HIeronymus Fabricius Aquapen­dens (whom, as I said be­fore, I have chosen for my guide) in the beginning of his Book concerning the formation of the Egge and Chicken, hath these words: My purpose is to treat of all sorts of formation of the foe­tus, taking my rise from that which proceeds from an egge; For this ought to precede all other discourses of this nature, in that it not only be friends us with a more easie discovery of Aristotles thoughts concerning this matter, but because the Treatise of framing the foetus out of an egge is much the fullest, and exceeds the other both in extent, and difficulty.

But we begin our discourse from the history of an Egge, both for the reasons by him recited, and likewise, because we may thence borrow more in­fallible grounds, which (in regard they are more [Page 2] known to us) may enlighten us to contemplate the Generation of any other Animals. For since Egges are a cheap merchandize, and are at hand at all times, and in all places; it is an easie matter to observe out of them, which are the first evident, and distinct ground-works of Generation; what pro­gress nature makes in formation, and with what wonderfull providence shee governes the whole worke.

Fabricius goes on: That the contemplation of fra­ming the foetus out of Egges is the largest of all, ap­peares in this, that the greatest part of animals are be­gotten of egges. For to pass by almost the whole race of Insects, and imperfect Creatures, which sense it self dis­covers to spring from eggs; even the most part of perfect productions are of that extraction. Hither he refer­reth, All sorts of Birds; and of Fishes too; (bating only Whales) also Crusted-fish, Shell-fish, and Fishes with­out scales,; and amongst Terrestrials, all Creeping things, Creatures that have numerous feet, and also all kindes of Serpents; and amongst four-footed Beasts, all sorts of Lizards.

But we pronounce (as shall appeare hereafter) all animals whatever, even Viviparous also, nay man himself to be made of an Egge: and that the first conceptions of all living creatures which bring forth young, are certain Egges, just as the first con­ceptions of all Plants are certain seeds. And there­fore Empedocles rightly stiled the seeds of Plants, a sort of Egges. The history therefore of Egges is most spacious, because it yields an insight into all kinde of generation.

Wherefore of an Egge, we shall first shew, where, whence, and how it is made. And then, by what means, order, and degrees, the foetus or chicken is fa­shioned, and perfected in the Egge, and of it.

[Page 3] Here again Fabricius: The productions of Ani­mals do some of them spring out of Egges, some out of Seed, and some out of Putrifaction; and hence it is, that some are called oviparous, some viviparous, others the issues of putrifaction, or creatures born of their own accord; by the Greeks, [...].

But I dislike this division; because all Animals may in some sort be said to be born out of Egges, and in some sort out of Seed: besides, they are stiled Oviparous, Viviparous, or Vermiparous, ra­ther from the issues themselves bring forth, then from the original matter of which themselves were made; namely, because they produce an Egge, a Worm, or a living Creature. Some of them are also said to be sponte nascentia, creatures born of their own accord, not because they quicken out of pu­trid matter, but because they are begotten by chance, by natures own accord, and by an aequi­vocal generation, (as they call it) and by parents of a different species from themselves. For other Animals also do bring forth an Egge, or a Worm, as their Conception, and Seed; out of which, after they have exposed it to the wide world, they pro­duce a foetus, and so are named Oviparous, or Ver­miparous. But now the Viviparous are therefore so called, because they retain and cherish their conce­ption, or seed, so long within their own bowels, till the foetus come forth shaped, and alive.

NAture (saith Fabricius) was first solicitous of the place, which she at length decreed to be either within the Animal, or without it; and appointed the womb to be the place, within the creature; but without, the egge: in the womb, nature generates of seed and blood; but, in the egge, of such parts as the egge is made of.

For whatsoever is begotten of seed properly so called, is begun, and perfected, either in the same place, or in a diverse. All Viviparous creatures have both their original and perfection in the womb it self; but all Oviparous, as they have their founda­tion within their parent, and there become an egge; so are they compleated into a foetus, when they are divided from their parent. And, in the Catalogue of these, some creatures continue their eggs so long within themselves, till those eggs be ripe, and accomplished: and thus doe Birds and Beasts too, as many as bring forth eggs; and serpents likewise. But others againe expose their seed whiles it is yet unperfect and immature, to acquire its growth, perfection, and ripeness from abroad: and thus do many sorts of Fishes, Froggs; also Fishes without scales, and both sorts of Shell­fish, and Snails, whose eggs, when first excluded, are but designes or beginnings, being yolks onely, which do afterward invest themselves with whites, and by degrees attracting, concocting, and affix­ing aliment to themselves, become perfect seed, and a compleat egge And of this kinde also is the [Page 5] seed of Insects (which Aristotle saith is a Worme) which being exposed incomplete at the first, seek their own food, and so thrive, and enlarge, from an imperfect egge, to a perfect egge, and seed. But the Henne, and all other Oviparous creatures, doe lay a perfect egge; of which, from without the womb, they hatch a foetus. And for this cause Aquapendens mentions two places assigned to ge­neration; one Internal, namely the womb; the other external, which he calls the Egge. But (in my o­pinion) he might, upon better grounds, have cal­led the Nest, or Repository, the external place; be­cause in that the exposed seed is cherished, ripen­ed, and hatched into a foetus. For the Generation of Oviparous creatures, is mainly differenced by their Nest. Nor is it less then admirable, that such little creatures should make choice of these rece­ptacles with such exquisite prudence; and shape, build, guard, and conceale them, with such uni­mitable art and contrivance: whence we must needs conclude (with the Poet treating of Bees) that they are endowed with a portion of divine inspiration: and that we may easier admire their uninstructed art and prudence, then attain unto it.

THe womb of the Henn is divided by Fabricius, into the Upper, and the Lower; the Upper hee names the Ovary.

[Page 6] The seat of the Ovary is next under the Liver at the spine of the back, above the descending trunk of the great Artery. For just in that place where in bigger sangineous creatures, the Coeliacal arte­ry goes into the Mesentery, namely, at the original of the Emulgent veines, or a little lower; and in that place where the preparing seed vessels which go down to the Testicles have their rise, in all other sanguineous & viviparous creatures; & where also the cock wears his Testicles, there is the Hens Ovary found. For some Animals have their stones hang­ing out, others conceal them about the Loins with­in; in a middle space as it were, at the beginning of the preparing vessels. But the Cock hath his stones immediatly adjoined to the vasa praeparantia, as if his seed wanted no preparation. Aristotle in­deed saith, that the Egge is begun at the midriffe; but we, saith Fabricius, in our treatise of Respiration, deny that Birds have any midriffe at all. Which diffi­culty is thus resolved: Birds are not quite destitute of a midriff; because they have a thinne membrane instead of the midriff; which Arist. calls cinctum, or septum: but they have no musculous midriffe, as other Animals have, neither is it used by them for Respiration. But, to say truth, Aristotle acknowledged no muscles at all.

Thus, in one and the same breath he accuses the Philosopher, and excuses him too: yet hee him­self is in an Errour the while. For it is certaine, that Aristotle did acknowledge muscles (as we have elsewhere observed, and demonstrated) and also that membranes in Birds (which are not onely pla­ced transversly to gird the body, but are also ex­tended according to the longitude of the belly) do supply the place of the diaphragma, or midriff, and do conduce to respiration: as in another place in our Exercitations, concerning the Respiration of [Page 7] animals, we have clearly proved. And, to say no more at present, Birds do not onely respire with much more facility then other creatures, but in their songs doe tune and accent their voices with manifold variety: yet, notwithstanding all this, their Lungs are so knit to their ribbes and sides, that they can be but very little dilated, raised up, or contracted. Besides all this, (though no man to my remembrance hath ever observed so much be­fore) their Bronchia, or extremities of the rough Artery are hollow as far as the very abdomen, and they treasure up the inspired aire in the cavities of their membranes. Even as Fishes, and Serpents draw the aire into large bladders, which are seated in their abdomen or belly, and so reserve it, and by that means are conceived to swim the better: and as froggs, and toads, in the Summer time when they breathe most, doe imbibe much more aire then at other times into their numerous vesicles, (which occasions their wondrous swelling) that so they may afford more liberall exspirations in their croaking: So in Birds, the Lungs seem rather a thorough-fare, and a passage for breathing, then the adaequat organ of it. Which had Fabricius observed, he would not then have denyed, but that those membranes (at lest with the assistance of the muscles of the belly) doe serve for respiration, and execute the office of a diaphragma: since even that is not a respiratory organ, without the help of the muscles of the belly; though it have also another imploy­ment in those creatures in whom it is musculous, and fleshy; Namely, to depress the stomack enlar­ged with meats, and the guts distended with winde and excrements; lest the heart and lungs should be straitned by their intrusion, and the closet of life it selfe invaded. Now, since there is no fear of any [Page 8] such mischance in Birds, their midriffe is membra­nous, and exceeding advantagious to the work of respiration; and for this cause they are said to have a diaphragma. Moreover, were birds quite desti­tute of a diaphragma, yet Aristotle were not to be blamed, for saying, That Eggs receive their first ru­diment at the septum transversum; for by this name he onely points at the place where the diaphragma is commonly found in other Animals. So we also say, that the Ovary is scituate at the beginning of the preparing spermatical vessels, though a Henne hath no such vessels at all.

The Perforation of the Lungs, by me first disco­vered (of which I made mention but now) is in no sort dark and obscure; but, in Birds especially, very patent: so that in an Ostrich I found many perforations, into which I could easily thrust the top of my finger. In a Turkey, nay in an ordinary dunghill Cocke, and almost all Birds whatsoever, a probe being put into the winde-pipe, will finde an open and wide passage, clean through the lungs in­to the cavities of the abdomen, or lower belly. Blow the aire into their lungs with a pair of bellowes, and you shall finde it hasten into the lower parts, and that not without a sensible force.

Nay, we may very well question whether, even in man whilest he is living, the air doth not pene­trate into the cavity of the chest, by the aforesaid passages. For could otherwise the putrefied mat­ter of impostumated, and the blood shut out of the veins of pleuritical persons, flow from thence? How could the aire, when the breast is wounded (though the lungs be untoucht) rush out of the wound? or how could injections cast into the ca­vity of the chest, be returned again with the spit­tle? But of this at large in our Exercitations, of [Page 9] the Causes, Instruments, and Use of Respiration.

I return now to the Ovary, and the upper part of the wombe of the Henne; in which the first rudi­ments of the Eggs are conceived, which are (accor­ding to Aristotle) small at first, and white; but in­creasing, afterwards become of a pale yellow.

As for this upper womb mentioned by Fabricius, the truth is, there is no such thing at all, till the Henne have conceived, and hath the principles of Eggs within her, which may then be properly cal­led a cluster of wheals. And therefore he saith very rightly: The superiour matrix is nothing else but al­most an infinite crowd of yolks, which are amassed in one heap together, being of a round figure, and of di­verse magnitude; amongst which there is a like diffe­rence from the greatest to the least, as between a grane of mustard-seed and a walnut, or a medlar. This mul­titude of yolks are united and knit together as it were upon a bunch: and therefore I call it a Vitellary, or a bunch of yolks, because it much resembles a bunch of grapes. As Aristotle also said of fishes that want scales, where he writes, That their eggs are laid as if they were glewed together like grapes; for as in a bunch of grapes, the berries are some biggest, some less, and some least of all, and each is tyed to its proper sprig, so is it in the Vitellary.

But now in Fishes, Frogs, hard or crusted Shell­fish, and Snails, the matter is much otherwise; for they contain in them Eggs of the self-same magni­tude; which being discharged, do grow alike, are perfected alike, and at the same time produce yong ones. But in the Ovary of a Henne, and almost of all other Oviparous creatures, there is a distinct increase of the yolkes, from almost an invisible smalness, till they arrive to a complete magni­tude: though the Eggs of Hennes (not unlike the [Page 10] eggs of those creatures which conceive and lay their egges together) are hatched into chickens in the same nest, almost at the same time. Yet in Pigeons (which lay, and hatch onely two egges at a time) I have observed all the Eggs in the Ovary to be of a like magnitude, excepting only those two which were greater then the rest, and were now ready to descend into the second uterus, or womb; so that of them there is great increase, not by the multitude of their young at once, but by the fre­quency of their repeated births, which happen e­very moneth. So in cartilaginous Fishes; as the Thorn-back, the Fork-fish, the Dog-fish, &c. two eggs are only ripe at a time, and falling down on both sides from the right and left horn, they are cherished in the lower womb, and exclude their young alive (as the Viviparous creatures do:) yet in their Ovary they have almost an infinite number of eggs, and of different dimensions; in the Thorn­back I have numbered above a hundred.

