is clean otherwise in an Egge which is a true Conception Concerning the Matter of the Egge contrary to Physitians and Aristotelians EXERCIT. XXXIV THat which Physitians deny in opposition to the Aristotelians namely that the Blood is the First Matter of the Conception doth evidently appear out of the Generation of the Egge For there is no Blood at all conteined in the Womb of the Hen either in Coition or before or after it Nor are the Rudiments of the Egge sanguine but white And many living Creatures conceive in whose Genitals if you open them nimbly not one drop of Blood is to be seen But while they contend that the Mothers Blood is the Nutriment of the Foetus in the Womb especially of the Partes Sanguineae the bloody parts as they call them and that the Foetus at first as if it were a part of the Mother is sustained by her blood and quickened by her spirits in so much that the Heart beats not and the Liver sanguifies not nor any part of the foetus doth execute any publick function but all of them make Holy-day and lie idle in this Experience it selfe confutes them For the Chicken in the egge enjoyes his own Blood which is bred of the liquors contained within the egge and his Heart hath its motion from the very beginning and he borrowth nothing either blood or spirits from the Hen towards the Constitution either of the Sanguineous parts or Plumes as those that strictly observe it may plainly perceive And I make no question fully to demonstrate in my succeeding Observations that the foetus of Viviparous creatures while they are yet imprisoned in the Womb are no way sustained by the Mothers blood nor vegetated by her spirits but do rejoice in their own Soules and indowments as the Chicken uses to do in the egg and sate themselves from their owne stocke of Blood But as for that which concerns the Matter of the foetus arising from Male and Female and that so magnified manner of Generation so much countenanced by the confident Schools namely that the Conception is rendered prolifical from the comâ—â—sture of the Genitures and their mutual Action and Passion as also those other Heresies of their concerning the Seed of Females and concerning the division of Parts into Spermatical and Sanguineous many and those very remarkable and excellent observations which shall be treated â—â— hereafter have compelled me to dissent from them I shall at present say onely this that I extreamly wonder how Physitians especially such as are skilfull Anatomists should prop up their opinion upon two arguments as most invincible â— when those very arguments if rightly understood â— do make against them rather As for Instance From that Concussion Solution and Profusion of Humour which befalls Women many times with delight in Coition they concludeâ— that all Women do emit a Semen in Coition and that that Semen is necessary to Generation Whereas to passe by this reply namely that the Female of all Animals nay all Women have not such a Profusion and that it is no way necessary that thâ—â— Conception must be frustrate without it for â— know many Women that are Mothers without it and some also which upon having it were indeed much affected with enjoyment but came much short of their former fruitfulnesse Besides infinite and innumerable examples of Women whâ—â— though they receive much satisfaction by their Husbands do yet emit
like to those but the spirit which is inclosed in the seed and spumous body and the nature which is in that spirit being answerable and like in proportion to the Element or substance of the Stars Wherefore though wee should indulge Fabricius in his opinion that the Seed is reserved in that pouch yet notwithstanding after the prolifical effervency or the spirit is resolved it would grow useless and improlifical And from hence may Physitians take notice that the geniture of the male is not therefore the architect of the foetus because the first cenception assumes its body from it but because it is spirituous and boyling as being inspired with a fertile spirit and turgent like a thing possessed For otherwise Averrhoes his fable of the woman that conceived in a Bath might have some title to true story But of these things more in their proper place As therefore the Egg is made by the Hen so iâ— it also very likely that all the first conceptions aâ— shall be shown hereafter doe assume both their Matter and Form from the female and that also after the males geniture is immitted and now for some time quite departed and vanished away For the Cock doth not conferre any fertility to the Hen or Eggs by the bare emission of his geniture but onely so farre forth as that geniture is prolifical and impowered with a plastical virtue that is to say spiritous operative and proportionable to the subtence of the Stars The male therefore is no more to be prized as the chief principle of the conception and foetus by reason he can concoct and emit seed then a female which can produce an egg without his help But he therefore rather claims prerogative in that he impowers his seed with spirit and divine efficacy and so that in a moment it can perform its affaires and conveigh fertility For as we see things immediately set on fire and infamed by a spark struck from a flint or by