of their Prey Just at the rate as some ditches and lakes in the Spring time are paved with Frogs and open Hills and steep mountains are stuck and embossed with flocks of sheep and Goats If you saile round the Island and look up into the several Clifts and Cavernes of it you shall finde them all peopled and inhabited with several colonies of Birds and Fowle of distinct Kinde and magnitude more indeed then in a clear night when the Moon is absent there are Starres to be discerned in the Firmament and if you observe the several Regiments of those that saily out and those that flocks home wards at the same time you would take them for an infinite swarm of Bees It is not to be imagined what a vast yearly revenue the Lord of the Island maketh of the Plumes and the Remainders of the Nests which are useful for firing together with the Egges which hee seetheth and then trafficketh away that which he himself told me was indeed incredible But this one thing which reflects neerer upon our discourse seemeth to me remarkable in chief and doth give a cleer testimony of the excessive multitude which is that this Island as you approach it shineth with a white glasing and the clifts resemble mountaines of the purest Chalke though the native complexion of the Stone be obscure and black That which thus discoloureth the Island is a white crust which is friable and of the very same Consistence Complexion and Nature with the Egge-shell so that all parts of the Island are plaistered over with this hard tegument and crumbling or friable crust or shale The bottome of the Island which the Tyde washeth every day retaining still its natural colour clearly sheweth that that fucus or sophisticated whiteness proceeds from the liquid Excrements of the Birds which they discharge when they disburden their Belies and by which as it were with an Egge-shell white hard and friable the Walls are crusted and disguised And after the same manner doe Aristotle and Pliny consent that the Egge-shell is formed None of these Birds are Citizens of the place but Forreigners all and resort thither for convenient Laying and there they continue some weeks as in their Inne till they and their Young-ones be all in condition to fly away together But that white Ruff-cast is so solid firme and thick that you would think it were the genuine and natural substance of the soile This liquid white and bright Excrement doth glide with the Urine from the kidnies of the Birds through the Ureters into the common cavity or Jakes and there covering over the excrements of the guts passeth forth together with them and it is a thicker part of their Urine then that which we call the Sediment or Hypostasis in ours We have spoken something of this matter before and wee have demonstrated it fuller elsewhere Store of this white excrement is there chiefly to be seen where the Hawkes defile the walls that do neighbour their pertches with their ejections which they be-dawb with a glewy white and distinguish as it were with a Ceruse I have found as much of this slimey cement in the repository of a dead Ostrich as would fill ones hand so also in a Land-Tortoise and several other Four-footed creatures that are Oviparous this white plaistering-stuff doth abound and being disloaded the thinner parts evaporating it doth soon congeale either into a friable crusly substance or into a dust or powder resembling the egg-shell pounded in a Morter Amongst the so many several kindes of Birds which make their conflux to the aforesaid Island for Procreation sake and so many several structures of their nests wherein they hatch their young there was one Bird shewed me above all the rest which layeth one onely egge fixing it upon the steep point of a sharp stone having neither nest not any other materials to support it and that so secure and firmly that the mother-bird can leave it there and return again to it at pleasure without any prejudice to the egge at all But if this egge be once removed from its station no art nor cunning in the world can fasten it again but it instantly falleth into the sea as from a precipite without redemption The reason is because the place where it is mounted is incrustated all over with the white cement and the egge being newly layed wreaketh with a stiff and viscous humidity which presently congealing it is agglutinated to the subjacent stone as it were with a kinde of soulder An example of so nimble a concretion as this we may see at the Statuaries who out of calcined Alabaster or certain morter tempered with water doe make a liquid cement which being artificially applied will take off the figure of the countenance of a dead man or the shape and resemblance of any thing whatsoever be it never so litle and so that growing hard remaineth for a Mould As therefore in almost all liquors there is some earthy consistence as in Wine there is the Tariar in Water mudde or sand in Lie salt which when the greater part of the moisture is exhaled doth subside and congeal at the bottom so is there a white sediment descending with the urine from the Birds kidnies into the common Jakes with which I did conceive the egge was there incrustated and plaistered over as the pavements are by Hawks and the clifts of the fore-said Island by the numerous conflux of Birds and Fowle And thus Chamber-pots and places where people urine much use to be over-cast with a yellow crust from the concrescence of that substance which createth stones in the kidnies and bladder and other parts of the Body I did I say conceive especially being induced thereto by the authority of Aristotle and Pliny that out of this white hypostasis which doth much abound in all Oviparous creatures whose eggs are encompassed by a hard shell the fabrick of the Henns egg-shell was erected and congealed upon exclusion by the cold ambient aire And this opinion is so rooted in me by many other experiments that I