But the Eggs of other oviparous creatures are ei­ther perfected when they are out of the womb, as the eggs of fishes; or at least concocted, as the eggs of snailes, of hard shell-fish, and of spiders. The snailes they treasure up their eggs in froth; crusted shell-fish, (as shrimps, cray-fish, lobsters) carry them about fastned to their finnes; but the spider beareth them about with her, as it were in a bas­ket wrought of her webbe, and so cherisheth them. The Beetle wrappeth her eggs in dung, (rowling them in it with her hinder leggs) and so layeth them up: and, in all these, there are an incredi­ble number of eggs. Fishes have two oblong blad­ders, or bags, as you may see in the Carp, the Her­ring, and the Smelt; in all which, as there is no womb at all discernable, besides the Ovary, so is [Page 11] this Ovary sometimes so thronged with eggs, that it far exceeds the bulk of the whole body besides.

Of the Ovaries of these Carps and Mullets, amas­sed together, and salted, and hardned in the smoak, is made that kinde of meat so much in re­quest with the Greeks and Italians (called by these Botarcha, by the Greeks [...], that is to say, pickled eggs) such as is that which is found in our red Herrings, & the red and compacted seed with­in a Lobster. That meat which is made of the salted eggs of Sturgem, is called Caviare, which re­sembleth black sope, and is the delight of glut­tons.

In all fishes (which have a numerous offspring) so great abundance of egs is generated, that the whole capacity of the belly can hardly contein them, when they are newly conceived, much less when they are of any growth. And therefore in fishes, sa­ving their Ovary, there is no other part dedicated to generation. For their eggs take growth abroad; nor need they any womb for that office. And this O­vary seems to carry some Analogie to the resticles, or litle seminal bladders, not only because they are found in that place where the stones are bred in males; (for the stones in Cocks are scituate, as we have said, at the ingress of the Coeliacal artery, neere the midriff, and there the Hens Ovary is found) but also, because in both sexes of fishes, at the time of generation, there are two litle bags passing through the whole belly, alike in site, figure, and magni­tude; which increasing at the same time, are fil­led, in males with a similary, spermatical, and milky substance, (whence it is called fishes milke) and in the females, with litle invisible graines or sands; so that in the beginning of conception (by reason of their close fabrick) they look like a si­milar [Page 12] body, and like the males milk regularly coagulated, and may afterwards be discerned like the smallest sands clinging together in their pro­per bags.

In lesser Birds (which bring forth egges, and those few ones, but once a year) you will scarce finde any Ovary at all; but just where the stones hang in males, there in females, instead of an O­vary, are found three or four bubbles (according to the number of egges, whose foundation they are) as discernable as the testicles of the males.

In the horns of the Serpents womb (which are like the spermatical vessels of the males) appear the first rudiments of the eggs, like litle balls fastned on a string, as is usual in womens bracelets, or chaplets of beads made of amber.

They therefore that are found in the Vitellary, or Ovary, are not to be counted perfect eggs, but the first ground-works or rudiments of eggs, which are in such order and magnitude disposed in the bunch, that one may daily succeed the other, to supply the hennes laying. But no egge in the Ova­ry is cloathed with a white, for onely yolks are found there; which, as they gain growth, get with­out the small ones; that being arrived to a larger room, they may the better thrive and enlarge. And therefore that of Fabricius is very true, where he saith, The greater yolks of the bunch are in the sur­face, pag. 3. the lesser are in the middle, encompassed as it were by the greater; lastly, the least of all lie undermost. For as they get greater bulk by growing, they are separated from their fellowes; which, while it is doing, every yolke, besides his proper coat, bor­roweth another from the Ovary, which encompas­seth it without, and tyeth it to the foundation from whence it sprung: wherefore by Fabricius it [Page 13] is called pediolus, sive pedunculus, the stalk, because by its means, as the fruit draweth nourishment and increase from the tree, so doth the yolk from the cluster. For this stalk is a membranous hollow fast­ning, which is extended from the bottom of the cluster to the yolk: which so soon as it arrives at, it is dilated, and (just as the optick nerve is spread in the eye) co­vereth the yolk with an outward coat. Hence Aristo­tle probably called it [...], that is, the li­tle umbilical appendix, or pipe. This litle stalk con­veighs De Gen. An. l. 3. c. 2. with it many vessels into the yolke, through which they are many waies divaricated.

These things are indeed truly delivered by Fa­bricius, but he mistaketh, when he saith, This coat doth not environ the whole yolke, but onely a litle more then half of it, just as the cover of an acorn, called the cup: whence it cometh to pass, that the outward part of the yolke, being deserted by the fore-mentioned mem­brane, is exposed to the view without veines, and ap­peareth naked. For it embraceth all the yolk; but in the outward part of the yolk, it is not easi­ly discerned from its own coat, because they both are very thin. But, in the fore-part, where the yolk respecteth the foundation of the cluster, this coat adhereth not to the yolk, neither doth it send any veines into it, but only begirts it like a bag.

Every yolk assumeth a particular coat from the same foundation; and therefore this place is not to be reputed the common womb, since no­thing is here to be found, beside the cluster, or heap of many eggs, of different magnitude, arising from the same foundation.

Now this Foundation is a particular body of it self, arising at the spine of the Fowle, annexed to the great Artery and Vein, being loose, porous, and fungous, that so it may produce divers yolks out of [Page 14] it self, and afford each of them their coats; which coats do afterwards stretch, as the yolks enlarge, and inclose them like a Bag, with a narrow neck, but a large belly, in like manner as glass-vials are fashioned by the breath of the Glass-maker. Fa­bricius saith further; The yolks, as they spring from a very small original, being about the magnitude of the seed of Millet, or Mustard, so they are very litle, and white, as Aristotle observes, and do also increase by de­grees; and, as the same Aristotle saith, grow like yolks, and yellow, till they attain the just magnitude which e­very body knoweth them to be of. But I have observed them to be much less then the seeds of Millet, even as slender as the smallest wheals, or spots, or sands, (such as I have told you are found in the Ovaries of Fishes) scarce to be discovered by the eye it self, as if they were onely the ruggedness of the membranes of that part from whence they proceed.

THe next part of the Womb of the Hen, is by Fa­bricius called the Infundibulum: for it is like a Tunnel, or Trumpet, tending down-ward from the Ovdry, (which it every where encompasseth) and growing wider by degrees, is terminated in the su­periour production of the Womb.

This Infundibulum doth afford a passage to the yolks (when their stalks are broken off) into the second womb (as Fabricius thinketh) and resem­bleth the Tunicae vaginalis, or coat of the Testicles in [Page 15] the Cod, consisting of an exceeding thin membrane, and easie to be dilated, that so it may entertain the yolks which dayly rowle thither, and conveigh them into the aforesaid Uterus.

Do you desire an Illustration of this matter? fa­shion in your minde a very slender plant, whose knobby roots may represent the cluster of yolks, and its trunk the litle vaginal, or sheath-like pipe: as the stalks of that herb do in the winter dye, and vanish away; so, in like manner, when the Hen ceaseth to lay any more egges, the entire Ova­ry, together with the Infundibulum, are retired, and abolished, and (like useless things) quite dried up; leaving onely the fundamentum remaining, and some tracks and footsteps of their roots.

That this Infundibulum doth onely supply the office of a thorow-fare, is hence enough evinced, in that the yolke is never found residing in it: but as the Testicles sometimes do through the Tunica va­ginalis creep upwards into the Groin, and as those Testicles are in some creatures (as the Hare and Mole) hidden within the Abdomen, and do from thence again return and descend; so by the Infun­dibulum do the yolkes slide down from the Ovary into the Uterus; and it supplieth the place of that Tunnel (as it also hath its form and shape) through which liquors are transmitted, from one vessel into an other of a narrower neck.

FAbricius prosecuteth the description of the Uterus, after the Ovary, and so by a perverse method, premitteth the treatise of the superiour part, and production of the womb, to that of the very womb it self. And is also too precise and conclu­sive in assigning three circles to it, and in determi­ning their certain scituations, when indeed them­selves are uncertain. And there also he doth pre­posterously repeat the definition of the Infundibu­lum.

Give me leave therefore to propose here my Ob­servation, and history of the Uterus of the Henne, (which I apprehend to be more commodious, ac­cording to Anatomical method) and to proceed from the outward parts to the inward, (contrary to the course of Fabricius.)

In a Henne that is plucked, you may perceive the Fundament, not (as in other creatures) gather­ed up into a ring, but having a depressed orifice di­vided transversly, shrunk up as it were into two lips, the superior of which gathereth the inferior into it, and so covereth and concealeth it. That uppermost lip, or covering, ariseth from the root of the rump; and, as the upper eye-lid covereth the eye, so doth this the three orifices of the Privity, (name­ly that of the Fundament, of the Uterus, and of the Ureters) which lye retracted under this covering, as under a praepuce, or fore-skin: as in the Lap of a Woman, the passage into the womb and bladder is [Page 17] vailed by the labra of the privity, and the parts called Nymphae; so that, without dissection, or at lest some forcible retraction of that covering, nei­ther the passage of the Excrements out of the guts, nor of the Urine out of the Ureters, nor of the Egg out of the Uterus, can appear in a Hen. And there­fore those two excrements (namely the Urine, and the Dung) are rejected both together, as out of a receptacle common to them both, by lifting up of that covering, & so disclosing the perforation: and so likewise in coition, the Hen unvaileth her lap, and accommodateth it for the Cock that treadeth her: as Fabricius observed in a Turkey-Hen, which courted a Cock. I have seen an Ostrich-Hen (when her Keeper gently stroked her back, with designe to inflame her) groveling on the ground, lift aside that vaile, and expose and stretch out her lappe; which the Cock perceiving, being instantly cupid­struck, proceeded to tread her; and having one leg on the ground, and the other on her back, with an exceeding large Yard (of the dimensions almost of a Neats-tongue) pursued his attempt: great was the noise and clamours on both sides, and their necks often extended and retracted, and many other expressions of content. Nor is this proper to Birds onely, but common also to other Creatures, which by removing aside their Taile, and extending their Lap, prepare themselves to receive the Male. So that the Tail in other creatures seems to be almost of the same use, with the Vail in the Hen, which, unless it be removed, or lifted up, there is neither passage for the excrements, nor the addresses of the Male.

In Hinds and Does (as if they were more severe­ly chast then other beasts) such a skreen of mode­sty, and skinney covering, shrowdeth both the lap, [Page 18] and passage of urine, which must of necessity be lift­ed up, ere they can have conversation with the Male. In Beasts also that have tailes, there must be an elevation of them, before they can bring forth their young. And Midwives also, by unction and retrusion of the extremity of the os sacrum, do fa­cilitate womens labours.

A certain Chirurgion of my acquaintance, an ho­nest man, being returned from the East-Indies, told me upon his credit, that in the Island called Bornea, in the Inland and Hilly parts of it, there are a race of men born with Tails, (as Pausanias writes of another place) and that he saw a Virgin of that flock, whom they had much ado to catch, (for they are wilde) who had a fleshy, thick tail, a span long, reflected between her leggs, to conceale her modesty: such care hath nature to hide those parts.