a flash of Lightning from a cloud so the geniture of the male doth immediately affect the female with the touch and transferres fruitfulness unto her which doth not onely virtuate the eggs but the womb also and the Hen herself and all in an instant for to combustible substance is sooner set on fire by the approach of the flames then the Hen is made pregnant by the coition of the Cock. But what it is that is transferred from him to her we shall have occasion to discover in its order then we shall determine the matter more perspicuously and in general In the mean time we must take notice that if it be derived from the soul for it is most likely that whatsoever is fruitfull the same is also animate and we have said before that an Egg in Aristoiles opinion is indowed with a vegetative soul as also all the seed of Plants that soul at least the vegetative must of necessity be ex traduce and derived in a Prolificall Conception as after it as it is in the Generation of the Chicken out of the Egge and just in that manner as Plants do spring from seeds of their own kind For it doth not appear that the Male is required to the intent that hee should be as an Agent Operatour or Efficient per se nor that the Female is required that she should contribute the matter but both Male and Female are to be esteemed in some sort the Operatour and Parent and the foetus is procreated a mixt similitude and resemblance as if it proceeded from both mixt together Nor is it true which Aristotle often affirms and Physitians take for granted namely that presently after Coition there is something to be found of the foetus or conception as the Heart or the Tres Bullae or some other Principle part or something at least in the cavity of the Womb as some Coagulum or Spermatical mixt substance or the like But on the contrary in case the Female prove fertile and pregnant it happens that the eggs and conception in the most and most perfect creatures is first begun long after coition And that the Female also is prolifical before any thing of the conception be at all contained in the Womb many indications do conspire to ascertain as shall be afterwards discovered in the History of Viviparous Animals as the enlargement of the Breasts and the turgid swelling of the Womb by which and other Symptomes we may perceive an Alteration in the whole Body But as for the Hen though she have for the most part the Rudiments of eggs in her before coition which are afterwards by the Tread made prolificall and therefore she then hath something in her presenly upon coition or treading yet when it falls out so with her that like other creatures she hath nothing at hand ready in her Ovary or hath already layd all the egges she formerly had there she being afterwards trod though some time pass between and intervene as if she were then both Principles her self alone or did possess the power of both Sexes doth after the manner of Plants generate egges by her self and those too I speak it knowingly not subventaneous but prolifical For if you take all the eggs from under a Hen that is now sitting in case that very Hen was a fruitful Hen in former time though she have now already layd all the eggs she hath and have not so much as one remaining in her Ovary she wil lay again and those eggs shal be fructifying prolifical eggs having the principles of both Sexes in them In what respect the Henne may be called the Primum Efficiens the first or Chiefe Efficient And also of her issue EXERCIT. XLI WE have already pronounced the Hen to be an Efficient Cause of Generation or natures Instrument in that employment but she is not absolutely and per se but by commission and by vertue of the Male rendered prolifical But as the Male is by Aristotle counted the first principle of Generation suo merito upon his own score because the first Motus or progress towards Generation proceeds from him so the Hen also may in some respect be esteemed the first cause of Generation insomuch as the male by the approach and presence of the female like one possessed is inflamed to Venery The female-Fish saith Pliny at the time of coition will pursue and follow the Male punching his belly with her head And again about the time of bringing forth the Male will do the like to the Female I my self have sometimes seen the male Fishes follow the female that was ready to spawn just as Doggs doe a salt-Bitch all in troops that they might sprinckle her eggs so soon as she had laid them lacte suo with their milkey substance or seed But that is most sensible in wanton and lascivious females which will stirre up Cupids slow and drowsie fires in their tame males and instill a silent love into them And hence it is that the Dunghill-cock so soon