can hardly forbear to believe that some part of the shell at lest is produced from thence But as Fabricius rightly adviseth let reason be silent where experience warranteth the contrary for it is too much the crime of the age we live in to obtrude opinions built upon conjecture and slender reasoning as infallible truths without any testimony at all from sense For I am certainly assured from Experiment that the egge at lest here in England is adorned with its shell while it hath its abode in the Womb though Aristotle and Pliny affirm the contrary and Fabricius also is not very obstinate in the negative Perchance indeed in hotter countries where the hennes are of a stronger constitution the egges are commonly layed soft and without shells but that is very rare amongst us So when I was at Venice Aromatarius a famous Physitian shewed mee a small leaf formed between the two shales of a
upon that relation undertake the education of the chicken instruct and direct their walks prepare and look for their feeding and by the comfort of her wings cherish them And all these things will not be so well performed by any but her We have indeed Capons and mungrel-fowle such as are the issue of a Pheasant-cock and a Dunghill-henne which will sit upon the egges and hatch them too but they have no dexterity to guide the chickens or mannage the charge of their education I can here but admire intending to treat larger hereafter of the same matter with what constancy and patience almost all female Birds will out-sit whole nights and dayes and impare their healths and almost famish themselves and to what hazards they expose themselves in defence of their egges which if upon necessary occasion they are at any time constrained to leave oh how earnestly and with what dispatch doe they hasten their return Ducks and Geese for the time of their absence cover their eggs with straw And with what undaunted resolution will these feeble parents many times combat in right of their egges which perhaps are subventaneous or addle nay sometimes artificial of-springs the issues of chalk or ivory whose injuries yet they will revenge with the same magnanimity with those done to their legitimate productions Indeed the Birds affection towards the dull liveless egge is exceeding wonderful which is altogether incapable of making any return of friendship or respect Who can forbeare to be amazed at the affection or phrensie rather of a Henne that is glocking or ready to sitâ— which nothing can extinguish but a deluge of cold water for so long as this rage is upon her 〈◊〉 groweth quite careless and walkes like a bed him with her wings trailed and feathers rough and advanced and she her self mournful and restless â—â— she meet with any Henne sitting she will deposeâ— her having all her thoughts bent upon egges and incubation nor will she desist till shee either 〈◊〉 egges to sit upon or chickens to discipline which then she doth assemble nurture feed and protect with admirable zeal Who can refrain smiling to see a Henne follow young Ducklins and having hatched up that supposititious brood apprehending them to be her own pursue them when they are now swimming in the Pond while she her self circuites about the brimmes and many times attempts to sail after to the hazard of drowning still calling and enticeing them back as if they had mistaken themselves Aristotle giveth this reason why steril egges produce no chickens namely because the juices contained in them receive no thickening by incubation neither doth their yolk or white recede any thing from the nature they were of before But of this wee shall discourse hereafter in our general contemplation of Generation Our women that they may distinguish between egges that have chickens in them and egges that are barren and addle after the fourteenth or sixteenth day from the Hennes first sitting do gently drop the egges into warme water and those that sinke to the bottom they account barren but those that swim fertile And if the chicken in the egge be of any considerable growth and bestirre himself lustily the egge will not onely tumble up and down but leap and caper And if you listen close for some dayes before exclusion you may perceive the chickens kick make a noise and cry after their manner Which kinde of Commotions when the Sitting Henne discovereth in her nest she removeth the egges and rowleth them to and fro as carefull mothers do their disquiet and peevish infants in the craedle till the chickens being accommodated with convenient posture lye hushed and still Hen-eggs are likewise distinguished from their Number For some Hens saith the Philosopher lay all the year long bating onely the two Winter moneths Some gallant Hens will bring sixty eggs before the Suting time yet these are not so fruitfull as the ordinary sort of Hens The Adrian Hens are small but lay every day yet they are very testy and many times 〈◊〉 their chickens and their feathers are of change 〈◊〉 colours Some domestick Hens will lay twice a day and the fecundity of some shorteneth their dayes Some Hens in England lay every day but the ordinary fertile race for the most part lay for two dayes together namely the first egg in the morning the second in the evening following and the third is a day of vacancy Some Hens have an unlucky custome to break their eggs and leave their nests but whether this be their disease or vice is yet unresolved There are differences also taken from Incubation for some Hennes sit once some twice others thrice and some oftner Florentinus writeth that certain Hennes Natives of that Alexandria which is in Egypt called Monosirae of whom springeth a race of Game-cocks doe sit two or three times having the chickens which they have newly hatched taken from them brought up apart By which mean it cometh to pass that one Hen will hatch forty sixty and sometimes more chickens at one sitting Some Eggs