The fabrick of this Covering in a Hen, is like to that of the upper lid of the eye, composed of skin, and of a fleshy and musculous membrane, with fibers every where drawn from the circumference to the Center; and its inward superficies, like that of the eye-lid, and fore-skin, is soft. It hath also in its ex­tremity a semicircular small gristle, like the Tarsus of the eye-lid: and, beside that, between the skin, and fleshy membrane, a cartilaginous interstitium, from the root of the rump joined in a right angle to the semicircular Tarsus, or gristle: (as Batts have a kind of litle taile, concealed under their membra­nous wings) by reason of which composition, this covering doth, as it were with a taile, shelter and hide the perforations of the privities. The Per­forations in the Funda­ment of a hen.

Wherefore, no sooner is this protection cut a­way, but certain perforations appear, whereof some are more apparent, others more obscure. The more [Page 19] visible, are that of the fundament, and the lap; namely, the passage of the excrements, and the en­trance into the womb: the obscurer are, as well that through which the urine flowes from the kidnies, as also that smaller one found out by Fabricius, into which (saith hee) the Cock doth immit his seed; which cavity notwithstanding Antonius Ul­mus a diligent dissector in Aldrovandus did not own, nor any one else besides Fabricius, so far as I The Sink. know. These Holes are all so neer neighbours the one to the other, that they seem all to consent and pass into one and the same cavity; which (because it lies in common both to the excrement and the urine) may be called the Sink; because, in it, the excrements of the guts, together with the u­rine descending from the reines, are mixed toge­ther, till they be together excluded. And through this the egge also passing forth, worketh its way.

The making of this cavity is such, as if both the excrements descended into the Bladder, and nature did abuse the urine into a natural clyster. And therefore it is something thicker and ruggeder then the gut, and also in ejection and coition, thrusts it self out, (the covering, as I have said, being re­moved) and hangeth out like the inside of the gut: and at that time all the holes appear distinct­ly; which presently again upon its retraction, be­ing collected as it were into a purse, are hidden out of sight.

The more conspicuous Holes, (namely that of The scitu­ation of the orifice of the womb. the fundament, and the lap) obtain a contrary sci­tuation in all fowles, from all other creatures; for in these, the Pudendum, or female genital, is seated foremost, between the right gut and the bladder: but in those, the passage of the Excrement is placed fore­most, [Page 20] and between that passage and the rump, the passage into the matrix.

But that Hole into which Fabricius thinketh the The Per­foration of the Purse, so called by Aquapen­dens. Cock doth cast his seed, is discovered between this doore of the matrix, and the rump. But, for my part, I acknowledge no such employment of it; for, in Pullets or young Hens, it is hardly found at all; but in grown fowle it is promiscuously as well in the Cock as in the Hen. And, besides that, this hole is very small and obscure, and cannot there­fore be imagined to be of so concerning an office; for it scarce admits the point of a small needle or a slender hair, and terminateth also in a blind and obscure cavity: nor could I ever perceive any se­minal humour at all in it; though Fabricius affirm­eth, that the semen is there reserved as in a purse, for a whole year together, and that in the interim all the eggs receive fecundity from thence, as shall be discoursed hereafter.

All Birds, Serpents, Four-footed beasts, which are Oviparous, and Fishes also, (as is evident in Carps) The pas­sage of U­rine in a Hen. are endowed with Kidnies and Ureters, through which the Urine floweth: which Aristotle, and o­ther Philosophers hitherto knew not. But Birds, and Serpents, whose Lungs are fungous, have but ve­ry litle urine; because they drink but litle, and that by sips; and therefore they need no Bladder of Urine, but do deposit it (as we have said) into the common sink and receptacle with the dryer ex­crements. But in Carps, and some other fishes I have found a Bladder of Urine.

In a Hen, the Ureters descend form the Kidnies on both sides, (which Kidnies are large and ample and seated in the cavity or hollow of the back and do end in the cavity or common sink. But their [Page 21] Out-let is so obscure, and concealed in the very entrance of the cavity, that to discover it from without, or to search it with the most slender probe, is altogether impossible. Nor is it indeed any great wonder; for in all creatures, even in the greatest of all, the insertion of the Ureters neer the neck of the Bladder, is dark and winding, that (though urine, nay and stones too do sometimes glide through them into the bladder) not so much as the aire it selfe can go back that way, nor the urine, be it never so much forced.

All these things are clear in an Ostrich; in which I have found, beside the outward orifice of the com­mon cavity, which was vailed by the Covering; an­other orifice within the Fundament, which was round and gathered up, and shut as it were with a sphincter muscle. But to pass these, and return to our purpose.

The Orifice of the Womb, or Lap; namely the passage out of the publik cavity into the womb of The Ori­fice of the Uterus. the Hen, is as it were a certain soft protuberance or rising, loose, wrinkled, and orbicular; just like the end of the Fore-skin closed up, or a prominence of some interiour coat of the matrix. But it is scituate (as I said before) between the perforation of the fundament and the rump, tending something to the left hand; which Ulysses Aldrovandus conceives so to be disposed, for more convenient coition, and more commodious reception of masculine incur­sion.

But I have often observed, that the Hen doth indifferently incline her back parts towards the Cock, on which side soever he prepare his ascent, be it on the right or left. I finde no Penis, or Yard at all in a Cock, neither could Fabricius finde any, though it appear most manifest in Drakes, and [Page 22] Ganders. But, instead thereof, I finde an Orifice in a Cock (not different from that of a Hen) but it is less, and narrower; which Orifice is like wise found in the Swan, the Drake, and the Gander: but the Penis of the Drake and Gander (in the act of Coiti­on) is sent out of this orifice.

In a black Drake, I saw a Penis of that extent, that after coition, the Duck pursued it as it trailed upon the ground, with intent to devour it; (deem­ing, as I suppose, that it had been a worm) which occasioned the Drake to retract it sooner then his custom is.

In a Male-Osirich, I found, within this orifice of the Privy-parta a very large glans, or nut of the yard, and a ruddy nerve, of the form and magnitude of a Deers tongue, or small Neats tongue; which I ob­served him many times brandish in coition, stiffe, and something embowed: which, when he had dispatched into the female, he detained there a good space, without any commotion of these parts at all, as they had been staked together; yet all the while strange were the gesticulations of their Heads and Necks (as if they had approved their Nuptials) proclaiming their full compla­cence.

I have read in D. du Val, a most learned Physi­tian of Rouen, that a certain Hermaphrodite was delivered up to the Chirurgians and Midwives, to determine whether he was a Man or a Woman. They, upon discovery, judged him to be a woman; and thereupon he was enjoined to habit himselfe like one of that sex. He notwithstanding was in the mean time accused of soliciting women, and playing the mans part. And at last he had a penis issuing out of its hidden prepuce, (as out of a wo­mans secrets) which executed the mans office.

[Page 23] I my self once saw a mans penis so shrunk up (excepting onely when it was provoked) that no­thing appeared in the wrinkled prepuce above the scrotum, but the meer extremity of the Glans.

In a Horse, and some other creatures, the vast di­mension of that part is shut forth from within. In a Mole also, that litle Animal, there is a great re­traction of the penis into the skin and muscles of the Abdomen; and his female also hath a longer and deeper Matrix then is usual.

I conceive, it is with a Cock, who hath no pe­nis, as it is with the lesser sort of Birds; which quickly conclude their acts of coition, and do per­form them by affriction onely. For the Orifices of the Privities (of the Cock and Hen) by often con­junction, as by repeated salutes, do celebrate coi­tion, not by one continued inition, (which orifices being turned outward, do protuberate, wax stiffe, and stretch after the manner of a Glans; especially that of the Cock, which onely doth outwardly press upon the female, and, as I suppose, doth not enter in.

In the Coition of Horses, Dogs, and Cats, and o­ther creatures, when the male presenteth his penis, the female proportioneth her parts stiffe, and ex­tended. And Birds also that are tame, suffer them­selves to be gently stroked, and swelling with Ve­nereal appetite, expose that Orifice, which you may by your finger perceive to be hardened and resisting. Nay sometimes birds are so lustfull, that if you only gently smooth their backs, they will instantly incline, and extend and make bare their Uterine Orifice; which if your finger softly com­ply with, they will declare their accepted recrea­tion, in extravagant murmurs, and flutterings of their wings. And that the females will even thence [Page 24] conceive eggs, both Aristotle beareth witness, and I my self have found in a Thrush, a Black-bird, and others: and this experiment I gained long since, and by chance, but at my own cost. For my wife had an excellent, & a well instructed Parrat, which was long her delight; which was now grown so familiar, that he was permitted to walk at liberty through the whole house: where he missed his Mistresse, he would search her out, and when he had found her, he would court her with a cheer­full congratulation. If she had called him, he would make answer, and flying to her, he would grasp her garments with his claws, and bill, till by degrees he had scaled her shoulder; whence he descending by her arm, did constantly seat himself upon her hand. If she bad him talk, or sing, were it night, and never so darke, he would obey her. Many times when he was sportive and wanton, he would sit in her lap, where he loved to have her scratch his head, and stroke his back, and then testifie his contentment, by kinde mutterings, and shaking of his wings. I still interpreted all this to proceed from his customary familiarity and obsequiousness, for I alwaies thought him to be a Cock-Parrat, by his notable excellence in singing and talking. For amongst Birds, the females seldom sing, or provoke to discourse; but the males onely charm the fe­males by the pleasant musick of their voice, and allure them to pay their homage to Venus. And therefore Aristotle saith, If Partridge-hennes stand Hist. an. l. 5. c. 5. and l. 6. c. 2. over against the cocks, and the winde blow from whence the cocks are, they conceive and grow big, and for the most part, they teem even by the voice of the cock, if they be at that time wanton and lustfull: and this al­so may fall out from the cocks flying over them; namely if the cock do transmit a fructifying spirit into the Hen. [Page 25] And this happens chiefly in the Spring-time; whence the Poet: Virgil. 2. Georg.

But not long after these kinde dalliances, the Par­rat, which had lived many years sound and heal­thy, grew sick, and being much oppressed by ma­ny convulsive motions, did at length deposite his much lamented spirit in his Mistresses bosom, where he had so often sported. When dissecting his car­kase, (to finde out the cause of his death) I found in the womb an egge almost completed, but, for want of a Cocke, corrupted. Which many times befalleth those Birds, that are immured in Cages, when they covet the society of the Cock.

By this and other examples, I am induced to believe, that the Dunghill-Cock, and the Cock-Phea­sant, doe not onely delight their Hennes by their voices, but also do confer something by those very voices to the conception of the egges: for even at night, some of the Hens at roost with him, do be­stirre themselves at the Cocks crowing, shaking their heads and wings; as if possessed by a gentle hor­rour, their senses were ravished as after Coition.

A certain Fowle, as big again as a Swan, was not [Page 26] long since brought into Holland out of Java, a [...] Island of the East-Indies, which fowle the Dutchmen called a Cassoware: the figure of this fowle Al­drovandus representeth, and saith, that the Indians Ornith. lib. 20. p. 541. call it Eme: it is not cloven-footed, as the Ostrich, but hath three claws on every foot; one of which is armed with so long, so hard, and so strong a spurre, that it will easily pierce through an Inc [...] ­board. Now its manner of smiting is forward; its body, legs, and thighes, are like an Ostriches, but it hath not a broad bill, as the Ostrich hath, but a roun [...] and black one. Instead of a crest, it hath upon the head a round extuberant horn; it hath no tongue at all; eateth any thing without distinction, be it stones, or coales, and those red-hot too, likewise pie­ces of glass; it hath two feathers springing out from every quill, and those black, short, and thinne, ap­proaching to the nature of hair, or down; it hath very litle wings, and imperfect; it is a creature of a horrid aspect, and hath long red and blew gils hanging down the neck (like a Turkey-Cock.)

