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
Pease cod though with us in the like case there is onely a small knob of the future pulse to be seen So much doth the indulgent temper and clemency of the Heavens Soil and Aire conduce to the fecundity and happy increase of things Of the rest of the parts of the Egge EXERCIT. XII WHere how and when the rest of the parts of the egge are generated we have partly declared already in the history of the Womb and shall partly mention hereafter when we come to treat of their Use The White saith Fabricius is by Pliny called Ovi albus liquor by Celsus Ovi candidum by Paladius Ovi Albor by Apicius Ovi album and albamentum in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Anaxagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lac avium the Milk of the Bird. And it is the cold stiffe white liquor of the egge of different thickness for at the obtuse and acute end of the egge it is more fluid but more crass in other parts and quantity for it is in more abundance at the blunt end of the egge and less at the sharp and yet still less in the other parts embracing the yolke round about But I have ever observed in a Hennes egge not onely a difference in the same White but two distinct Whites in the same egge and both of them involved in a peculiar membrane of their own One of which is more thin and fluid and almost of the same consistence with that humor which we have said to flow in the folds of the Uterus and to constitute and nourish the White The other White is more thick and viscous dyed of a deeper whitecolour then the other which in stale and such eggs as the Hen sitteth on after some dayes of her Incubation waxeth yellowish and as this thicker White doth immediatly surround the yolk so doth the liquid White encompass this Now that these two whites are really distinct will soon appear if after you have broken and removed the shell you â—â—ick the two membranes which come next to â—ind for then presently this liquid and exteriour White will runne about and the two membranes sinke to the bottom of the bason but the grosser White will all the while keep within its own bounds and globous figure as being terminated with its owne proper membrane which yet is so subtile and slender that your eye cannot perceive it but if you cut it cross the White it will presently stream out and lose its round figure as when a bladder is divided the moisture contained therein is set at liberty and so also if you make a breach upon the proper containing-coat of the yolke the saffron-coloured juice will issue out and its former globosity be destroyed The Yolke saith Fabricius is called in Latine Vitellus from Vita Life because the chicken liveth upon it It is also called from its colour Ovi Luteum the yellow of the Egge in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—e Antients as Suidas out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the pullus or chicken because they conceived the chicken was bred of that part It is the softest juice that is in all the egge and confined within a most thin membrane which being broken it presently glideth forth and is then inconstant to any figure it is treasured up in the middle of the egge being sometimes yellow and sometimes of a mixed complexion betwixt yellow and pallid it is exactly circular and of divers magnitude according to the diversity of the magnitude of the Fowles themselves for Water-fowle have a larger yolke and Land-fowle a larger White saith Aristotle According to whom also The yolk and White are of a contrary nature not in colour only but power for the yolk is condensed by cold which cold doth not condense the white but dissolve it And so on the contrary the white is condensed by fire but the yolk is not condensed thereby but remaineth soft unless the egge be over-rosted being more dryed and hardned by being boyled then rosted And as in the greater world the earth is deposited in the Center the Air and the Water being round about it so also the yolk as the more earthy part is incircled by the two whites whereof the one is grosser the other finer Nay Aristotle addeth further if any man beat many egges together in a bason and boyle them with a soft and gentle fire the yolks will in their entire mass gather themselves orbicularly into the midst and the whites surround them Yet Physitians generally do decree the White to be the colder part But of that more hereafter The Chalazae that is the Hail-stones or litle pearls or specks like Haile which the Italians call Galladura and wee the Treddle are two in every egge one seated in the obtuse the other in the Acute Angle of the egge The major part of both which is found in the white but yet they adhere closer to the yolke and are annexed to its membrane They are something oblong bodies more congealed and whiter then the white it self knotly and in some sort transparent as Hail is from whence they borrow their compellation for every Chalaza containeth several hail-stones as it were glewed to one another by the white One of these Chalazae is larger then his fellow and more distant from the yolke towards the blunt end of the egge the other smaller and tendeth from the yolke to the sharp end of the egge The larger of these two is made up of three knotty substances like haile-stones or seed-pearles which are placed a small space one from the other the lesser lying behinde the greater In all eggs of all Birds whatsoever whether they be fertile or addle these chalazae are to be found and that in each end one whence the fond perswasion of old Wives that the chalazae are the Cocks seed and the subject matter out of which the chicken is procreated lyeth waste and overturned And yet Fabricius himself though he absolutely deny that they are made of the seed of the Cock yet he laboureth with many arguments to prove that they are that immediate matter which the Cock endoweth with fecundity and out of which the fabrick of the chicken is erected which he endeavoureth to evince by this fraile ground that forsooth in an egge when its boyled the chalazae are in such sort contracted and shrunk up as that they represent a conception or chicken shaped and hatched But how improbable a thing is it that every egge should have two seeds or rudiments for the constitution of one only chicken when no man living ever yet beheld any foundation or progress of a chicken but only in the blunt angle of the egge And moreover there is no sensible difference at all between the chalazae of those eggs which coition hath made