also are of a large some of a less and some of the least size of all and these last are commonly called in Italy Centenina and our Women to this day as of old also bely them to be Cocks-eggs and that they produce Basilisks The Common people saith Fabricius think this small egge to be the Hennes concluding production after she hath layed at hundred eggs from whence it is called Centeninum the Hundredth egge which hath no yolk at all yet hath all the other parts as the Chalazae the White the Membranes and the Shell For it is likely that this is then layed when all the yolkes are already completed into Eggs and there is no more remaining yolks the Vitellary that may become eggs but yet on the other side there is still some litle White behinde and â—â— of that Modicum of White it is probable this litle Egge is framed But this seemeth not probable to 〈◊〉 because it is an assured truth that when the Ovary is exhausted the Second Uterus also as himselfe confesseth is also spent and wasted into a â—eer membrane not containing any residue of the White or Moisture at all Fabricius goeth on There iâ— sound a two-fold Ovum Centeninum one without a yolk and this is properly called Centeninum which is the last the henne layeth with which the henne concludeth her Laying for that season the other also is a very small egge but hath a yolke and is not the concluding but some intervenient egge after which the henne doth persist to lay egges of a just magnitude as before but it faileth in its dimensions by reason of some impair in the vegetal faculty as it happeneth to Peaches and other Fruits whereof some are of a full growth and others exceeding small He might have accused for this mischance the inclemency of the Aire and Soile also the penury and pravity of the
and fabrick of hiâ— nest and likewise in laying in provision for he off-spring And so in like manner you may discover many examples of a Conjugal life among bruit beasts of which more hereafter But those Males that serve many Females aâ— the cock their Testicles are much lined with Seminal moisture and they are provided with long and large deferent Vessels And at that time and age that the cluster in the Ovary begins to ripen and become mature and stands now in need of Fructifying that the Papulae may be perfected into Egges the cocks seed begins to encrease and hiâ— Testicles grow turgent and tumorous and are also seated in the same place namely neer the Diaphragma into which they instil fertility And this is evident in fishes birds and all other Oviparous creatures whose males are all replenished with seed at the same time and place whereat their females do conceive their egges And therefore all those parts of the Hen which are designed to Generation namely the Ovary Infundibulum the process of the Womb and the Womb it self and the Privities and also the scituation fabrick quantity and Temper of all these and what soever else relates thereto they are all inservient and handmaids either to the procreation of the Egge or to its Augmentation or else to Coition and fertility received from the Male or to the foetus to which they conduce either necessarily and principally or as a Causa sine qua non or some way or other to the better being For there is nothing made either vain or rash in all the operations of Nature So likewise all the Genital parts in the Cock are contrived for preparing or concealing or else transmitting the geniture into the Hen. But such males as are so vigorous that they can supply many females these do much exceed heir females in their growth and stature as also in their â—â—naments courage and weapons which is not so eminent in those that are conjugal and chaster For a cock-Partridge Crow or Pigeon are not so much superiour and different from their consorts as the Cock is from the Hen or the Stag from his Hindes And therefore the Cock as he is well appointed in his weapons brave in his plumes haughty ambitious valiant and a famous Duellist so doth he also abound in Seed and is swift in his chamber-offices and of so unbounded a luxury that except he have his Seraglio for his concubines â—e will tire out his wives by frequent invitations â—nd compressions and as we have observed in the Pheasant the Turkey-cock and others will cruelly handle them with unseasonable advancings and molestations I have seen Hens sometimes so tired and torn by the insolency and incivility of the insatiate Cock that all their backs have been deplumed and they themselves by deep exâ—â—â—erations piercing to the bare bone have miserably expired Of the Henne EXER XL. THere are two first Causes and Instruments of Generation the Male and Female For the Hen seems to be the Author of the Egge as the Cock of the Fertility and therefore by the coition of these two that which renders the egge fruitful is traduced from the Male into the Female or generated in the Female by that coition But what that is is no less difficult to be known then to what it is communicated namely whether to the whole Henne or to its Uterus or to the Eggs already made or else to all the Egges not begun in the Ovary or to be begun hereafter For it is probable according to our former discourseâ— and also by Fabricius his experiment that a 〈◊〉 coitions and the commerce of the Henne with the Cocke for a few dayes doth sufficiently fructifie her or her womb at lest for a whole year together And I my self informed by experience can parth affirm the same thing namely that the twentieth egge layed by the Hen after her divorce from thâ— Cocke hath been fruitfull and prolifical That aâ— from the geniture of the Male-fishes scattered in â—â— water a great family of eggs is endowed with the lifical virtue and as in Bitches and Sowes and also other Animals some few coitions have satisfie to the fertility of several foetuses insomuch the some think it an approved Maxim that in case Bitch be oftner