This fowle continued in Holland above seven yeares, and afterwards Maurice, the most Illustrious Prince of Orange sent it, with other things, for a Present to King James, in whose gardens it lived above five yeares: but afterward, when two Ostri­ches, Cock and Hen, chanced to be kept in the same place, and the Cassoware oftentimes over-heard them at the act of coition, being but in the next pennes (where they were fed apart) She unexpect­edly conceived egges (stirred up, as I suppose, by a certain sympathy, from those that were something of the same kin and linage with her) yet all that saw her, did conjecture she was rather a Cocke, then a Henne, considering her we apons and martiall pro­visions. One of these egges she laid whole and en­tire, [Page 27] which I opened and found it compleat; for it had a white embracing the yolk round about, to­gether with the chalazae, or specks like hailestones annexed on both sides, and also a litle cavity or emptiness in the obtuse end of it: there was like­wise the cicatricula, the litle cicatrice, or whitish speck; the shell was thick, hard, and strong, which I caused to be made into a cup (the top being taken off) such as is usually made of the Ostriches egge. This egg was something less then an Ostriches egg, but every way perfect, as I said before; yet with­out all question it was but a subventaneous and an unfruitfull one, by reason of the want of a Cock. But at the same time as she brought forth the egge, I did presage she her self would die; and that according to Aristotle, who saith, That Birds will be sick and dye, unless they bring forth, which fell out not long Gen. an. l. 3 after: and dissecting her, I found an imperfect and corrupt egge in the Upper end of her Uterus, which caused her untimely death, (as I had for­merly observed in the Parrat and other Birds.)

Most Birds, by how much the more salacious they are, so much the more fruitfull are they; and sometimes doe without a Cock (either from high feeding, or some other cause) conceive eggs, which very seldom are either perfected, or brought forth at all, without the use of a Cock; but they thenoe fall into desperate diseases, and at length dye.

But the Dunghill-henne doth not onely conceive egges, but lay them also; and those perfect too, but yet subventaneous and barren ones. So also many of the Insects (in whose list are Silk-worms and But­terflies) do both conceive, and lay egges, without conjunction with the male, (as fishes also) but they are all addle, and wind-eggs. As if it were the same thing for these creatures to be with egge, as for [Page 28] virgins to have their wombs grow warm; their termes flow, their breasts increase, and (in a word) to be­come marriageable; which if they be too long de­tained from, they are assaulted with dangerous symptoms; (namely hysterical affections, or furor Ute­rinus) or else fall into the green sickness, and seve­rall other distempers. For all Creatures, when they are love-struck, grow extravagant, and if de­barred of enjoyment, do at length recede much from their usual temper. Hence some women grow frantick for love; and this extravagancy is so out­ragious in some, that they seem bewitched, planet­strucke, or possessed. And this inconvenience would be frequent, did not pious education, respect to their reputation, and in-bred modesty, temper and asswage these inordinate commotions of the minde.

FRom the exterior uterine orifice, is the passage to the inner parts, and matrix, in which the egge is perfected: and this passage in other creatures is termed vagina uteri, or vulva, into which the males penis is transmitted to the matrix. But in a Hen, this passage is so perplexed, and so wrinckled and folded, by reason of the laxity of its inward coat, that though there be an easie passage from the matrix outward, insomuch that a very great egge can come forth without any great difficulty; yet that the masculine penis should get in, and that the seed should finde admission into the inner ca­vity [Page 29] of the Uterus, is scarce probable: for I could not trace a way inward, with either probe, or bristle, nor could Fabricius neither; nay, if you will credit his testimony, the very aire cannot be blown into the womb: which, I suppose, was the cause why he, describing the history of the Egge, proceedeth from the interiour to the exteriour parts: And al­so considering this fabricke of the womb, he deny­eth pag. 30. the seed to attain so farre as the cavity of the womb, or to constitute any part of the egge: of which opinion I willingly profess my selfe. For you shall finde nothing at all in a fertile egge, ei­ther added, or altered, (which is not in an addle one) to give any suspicion of the entrance of the Cockes seed into the womb or egge. But yet though all the egges are, without the accession of the Cock, subventaneous and addle; yet by his assistance (e­ven for a good while after his treading) the sub­sequent egges, of which there is yet no principle, or matter out of which they can be made, become fertile. Fabricius, that he may express after what manner the seed of the Cock maketh the egges fer­tile, pag. 17. hath these words: Since no seed at all appear­eth in the egge, and yet it is cast by the cock into the womb, it may be demanded, to what purpose the cocks seed is cast into the womb, if it pass not into the egge? as also, if the seed be not in the egge, how can the egge be made fertile by that seed which is not in it? My o­pinion is, that the seed of the cocke injected into the be­ginning of the womb, doth make the whole womb, and also all the yolks that come into it, and lastly, the whole egge, fertile; and that it doth this by its vertue, or spi­ritual irradiating substance; after the same manner, as we perceive other creatures become fertile, by the te­sticles, and seed: for if any man consider that incre­dible transmutation, which doth seize upon a creature [Page 30] that is gelded, by which it looseth its heat, vigour, and fecundity in the whole body; he will easily consent, that what we say, may well befall the single womb of a Hen. But that it is most true, that the power of rendering all the egges fertile, together with the womb it self, pro­ceedeth wholly from the seed of the Cocke, appeareth, e­ven from the practice of women, which having a Hen without a Cock, commit her for a day or two to a neigh­bours Cock: and from this small commerce, all the eggs are endowed with fertility, for all that year. And this is also confirmed by Aristotle, who is of opinion, that de Gen. an. l. 3. c. 1. after birds have once had the advantage of coition, al­most all the egges they lay afterward are fertile. Now, lest the vertue of making fertile, which is contained in pag. 38. the seed, should by any means exhale or evaporate, but that it may remaine long in the womb, and so be im­parted to the whole; nature hath concluded, and trea­sured it up as it were in a purse, in the cavity neer the fundament, which is annexed to the womb, to which there is onely an entrance, but no retreat, so that the seed being there long detained, its vertue may be the better preserved, and communicated to the whole womb.

But I did doubt the verity of the foresaid expe­riment, and that the rather, because I perceived the Philosophers words were falsly recited; for, hee doth not say, that, Birds, when they once have had the advantage of coition, almost all the egges they lay are fertile, but, they lay almost all their egges: where the word Fertile is superadded by Fabricius: for it is one thing, to say, that Birds are with egge after coition; and another thing, to say, that those egges are made fertile by coition. And this is more ma­nifest by Aristotles precedent words, where he saith, In Birds, not so much as those very egges which are be­gotten by coition, can for the most part gain their just [Page 31] growth, unless that coition be continued. And the rea­son is, because, that as in women by coition with the male, the menstruous excrement is drawn forth (for the womb being warmed draweth the moysture, and the pores are opened) so it falls out in birds, whilest the menstruous excrement cometh by litle and litle, which cannot get out, because it is but litle, and is contained above about the diaphragma, but slideth down into the womb it self. For with this the egge is nourished, as the foetus of viviparous creatures is nourished with that which comes in at the Navel. For after birds have once been at tread, they still persist to have almost all their eggs, but yet small ones, and imperfect; and therefore barren: for the perfection of an egge, is its fecundity. If therefore without continued coi­tion, not so much as those very eggs which are con­ceived by that coition, do attain their Growth, or (as Fabricius interpreteth it) their Perfection; much less can those egges be fertile, which the Birds persist to lay, without coition.

But let no man think that these words (name­ly, the womb being warmed draweth, and the pores are opened) do any way conclude, that the womb can draw the seed of the Cocke into its cavity; for we must take notice, that the Philosopher doth not say, that the womb draweth the seed from without, but, that in women, the menstruous blood is drawn out of their own bodies, the veines and passages being opened by the heat caused by coition; and so likewise in Birds, that the blood is drawn to the womb, it be­ing warmed by repeated coition, and that the eggs do thence encrease; as the foetus of viviparous crea­tures do by the Navel. But what he adjoineth concerning that cavity or purse, in which he fancy­eth that the seed is entertained, even for a whole year together, is confuted by us formerly; where [Page 32] we affirm, that no seed at all is contained in it and that both henns and cocks indifferently have that cavity.

Wherefore, though I easily believe (if by ferti­lity we understand an encrease of more and fairer eggs) that poor womens henns (whose poultry pro­bably wanteth good feeding) will lay lesser and fewer egges, except they have resort to a cock (ac­cording to that of the Philosopher, namely, If they once mixe with a cocke, then they continue to have fairer, better, and more egges, for the whole ensuing year; to which end also, plenty and wholesom­ness of feeding do very much conduce) yet that hennes, by some few acts of coition with a cock should lay all fertile egges for a whole year toge­ther; that, I say, seemeth to me improbable. For if a few acts of coition were of force to so lasting a generation, Nature (which maketh nothing in vain) would have made the male birds less salacio [...] then they are: nor would the cocke so often in one day invite his hennes to Venery, nay sometimes force a rape upon them.

Wee all know, how the henne, so soon as she forsaketh the nest where she hath layed her egge crieth out with a shrill voice, and enticeth the cock to coition; who also replying with a loud and di­vided tone, carefully seeketh her out, and having found her, instantly ascendeth: which surely Nature had never permitted, but for procreation sake.

A Cock-Pheasant, penned up in an aviary, both with such scorching lust, that unless he have sew­rall hennes with him, (six at the lest) he will [...] extremely afflict them with repeated Coitions, and rather retard their fertility, then promote it [...] once saw a Pheasant-henne, so spent and worn o [...] [Page 33] by the cocke who was shut up with her (whom she could no wayes escape, neither by flight, nor con­cealment) that her back was grown bald by his fre­quent ascents, untill at last, in miserable torture, [...]e expired for grief. Yet, when I cut her up, I sound not the lest rudinient of an egge. I have ob­served likewise a Gander, who wanting a mate, so­journed with the hennes, where his lust was so un­bounded, that for some hours together he pursued a young pullet whithersoever she fled, arresting her with his bill, till at length he triumphed upon her weariness, and subdued her to a Rape.

A dunghill-cock having gotten the mastery in the duel, doth sate his desires not only upon the concu­bines of his foe, but upon the conquered himself.

So likewise some females are so prone to Venery, that they will chastise their males with their bite­ings; (as if they meant to whisper and advise them of conjugal delights) sometimes getting up­permost themselves, endeavouring by these and other arts to entice them to their recreation: and in this rank are pigeons, and sparrows.

And therefore it seems not so likely, that a few coitions celebrated in the beginning of the yeare, should store up fecundity enough, to endow all the egges for a twelve-moneth following.

And yet once (that Fabricius may have some patronage) in the Spring time (attempting some discovery of the time wherein coition is most success­full, and the necessity thereof) I did separate two hennes from the cocke for foure dayes space, which in that time laid three egges a piece, which were as prolifical as the rest. And I did after that immure another henne, which on the tenth day of her se­paration laid an egge, and another egge on the twentieth, and both were fruitfull: so that it may [Page 34] seem possible, that one or two acts of conjunction may fructifie the whole cluster, and consequently all the egges of that year.

I shall tell you likewise, what I farther obser­ved at that time; when I restored the two hennes (which I had formerly divorced) to the cocke a­gain, whereof one of them was now big with egg, the other had newly layed; the cock ran instantly to the latter, and enjoyed her greedily three or four times: about the former, he circuited often, and by trailing his wings at her feet, seemed to greet her kindely, and congratulate her return; yet presently retired to the other, and repeated his lust again, and again, committing violence upon her refusal; neglecting in the mean time the henn that was with egge, using no solicitation nor request. Truly I admired, by what significations he could be inspired to know, that coition could be useful to the one, and unseasonable to the other. It is not easie to say, how males will either by the eye, eare, or smell, distinguish (even from farre) which females are ripe for their turne, and desirous of their com­pany. Some, though they onely hear their voice, or sent their urine, or foot-steps only on the ground are presently heightned, and pursue them to a compliance. But of this elswhere, in our tract o [...] the Love, Lust, and act of Generation of Animals, w [...] shall treat at large. Wee returne to our pur­pose.

FRom the outward Orifice through the privy parts, we arrive at the Uterus or matrix of the Henne, wherein the egge is perfected, encompassed by the white, and covered with the shell; but before we speak any thing of its scituation, and position, something must be premised, concerning the pe­culiar anatomy of the Belly of Birds. For I have ob­served the stomacks, guts, and other entrals of Fea­thered creatures, to be otherwise seated and consti­tuted in their lower belly, then of other creatures that go upon the ground.