which another is made for otherwise they were both the same The Egge also seemes to be a kinde of Medium not onely as it is the Principium and the Finis but as it is the Common work or production of both Sexes and compounded of both which containing in it self the Matter and the Efficient or Operative Faculty it hath the power of both by which he produceth a Foetus like to One or the Other It is also a Medium or thing between an Animate and â—n Inanimate creature being neither absolutely impowered with life nor absolutely without it It is a Mid-way or Passage between the Parents and the Children between those that were and those that are to come and the very Hinge and Center about which the Generation of all the Race and Family of Cocks and Hennes doth move and depend It is the Terminus à quo the Point or Original from which all the Cocks and Hennes in the world do arise and spring and it is also the Terminus ad quem the Aim and End proposed by nature to which they direct themselves all their life long By which it comes to pass that all Individuals while to supply their Species they beget their Like do continue and perpetuate their duration The Egge is at were the Period of this Eternity for it is hard to say Whether the Egge be made for the Chickens sake or the Chicken for the Eggs. Now which of these two namely the Egge or the Henne have the priority in Nature or Time we shall now copiously handle when we come to discourse of the Generation of all Animals in general The Egge also which is chiefly to be noted answers in proportion to the Seeds of Plants and hath obtained the same qualifications with them so that it may justly be stiled the Sperma and Semen or Seed of the Hennes as also the Seeds of Plants may be rightly called Ova Plantarum the Plants Egges not onely ex quo out of which as out of a subject Matter but also à quo by which as by an Efficient cause the Chicken springs In which also there is no part of the Future Foetus actually 〈◊〉 it but yet all the parts of it are in it potentially Now Semen or Seed properly so called doth differ from Genitura Geniture because according to Aristotles definition That is called Genitura which proceeding from the Male-Parent is the chief and principle cause of Generation namely in fâ—ll as nature hath designed to coition but the semen is that which proceeds from both Parents in the act of coition the Seed of all Plants is like to this and so is the Seed of some Animals which have no distinction of Sex at all being as it were at the first a kind of mixture of both Sexes or promiscuous conception or Animal for these kind of creatures have in their single selves as much as is required of both Sexes An Egge therefore is a Natural Body endowed with an Animal power namely with a Principle of Motion Transmutation Rest and Conservation And lastly it is such a thing as all impediments being removed it will passe into an Animal not do heavy bodies when all obstacles are out of their way tend downward more naturally then Seed and the egge do by an inbred Natural Propensity incline to become a Plant or an Animal And the Seed also and the Egge are the Frâ—â— and End of that very thing whose Beginning and Efficient they are Of One Chicken there is but One Egge So Aristotle Of One Seed is begotten One Body as for example of One Graine of Wheat One Eare of One Egge one Animal for a Twinne-egge is Two Eggs. And so Fabricius saith Truly An egge is not onely an exposed Uterus and place of Generation but the very thing also on which the entire Generation of the Chicken depends which the egge accomplisheth both as Agent as Matter as the Place as the Instrument and all other things whatsoever are necessary requisites to Generation He proves it to be in Organum or Instrument because it consists of several parts and that according to Galen who requires this to the very being of an Instrument that it be composed of divers particles which conspire all to one 〈◊〉 but under several capacities and for several uses for some of these parts are the chiefe Agent in the Action some are necessary Assistants without which the Action could not be performed at all others conduce to the more convenient better performance and lastly some againe to the welfare and preservation of all the rest And he also proves it to be an Agent where he propounds out of Aristotle and Galen the two actions of the Egge namely the Generation and Augmentation and Nutrition of the Chicken And lastly he saith exceeding well when he affirms that in the Operations of Nature the Artificer or Agent the Instrument and the Matter are one and the same thing So the Liver is both the Efficient and the Instrument of sanguification and so the other parts of the body wherefore Aristotle was in the right saying It is hard to distinguish the Agents from the Instruments In artificial Operations indeed the Agent and the Instrument are divided as the Smith and his Hammer the Painter and his Pâ—â—cil And the reason is rendered by Galen becauâ—â— in artificial Operations the Artificer is without Work but in Natural the Efficient cause is include in the Instruments and received with intimacy in the very substance of the Organ To which I adâ— those Perspicuous passages of Aristotle Of thing that are some are caused by nature and some by other causes by Nature do Animals and their Parts also Plants and simple bodies as the Earth Fire 〈◊〉 and Water consist For these and the like we sâ—â— are made by Nature Now all these forenamed creatures seem to be differenced from those which are not made by Nature For all those things that 〈◊〉 made by Nature seem to have in themselves a Principle of Motion and Rest some in relation to place some in relation to increase and diminution and sâ—â— in relation to alteration Now a Horse-Litter and Garment and all such kinde of things according to their several notions as farre forth as they are the products of Art they have no inbred principle of Mutation but so far as it chances that they are framed of Stone or Earth or bodies composed of these so far they have one As if Nature were a certain principle and cause why that thing doth move and rest in which it first is of it self and not by Accident Now I say not by Accident because it may come to passe that a man may be the cause of his own health in case he be a Physitian Yet he is not in health under the same Respect as he is a Physitian but it is a men Accident that the same Man should be in Health and a Physitian too And