compressed by the dog then thâ—â— or four times it will wrong her fertility and make her births degenerate most into females â—â— also the Cock by some few familiarities with the Hen doth not only render the egge now being in â—he Ovary but the entire Ovary and Hen her self prolifical as hath been often repeated Nay what â—s more then this and admirable indeed In a cerâ—â—in part of Persia saith Aristotle if you cut up a 〈◊〉 Mouse you shall finde even the young ones within â—â— that are females to be great with young themselves being made mothers before they are born as if â—he male did not onely fructifie his female but all â—he females also of which she labours as our Cock â—oth not only render his henne fruitful but all â—he eggs also that she is to lay Now this Physitians do confidently deny who â—â—me the conceptions of Animals to be produced by the mixed geniture of both Sexes And thereâ—â—e Fabricius though he pronounce the Cocks seed â—ver to enter nor to have any possibility of enâ—â—ance into the hollow of the womb where either â—â— egge is made or increased and though he â—â—inly saw the egges now newly begun in the Ovary to be made fertile by the same coition as â—ell as those egges which were already made â—â— particle of which could be made by the seed of â—t Cock yet he will needs have the Cocks seed â—s if its presence and continuance were absoluteâ—â— necessary to be locked up for a whole year together in the pouch of a prolifical Hen and there to â—â— reserved in a blinde chink Which perswasiâ—â— we have formerly rejected and that because â—t cavity is indifferently found as well in a Cock in a Hen and also for that we could never scover such a standing pool of Geniture either that cavity or any other cranny in a Hen but soon as the Geniture hath delivered her message â—â—d performed her trust by imprinting a prolifical virtue in the Hen it either retires back again or is dissolved and rarified into air and so vanisheth And though Galen and all Physitians with him do strongly oppose this dissolution of the Genture yet having thoroughly considered the fabrick of the genital part by Anatom cal administrations and having likewise pondered other most invincible arguments they must necessarily acknowledge that the seed of the male as it is derived from the Testicles by the leading vessels and contained in the spermatical vessels is not prolifical unless by the fervency of Coition and desire it become aerial and rarified into a spume For witness Aristotle it is not the corpulency of the seed or its fire that renders it prolifical or any quality
one and the same thing with Alibile and Augmentativum a creature fedde and augmented in potentiâ as we shall shew hereafter and do differ onely ipso esse formally as Aristotle saith but otherwise are the very same For for as much as this particular thing is and is convertible into substance Nutritivum est it is Nutritive and for as much as it is quantum indued with quantity it is Augmentativum Augmentative for as much as it is substituted in the room of a substance that is lost Nutrimentum appellatur it is called Nutriment for as much as it is added to a substance already in being Incrementum dicitur it is called Growth And the same thing is Materia the Matter in the Generation Alimentum the Sustenance in the Nutrition and Incrementum the Increase in the Augmentation of the Chicken But that is formally and simply said to be generated whereof no part was existent before but that to be nourished and grow which was and had an existence or being before That part of the Foetus which is first made is said to be begotten or born that which is substituted or superadded to it is said to be annate aggenerate or born to it There is in al things the same generation and transmutation from the same into the same which is performed in respect of a part by Nutrition and Augmentation but in respect of the Whole by Generation else it is the very same in both For from whence the first existent matter proceeds from thence also doth Nutriment and Growth accrew unto it And it shall also appear by that which shall be delivered hereafter that all Parts of Bodies are nourished by the same Nutritive substance diversly transformed or altered For as all Plants do indifferently spring grow and are susteined from the same Common Nutriment diversly varied and digested whether it be Dew or the juice and moisture of the ground so likewise out of the same Liquors of the Egge namely the White and Yolk the whole Chicken and all its parts are procreated and encreased We will then also explaine what Animals are begotten by a Metamorphosis and what kind of pre-existent matter that of the Insects is which spring from a Worme out of which all the parts are together constituted and concorporated and at last a perfect Animal born by Transmutation onely as also what Animals have any order and degrees in their production and have their Parts produced successively and what kind of creatures they are which are first borne imperfect but afterwards shoot up and attain to perfection as all those that are produced out of an Egge These as they are together made and augmented growing and transformed and are by a proposed method and order distinguished into parts so have they no immediate pre-existent Matter such as is usually designed them namely the commixture of the feminine and masculine seed or the Menstruous Blood or some litle portion of the egge out of which the foetus should assume his body but so soon as ever the Matter is made and provided it grows also and takes some shape so soon as there is a Nutriment there is a creature to be nourished by it And this Generation is rather by Epigenesis as a Man is out of a Boy that is the fabrick and structure of the body is out of the Punctum saliens as out of its foundation as out of the Keel the Ship is built and rather as the Potter