All kindes of Birds, almost, have a twofold sto­mack, whereof one is the Ingluvies, the other the Ventriculus, properly so called: in the former they treasure up their meat, and prepare it; in the lat­ter, they digest it, and concoct it into the chyle: the first, we call the crop or craw; the latter, the Gi­sard. Birds reserve in their craw the whole grains which they ingorge, and from thence transmit them into the gisard, moistened, macerated, and softned by the water which they imbibe, that it may there be grinded, and concocted. And for that purpose, almost all sorts of Fowle swallow down sands, stones, & other harder bodies, & reserve them in their gisard with their meat; (when no such thing is to be seen in their craw) and this gi­sard of theirs is compacted of two exceeding thick [...]st strong muscles, (which in lesser Birds are compo­sed of flesh or ligaments) that with these two, as it [Page 36] were with two Grind-stones, fastned together with two hinges, they may grind and mould their food; whilest the stones supply the place of teeth, of which they are destitute. By this means they digest and chylifie their meat, and afterward by compression (as we strain a juice or a pultis out of herbes or fruits bruised) the softer and more liquid part ly­eth uppermost; and that they conveigh into the beginning of the guts (which in them is just at the entrance into the gullet, seated above the gi­sard. Now that this is so, appears in several sorts of Birds, in whose gisard, if gravel, or any other harder and rugged bodies continue any time, they receive so much impaire and smoothness from the continual attrition, that at last they grow useless, and so are ejected. And for this cause Birds exercise their tongues in the choice of their pibbles, and if they discover that they are no [...] rough, they presently refuse them. By this mean [...] I have found Iron, Silver, and Stones, almost worn away and consumed in the gisard of an Ostrich, and the Cassoware; which gives occasion to the popular perswasion, that they digest Iron, and are nourished by it.

In Falcons, Eagles, and other Birds of Prey, if you bring your ear near, when their gisard is empty you shall evidently discover the noise of stones col­lected in it, grating one against another. For Hawkes doe not swallow pibbles to coole and all [...] their heat, (as the common sort of Falconers dream) but to grinde their meat: as also other Birds (whose gisard is made fleshy on purpose t [...] mould their meat) for the same intent, do ingor [...] pibbles, or sand, or such like bodies.

The gisard of Birds therefore, is seated within the capacity of the Abdomen, beneath the Heart, [Page 37] Lungs, and Liver; but the crop sticketh (for the most part) as it were out of the body, in the lower part of the necke, at the Os Jugale: in which (as I have said) their meat is onely mollified, and prepa­red: and from it some Birds return their meat ma­cerated to their chickens, and nurse them up (at the same rate as four-footed beasts doe theirs with milke) as you may observe in all sorts of Pigeons, and also in the Spermologi, which we call Rooks. And Bees also, when they are returned to their Hives, do refund the hony which they gather from the flowers, and have digested in their stomack, into their proper celles: and so do Hornets and Wasps nourish their off-spring. And a Bitch hath been seen to disgorge the meat which she had swallow­ed before, and half concocted, to supply her whelps. Wherefore, the wonder is less, when we see poore beggar-women, when their milk faileth them, to feed their Infants with scraps, which their owne teeth have first prepared, and reduced into a kinde of pap.

The Guts in Birds arise (as is said) from the up­per part of the Gisard, and are replicated up and down in Longitude (not transversly, as in us.) And next to them, just under the heart, about the mid­dle of the body, where the diaphragma (which is wanting in Birds) is seated in Beasts, is their Liver, which is very large, and divided into two lobes, (for they have no spleen neither) placed on either side, and fills the hypochondria: below the Liver is the gisard put, under which lye the replications of the intestines, having very many slender mem­branes interposed, which are filled with air: for into these (as we have said) the rough arteries of the lungs descend with open mouth. The kidnies (which are large in Birds) being of an oblong fi­gure, [Page 38] composed as it were of gobbets of flesh, having no cavities at all, doe lye on both sides of the Spine, and great descending vein and Arterie, and are buried in the spacious oblong cavity of the huckle bones or sides-men. From the fore-part of the kidnies are the Ureters extended in Longitude, even to the common sinke, and fundament it self: that so the serous excrement may from the Reines be wafted thither. Now Birds have very litle of this serum, because they are small drinkers, and some of them (as the Eagle for one) drink not all. Nor doth their urine flow apart by its self; but, as we have said, doth distill from the Ureters into the common receptacle, which is allowed also to en­tertain the excrement of the guts, whose discharge is by this means the better provided for. The urine of Birds differeth from that of other creatures; for the parts of their urine are two-fold, one more serous, and liquid, the other more gross and thicke, which in men in health we call the hypostasis, and when the urine is now cold, it sinketh down to the bottom: now Birds (clean contrary to other viviparous Animals) have greater store of this thick sediment; which is distinguished from the other part of the urine, by its white or silver-like com­plexion, and it is not only discernable in the clo­aca or sinke, (where it much aboundeth) and gi­veth a tincture to the excrements of the guts: but in the whole conduct of the Ureters, which are di­stinguished from the coats of the kidnies, by this very white excrement. Nor is the thicker substance which descendeth from the Reines, only visible in Birds, but in Serpents also, and other oviparous crea­tures; especially those whose egge is guarded by a harder kinde of shell. And they have much more abundance of this, then of the thin­ner [Page 39] serous part: and it hath a middle consistence between a thicker kinde of urine, and the excrement of the guts; so that as it passeth through the Ure­ters, it resembleth milk coagulated, or something thickned, and presently upon ejection it congeal­eth into a crust that is friable.

BEtween the Gisard, and the Liver, at the Spine of the backe, where in men and other animals the Pancreas lyeth, between the vena Porta, and de­scending trunck of vena Cava, at the beginning of the Emulgent veines, and the preparing spermatical vessells, where the Coeliacal artery goeth into the Mesentery, there also in a Henne and other Birds, is the Ovary, and cluster of yolkes bred, which hath Before it the Trunk of the Vena Porta, the gul­let, and the mouth of the Gisard; and Behinde it, the Hollow vein, and the Great Artery descending by the Spine of the backe; Above it lyeth the Liver, Under it the Gisard. And therefore the Infundi­bulum, which is constituted of a very thin mem­brane, descendeth down-ward from the Ovary, all along the back, between it and the Gisard. And from the Infundibulum or Tunnel (between the Gi­sard, Guts, Reines, and Loynes) the Process of the Uterus, or its superiour part, having many revolu­tions [Page 40] and cells (like the Colon & right-gut in a man) descendeth into the Womb it self. But the Womb it selfe, which is continuous to this Process, is seated below the Gisard at the Fundament, at the lower end of the Abdomen, between the loynes, kidnies, and right-gut: so that when the egge now cloathed with the White is contained in it, it presseth down so low, that you may easily perceive by your fin­ger, whether it be soft, or hard, and ready to be layed.

This Womb, in a Hen, is of different magnitude and fabrick: For in a Henne which is big with egge, or hath lately layed, it differeth very much from the womb of a Virgin-henne, or Pullet; for her womb is fleshy and round, lik an empty purse; smooth without, within rough, having certain folds and revolutions according to its longitude: at first sight, you would conceive it to be a larger kinde of bladder of Urine, or a second lesser gisard. But in a teeming Hen, and one ripe for the cocke (which our housewives distinguish by the redness of their crest, or comb) the Uterus is of much better growth, and more carnous, having larger folds, and thicker, and of that extent, that it may conveniently re­ceive an egge. And this womb is extended and passeth upward a good way, along the Spine of the back, and is made up of many complications and cells; (as the Collick-gut is) which several cells are composed of the replications of the womb it selfe. The Bottom hereof, as it is the largest, so it is the thickest, and most carnous part of all, fortified with more and greater foldings then the rest, whose fi­gure within is Ovale, as if it were the Mould to cast egges in. I call the Ascending part, or production of the Womb, a Process: Fabricius calleth it, the se­cond Uterus, and saith it consists of three rundells [Page 41] or turnings: Ulysses Aldrovandus calleth it the sto­mack of the womb: there are, I confess, most com­monly three spires or rundels, yet this is not so constant, but that nature fashions it otherwise, for varietie, (as she doth sometimes in the circumgi­rations of the Colon.

This womb, the higher it goeth, the slenderer and sparer it groweth by degrees, and hath fewer and lesser circumvolutions, till at length as it were dissolving into very thin membranes, it becomes to be the Infundibulum, which arising up as farre as the diaphragme, encompasseth all the Ovary.

And therefore Fabricius divideth his second womb into three parts; viz. the beginning, the middle, and pag. 17. the end. The beginning, saith he, degenerating into a stender and most soft membrane, frameth a wide orifice, representing as it were a litle pipe or tunnel. The mid­dle part (which I call the Process of the Uterus) is constituted of three transverse spires or Rundels, and serveth to furnish the yolk of the egge with a white, and extendeth it self to the lowest and most capacious place or part of all; which he calls the End of that Uterus, wherein (saith he) the Chalazae, or specks, and the two membranes and shell are formed.

The whole substance of the Uterus (especially about the folds) as well in the Uterus it selfe, as in its Process, is embroydered with many large veines, and yet there are more divarications of Arteries then of Veines.

The Folds which in the inside of the womb are oblique and transverse, are of a fleshy substance, and look exceeding white and milkey, breathing forth a kinde of stiffe moysture; so that the inward superfi­cies both of the Uterus, and also of its Process, is li­ned as it were with very much, and thinne whites of egges; by which meanes the descending yolk [Page 42] gaines greater bulk, and cloatheth it self in white by degrees, till it arrive at full perfection.

You shall seldom finde the Uterus unfurnished of eggs, but that there are some still either sticking in the revolutions of the Process of the womb, or else conteined in the Uterus or womb it selfe. If you blow up this Process when it is empty, it will appear like a litle oblique distorted pipe, rising up sharp at the end in manner of a snailes shell, or a Top. And the Fabrick of the womb is like that which wee lately observed in the privy parts; namely, that though there be open way enough to receive the egge in its descent, yet there is scarce any return to be obtained upwards again, (even for the air it self, though backed by inflation.)

The Process of the Uterus, together with the spires, is so diminished in a Hen past laying (as we have said) and also in young pullets, that it resol­veth into most thin membranes, and is quite abo­lished, and leaveth no appearance of it, as neither of the Ovary, or Infundibulum; only there remains (like the root of the cluster) a glandulous and spongy substance, which tasteth pretty sweet in a boyled Hen; as in Viviparous creatures (especially if they be young and tender) the Pancreas, and Thy­mus doe; which therefore the people call the Sweet-Breads.

The Womb, together with its Process, is by the helpe of a membrane fastned to the back: which membrane Fabricius doth therefore call Mesome­trium; because, the second womb, together with this membranous body, wherein many veines are divarica­ted, may fitly be compared to the Intestines, and their Mesentery. For as the Mesentery keepeth firm the Guts, so doth that Mesometrium fasten this long Process from the chine, lest being dislocated, and in­volved, [Page 43] it should disturb and obstruct the passage of the yolks, whereas now being free and open, it entertaineth them gently. Through this Meso­metrium, many vessels stored with blood, are bran­ched into every replication of the womb. And therefore it beareth much analogy to the Mesen­tery, both in its beginning, substance, fabrick, use, and office. There is also a Ligament (like a fillet) extended long-wayes from the bottom of the womb to the Infundibulum, such a one as we may see pro­duced in the upper region of the Colon; which is as it were a portion or fragment of the outward coat, going along and contracted, that the rest of the Process might by its help be wrinckled into folds and replications. Thus, if you cut off a gut, and put in a thred into it all along the whole length of one side of it, and then tye it hard, the other oppo­site side will curle up into wrinckled complications and windings.

This then is the Constitution of the womb of a Henne that layeth egges; namely, fleshy, large, du­ctile and extensive into length and breadth, full of windings, spires, and convolutions all along the spine of the back from the fundament, upwards, and continuous to the Infundibulum.