is white and the other yellow It appeares by what hath been said that the Chicken and the same thing shall afterwards be demonstrated of all conceptions as he results or is framed from the implanted principle or soul of the egge so he also obtaines his nourishment from the Egge too wherefore he hath no need of a mother as the Plants have of the Earth And it is no truer of him that he is nourished by his mothers blood or lives by her spirits and so his own heart lies fallow and idle the while then that he moves and perceives by his mothers organs or is enlivened and takes growth from her soul But the case is plain and all men acknowledge that the Foetus is fed by the Umbilical Vessels and that the Venal branches disseminated into the White and Yolk do hence derive sustenance which they impart to the Foetus It is likewise clear that when the Chicken is now hatcht or excluded he is supplyed with provisions partly from the Yolk and partly from the Chyle and that they both pass into the Liver by the same Vena Porta though by several branches of it It is also clear to speak by the way that the Chyle which nourisheth all living creatures is transported by the Meseraick Veins out of the Guts and that there is no need to search out new wayes namely the Venae Lacteae or to fansie any other passage in grown bodies besides what we finde in the Egge and Chicken But as for the Inconveniences of that invention we shall elsewhere discover them Lastly by the constitution of the Umbilical Vessels in the Egge whereof we have declared some to be Veines and some Arteries we may tollect a Circulation of the Blood such as we have long since demonstrated in our Book de Motu Sanguin is in Animalibus and that for vegetation nutrition and augmentation sake and therefore the Umbilical Vessels are disseminated into both the Liquors that they may lead sustenance from them to the foetus and the Arteries are derived thither too that by a plentifull affluence of heat they may concoct dissolve and render the aliment usefull to nutrition And hence it comes to pass that wheresoever the veines and under that name the Arteries also are here comprehended do arrive to the substance of the White or Yolk those parts seem to be dissolved and put on a different look or appearance from the rest For so soon as ever the branches of the Veines shoot forth the superiour or exteriour part of the White into which they are inserted grows transparent and melts into a Colliquntion but the inferiour part remaining still thick and compact is confined to the Lower angle of the Egge So likewise there seem to be two parts a superiour and an inferiour of the Yolk which do as much differ from one another as melted from unmelted wax namely that part which hath entertained Veines into it from the other which is yet destitute Hence also we are acquainted with the Exordium and first inherent principle of the Egge For it is clear that the Cicatricula or Speck is the principal particle of the Egge to which all the rest are to be referred and to which if to any part before another whatsoever it be which makes the Egge prolifical is to be imputed as also the first onset towards the generation of the Chicken And therefore as we have shewed presently after the Incubation of the Hen the Cicatricula is first of all dilated enlarged and makes a Colliquation wherein forthwith the blood moves the veines are scattered and the operations and effects of the native heat do by the help of the formative Operatour betray themselves and by how much the deeper the small Filaments of these veines do take rooting by so much the wider is the Empire of the Vital faculty advanced and the Majesty of the Vegetal Soul revealed For indeed every Effect is a cleare testimony of its Efficient In a word upon the Cicatricula wherein the first twy-light of native heat doth dawn the whole Generation doth depend Upon the Heart the whole Chicken and upon the Umbilical Vessels all the Membranes involving the Foetus which we call the Secundine do rely Wherefore we conclude that the parts of the Foetus are in subordination one to the other and do first borrow life from the Heart Of the Order of parts in the Generaration out of an Egge according to Fabricius EXERCITATION LIV. IT being now resolved which is to be esteemed the first part namely the Blood with its Receptacles the Heart Veins and Arteries it now follows that we discover in what order all the parts of the Body are generated Fabricius whose steps we trace in the Generation of the Pullus ere he proceed to the order of the Parts doth first recite the actions discovered in an Egge and by whose assistance the Parts are formed repeating also in order their Faculties as if out of them the order also of the Generation of the Parts may be more clearly discovered There are three actions saith he which appear first in an Egge upon which the Hen sits the first is the Generation of the Chicken the second its Growth the third its Nutrition The first that is the Generation is the proper action of the Egge the second and third namely accretion and nutrition do for the greatest part come to a height out of the egge yet they are begun in the egge and perfected there too Which actions as they flow from three faculties the Generative Augmentative Nutritive so three Effects do ensue upon them For from generation do all the parts of the Chicken result from accretion and nutrition Growth and Increase treating first of the Generation of the Chicken we may discover that by the help of Generation the parts of the Chicken which were not before are produced and so the Egge is transformed into the body of the Chicken Now while any part doth commigrate into another it must needs pass through a commutation of its own proper