forms an Image without any pre-existent Matter then out of any subject matter as the Carpenter forms a Bench out of Boards and the Statuary a Statue of Marble For out of the same matter whence the first particle of the Chicken or its least atome arises thence also doth the whole Chicken proceed whence the first small drop of Blood thence also is the whole stream or current of it generated in the egg whatsoever gives a consistence or being to the members or organical parts of the body doth also afford the same to all the similar parts likewise as to the Skin the Flesh Veins Membranes Nerves Cartilages and Bones For that very part which was soft and fleshy at first is afterward upon its increase made a Nerve Ligament Tendon by the same Aliment that which was onely a Membrane becomes a Coat and that which was a Gristle is afterwards advanced into a Skin or Bone and this by the same similar matter variously altered For a similar mixt body which is commonly conceived to be framed out of the Elements is not made of the Elements first subsisting apart by themselves and then afterwards compounded united and altered but out of this particular mixt body being altered another mixt body is born and produced that is Of the Colliquamentum is the blood made of the blood the bulk of the body which bulk at first doth appear similar and like the Spermatical Gluten or clammy substance but from it the parts are delineated by an obscure indiscernable division at first but afterwards become organical and distinct Those similar parts I say do not arise from the dissimilar and heterogeneous Elements united together but are framed and discriminated by Generations out of a similar substance and so become dissimilar As if by the Omnipotents command or fiat the whole Chicken were created As thus let there be a similar White lump and let that lump or mass be divided into parts and increased and while it is increased let there be a secretion and delineation of the parts and let this part be harder thicker and whiter and that softer and well coloured And it was so For thus doth the structure of the Chicken in the Egge proceed daily out of one and the same matter are all its limbs and utensils made nourished and augmented From the Spine first do the Ribs grow out and the Bones are distinguished from the Flesh by their most white slender Lines three Bullae are discernable in the Head which are all fraught with a Crystalline Water being the Rudiments of the braine After-braine and as by a sprinckled black streak is implyed of one of the Eyes The substance which at first resembleth coagulated milk becomes at last gristly spinous and bony and that which at first was white and gelly-ish passeth at length into a blushing flesh and Parenchyma That which was formerly most transparent and pure Water is transformed anon into the braine After-braine and eyes For there is a far greater and diviner mystery in Generation then a bare assembling altering and compounding of Parts for the Whole is made and discovered before its parts the Mixt body before the Elements But of this more hereafter when also its Causes and Principles come to be assigned Of the Efficient Cause of the Generation of the Chicken and Foetus EXER XLVI THus far of the Matter out of which the Chicken springs in the Egge it remaines now that we enquire a little with Fabricius concerning the Efficient cause of the Chicken But because
is by its moisture and lubricity to expedite the Chickens birth For the dryer and older the shell is by so much the frailer and britler it becomes Lastly were it the Chickens sweat it would most abound neer the Exclusion for the larger the Chicken is and the more Aliment he takes in so much the more sweat must he necessarily create But a litle before his Exclusion about the ninteenth or twentieth day there is none of this kind of humour discernable whereby he should have rather reputed it an Aliment then an Excrement had he rightly considered the matter especially seeing he allows the Chicken in the Egge the use of Respiration Voice and Crying which were he begirt with water could not have been Nor are these Waters of any great use to the Expedition or Lubricity of the Delivery as experienced Midwives know full well though Fabricius would have it otherwise For the neighbour Parts are about that time without any profusion of those Waters mellow and relaxed by a certain maturity of their owne especially those which may be an obstruction to the work namely the Ossa pubis Coccygis about which the chiefest care of the Midwife is exercised in furthering the delivery for she is less solicitous to anoint the fleshey parts least they rend in sunder then in putting back the Coccyx which if she cannot effect with her own hand she calls in the Man-Midwife to procure her purpose by the Speculum matricis which instrument by its triple sides whereof one is applyed to the Coccyx the other two to the Ossa pubis doth distend those parts by force For the Infant now just at his Birth while hee turnes himself and precipitates his Head downward doth relax and open the orifice of the Womb but if in his descent he light upon the top of the Bone there he sticks and hardly gets forth and that not without danger to himself and his Mother too Now it is evidently natures intent to mollifie and relax those parts For if the Midwife do discover the Orifice of the Matrix become soft and loose she laies it down for an infallible sign of the approaching delivery though the Waters are not yet broken Nay I speak what I know by Experience in case any thing remaine after the delivery which ought to be discharged or if at any other time there be any thing in the Womb which it indeavours to be rid of the Orifice doth not onely descend but is also soft and relaxed but if after the delivery that Orifice be retired into its place and be perceived to be grown something hard it is