chicken ouâ— of the Egge and afterward informs that chicken For Aristotle demonstratively resolves of the Faculties by the Operations and from them also concludes of the cause and fountain of Life namely the Soul and that to be in actually where the Operations actually are And I am confirmed by many proofs and experiments that not motion onely is now the companion of the Punctum saliens but also Sense it self For upon every touch be it never so gentle it is variously provoked and disturbed at the same rate as sensative bodies proclaime their distastes by particular motions and so offended with repeâ—â—â— injuries that they did confound the chime and order of its pulses So in the Plant called the sensative Plant and other Zoophyta we conclude there is sense because upon touch they contract themselves and take it unkindly I have I say often seen and so have many more who have been present this Punctum upon contaction by a needle probe or the finger it self nay upon the admission of a more searching heat or cold or any other thing that could molest and disorder declare many symptoms of its resentment for it would flie into many permutations of pulse beating much stronger and nimble then before So that no question this Punctum doth as an Animal Live Move and Perceive Moreover expose an egge too long to the colder aire and the Punctum saliens beats slower and hath a languishing motion but lay your finger warm upon it or cherish it kindely any other way and it presently gaineth strength and vigour And after this Punctum hath declined by degrees and being full of blood hath ceased from all motion exhibiting no specimen of life at all and was given up for lost and dead upon laying of my finger warm upon it for the space of only twenty pulses the poor heart hath awaked and recovered again and as it were rescued from the grave proceeds to its former harmony afresh And this hath been done again and again by me and others by any other reviving heat were it of the Fire or warm Water as if it were in our dispose to condemne the litle Soule to the Shades or repreive it to life at pleasure What we have here delivered doth for the most part come to pass the fourth day from the first Incubation or at the Third Inspection I say for the most part for it falls not out perpetually so because there is a great diversity in the maturity of Egges and some come to perfection sooner then their fellows As is usually in the fruits of any Tree whereof some are ripe and ready to fall of themselves whilest others are crude and greener and cannot be shaken from the Boughs So that some Egges are lesse forward the fifth day then others the third And that I may instance in what I have found and tryed I have found this true in very many egges whom the Hen hath fostered the same length of time and I have opened them all the same day So that I have had no cause to quarrel against the weaker Sex the distemper of the Aire the neglect of the Henne or any other Accident but onely the innate weaknesse of the Egge and the penury of the ingenit Heat Ova Hypenemia or Addle Egges do at this time as in a critical day begin to alter and discover their genius For as fruitful Egges by the innate plastick vertue do alter and resolve into a Colliquamentum which doth after shift into bloud so Subventaneous Eggs at the same time begin to corrupt and putrifie And yet I have sometimes observed the Macula or Cicatricula to be distended wider even in barren egges but it never rose up to the top nor was ever circumscribed by the circles orderly drawn about it I have also sometimes seen the Yolk grow clear and liquifie and the parts congealed as it were by rash inconsiderate coagulation float up and down like scattered clouds And though these Egges cannot yet be called corrupt putrid and unsavory yet they are very much prepared towards putrefaction and do compleatly arrive thither by the continuation of the warmth of the Sitting-Henne and set out their progresse towards corruption from the very place and stage whence prolifical Eggs advance to Generation The Perfecter sort of Egges therefore do now about the declension of the fourth day acquire a twofold or bipartite Vesicula pulsans or vesicle of pulsation one making answer and replies to the other by a double pulsation in that Order and Method that whilest one is contracted the other shines and swells with blood which presently being contracted dischargeth it self of the blood that was in it and in a moments time intervening the former swells and returns the Pulse so that you may evidently see that the action of these vesicles is Contraction by which the Blood is driven and pumped into the vessels The fourth day saith Aldrovandus the two Puncta were discovered and each of them did move which two points were without doubt the Heart and the Liver which Viscera Aristotle saith are seen in the Egges after three days Incubation But Aristotle never said so nor are those viscera usually to be seen before the tenth day And I wonder Aldrovandus could think one of these Puncta Pulsantia was the Liver as if the Liver ever had any such motion It is safer to believe that one of the Puncta salientia when the Foetus enlargeth doth constitute the Auriculae or deaf Ears and the other the Ventriculi or Ventricles of the Heart For in grown bodies the Ventricles of the Heart are after this manner filled and supplied by the Auriculae which by their Systole are depleated and emptied againe as we have observed in our Tract de Motu cordis sanguinis In better grown egges sometimes about the declining of the fourth day I know not what cloudy substance did obscure these Vesiculae Pulsantes and did like an interposed shade obstruct my Inspection that I could not so clearly discerne the Puncta salientia Yet by the help of a clearer light and with a Perspective and conferring with my observations for the subsequent days it appeared to be the Rudiment of the foetus or a Cloud exhaled from the Colliquamentum or an Effluvium congealing about the beginning of the veines as shall more at large be treated of in the fifth days observation Aldrovandus also seems to have observed it The fifth day saith he that Punctum which we called the Heart did no longer appear to move outwardly but seemed rather to be covered and concealed and the two Meatus Venosi were seen more conspicuous but one larger then the other But the Learned Aldrovandus is deceived for this Tutelar deity taketh possession and locks himself up in most reserved and secret recesses when the habitation is almost compleatly erected a long time after And he likewise mistakes where he saith that by the innate vertue of the veins the remaining portion of the