essence for otherwise it must continue the same thing still and also must be fashioned into a figure scite and magnitude convenient and consistent with its nature and in these two things is the Procreation of a substance absolved namely Commutation and Conformation therefore the Immutative and Formative faculties are the causes of these functions Whereof the One hath produced each particular part of the body just as we see it out of the Chalaza of the Egge the Other conferred the figure scite and composition convenient for all the several uses of it The first of these Faculties which is the Immutative or Alterative faculty is wholly natural and doth act without any knowledge at all and taking to it self the hot the cold the moist and the dry parts it alters the whole subance of the Chalaza throughout and by altering it doth change it into the parts of the Chicken that is to say into Flesh Bones Gristles
In like manner because the Vesiculae pulsantes do as Instruments minister to the motion of the Blood and likewise the whole Frame and Fabrick of the Heart as we have evidenced in our Book de Motu Sanguinis is Instrumental namely that the Blood may be continually hurried round the Body in a Circle the Blood seems to have a being both in Order of Nature and Generation before the Heart which he imployes as an Instrument having begotten it also and doth persist to nourish and convey heat spirits life unto it by the Coronal Artery But how this General Rule of Aristotle concerning the prae-ordering of the Parts doth appear to be true by Anatomical Observation we shall declare hereafter In the mean time we will enquire after what manner he himself doth sufficiently deduce the Causes of Priority as I may so say in Generation according to this Rule After the Principle namely the Heart are the Interiour parts begotten before the exteriour the superiour before the inferiour for the inferiour are for the superiours sakes as being their instrument after the pattern observed in Plants which shoot forth their Roots before their Branches But Nature doth not use that method in Generation nor is the instance alwayes true for in Beanes Ciches and other Pulse also in Acornes or Mast and Corne it is apparent that at the same time the Stalk shootes upward from the same Bud and the Roots downward Likewise Onions and other bulbous plants do germinate upwards before they fix downwards But he adjoines another cause of this order to wit Nature makes nothing superfluous nor nothing in vaine whence it appears that nothing is made by her either before or after another otherwise then need requires Namely those parts are first generated whose uses and functions are first required some also are sooner begun because they call for more time to perfect them that so they may be ready for the birth together with others that are forwarder then they As the Cook being to provide a feast where some provisions by reason of their solidity aske a slower fire and longer time to prepare them he laies them down to the fire first but to those that are sooner dispatched and are dressed with a gentler heat he applyeth himselfe last and such also as are to be served up in the first course he makes ready first but those in the second last So likewise nature in the generation of Animals is late ere she delineate the moist soft and fleshey parts as being quickly cooked and reduced into shape but for the hard and more solid as the bones because they exact a large Evaporation and Exsiccation and their matter continues long indigested to them she addresses her selfe first of all For in the Braine also saith he the same falls out namely that at first it is very moist and great in quantity but anon the humidity evaporating and being concocted it growes more solid and so the quantity of the Head and Eyes do abate In the beginning therefore the Head seems very bigge in comparison of all the rest of the body which it much exceeds in bulke by reason of the Braine and the eyes very large by reason of the humour conteined in them But yet the eyes are perfected last because even the Braine it selfe is long ere it grow to a consistence For it is long ere it get the mastery and drein the water and especially in a Man For the Sinciput is last confirmed of all the Bones for that bone is yet soft even when the Child is born into the World He also proceeds to another reason namely that the parts are framed of different materials The more noble parts saith he and those that participate the worthiest principles are constituted of the concocted purest and chiefest aliment the other necessary parts made for their sakes are fashioned out of the baser matter the reliques and dregs For Nature like a prudent Master of a Family loseth nothing out of which he can make any advantage but so manages the matter in his house that his Children may fare best his Servants harder then they and the scraps or refuse thrown to the Dogs As therefore Incremento jam addito mens advena facit haec that is as I interpret it a prudent man grown to years of discretion disposes thus of his Charge So in the framing of things Nature by an inbred wisdome and prudence formes the flesh and substance of the instruments of sense out of the most refined