an evident sign that all is wel And by the like Experience I pronounce the Ossa pubis to be often loosened one from another in delivery their cartilaginous connexion being mollified and all the Region of the Lower Belly miraculously dilated and this not by the profusion of the Watry substance but of their own accord as ripe fruits use to revolt or open to make room for the Exclusion of their seeds But how much the Coccyx may retard the delivery is clear in four-footed beasts that have Tailes for they can neither bring forth young nor disload the excrements of the Guts unless they remove their Taile which if you depress with your hand you hinder the passage of the Excrement Moreover that is accounted the most Natural Delivery when the Foetus and Secundines with the Watry substance that is the Entire Egge get forth together For if the Secundines be entire and the waters not broken the circumjacent parts are more distended dilated by the Throwes namely by the distention of the Membranes whereupon the foetus works his release with less struggling though the Mothers paines be the greater In which condition we know how the Woman in Labour is much relieved from the intollerable torment caused by distention upon the breaking of the Membranes whether it be done by Midwives nailes or by a pair of Scissors the Waters by that means being set a float And the skilful Midwives know very well that in case all the Waters be come away before the natural opening of the Womb the Woman with Child continueth the longer in Labour and her Travail is the harder which would yet be contrary in case those precedent Waters as Fabricius would have it did so much conduce to the mollifying and Lubricity of the parts Besides that this humour which we call the Colliquamentum is not the sweat of the foetus is evident both in the Egge and other Animals for it is in being before any part of the foetus is constituted or any rudiment of him extant Nay so soon as he is discernable and is yet but gelly and very small so great a quantity of Water is to be seen that it is utterly impossible so inconsiderable a bulk should afford such plenty of Excrement Adde to this that the fibres of the Umbilical vessels are scattered and terminated in the membrane conteining this Water as in the Yolk and White of the Egge to give evidence clearly if you consider the thing as it truely is that this humour is rather to be conceived the Aliment then the Excrement Wherefore Hippocrates his opinion seems to me more probable then that of Fabricius and other Anatomists who count this Liquor the Sweat and Prejudice of the foetus For I believe that this Colliquamentum or Water wherein the foetus swims doth serve for his sustenance and that the thinner purer part of it being imbibed by the Umbilical Vessels do constitute and supply the primogenit parts and the rest like Milk being by suction conveyed into the Stomack and there concocted or chylified and afterwards attracted by the Orifices of the Meseraick Veins doth nourish and enlarge the tender Embryo And to fortifie my perswasion I shall lay down some arguments that prevaile with me So soon as the foetus attains any perfection he presently stirres his Limbs and proceeds to make tryal of those actions to which his Instruments of motion are designed Now we see the Chicken in the Egge open his mouth amidst this Water whereby he must needs swallow it down For it is most certain that whatsoever is gone beyond the roote of the Tongue and is arrived at the top of the Gullet no creature can return but by Vomition whereupon the Farriers which administer medicinal Potions Boles or Pills to Cattel taking them by the tongue cast it in beyond the protuberance of the Tongue just at the Root that so they cannot avoid the swallowing And if any of us convey a Pill so far as the root of the tongue he shall find himself necessitated to swallow it down unless a Vomit meet and repel it Wherefore since the Embryo wallowing in the fore-said liquor doth open his mouth it follows likewise that it must enter in and since he moves his other muscles why should we doubt but that he imployes the Instrument of his throat likewise and so imbibes
in that part is made a Mother by conceiving and fostering a foetus in it where it is streightned as if it passed through an Isthmus and being again dilated as it arriveth at the other Horn it proceedeth still on to the farthest extremity thereof likewise where growing less and pointed as it did at the beginning it erects its non Vltra and proceeds no farther Therefore these kind of conceptions if they be drawn away entire do resemble a wallet whose both ends are full of Water and thence also that coat chorion is likewise called Allantoides because the conceptions of such Animals resemble a Gut blown up or stuffed pudding which is tied fast in the midst If you dissect an Embryo at this time you shall discern all the interiour parts distinct and compleat but chiefly the Stomack the Heart and Kidnies and the Lungs which are also divided into their Lobes and look as they had blood in them having gained their just form But the complexion of these Lungs is more ruddy then of those which have at any time breathed because the Lungs stretched and dilated by the Air put on a whiter colour And by this observation of the different complexion you may discover whether a Mother brought her Childe alive or dead into the world for instantly after inspiration the Lungs change colour which colour remains though the foetus dye immediatly after In a Female foetus the Testicles improperly so called are seated neer the Kidnies in the hanging or loose ligament of the uterus or womb at the ends or extremities of the Horns on both sides and are for their proportion larger in a foetus then in a grown body and look white like the caruncles In the Stomack of the Foetus there is found a watery substance not unlike