THe yolk, in the cluster, is onely a litle wheale or push, and growing by degrees, attaineth the complexion and bulk of a yolk; and falling off from the cluster, it descendeth through the Infun­dibulum; and rowling through the Spires and ca­vernes of the Process of the womb, doth cloath it selfe all over with the White: though (as Fabricius rightly observed against Aristotle) it doth adhere to the womb no where at all, nor is it nourished by any Umbilical vessels: but as the egges of frogs or fishes, provide themselves whites out of the wa­ters wherein they lie; or as beanes, pease, and o­ther pulse and graine, being moistened, do swell, and thence acquire aliment to the blossoms which spring from them: So in like manner out of the aforesaid foulds of the womb, an albugineous hu­midity issuing thence (as it were out of a dugge, or Uterine cake) the Yolk (by vertue of a vegitative heat, and faculty wherewith it is endowed) find­eth out, and concocteth its white. And therefore in those foulds, and in the cavity of the Uterus, a liquor, in tast much like the white of an egge, doth most plenteously abound. And in this sort the yolk descending by little and little, is invested with a white, until at last, assuming membranes, and a harder shell in the extremity of the womb, he is com­pleated for his Exit.

ATtend Fabricius: as we pronounce (saith he) the action of the Stomack to be Chylification: and pag. 8. the action of the Testicles to be the Generation of Seed; because we find chyle in the Stomack, and Seed in the Testicles: So we confidently affirm the Action of the Birds womb, to be the Generation of egges, because there we finde the eggs. But this is not the on­ly Function of the womb, but the Augmentation of the egge also, which succeedeth immediately after the Generation, till the egge be perfected, and purchase a just enlargement, is implyed. For the Henne doth not naturally lay her egge, before it be compleat, and have attained a convenient magnitude. The Action therefore of the Uterus is both the Generation, and Augmentation of the egge: Now Augmentation sup­poseth Nutrition, and includeth it. But since all Generation proceedeth from two Principles; namely, the Efficient, and the Subject Matter: The Efficient in the procreation of egges is nothing else, but the In­struments, or proposed organs, namely, the twofold Uterus: and the Subject Matter, is nothing but Blood.

But we, for Brevity sake (omitting, as is meet, all controversie) as we do easily allow, that the use and office of the womb, is to procreate egges: so we pronounce the Adaequate Efficient (as they call it) to be contained in the egge it selfe: and wee do conceive that both the Generation, and Aug­mentation of the Egge, proceedeth not from the [Page 46] womb, but from an innate natural principle of its own: And that this Principle doth flow first from the whole Henne, into the Yolk while it yet is on­ly a rudiment, or first wheale as it were; which afterwards like a congenial heat, or Efficient Na­ture) inherent in the Yolk, nourisheth and Augment­eth it: As there is a certain in-bred faculty in e­very part of the Body, by which it is fed and aug­mented. As concerning the manner how the Yolk is invested with the White, Aristotle seems to de Gen. an. l. 3. c. 2. have conceited it to be thus: That there is in eggs, while their membranes are yet tender, a kind of Um­bilicall channel, existent in the sharper end of the eg (at which he determineth the eg to begin) by which it increaseth: which perswasion Fabricius repre­hendeth, denying any being at all to any such chan­nel; Or that the Yolk doth any where adhere to the womb: and salveth that scruple concerning that small appendix found in the egge after it is layed, saying; The augmentation of the egge is two-fold, pag. 11. according to the two-fold womb, that is the superin, and inferior: and also, according to the two-fold sub­stance, whereof the egge is compounded, that is, the Yolk and the White; the Yolk is increased by a true Augmentation; namely, by blood; which is conveyed to it by the Veins, whilest it is yet adjoyned to the Vi­tellary. But the White is increased, and groweth to the yolk, after another fashion: For it receiveth not nourishment by the Veins, nor by a true kind of Nu­trition, as the Yolk doth but by Juxtaposition, adhering to the Yolk, while it passeth through the Second Ute­rus.

But in my Opinion, the Egge is augmented af­ter the same manner (wheresoever it be) as the yolk is augmented in the cluster, viz. from an In­trinsecal concocting principle, with this distincti­on [Page 47] onely, that while it is in the cluster, its ali­ment is conveighed to it by the vessels, but in the womb it findeth it ready for it to imbibe. For in all Nutrition and Accretion, a Juxtaposition of the parts is equally necessary, and also a Con­coction and Distribution of the applied nutriment; nor can the one be thought to be lesse a True Nu­trition then the other: for both of them are made by a new accession, apposition, agglutination, and transmutation of the Aliment. Nor can Beanes or Pease, which attract moisture from the Earth (which they suck in like spunges) be said to be lesse truly nourished, then if they did draw in that moisture through the Orifice of Veins: And Trees also drinking Dewes and Showres in at their Barks, are as truly nourished, as they are by their Roots. But concerning the manner of this Nutri­tion, we have spoken more largely in another place. At present, it remaines that we encoun­ter another difficulty; that is, whether the Yolke, while it acquireth a White, doth not make some separation, and choice in it: and so, while it is about augmenting, whether some more earthy part be not dismissed into the Yolk or middle of the egge, (as into the Center, as Aristotle would have it) and the lighter, and thinner parts be not reserved in its superficies or surface: For between the Yolk which is yet in the cluster, and that which is in the midst of the eg when it is perfected, this is the difference in chief, that though the former be yellowish in colour and appearance, yet its consi­stence representeth rather the VVhite; and being sodden, thickneth like it, groweth compact, and viscous, and may be cut into slices. But the Yolk that is in the midst of a perfect egge, being boiled, [Page 48] groweth friable, and of a more earthy consistence, not thick and glutinous like the White.

IT is convenient, that having declared how the Egge is generated, wee should now treat of its parts, and their differences. An Egge is compound­ed pag. 22. (saith Fabricius) of a Yolke, a White, two Chala­zae, or specks, three membranes (namely one mem­brane proper to the yolk alone, and two other, common to the whole egge) and last of all, of a Shell. To all which, two things are to be added, which may not be truly ranged amongst the parts of the egge; one where­of is a certain small cavity in the blunter end of the egge neer the top of the Shell; the other is a certain litle white print, like a small round Cicatrice, affixed to the superficies of the yolk. The accompt of every of which we shall lay down more punctually, beginning from the outward parts. The outward Covering (which is by Pliny called the Barke, Rind, or Paring; and by ( [...] Serenus, the Egg-shell) is a hard, slender, friable, and porous tegument, having divers colours, namely, white, pallid, red, spotted, and sprinkled with several p [...] ­ctures: to wit, the Hens, and Pigeons egg-shells [...] white; the Water-fowles, pale; the Hawkes, or Ke­strells, red as Vermilion; the Pheasants, spotted, and di­stinguished with points, as Aristotle noteth. All eggs have not a shell; for Serpents eggs have none; and de Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. some hens (though rarely) lay eggs without a shell [Page 49] This shell, though it be hard, is not equally hard in all parts, but is more hard about the top, and superiour part of the egge. And therefore Fabricius saith, It is a question, when the egg-shell is formed, and out of pag. 13. what subject-matter. For Aristotle and Pliny affirm, that the shell is not made within, but when the egge is Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. & gen. an. 1. 8. l. 10. c. 52. de gen. an. l. 3. c. 2. laid, & as it is going out; so that the outward heat dry­ing up the moysture, the Air condenseth & hardneth it. And this is done, as Aristotle supposeth, both that it may have the easer passage, and also that it may not pain the parent: As they say that an egge softned in vineger, may be crowded into a vessel of a nar­row neck.

Fabricius indeed was long at odds with this o­pinion, by reason he had found an egge with a hard shell in the belly of the Hen; an experiment which is dayly proved by house-wives, whilest endeavouring to know whether the Hen be ready to lay, they grope the belly without, to try whether the shell be hard. But af­terwards, when he had received from creditable wo­men, that the egg-shell assumed its obduration from the [...]ire in its exit, which aire doth exiccate a stiffe moy­sture which environeth the egge, and condenseth and fastneth it to the shell, before the shell of it self be ex­actly hard: and having also discovered the same by his own experience, he altered his opinion, and was perswaded, that the egge in the Uterus hath truly a shell, which shell is of a middle consistence, between soft and hard, but that it obtaineth a much greater degree of obduration presently after it is layed, by rea­son of a certain clammy tenacious humidity which con­cealeth about the shell, occasioned by the evaporation [...]f the thin and moist parts; with which humidity the whole superficies is bedewed, which adhering to the ten­der shell, is dryed and hardned, the cold ambient aire [...]mducing something thereunto. And this (saith he) [Page 50] you may soon perceive, if you keep Hennes in your yard, and be dexterous and diligent to receive the eggs from them, as they lay.

This opinion of Aristotle did for a long time prevaile with me, till I discovered the contrary by infallible experience. For I take it as a mea­sured truth, that the Egee-shell is most commonly hard even in the womb itself. And I once saw an egge cut out of a live Henne, which had no shell at all, but yet was througly drenched and begin with a glewey moisture: and yet the egge never hardned at all, by the congelation, or evaporati­on of the moisture about the Skin, (as Fabricius would have it) nor was it any whit altered by the ambient cold aire, but continued the tendernesse which it had in the womb. I have also seen a New­laied egge, which had a compleat hard shell, over which was a case made of a cuticular soft mem­brane, which membrane did never congeal. More­over I have seen an egge exactly surrounded with a Shell, save only on the very top of the acute end of the egg, where remained a smal soft rising, such a one as Aristotle perhaps conceived to be the Re­liques of the Navel.

And therefore Fabricius seemeth to me to be in an errour; for though I was never so good at slight of Hand, to surprise an egge in the very laying, and so make discovery whether it was soft or hard; yet this I confidently pronounce, that the Shell is compounded within the womb, of a sub­stance there at hand for the purpose: and that it is framed in the same manner as the other parts of the egge are, by the Plastick faculty: and the rather, because I have seen an exceeding small egge, (Fabricius calleth it Ovum Centeninum, and our Women call it the Cocks egge) which had [Page 51] Shell of its own, and yet was contained within an­other egge, greater, and fairer then it, which egge also had a Shell too. And this Egge I shewed King Charles my most gracious Master, in presence of many others. And that very year, cutting up a large Limon, I found another small, but yet a perfect Limon in it, which had also a yellow rind: Which thing is now frequent in Italy, as I am informed.

It is the usual errour of the Philosophers of these times, to seek the diversity of the causes of Parts, out of the diversity of the matter, from whence they should be framed. So Physitians affirm, that the different parts of the body are fashioned and nourished by the different materials of Blood, or Seed; namely the softer parts, as the Flesh, out of a thinner matter; and the more earthy parts, as the Bones, &c. out of grosse, and harder. But this er­rour now too much received, we have confuted in another Place. Nor are they lesse deceived, who make all things out of Atomes, as Democritus; or out of the Elements, as Empedocles. As if (forsooth) Generation were nothing in the world, but a meer Separation, or Collection, or Order of things. I do not indeed deny, but that to the Production of one thing out of another, these fore-mention­ed things are requisite: But Generation her self is a thing quite distinct from them all. (I finde Aristotle in this opinion) and I my self intend to clear it anon; that out of the same White of the Egge (which all men confess to be a similar body, and without diversity of Parts) all and every the parts of a Chicken, whether they be Bones, Clawes, Feathers, Flesh, or what ever else, are procreated and fed. Besides, they that argue thus, assigning onely a Material cause, deducing the causes of [Page 52] Natural things, from a voluntary or casual con­currence of the Elements, or from the several dis­position or contriving of Atomes: they doe not reach that which is chiefly concerned in the Ope­rations of Nature, and in the Generation, and Nutrition of Animals: namely, the Divine Agent, and God of Nature, whose operations are guided with the highest artifice, providence, and wisdome, and doe all tend to some certain end, and are all produced, for some certain Good.) But these men derogate from the honour of the Divine Architect, who hath made the Shell of the Egge with as much skill, for the egges defence, as any other particle; disposing the whole out of the same matter, and by one and the same formative faculty.