be treasured in the egge not onely the matter of the Chicken but his first feeding too that which is provided for a perfect animal ought it self to be perfect too and such is that egge which consists of two distinct complexioned parts whereof the one is the former and more simple and therefore of gentler digestion the other the latter or more remote and therefore translated into the substance of the Chicken with more difficulty now the yolk and white are thus different amongst themselves and therefore Perfect egges are Party-coloured compounded of a white and yolk as containing and storing up in them several provisions of harder or more friendly digestion according to the several age and ability of the Chicken How the Egge is supplied with its White EXER XXXVII IT appears by our History that the primordia of the eggs in the Ovary are wondrous litle resembling small whelks and lesse then the seed of Millet being full of a white watry moisture and that these Papulae or whelks do at length shoot up into yolks and that those yolks are at last invested and cloathed with a white Aristotle seemes to be of opinion that the white is generated out of the yolk by way of Separation Let us read his words The Sex saith he is not the cause of the party-colours as if the white did proceed from the Male and the yolk from the Female but both are derived from the female or Hen. But one is hot and the other cold And in those creatures that have good store of heat they are distinguished from one another but where that heat is fainter they are not distinguished And for that reason the conceptions of such Animals are of one onely colour as is said Now the Males seed onely doth constitute the egge and therefore at first the conception of all Birds is white and small but in process of time it is all yellow because now a larger quantity of blood is admixed and lastly the heat abating the whiter part environs it round as being a humor equally tempered on all sides For the white part of the egge is naturally moist containing in it an animal warmth and therefore it is placed about the egge and the yellow earthy part remains within But Fabricius conceives The White of the Egge to grow to the yolk by a juxt aposition meerly For while saith he the yolk rowleth through the second Uterus and falls down by degrees it doth by degrees gather to â— a part of the White which is purposely generated in the Uterus that it may cleave to the yolk untill the â—â—lke having now passed the intervening or middle â—â—ires and arriving at the last of all it is together with the White encompassed with the membranes also and thou assumes a shell He conceits therefore that the egge attaines its increase in a twofold manner partly by the Veines as it is with the yolke and partly by an additional accession or apposition as it is with the White And this perhaps did induce him to be of that judgement namely because the White being boyled hard doth easily part and distinguish into â—â—kes whereof the one lyes above the other But his also doth befall the yolk not yet departed from the Ovary if it be hard boyled as the former And therefore being otherwise instructed by Experience I rather join in opinion with Aristotle for the White is not adjoined as Fabricius would â—â—ave it but bred also and furnisht with the Chalazae and distinguished by several membranes and divided into two white liquors and all this by the same vegetative soul by whose industry the Egge it self is distinguished into two liquors a yolk and a white For every part of the Egge is formed and constituted by the same faculty which frames the whole Egge Nor is it true that the yolk is first made and then the white adjoyned to it For what wee see in the Ovary is not the yolke of an egge but rather some compound comprehending both liquors mixed together It resembles the yolk indeed in complexion but the white in considence for being boyled hard it is not friable as the yolk is but concrete and glutinous and consisting of several flakes as the White and hath as it were a white Papula or whelk in the 〈◊〉 Aristotle seems to erect this separation from 〈◊〉 diverse nature of the yolk and white For saith 〈◊〉 If you cast diverse egges into a bason or such like 〈◊〉 sel and prepare them over a Chafin-dish of coals in 〈◊〉 sort that the force of the fire be not nimbler the◠〈◊〉 distinction of the eggs the same thing will befall all the heap of eggs as happens to every particular eggs namely all the yolks will gather and assemble themselves into the middle and the Whites get round about thâ—â— And this I have often experimented and what ever will may try it provided he shake the yâ—â— and whites together and with a piece of butter â—â— gest them temperately into a Cake having mingled them between two dishes placed over a Chafin-dish of coales or in an Oven for he shall plâ—â—â—ly see the whites cover the yolks which are assembled at the bottom What the Cock and Henne do conferrâ— to the Generation of the Egge EXER XXXVIII BOth Cock and Hen are to be reputed the Chikens Parents for both of them are necessry principles of the Egge and both alike Efficient causes For the Egge it self is the Henns work aâ— the Fertility the Cocks Both are therefore Instruments of the plastick virtue by whose meanes thâ— species is continued to the world But since in some Animal species as if the 〈◊〉 were a useless thing and the Female alone did â—â—ffice to the perpetuity of the species there are no Males to be found at all but the whole race is female as in some species there are Males onely and no Females at all to be found for they do all by an emission of something out of them into the â—â—d the earth or water progenerate and preserve their species Nature seemes in these and the like creatures to have satisfied her selfe with one sex only using that alone as an instrument for procreation And now again some other creatures have a seed provided for them casually as it were without any distinction of sex at all namely those creatures whose Birth is spontaneous For as some things are the productions of art and the self same things are the issues of chance too as Health for one So likewise some kinde of Animal seed is not simply produced from an univocal Agent as a Man from a Man but onely in some sort univocal namely in all those creatures whose extract and matter out of which they spring is casual in relation to them and yet undergoes a mutation of it selfe as the seed doth namely Those Animals that are not produced by coition but are born of their own accord are produced from such an original as Insects have which