matter but the Bones Nerves Hair Nailes Hoofes and the like out of the Dregs that is the refuse remainders or fragments And therefore these are made last when nature hath now good store of course materials And after this he distinguisheth of two sorts of Aliment one of Nutrition the other of Augmentation That of Nutrition saith he doth supply a being to the whole and all the parts that of augmentation procureth an accession to the magnitude According to what we finde in the Egge where the White as the more refined Aliment relates to the first Nutrition of the Chicken the Yolk to its augmentation And the thinner White as hath been shewed conduceth to the formation of the First and nobler Parts but the Courser and the Yolk to the augmentation of the Nobler and formation of the more Ignoble For he saith the Nerves are framed as the Bones out of the seminal and nutritive excrement But the Nailes Haire Spurres and all like these are formed out of augmentative and adventitious meats which the Foetus both receives from the Mother and also doth provide of it selfe And after this he at last gives the reason why Man since other Animals are provided with their Garments and Weapons at Natures price should be borne naked and unarmed namely that those kind of parts are constituted of the excrementitious parts and reliques but the materials of Men are purer in which there is very litle terrene or crude excrement to be found And thus far have we made use of Aristotle concerning the Order of Generation where all seems to be bottomed upon one foundation namely Natures Perfection which in all her Workmanship hath nothing short nor nothing superfluous but always disposeth matters for the best And therefore no parts had been precedent or subsequent to one another if it had been more advantagious to have formed them altogether which is to be understood of Her as often as she acts freely and by choice For sometimes she acts otherwise being as it were under constraint and put beside her purpose which happens when either by defect of matter or superfluity thereof or by the default of her instruments or some outward impediments she is hindered in her work and frustrated of her aime or end And hence it comes to pass sometimes that the final parts are generated before the Instrumental I call those final parts which employ others as their instruments And because some parts are Genital parts which Nature sets to
the humour Moreover it is certain that in the Craw of the Chicken and the like is also found in the Stomack of all Embryo's there is seen a substance most like in colour tast and consistence to the said liquor which being a while digested in the Stomack resembles coagulated Milk and we have also found it like to Chyle in the upper Gut the lower Guts being then stuft with Excrements So also in the foetus of Viviparous creatures the thicker Guts are full of such an Excrement as that wherewith they do abound all the while they are sed with Milk Also in Sheep and other beasts which divide the Hoof the dried dung is manifestly to be seen About the seventeenth day I have evidently found excrement in a Chicken neer the fundament and have also seen it when it hath been discharged into the Secundines a litle before the exclusion And Volcherus Coiter a diligent and skilful Anatomist records the same observation Why then should we scruple to say that the foetus in the Womb doth suck and that a Chyle is made there when we have both the apparent principle and rejectments of it Besides at that time when we see both the bladders one full of Gall and the other of Urine both which are excrements of the second concoction why may we not conclude that Chylifaction which is the first concoction went before it The Embryo therfore sucks and receives nutriment in at the Mouth And this you shall soon discry if so soon as ever he is borne you put your finger into his mouth Which according to Hippocrates would not be had he not sucked before in the Womb. For we see young Children make essays and attempt upon all performances namely moving their Limbs crawling along and indeavouring to speak all which they attain at last with dexterity by long practice and education But so soon as ever they are born nay before they are born they will suck For we have found by experience that while they yet stick fast in the Birth before they can either cry or breath they will seize upon the finger extended to them and suck it Nay A New-born Child is more exact at sucking then a grown body or himself either if he discontinue it but a few days For the Infant doth not compress the Nipple and suck at the rate that we do by gulping down but as if he would devour the Nipple he still draws it into his mouth and by the aid of his tongue and palate he sucks the milk as if he chewed it with farre more earnestness and slight then a grown body Wherefore he seems to be good at it of old and to have practised it in the womb for we see how soon he unlearns it by discontinuance By these and other Observations it is probable that the Chicken is fed two waies in the Egge namely both by the Umbilical and the Meseraick Veiues by the former he attracts well digested aliment whereby the Blood and primogenit parts are constituted