Now though what I have delivered is very true, (namely, that the egge whilest it is yet in the womb, is guarded with a hard Shell) yet I have still prized Aristotles judgement so highly, that I never would recede from his Oracles without premedi­tation, and therefore I do conceave (which thing also my own observations do confirm) that some accession to the induration of the egge-shell, doth accrew from the ambient air in its very exit: and that, that stiff and slimy moisture, (wherein it is drenched at its being laied) doth presently after its exclusion harden. For the Shell, while it is yet in the womb, is much thinner, more transpa­rent, and of a smoother superficies: But after lay­ing, it is much thicker, lesse translucid, and of a rough Superficies (as if it were rough cast with a white powder, which had newly dried to in­sides.)

And now we are upon this subject, give me leave to expatiate a while.

[Page 53] In the Eastern barren Islands of Scotland, there is such a mighty affluence of all-most all sorts of of Sea-fowle, that if I should relate all that I have heard, though from persons of great integrity, I fear I should be suspected more Fabulous then those several Authors, who discourse of the Scotish or Soland-Geese, which they story to be born from the fruit of certain Trees falling into the Sea (which fruit or Geese, themselves never saw) However I shall venture to relate what my owne Eyes have seen.

There is a little Island, the Scots call it Basse, (by this, Reader, guess at the rest of them) it is not far from the shore, seated in the Main Sea; stand­ing upon a rugged and dangerous Clift, (you may call it rather one great continued Stone, or Rock, then an Island) it is not above a mile about. The superficies of this Island (in the moneths of May and June) is almost covered quite over with Nests, Egges, and Young-Ones, that for their infinit abundance, you can scarce set your foot in a spare place, and such a mighty flock hovereth over the Island, that (like thick clouds) they darken and obscure the day: and such a cry, and noise they make, that you can hardly hear those that stand next you. If you look down into the Sea beneath you (as from a steep Tower, or Pre­cipice) you shall see it all spread over with se­veral sort of fowle, swimming to and fro, in pur­suit 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 [Page 54] 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 [Page 55] 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 [Page 56] 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 [Page 57] 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 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.

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 pag. 22. The White. 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 [Page 59] White encompass this. Now, that these two whites are really distinct, will soon appear, if af­ter you have broken and removed the shell, you [...]ick the two membranes which come next to [...]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 The Yolk. pag. 23. upon it: It is also called from its colour Ovi Luteum, the yellow of the Egge; in Greeke, [...]; by Hippo­crates, [...]; by Aristotle, [...], and [...]; [...]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 Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. [Page 60] 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 Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. de gen. an. l. 3. c. 1. 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 The Cha­lazae. 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 [Page 61] 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, pag. 48. 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 pag. 57. 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 fruitful, and those which are altogether barren. But this worthy man was mistaken in the intent of the chalazae, which shall appear more clearly hereafter.

In the eggs of the least Birds of all, you may track these chalazae, which appear there like a fine thred, or slender nerve. But in the two ends of the egs of the Ostrich and Cassoware, I have seen exceeding thick, long, and white chalazae, consisting of many little globous bodies, of different dimension.

[Page 62] In the blunter end of the egge, neer the shell in The Ca­vity. the inside, you may discover a litle small cavity, or hollowness; which is sometimes exactly at the top of all, and sometimes inclining to one side, al­most directly opposite to the Chalaza which is at the other end: the figure of it is most commonly circular, but in a goose or duck-egge it is not so pre­cisely round. This cavity you may plainly see, ap­pearing like a cloudy spot, if at night you hold an egge against a candle in one hand, and lay the o­ther hand transversly upon the obtuse angle of the egge.

In a new-layed egge it is but litle, seeming in magnitude of the bigness of the ball of a mans eye; but it increaseth dayly, according as the egge groweth staler, and the weather hotter.

After one dayes incubation, it spreadeth main­ly, as if some thinner part of the white, which ly­eth uppermost, were exhaled, and the rest contra­cted, and so the space grown wider. For this ca­vity resideth between the shell, (which in that place hath no membrane to line it) and that out­ward membrane which containeth all the liquidi­ties of the egg. All eggs whatever have it, nay, I have found it in the eggs which remain as yet in the Uterus of the Henne, so soon as ever they as­sume a shell. Some that pretend to cunning in this matter, will prognosticate, that if this cavity be directly in the top of the egge, the chicken then will be a cocke, but if it deflect to the side, it will be a henne. But this is most certain, if the cavity be very small, it signifieth the egge is new-layed, but if it be any thing large, a stale one. But more largely of this hereafter.

There is a very small white circle embracing the The Cica­trice. coat of the yolke (in fashion of a small Cicatrice) [Page 63] which Fabricius therefore calleth Cicatricula; but he setteth litle by it, counting it rather a blemish, then a part of the egge. This is a very litle spot, about the bigness of a small Lentile, like the ball of a Birds eye, being white, flat, and round. And all egges have this too, even from their very first original in the yolk. And therefore Fabricius is deceived, while he fancieth this spot to be nothing but a relique of the stalk broken off from the yolk; by which it was incorporated to the cluster in the Ovary. For the Pedunculus or stalk (as himself ac­knowledgeth) is hollow, and as it approacheth neerer to the yolk, it dilateth it self, that it may encompass it round, and shut it up as in a litle bag or purse; for it is not fastned into the middle of the yolk (as the stalks of Apples, and other Fruits are) that so it should leave a relique behinde it, when it falleth off. Now if sometimes in a very fair yolk (as Fabricius reporteth) you chance to finde a double Cicatrice, it may probably oc­casion a Monster, or Twinnes, (as shall be discour­sed hereafter) but doth no way import a double stalk. But he is extremely overseen, in thinking this Cicatrice to be utterly useless: for it is the most material, concerned part in the whole egge, for whose sake all the rest of the parts are created, and the original and foundation out of which the Chic­ken it self is formed. And Parisanus doth falsly contend, that this is the Cocks seed.

THere is a two-fold acceptation of the word Egge; proper, or improper. An egge in its proper Ac­ceptation is that thing, to which Aristotles definition Hist. an. l. 1. c. 5. of an egge doth square: An egge is that thing, one part of which doth constitute an Animal, and the rest doth nourish it, when it is constituted. In its improper acceptation, it is that to which Aristotles definition de gen. an. l. 1. c. 2. about the same place is proportioned. An Egge is that thing out of which the whole Animal is constitu­ted. And of this kinde are the eggs of Ants, Flies, Spiders, some kinde of Butterflies, and many other very small egges of that kinde: which Aristotle doth almost every where scruple to call by the name of eggs, but stileth them little wormes. Thus far Fabricins; but we (whose designe is chiefly to treat of the pag. 19. generation of Hen-eggs) have no intention to de­liver the several distinctions of all sorts of Eggs, but only to lay down the diversities of Hen-eggs. Of Hen-eggs therefore, some are new-laid, and some staler, the former are whiter then the later; for The di­stinction and diffe­rence of Eggs from their Age. time doth clowd them, and especially incubation. The New-laid also have a very small hollowness or cavity in the obtuse angle; and if they be very new indeed, they are something rough with a dust or powder that sticketh to their sides; but those that are stale, as their complexion is darker, so their shell is smoother. New-layed eggs (if they be whole) being put near the fire will sweat, and are of much pleasanter taste, and more esteemed of, then o­ther. And eggs after two or three dayes incubati­on, [Page 65] are even then sweeter relished then stale ones are: as if the cherishing warmness of the Hen, did refresh and restore them to their primitive excel­lence and integrity. And after full fourteen days (when the Chicken now beginneth to be downey, and extendeth his dominion over half the egge, and the jolke is almost still entire) I have boyled an egge till it was hard, that so I might discerne the position of the chicken more distinctly, which was limned out in the white of the egge, as if the chicken had been cast in a Mould: and yet the yolke was as sweet and pleasant as that of a new-laid egge, when it is in like manner boyled to an in­duration. The yolke of an egge taken out of a live Hen, and presently eaten, tasteth much sweeter raw, then dressed.

Eggs are likewise distinguishable from their fi­gure; From their Fi­gure. Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. l. 10. c. 52. lib. 9. de Rust. c. 5. for some are longer, and sharper then others. Out of these oblong and acute eggs (according to A­ristotle) are hennes begotten, and of the blunt, cocks. But Pliny saith the contrary; The rounder sort of eggs (saith he) breed Hennes, the other, Cocks. And Columella is of his minde too: If one would have good store of Cocks (quoth he) let him place the longest and sharpest eggs under his Hen; and if the contrary, let him provide the roundest he can get for money. Ari­stotles Scaliger upon the place. opinion is grounded upon this reason; namely, because the Rounder are the hotter; for it is the custom and condition of heat, to congre­gate, and fix; and that heat is most powerful, that [...] most operative. And therefore from the strong­er, and perfecter principle, the stronger and per­fecter Animal doth arise. Now such is the Male in respect of the Female (especially the Cock being compared to the Henne.) And now on the other side, the lesser sort of egges are reputed imperfect, [Page 66] and the least sort of all, utterly improlifical. And therefore Aristotle, to procure a constant race of egges of a fair size, recommendeth the frequent co­ition of cock and hen; for he concludeth the barren and subvontuneous egges to be all of the lesser sort, and more insipid; and that because they are moi­ster and imperfecter then others. Now this distin­ction of egges here spoken of, is to be understood of the egges of one and the same hen (for should a hen lay eggs alwaies of the same dimensions, she would alwaies hatch them all cocks, or all hennes) because if you take it otherwise, the conjecture of which will be a cocke or a henne, raised from the signes above mentioned, will be very dubions. For several henns, lay eggs of a several shape, and mag­nitude: for some lay oblong, some rounder, and li­tle differing the one from the other. For though I have sometimes found a difference in the eggs lay­ed by the same henn, yet the distinction is so ex­ceeding small, that unless a man be very well ver­sed, he will not perceive it. For since all the eggs of the same henne, are cast and modelled in the same womb (as in a Mould) they are all impressed with, neer upon, the same figure: and therefore it cannot be avoided, but that they should much re­semble one another (as those excrements that are figured in the same complications of the same Co­lon) insomuch that I my selfe have with case in a litle basket of egges sorted every hennes egges by themselves. And who ever practiseth it, shall be nimble at it. Certainly it is worth our wonder which dayly experience declareth in Keepers. The more diligent sort of Keepers of Parks, that have the charge of several herds of Deer, will tell you punctually which and which are the Hornes of such and such Deere, as often as they ca [...] [Page 67] their Heads. A silly, ignorant Shepherd, who had the care of a great flock of sheep, grew so well acquainted with every particular sheep, that if a­ny one were missing (though he had not arithme­tick enough to count them) he could punctually tell which it was, of whom it was bought, and whence it came. And once, to make tryal of him, his Master commanded him, out of forty lambes which he penned up in a Fould on purpose, to sin­gle out the particular lamb of such an Ewe, which he did exactly, and carried to the Damme. I know some Huntsmen, that if they have once seen a Deer, or the hornes of a Deer, or footsteps only in soft ground, are able to know the same Deer again from all the Herd besides, even by those very horns, or tread: (just as the Lion is distinguished by his Pew) nay having meerly seen the print of the Deers hoofe, they will exactly resolve, how large the Deer is, how fat, and how swift: as whether he be well in breath, or over-hunted; and also, whether a Buck or a Doe. And more then this, there are some, who when forty Dogs are pursuing the Chase, and are in full Cry, will distinguish them all, (though a great way off) and will by their [...] inform you, which Dog is first, and which behinde; which hunteth upon the sent, and which is at a loss; whether the Deer be still in flight, or [...] a Bay, & disputing the conquest with his horns; whether he have stood long, or be newly rowsed. And all this in the very midst of the dogs, hunters, and windings of the horns, even in a woody Park, and where they were never in their lives before. We are not therefore to wonder so much, if those [...]t practise it, can discover which Egge belong­eth to which Hen: I would we could as easily judge which Son belongeth to which Father.