the Winds the Sun the Heavens Jupiter the Soul and in general Nature which is the Principle of Motion and Rest And so by the same rule Any of the Stoicks who thought the Soul to be fire may decree fire the efficient cause of Animals because fire doth nourish and augment it self and seems in some sort to live at its own dispose and liberty though not our destructive culinary fire but the Natural Celestial Vegetative Generating and Healthy fire which the Heathen worshipped by the name of Jupiter whom they called the Father of Men and Things not his lame Brother Vulcan whose ayd and benefit we notwithstanding daily use in several employments to our great advantage but the divine Animal Spirit the Author of Living creatures And therefore Aristotle saith That this question concerning the Efficient is very dubious namely Whether it be an extrinsecal thing or something inserted in the Geniture or Seed and Whether it be a part of the soul or the soul or something which hath a soul Wherefore that we may deliver and rid our selves of the maze and labyrinth of the manifold Efficient causes in this disquisition of the Efficient of the Chicken we have need of Ariadnes Clew woven and cunningly wrought of the Observations of almost all Creatures living And therefore it is to be deferred to a more general Inquest In the mean time we shall recount those things which relating to the particular generation of the Chicken out of the egge do manifestly appear or are strangers to the common perswasion or else do require any further search How the Efficient cause of the Chicken doth operate according to Aristotle EXERCIT. XLVII ALl men generally confess the Male to be the primary efficient cause in Generation as in whom the Species or Form resides And they farther affirm that his Geniture being emitted in coition doth cause both the being and fertility of the Egge But how the seed of the Cock doth produce the chicken out of the Egge neither the Antient nor Modern Philosophers and Physitians have sufficiently explained nor yet solved the question proposed by Aristotle Nay Aristotle himself hath not done it He saith The Male doth not conduce to the Quantity but the Quality and is Principium Motûs the Principle of Mutation but the Female contributes the matter And a while after Every Male doth not emit seed nor is it any part of the Foetus in those that do emit it As nothing which passeth from the Carpenter contributes to the matter of the Wood nor is there any part of the Carpenters art in that which is made but the form and species doth exist in the matter per motum ab illo by the motion or mutation which proceeds from him Now the soule in which the form and knowledge is moves the hands or other members by the motion of a certain quality which motion is either diverse in such as make a diverse thing or the same in such as make the same But the hands and instruments move the matter So the Nature of the Male which emitteth seed imployes that seed as an Instrument and having motion actually in it as in the productions of Art the Instruments are moved for in them in some sort the motion of Art is implanted By which words he seems to imply that Generation is made by the motion of a certain Quality As in Art though the first cause namely ratio operis the reason or ground of the work be in the soul of the Artist yet afterward the work is effected by the motion of the hands or other Instruments and though the first cause be removed as in automatis things that seem to move of themselves yet is it in some sort said to move that which at present it doth not touch but hath touched formerly so long as the motion goes on in the Instruments And in the following Book he hath these words The seed of the Male when now it hath access into the womb of the Female it doth coagulate and cause a consistence in the purest part of the excrement meaning the menstruous blood residing in the womb and doth transmute the matter which lies ready in the womb by such a motion or mutation that at last though the seed vanish after the motion is performed some part of the foetus is existent and that an animate part as the heart which now doth augment and dispose it self as a Son who is free from his Father and hath taken a house of his own It is necessary therefore that there be some principle by which afterwards the order of the members may be delineated and all things disposed which pertain to the absolution and complement of the Animal and from which growth and motion may arrive to the rest of the parts and be the author of all the similar and dissimilar parts and of their last aliment For that which is now an Animal doth increase but the last aliment of the Animal is blood or something proportionable to blood whose vessels and receptacles are the Veines Now the principle or original of the veines is the Heart But the Veines like Roots extend even to the womb by which the Foetus draweth his aliment The Heart also being the beginning of the whole nature and also the containing End ought to be made first as being a genital part of its own nature which must needs be the first as the original of the rest and of the whole Animal and of Sense in whose heat because all the parts are in the matter potentially since the principle of motion did abide that which follows afterwards is stirred up by it as in those self-moving miracles and the parts are moved not shifting their places but altering in softness hardness heat and other distinctions of similar parts being now actually made which were potentially before This is Aristotles opinion almost word for word by which he conceives the foetus to be made of seed by motion though it do not at present continue touching it but hath touched it formerly a nice opinion and of a fine thread and according to those things which are discovered in the order of the generation of the parts not improbable For the heart together with the ramifications of the Veins is discerned first as being an animate principle in which both sense and motion reside and being also like a free Son and a Genital part by which the order of the member is delineated and all things conducing to the accomplishment of an Animal are disposed and having all those attributes which Aristotle bestowes upon it But it seems impossible that the heart should be made in the egge by the males seed since that seed is neither in the egge nor doth touch nor ever did touch it because it neither enters the womb where the egge is made as Fabricius confesseth nor is any way attracted by it and besides this the mothers blood is not in the egge neither nor any other prepared