and encreased by the other Chyle which conduces to the fabrick and augmentation of the other parts Now perhaps the reason may seem obscure wherefore the same Agent should out of the same Matter proceed to a diverse manner of Nutrition when Nature doth nothing in vain yet we will endeavour to discover the reason That Part which is attracted by the Umbilical Veines is the purer and sincerer part But the remaining Colliquamentum wherein the Foetus floats is a kind of crude milk without cream deprived of its purer part The more pure part therefore stands in no need of farther concoction as the other doth which therefore is received into the Stomack and there chylified The thin and crude milk such as is found in the breast presently after delivery is like this For the dissolved White of an Egg and the crude and watry milk in the breast or udder are of the self same colour taste and consistence Also the first milk given is serous and watry and Women in Childe-bed do milk a kinde of water out of their breasts before the milk is concocted and perfectly white And therefore the Colliquamentum found in the Chickens crop is a kinde of crude Milk and the very same afterwards found in the Gisard is concocted white and coagulated So likewise in Viviparous Animals before their milk is digested in their breast it looks like a kinde of Dew or Colliquamentum and so on the contrary the Colliquamentum after it is concocted in the Stomack puts on the likeness of Milk Whence it comes to pass according to Aristotles opinion that the first and most principal parts are fashioned out of the finer and purer materials but of the courser by a new concoction in the Stomack refined the meaner and inferiour sort of parts are made so that Nature like a kinde indulgent mother would rather abound with Supernumeraries then be scanted in Necessaries Or rather we must affirm it consonant to reason that the foetus now grown more perfect in himself should also be sustained after a more perfect manner viz. by the Mouth and attract his aliment more refined and rendered more devoid of dreggs by the two precedent Concoctions As being thereby cleansed from two several sorts of Excrements At first indeed being sustained by the Umbilical Vessels he lives like a Plant supplyed by its root and hereupon his body looks indigested white and imperfect and like a Plant he remaines fixt and immoveable But so soon as he enjoyes the same aliment more elaborate as now inspired with a diviner spirit and triumphing in a higher pitch of Vegetation the former Gelly is transformed into flesh the Organs of motion are distinct the spirits are enricht and he himself begins to move and now no longer is cherished like a Plant by his roots but lives the life of an Animal and is nourished at the Mouth Of the Uses of the whole Egge EXER LIX HAving declared those mutations and several proceedings which are required in a Hen-egg in order to the production of the Chicken Fabricius proceeds to discourse of the uses of the whole Egge and of its Parts and this not onely in a Hen-egge but in all other kindes of Eggs. Where he also demands Why some Eggs are heterogeneous and compounded of diverse parts and others are homogeneous and similar such as the Eggs of Insects are and of those creatures which are constituted out of the whole Egge by a Metamorphosis and not generated out of one part of the egge and nourished by the other as the Chicken is But my business is not to treat of all Eggs in general as not having in this Tract delivered their history but onely of Hen-eggs and the benefits or advantages arising from their parts all which ought to tend to that to which the Action of the whole is directed which Fabricius truly observeth to be nothing else but the Generation and Augmentation of the Chicken And amongst those things which relate to
In as much as it is a Spirit so it is the Fire the Vesta the Houshold deity the Calidum Innatum the Sun of the Microcosme and Platoes Fire not because like ordinary fire it shineth burneth and destroyeth but because it doth conserve nourish and encrease it self by a free perpetuall motion It doth also challenge the name of Spirit in as much as it doth primarily and before the other parts abound with Radical moisture which is the last and neerest aliment thereof and doth dispence and provide the same sustenance for all the rest of the parts wherewith it self is supported namely while it doth nimbly dart it self through the whole body and nourish cherish and keep alive all the parts thereof which it self doth first frame and adjoin to it selfe after the same manner as the superiour Orbes but especially the Sun and Moon do by their continual motions quicken and preserve the inferiour world Seeing therefore that the Blood doth act above the power of the Elements and is inspired with such notable virtues being also the Instrument of the Omnipotent Agent no man can worthily magnifie and extol its wonderful and divine faculties In it the soul doth first and principally reside and that not the Vegetative soul onely but the Sensitive and Motive also it penetrates every part and is every where present and that being taken away the soul is presently gone so that the blood seems to differ nothing