that wherein he swims but something more troubled and less transparent like to that milk which is dreined out of Womens breasts that are about four or five moneths gone or like white Posset as we call it In the upper Guts there is store of chyle made of the fore-said substance now concocted But in the Colon or colick Gut there do begin to appear yellow excrements and shaped But as for the Urachus or Perforation of the Navel of the foetus by which it is imagined to discharge the urine into the coat called Allantoides I finde no such matter nor any difference at all between the coat Allantoides which is supposed to contain the urine and the Chorion nor do I discover any urine in the After-birth but onely in the Bladder and in that good store the Bladder it self being something Oblong is scituate between the Umbilical Arteries which arise from the branches of the descending Trunk of the Great Arterie The Liver is rude and almost inform or unshapen as if it were something besides Natures intention it looks onely like a ruddy affusion of Blood The Brain being now somewhat reduced into shape is comprehended in a thick membrane The Eyes lie concealed under the lids and those lids are so starched together and shut so fast as it is with puppies newly whelped that I had much ado to disjoin them and open the eyes The Breast-bone and Ribs do now harden by degrees and the complexion of the Muscles shifts from white to be blood coloured Having made very many several dissections for the whole course of this Moneth I am become more assured that the caruncles before mentioned do exercise the office of an After-birth or Uterine cake which I now discerned to be red and swelled and about the bigness of a Wall-nut The Conception which as we said did before stick only to the caruncles by the help of the glutinous substance doth now dispatch the litle branches of the Umbilical Vessels into the very body of the caruncles as Plants work in their Roots into the earth by which it is fastened and grows to the Womb. About the end of December I have feen the foetus being then about a span long lustily bestirring himself and kicking opening his mouth and jawes and also shutting them again His hearâ— was now placed in its purse or pericardium and the Breast being dissected it was very discernable making apparent and forcible Palpitations and yet the Ventricles of the Heart were Vniforme and of equal magnitude and did consist of equal height or of a double cone the thickness also of their sides was equal Where also I clearly discerned the deaf ears of the Heart which at this time were full of blood like two pretty large bladders to continue and persist in their motion for a little space even when the Heart it self had resigned it up All the Bowels which were indeed perfect before are now larger and more conspicuous The Scull is partly cartilagineous and partly bony The Hoofs are yellowish flexile and soft just as the Hoofs of grown Deere are being mollified in seething water the Caruncles now very great as large Mushroomes are spred over the whole cavity of the Uterus and do evidently supply the use of an After-birth for several propagations and those large ones too are from the Umbilical Vessels disseminated into them that so they may derive aliment to the foetus in like manner as in those that are already in the world the chyle is transported by the Meseraick branches into the Gate vain of the Liver In whatsoever Conception of this kind there is but one onely foetus there the Umbilical vessels are conveied to all the caruncles as well of the opposite as the same side but in that conception where there is a double foetus there the ramifications of the Vmbilical vessels relating to each foetus are not propagated beyond the caruncles of the same side wherein it resideth The lesser Vmbilical veins as they respect the foetus do where they unite and join together determine and end in other greater Veins and those again passing farther on and uniting do conclude in Veins yet greater then themselves till at the last they constitute two truncks which being conjoined do convey Blood into the Hollow and Gate Vein But the Vmbilical Arteries arising from the branches of the descending Trunk of the great Artery are two and those very small ones and such as were it not for their pulse could scarce be discerned which being carried along to the capacity or superficies of the conception where the caruncles or After-birth meet the propagations of the Veins do first diminish or lessen into capillary threads and at last become quite invisible and are clean expunged As in the Vterus the Extremities of the Vmbilical vessels are terminated into the caruncles so likewise out of the Vterus the Vterine vessels which are many and large carrying blood from the Mother to the Womb by the conduct of the suspensory ligaments do terminate outwardly in those very caruncles We are also to take notice that the Interiour vessels are all of them Veins for the most part but the Exteriour are for the most the propagations