of all other Animals but what kind of one it is we will here declare The first condition or qualification of the first and primary Efficient properly so called is that it be the first principal fructifier from whence all intermediate causes assume their derived fecundity For instance the chicken is derived from the Punctum saliens in the egg not only in regard of its bulk but also and that chiefly in regard of its soul the Punctum saliens or Heart is derived from the egg the egg from the Hens and the Hens fertility from the Cock Another requisite or condition of the primary Efficient is desumed ex opere facto from the production it self viz. the Chicken because that is the prime efficient in which the reason of the effect doth chiefly appear But because every Generative efficient doth generate its like and the issue is of a mixt nature the first efficient must needs be mixt too Now I therefore pronounce their issue to be of a mixt nature because the mixture of both parents is refulgent in it both in the figure and lineaments of the body and all its parts as in complexion or colors moles or spots diseases and other accidents of the body Likewise in the soul and actions and functions as in like manners docility gate and voice such a kinde of temperature is discoverable For as we say that a similar mixt body is made of the Elements because their virtues heat cold moisture and sâ—ccity are found compounded in the same similar body so likewise the paternal and maternal handy-work may be tracked and pointed out both in the body soul and other accidents of the Chicken which follow the temperature or happen unto it for instance In a Mule the soul body manners and voice of both parents viz. of the Mare and the Ass are apparent So also in those Chickens which are the Ofspring of the dunghill-hen and Cock-Pheasant and in that mungrel Curre which is produced by the sodomie of a Wolf and a Bitch Since therefore the Chicken resembles both parents and is a mixt Effect the generant primary cause which it resembles must needs be mixt likewise Therefore that which frames the Chicken in the Egge is a mixt nature as being united or compounded of both and the work of both parents And if any contagion do arise or remain in the female upon coition in which they two are mixt and become as it were one Animal that also will be of a mixt nature or power by which the egge shall afterwards become fertile and atchieve a plastical virtue which is an Agent of a mixt nature or a mixt efficient-Instrument producing a Chicken of a mixt nature also The contagion I say because Aristotles perswasion is altogether refractory to experience her self namely where he saith that some part of the Foetus is instantly made upon coition Nor is that true neither which some of the Moderns averre namely that the soul of the future chicken is in the egge for that is no whit the chickens soul which is in no part of the chickens body Nor can the soul be said either to be begotten or left behind presently upon coition for otherwise there should be two souls in a Woman with child Therefore till it be determined what the efficient of the egge is which is of a mixt nature and ought to remaine present upon coition give me leave to call it contagium Contact or contagion But where the contagion lurks in the female after coition and how it is communicated and derived to the egge requires a more exact Disquisition and we will afterwards fall upon it when we treat generally of the conception of females It shall suffice in the mean time to have taken notice that it must needs be the fate of the first efficient in which the reason of the future off-spring doth abide that since its off-spring is mixt to be of a mixt nature it selfe and either to proceed from both Parents or from something which makes use of both as animate Instruments cooperative and mixt and moulded into one by coition The third condition of the Primary Efficient is that either it impart motion successively to all its intermediate instruments or else employ them otherwise but that it selfe be subservient to none whence a doubt arises whether the Cock be the Primary Efficient in the Generation of the chicken or have any before or superior to him For all generation seems to be derived from Heaven and issue from the motion of the Sun and Moon But we wil be positive in this matter when we have first declared what an instrument or the instrumental efficient cause is and how divided Now Instrumental Efficients are of diverse kinds some according to Aristotle are factiva Making and some activa Doing some do not operate but when they are conjoyned with a prior efficient as the hand foot and genital parts others operate disjoined as the Geniture and the Egge some Instruments have not motion or action but what is given them by the first Efficient others have proper internal principles of their own to which nature affords no motion in generation but yet employs their faculties and sets them the rule and law of their performances as the Cook employes fire and the Physitian herbs and the vertues of medicines to cures Sennertus to maintain his conceipt concerning the soul in the Seed and the formative faculty in the Egge affirms that not onely the Egge but the Cocks seed also is indowed with the soul of the future Chicken and is not the Instrumental Agent but the principal absolutely denying that any separate Efficient is Instrumental but pronouncing that onely that is to be reckoned an Instrument in propriety of speech which is conjoined with the primary efficient and that that onely is an Instrumental efficient which hath no other motion or action then that which is immitted or continually and successively received from the primary efficient by whose power it acts And upon that account he rejects the instance concerning things cast or hurled which receiving their force from the thing that doth hurle do yet notwithstanding move even when they are separated from it As if the Sword and Speare were to be counted Instruments of War but not Arrows and Bullets Hee also rejects the instance drawn from a Republick and denies that the Magistrates Counsellors or Officers of a Common-wealth are the Instruments of a Nation And yet Aristotle reckons a Counsellor for an Efficient and calls on Officer an Instrument in plain termes He likewise decries the instance of the Automata and many other things that so he may ratifie the seed or egge to be Animals and not an Instrumental but a Principal Agent And yet as if he were enforced by the truth he laies down such conditions for a Principal Agent as do absolutely prove contrary to his own fore-mentioned opinion Whatsoever produceth a work or effect more noble then it selfe or else an effect lake