from the soul or ought at least to be counted that substance whose act the soul is For such is the soul that it is not altogether a body nor yet wholly without a body it comes partly from without and is partly born at home in some sort it is a part of the body and in some the beginning and cause of all things which are contained in the Animal body namely nutrition sense and motion and so consequently of Life and Death also for whatsoever is nourished doth also live and so on the contrary Likewise whatsoever is plentifully nourished is also inlarged but that which is too sparingly nourished doth diminish that also which is perfectly nourished doth continue in health but that which is not doth incline to diseases The blood therefore as well as the soul is to be reputed the cause and author both of Youth and Old Age of Sleep and Waking and of Breathing also especially since in Natural productions the first Instrument doth contein in it self the internal moving cause And therefore it comes all to the same reckoning whether we say that the soul and the blood or the blood with the soul or the soul with the blood doth performe all the effects in an Animal We use as persons that neglect the things themselves to pay much reverence to the specious names The blood which is still at hand and daily in our view makes no great noise in our ears but at the magnificent name of Spirits and of an Innate Heat we are strangely amused But when once the vizour is plucked from before them as our errour so our wonder ceaseth That miraculous Stone rendered so venerable to Mizaldus by the commendation of Pipinus did not onely fill him with admiration but Thuanus also who was an eminent Historiographer in his time I shall here adjoin the Riddle it self I saw saith he a Stone which was lately brought hither to our King out of the East Indies which Stone did dart forth light and brightness after a wonderful manner sparkling and shining with so much incredible lustre as if it were all burning and in a flame This stone doth by his rayes scattered into every corner illustrate the ambient aire with so clear a shine that the firmest sight is scarce able to behold it It is also most impatient of earth for if you attempt to cover it it doth of its own accord with an impetuous violence fly upward All the Art of man cannot confine and shut it up into a narrow room for it seemeth to be affected with free open places onely The infinite purity and brightness thereof is not tainted by the least spot or blemish It hath no certain shape or figure but varieth and is altered in an instant And though it be most faire and beautiful to the Eye yet will it not endure to be touched and if you attempt too long to handle it and continue too obstinate in your resolution it will mischiefe you as many in my presence have deerly found And if any thing be by violence taken from it it remaines for all that which is very wonderful nothing less then it was before The stranger who brought it addes farther to all this that its virtue and power is exceeding useful to sundry emploiments but will not discover them without a great reward This travailer also might have added to his description that this Stone is neither soft nor hard that it puts on several shapes and complexions that it hath a continual trembling and palpitation and doth like an Animal though it be an Inanimate thing daily devour great store of food converting it to its own nutriment and augmentation and that he hath been told by men of good credit that this Stone did long ago fall down from heaven and is to this day the cause of Thunders and Lightnings being some times begotten by the refraction of the Sun-beams through the Waters Who can but admire so strange a Stone and conceive less of it then to be above the power of the Elements and so to partake of another body and of an etherial spirit especially when he finds that it is answerable in proportion to the Element or substance of the sun himself And yet if Fernelius may be the Oedipus all this is but a Riddle of the Flame In like manner if I should describe the Blood under the veil and covering of a Fable calling it the Philosophers stone and displaying all its endowments operations and faculties in an aenigmatical manner doubtless every body would set a greater price upon it and believing it to act beyond the Activity of the elements would ascribe another and more divine body unto it Of the Primigenial Moisture EXER LXXII WE have now adorned the Blood with the Title of Calidum Innatum and do likewise conceive it proper to dignifie the Colliquamentum Crystallinum as we cal it out of which the foetus and its first parts do immediately arise by the name of Humidum radicale Primigenium the Radical and Primigenial moisture For we meet with nothing in the Generation of Animals to which this title doth upon better right belong We have stiled it the Radical moisture because out of it the first particle of the foetus namely the Blood and all the post-genit parts do arise as out of their Root and do owne the same as the matter out of which they are procreated sed increased and conserved We likewise call it Primigenial because it is first generated in the constitution of every Animal and is as it