that outward Water in the Chorion is the Vrine are both incongruous and false assertions For both those two humours do appear in the conception before any portion of the foetus it self be in being and that which he calleth the Urine is before that which they conceive to be the sweat Nay you may find these humours especially the last in some barren and unfruitful conceptions wherein there is no tract of a foetus at all Such Conceptions as these or Subventaneous eggs Women do sometimes eject and Aristotle saith thy are called Fluxus Emanations or Fluxes but we call them false conceptions and slips Such an egge as these did Hippocrates shake from his aborting Minstrel For those creatures which do breed an Animal within themselves have in some sort after their first conception something like an egge within them for a humour is conteined in a thin membrane just as if you should pluck the shell off of the egge But as for that humour conteined in the Chorion which Fabricius and other Physitians conceive to be the Urine Aristotle seemeth to apprehend it to be the liquour of the Sperme or Geniture For he saith The seed being received by the Uterus having continued in it a while is covered with a membrane For if it chance to fall out before any dearticulation or delineation of the parts do appear it looketh like an egge covered with a membrane when the shell is pilled off But that membrane is full of Veins namely the Chorion which hath assumed its denomination a venarum choro sive copia from the conflux or multitude of veins I have often seen those kind of egges ejected in the second or third moneth they are many times corrupt and rotten within and do steale out insensibly like the Whites and so delude those who have entertained hopes of a true conception Again those fore-mentioned humours cannot be conceived to be sweat or Urine because they abound in such plenty at the very beginning that the Embryo swimming in the middest thereof is thereby secured whilest his Mother runneth or danceth or doth imply her body by any forcible agitation from the collision of the circumjacent parts as it were by a fortress Add to all this that many Animals never sweat at all when yet according to Aristotle all Water Land and Volatile Animals and I shall put in creeping things and Insects also whether they be produced in the shape of an egge or an Animal or else be spontaneous productions are all procreated after a like manner all fowl creeping things and fishes are conceived neither to Sweat nor Urine The Dog and Cat do never sweat nor any other Animal while it doth emit abundance of Urine And certainly it is impossible that any Animal should make water before the Reines and Bladder are made Besides which is a more evincing Argument then the rest these humours cannot be excrementitious because so many litle filaments of Veins are disseminated into them which doe derive Aliment from thence as from a large stock and afterwards conduct it unto the foetus Againe if the humour conteined in the Chorion be the Urine what need is there of the Allantoides and if the humour conteined in the Amnion be the Sweat why did nature who is so exact in all her contrivances order the matter so ill as to condemn the foetus to lye wallowing in its own Excrement and why doth the Parent presently after delivery for that is usual with several creatures devour that which is but the Excrement of her foetus together with the membranes which contein it with so much greediness and appetite Some have observed that if the Animal do not eat up these membranes and humours it will not give down its Milk freely If notwithstanding all these arguments some men will still maintain that these humours which we dispose to the nutriment of the foetus are excrementitious and that upon this inducement viz. because they also improve according to the growth of the foetus and that in the birth of some Animals at which time the whole stock of Aliment is in probability almost consumed great store of these humours doth abound and that therefore they must needs performe other offices then can well consist with the dignity of the nutriment Yet for all this I confidently pronounce that these humours are the Aliment of the foetus from the beginning of all as the Colliquamentum and the White do serve the Chicken for the same purpose but in process of time the thinner and purer parts being exhausted the reliques do then put on the nature of an useful excrement and are reserved in some Animals that so they may secure the foetus and facilitate the delivery For as Wine when the Spirits are exhaled turnes into dead-wine and as several Excrements do result from the reliques of the Aliment so in like manner when all that substance which is commodious to the sustenance of the foetus is derived out of the humour concluded in the Chorion the remainder doth turn into a kind of excrement and is reserved for the uses aforesaid But all that humour which was included in the Amnion it commonly spent neer the approaching delivery so that it is probable that the foetus desireth to get out by reason his provisions faile him Lastly if at any time there be any other humour conteined in the Allantoides as indeed there sometimes is I esteem it to be a preter-natural humour For I have seen when women at their delivery have had a mighty flux of water and sometimes a two-fold water our Midwives call them the by-By-waters And therefore some women have a monstrous great belly though they are brought to bed of a very litle lean Childe but such women do effund abundance of Waters Some are of opinion that the larger quantity of Waters doth accompany weakly and those female Children but the lesser strong and male Children I have often seen waters burst forth in the midst of the going with Child without Abortion the Child remaining safe and strong even to the birth As therefore there are naturally but two Waters only whereof the one is conteined in the Chorion and the other in the Amnion so it may sometimes fall out beside the ordinary course of nature that several Waters may be accumulated in membranes proper to themselves or else in the reduplications of the Chorion As for the Membranes or Coats of the Womb since their proper use and office chiefly is to contein the Waters and those Waters appear to be two only it is most certain that the membranes themselves are not necessary and usually more then two But as for those who reckon three I conceive they were deluded because the Ancients call the self-same membrane sometimes Chorion from the conflux of Veines and sometimes Allantoides from its figure Every conception is covered over with these two membranes as also every Braine hath a double Meninx every Tree and Shrub a two-fold