Egge is most remarkable Hen-eggs are of two colours and constituted of two liquors which are fenced by distinct membranes and kept apart the one from the other and likewise since they are distinguished by a twofold propagation of Umbilical Vessels whereof the one passeth to the Yolk the other to the White they themselves are in all probability of a different nature and therefore of a diverse use and advantage The Yolk and White of Eggs saith Aristotle do obtain a contrary nature not onely in regard of Heat but Power for the Yolk is condensed by cold but the White is not onely not condensed thereby but liquified the more So on the contrary the White is condensed by fire but the Yolk is not condensed by it but continues soft unless it be very much burned And is more condensed and dryed by being sodden then rosted The Yolk being now warmed by Incubation becomes more moist for it resembles melted wax or dissolved fat whereupon also it fills a larger room then before For by degrees as the foetus is enlarged the White is consumed and thickened but the Yolk on the contrary when the foetus is now compleat seems to have lost litle or nothing of its dimensions but seems only to be more liquid and moist even when the belly of the foetus begins now to be covered over with the Abdomen And Aristotle gives the reason of this differences Because a Bird cannot compleat her of spring within 〈◊〉 own bowels she produceth the Aliment also together i◠the Egg. For in Viviparous creatures the nourishment of the foetus which is called milk is provided in a distinct part of the body namely in the Breasts But Nature hath implanted this aliment in the Eggs of Birds but yet contrary to the Opinion of most men and the Assertion of Alcmaeon Crotoniates for the White is not the Milk of the Egge but the Yolk For as the foetus of Viviparous Animals adhering hitherto to their parent as the Plant doth to the ground attract their first aliment from her womb but after their birth being then seated without the Uterus they suck milk from the breast and so encrease so the Chicken findes something proportionable to both these aliments in the Egge it self for as the Uterus of Viviparous Animals is within the parents themselves so on the contrary in Oviparous the parents themselves may be said to be within their Uterus For an egg it as it were an exposed womb wherein there is a substance concluded as the Representative and Substitute or Vicar of the Breasts For the Chicken in the egg is first nourished by the White which being exhausted it is afterwards sustained by the Yolk as by Milk And therefore the Navel or Umbilical propagation which is derived into the White when the white is spent doth fade and break off before the Chicken is hatcht leaving no track or relique remaining but quite vanisheth before the Lower belly is shut up in the Abdomen when yet in the race of Viviparous Animals the Navel-string continues still But as for that other propagation of the Umbilical Vessels which is disseminated into the yolk when the abdomen is now drawn over the guts it is together with the yolk it self laid up in the belly thence attracts nutriment for the tender foetus till the bill being now confirmed hardned is able to pick up and break its meat into pieces the Stomack or Gisard be fortified to digest it As the production of Viviparous Animals is sustained with milk from the Dug till it be provided of teeth by which it may chew and grind its food For the Yolk is instead of Milk to the Chicken and therefore a Hen-egge being to supply the office both of the Womb and Breast or Udder is furnished with a party coloured juice namely the Yolk and White And as for these two distinct Liquors all men living do admit them But I as I lately told you have discovered even two distinct Whites in an egg divided by two distinct Membranes the superior White comprehending another within it just as the Yolk is comprehended by the White And these two Whites are of a different nature being reserved in a distinct place and conteined or concluded in a distinct Membrane and therefore designed to a distinct use and intent And yet both are designed to Nutrition but the exteriour is first devoured as having the propagations of the Umbilical Vessels which are derived to the Whites first disseminated into it before they pass into the other White which is thicker then it just as those very propagations do first assault both the Whites ere they set upon the Yolk which is incompassed by them and which is reserved for the last nourishment of the foetus But of this more hereafter when we come to explain the manner how the foetus of Viviparous Animals is formed augmented in the Womb and also to demonstrate that every foetus what ever doth derive its original from an Egge and is susteined by a twofold Albugineous Aliment in the Uterus For one of these is thinner and conteined within the Egge or Conception it self the other is attracted and drawn by the Umbilical Vessels from the Cotyledones or Orifices of the Vessels disseminated into the After-birth and the Womb. That substance is conteined in the Conception it self doth resemble the thinner White both in colour and consistence for it is glewy liquid and pellucid and very like that substance which we call the Colliquamentum in the Egg and in this the foetus swims is fed by it at the mouth But that which the foetus attracts by the aid of his Umbilical Vessels from the Placenta or After-burden is more thick and mucous and very like to the thicker White of the egge By which it plainly appears that the foetus is no more susteined in the Womb by his mothers blood then the sucking Child is afterwards nourished by it or the Chicken in the egge but is fed by an Albugineous Matter which is concocted in the Placenta or Cake of the Womb and doth resemble the White of an Egge Nor is the contemplation of that divine providence lesse profitable then wonderful by which nature both in the Generation and Growth of the foetus as taking into her consideration their age and abilities provides a convenient aliment for each of them accommodating meats of more easie to some and of more difficult digestion to others For as the foetus attains a greater strength and ability to digest so is a grosser and tougher aliment provided for him And this may be observed even in the diverse kind of Milk in Animals for when the Infant is new born the Mothers Milk is thinner and of more facile digestion but in process of time and the strength of the foetus being now improved it growes thicker and more coagulated And therefore those choice and delicate Dames which do not suckle their Infants themselves are
or melted substance is to be reputed the truer seed of the Hen though it be not ejected in coition but provided ready before coition or else collected after it as shall be perhaps more largely declared to be incident to several Animals which the geniture of the Male doth according to Aristotle coagulate Since therefore I plainly see that all the parts are fashioned and fed by this one moisture onely as the matter and first root of all and since the fore-cited argument doth necessarily conclude as much I can scarce refrain my pen from rebuking those that follow Empedocles and Hippocrates also who will needs have all similar bodies to be generated by the congregation of the four contrary Elements as being mixt bodies and dissolved or corrupted by their segregation nor is Democritus and the Epicureans who follow him less blameable who constitute all things out of the confluence of Atomes of different Figures For it was their errour of old and is a popular errour at this day that all similar bodies are framed out of heterogeneous or different bodies For according to this opinion had a man Lincous his eyes he could not discerne any thing that were similar one in number identity and continuity but there were nothing but an appearing union and an assembly or heap made up of a congregation and certaine colligation of indivisible bodies so that generation were nothing else but an aggregation and convenient positure of several parts But for my part neither in the production of Animals nor in the generation of any similar body whatsoever whether it were of the parts of Animals Plants Stones or Minerals c. I could never discover any such congregation or any several praeexistent miscible bodies which were to be united afterwards in the work of Generation Nor so far as I could ever yet perceive or by any meanes observe are there any similar parts which are first constituted in their several order or existence at the same time together as membranes flesh fibres gristles bones c. that so from them conioined together as out of the Elements or first rudiments of Animals the organs or parts and the whole entire animal should at last be framed but as we said before the first rudiment of the body is onely a similar soft gluten or stiff substance not unlike a spermatical concernment or coagulated seed out of which the decree of Generation going on being changed cut in sunder or distributed into several parcels as by the divine Mandat as we have said let here be a Bone there a Nerve or a Muscle here the Bowels the receptacles of the Excrements c. out of an inorganical substance was made an organical out of one and that one being of the same nature were many things made and those also diverse and contrary not by a kind of transposition or local motion as if by the virtue of the heat there did arise a congregation of homogeneous and a disgregation of hetorogeneous bodies but rather by a disgregation of homogeneous parts or bodies then any composition of heterogeneous And this do I believe to be observed in every Generation so that the Similary mixt bodies have not their Elements existent in time before them but are rather themselves in being before their Elements whether you understand by Elements the Fire the Aire the Earth and the Water with Empedocles and Aristotle or the Salt the Sulphur and the Mercury with the Chymists or the Atomes with Democritus as being in Nature more perfect then they There are I say mixt and compounded bodies even in respect of time before any Elements as they call them into which they are corrupted and determine for they are dissolved into those elements rather in order to our apprehension then really and actually And therefore those bodies called Elements are not before those things which are made and generated but rather after them and their Reliques rather then their Principles Nor doth Aristotle himself nor any other Philosopher demonstrate that the elements do subsist apart or are the Principles of similar bodies Indeed Aristotle where he goes about to prove that there are such things as Elements seems to waver in his judgement whether he should resolve that they were actually in being or onely in potentiâ and doth conceive that in natural things they are in potentiâ rather then actu and therefore he affirms that there are such things as Elements out of the division segregation and solution of things And yet that is but an infirme argument namely that natural bodies are generated or compounded first out of those things into which they are at last dissolved and corrupted for by that argument somethings should be compounded of Glasse of Ashes and of Smoak because we see them reduced at last into such bodies and since Artificial Distillation doth clearly demonstrate that so many several Vapours or Waters and those all of them of different Species are extracted out of so many several bodies the number of the elements ought to multiply in infinitum Nor doth any Philosopher say that the Bodies which are dissolved by Art and are called Sincere Bodies and indivisible in species are more single elements then the Aire Water and Earth which we perceive by Sense and are obvious to our eyes And lastly we do not see that any thing is naturally produced out of fire as a miscible substance and perhaps it is altogether impossible there should since fire like a kind of living body is in contiual flux and seeketh sustenance whereby it may be nourished and conserved according to that of Aristotle that fire onely is nourished and that chiefly because of its form But whatsoever is nourished cannot possibly be it self mixed with its nutriment Whereupon it followeth that it is impossible for Fire to be miscible For Mistion according to Aristotle is miscibilium alteratorum unio the union of miscible things altered where one miscible thing is not transformed into another but both of them being both active and passive in regard of themselves do constitute a third thing but generation especially that which is by a Metamorphosis is the distribution of one similar thing which is to be altered into diverse more Nor are mixt similar bodies said to be generated out of the Elements but in some sort to be constituted out of them into which also they are capable to be dissolved But these matters do properly relate to that part of Physiology which treateth of the Elements and the Temperaments where also we shall discourse more copiously of them Of the Birth AFter the Generation the Birth succeedeth by which the Foetus comming into the world doth enjoy the outward Aire Whereupon we conceive it convenient to speak something concerning it And therefore with Fabricius we shall consider the Causes Manner and Times of Birth as also those things which are precedent and subsequent thereunto Those things which are incident a litle before the Birth and especially to Women