[Page 68] But the chiefe difference of Eggs consisteth in this, that some are fruitfull, and some addle, which From their Fe­cundity. are called Ova improlifica, irrita, Hypenemia, or subventanea, and Zephyria. They are called Hy­penemia, which being layed by the Hen without conference had with the Cock, are therefore of no use to the generation of Chickens, being stiled hy­penemia, quasi a vento prognata forent, as if they were begotten by the winde: as Varro saith, that Mares in Spain conceive by the Winde. For the de Re rust. c. 1. West wind is exceeding fruitfull, and thence the name Zephyrus, quasi [...], enlivening; for so Virgil:

And therefore the people of old, seeing their Hens in the Spring-time lay, this wind then blow­ing, did conceive Zephyrus to be the Author of the generation of those eggs. Eggs are likewise Urine, and Cynosura (when the Hen will sit no longer upon them) so called, because egges grow oft­en addle in the Dog-dayes, for the henne deserteth them by reason of the extream Heat; or else be­cause about that time of the year, it thundered often: for Aristotle saith, that Egges rot, if at the Hist an. l. 6. c. 2. Pliny lib. 10. c. 54. time of the Hennes incubation it chance to thunders Those egges are esteemed foecunda, fruitfull, which (if there be no outward impediment) by a quick­ning heat will generate chickens; which may be effected not onely by the incubation of the Hen [...] [Page 69] whose egges they are, but of any other Fowle of competent magnitude to cherish and cover them, or by any other cherishing warmth whatsoever.

For Aristotle saith, That chickens are as well hatched upon the ground of their own accord, as by the Ibid. birds incubation: As in Egypt they cover the egges with dung. And the Story goeth, That a good fellow of Syracusa sate so long upon a mat under the which eggs were layed, that ere he had done tipling the chic­kens were hatched. The Emperesse Livia is also reported to have cherished an egge so long in her bosom, till the chicken was bred. And to this day in Egypt, and other parts, chickens are hatched by stoves and ovens. An egge therefore (as Fabricius truly affirmeth) is not only the Uterus, and place pag. 19. of residence of the chicken, but the matter also on which the whole generation of the foetus doth de­pend: which generation the egge doth performe and accomplish, both as Agent, Matter, Instrument, Place, and ever other Requisite whatsoever. For certain it is, that the chicken is constituted by an internal principle in the egge, and that there is no accession to a complete and perfect egge, by the Hennes incubation, but bare cherishing and prote­ction: no more then the Hen contributeth to the chickens which are now hatched, which is onely a friendly heat, and care, by which she defendeth them from the cold, and forreign injuries, and help­eth them to their meat. And therefore the Incu­bation of the Henne is required, that she may 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 [Page 70] 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 sit [...] 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: [...] she meet with any Henne sitting, she will depose [...] 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 [Page 71] 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 Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. 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 From Number. [Page 72] Number. For some Hens (saith the Philosopher) lay Hist. an. l. 6. c. 1. 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, Incuba­tion. 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 Magni­tude. 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 pag. 10. hundred eggs (from whence it is called Centeninum, the Hundredth egge) which hath no yolk at all; yet [Page 73] 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 [...] 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 [...]eer membrane, not containing any residue of the White, or Moisture at all. Fabricius goeth on: There i [...] 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 nourishment. But, that the last Egges are alwaies very litle, I cannot willingly consent.

Nor are even Egges without their Monsters. For Aldro­vand. Or­nithol. l. 14. pag. 260 the Augurs (saith Aristotle) did account it Ominous, when Eggs were laid that were all yolke; or when such egges were found in the henne, she being cut up, under the Septum Transversum, and they of the magnitude of a Perfect Egge.

And hither may be referred Ova Gemellifica, Twinne-eggs, which are furnished with two yolkes; [Page 74] such as I lately found in the Uterus of a henne, i [...] being complete, and guarded with a Shell, having Yolks, Cicatrices, and the grosser Whites, all doubles it had also four Chalazae; but, as for the White of thinner consistence, there was onely One, which did encompass all the rest: it had also two onely com­mon investing Membranes, and one single Shell. For though Aristotle affirme, that some hennes alwaies produce such Eggs; yet, that it so happeneth by the course of nature, I can hardly believe. And though two chickens may be hatched out of such Eggs, (which I have experimented, contrary to Fabricius his perswasion, who saith, that of such all eg, the chicken hatched will have four legs, two heads, & four wings; of which hereafter) yet they are not vital, but commonly dye soon, and that either for defect of Aire, or room in the Shell, or that one is an impediment to the other, and doth violence to it; for it cannot be, that both should be equally rea­dy and ripe for Exclusion, and that one should not prove an Abortion.

To summe up all: The Differences of Eggs are chiefly of three kindes: For some are Fertile, and some Addle; some produce Cocks, and some Hens; some spring from Parents of the same species, and some from Parents of a diverse species, and so bring mungril-chickens; such as are conceived from a Dunghill-hen, and a Cock-Pheasant, and so resem­ble either the Cock that obtained the first, or last Coition.

For, according to Aristotle, the egge which is con­stituted by Coition, passeth from its own kinde into an­other, Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. in case the henne proceed to Coition, (having either a barren egge in her, or else an egge conceive by the semen of cocks of different kinde) before the yolk have procured its white. And thus are barren egg [Page 75] fructified, and fruitfull eggs entertain the form of that [...]ocke, who had the last courtesie in Coition. But if the White be already obtained, it cannot be, that either barren eggs should be altered into fruitfull; or that those egges which are already conceived by Coition, should pass into the kinde of that cock who was last en­tertained. For the Cocks semen is (as Scaliger sharp­ly observeth) like A Testament, where the last will In loc. is that which taketh place.

To these differences may be perhaps added, that, whereby some Eggs are strong, veget, and (if wee may so say) couragious; for as there is a soule in Eggs, so have they likewise a competent vertue. For as in other sorts of Animals, some Females are so libidinous and full of venery, that they take like Tinder, from one single act of Coition (be it never so feeble, and the male never so impotent) and conceive forthwith, and bring diverse foetuses by that one act: others again are so dull and sluggish, that unless they be provided with a more gene­rous male, and him also highly inflamed (and the coition likewise repeated and continued) they will remain unsuccessfull. The same also befalleth in Eggs, whereof some, though conceived by coition, are improlifical, unless they be impowered by re­peated, and continued coition.

Hence it cometh to pass, that some egges are quickly altered, and after three dayes of Incuba­tion discover some rudiments of a foetus: but o­thers are either easily corrupted, or are slow in their progress towards chickens, and yield no ex­pectation of a chicken, even at the seventh day: As shall be hereafter proved, in the discourse of the Ge­neration of the Pulbus, or Chicken out of the Egge.

And thus farre of the Womb of the Hen, and its Office: as also of the Generation of the Hen-egge, its [Page 76] differences, and accidents: wherein we have deli­vered what we have experimented our selves; by which you may give judgement of other Ovip­rous creatures.

It now remaineth that we should prosecute [...] history, of the Generation, and Formation of the Foe­tus out of the Egge. For (as I informed you be­fore) the whole Contemplation of the brood of H [...] and Cocks is comprehended in these two things namely, how the Egge is produced of the Henne and Cocke, and how the Cock and Henne are fra­med out of an Egge: and by this circle the pro­pagation of their Race may by the benefit and fa­vour of Nature, be prolonged, and continued.

WEe have already discovered the Formation, and Generation of the Egge; it remains that we now deliver our Observations, concerning the Procreation of the Chicken out of the Egge. An un­dertaking equally difficult, usefull, and pleasant as the former. For Natures Rudiments and At­tempts are involved in obscurity and deep night, and so perplext with subtilties, that they delude the most piercing wit, as well as the sharpest eye.

Nor can we easier discover the secret recesses, and dark principles of Generation, then the me­thod of the fabrick and Composure of the which [Page 77] world. In this reciprocal interchange of Generati­on and Corruption consists the Aeternity and Dura­ [...] of mortal creatures. And as the Rising and [...]etting of the Sun, doth by continued revolutions complete and perfect Time: so doth the alternate vicissitude of Individuums, by a constant repetition of the same species, perpetuate the continuance of [...]ading things.

Those Authors which have delivered any thing touching this subject, do for the most part tread a several Path: for having their Judgements pre­possessed with their own private opinions, they pro­ceed to erect and fashion principles proportionable to them.

Aristotle of old, and Hieronymus Fabricius of late, Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. have written so accurately concerning the Forma­tion and Generation of the Foetus out of the Egge, that they seem to have left litle to the industry of Posterity. And yet Ulysses Aldrovandus hath under­taken Ornithol. l. 14. the description of the Pullulation or formati­on of the Chicken out of the Egge, out of his own Ob­servations: wherein he seems rather to have direct­ed and guided his thoughts by the Authority of A­ristotle, then his own Experience.

For Volcherus Coiter, living at Bononia at the same time, did by the advice of the said Aldrovandus (whom he calls Tutor) dayly employ himself in the opening of Egges then sat upon by the Hen, and hath discovered many things truer then Aldro­vandus Nobil. exer. l. 6. himself, of which he also could not be ig­norant. Likewise Aemilius Parisanus (a Venetian Doctor) despising other mens opinions, hath fan­cted A new procreation of the Chicken out of the Egge.

But because somethings, (according to our ex­perience) and those of great moment and conse­quence, [Page 78] are much otherwise, then hath been y [...] delivered, I shall declare to you what dayly pro­gress is made in the egge, and what parts are alt [...] ­ed, especially about the first dayes of Incubation at which time all things are most intricate, con­fused, and hard to observe, and about which Au­thors do chiefly stickle for their own observation, which they accommodate rather to their own [...] conceived perswasions (which they have entertained concerning the Material and Efficient causes of the generation of Animals) then to truth her self.

What Aristotle relates concerning the Pr [...]c [...] ­tion of the Chicken, is most true in it selfe; yet li [...] one who had not experimented the matters him self, but had received them from other experien­ced persons, he doth not rightly distinguish them by their proper times: and is very much mistaken concerning the place in which the first principle of the Chicken is cast, which he decrees to be in th [...] Acute Angle of the Egge, and is therefore justly re­prehended by Fabricius. Nor doth he seem to have observed the beginning of the Pullus in the egge, or to have been able to have found those things there, which he accounts necessary to every Gene­ration. For he would have the White (because no­thing can possibly be made of nothing, according to the natural course) to be the Matter constitution the Chicken. Nor did hee sufficiently apprehend how the Efficient cause (namely the Cocks seed) [...] act without a contact; or how the Egge could of its own accord, without any inherent geniture of the Male, ingender the Foetus.

Aldrovandus, partaking of the same error with Aristotle, saith moreover, (which none but a blind man can subscribe to) that the Yolk doth in the first dayes, arise to the Acute Angle of the Egge: and [Page 79] tinks the Grandines to be the Seed of the Cock; and that the Pullus is framed out of them, but nou­rished as well by the Yolk as the White: which is clean contrary to Aristotles opinion, who concei­ved the Grandines to conduce nothing to the fe­cundity of the Egge.

Volcherus Coiter delivers truer things, and more consonant to Autopsie, yet his three Globuli are meer fables. Nor did he rightly consider the prin­ciple, from whence the Foetus is derived in the Egg.

Hieronymus Fabricius indeed contends, that the Grandines are not the Seed of the Cock: and yet he [...]ill have the body of the Chicken to be framed out of them. (as out of its first matter) being made fruitfull by the Seed of the Cock. He likewise saw the Origi­nal of the Chicken in the Egge; namely the Macu­la, or Cicatricula annexed to the membrane of the Yolke, but conceived it to be onely a Relique of the stalk broken off, and an infirmity or blemish onely of the Egge, and not a Principle part of it.

Parisanus hath plentifully confuted Fabricius his opinion concerning the Chalazae or Grandines, and yet himself is evidently at a loss in some certaine circles and points of the Principle parts of the Foe­tus (namely the Liver and the Heart:) and seems to have observed a Principium, or first Principle of the Foetus, but not to have known which it was, [...] that he saith, That the Punctum Album in the Middle of the Circles is the Cocks Seed, out of which the Chicken is made.

So that it comes to pass, that while each of them desire to reduce the manner of the Formation of the Chicken out of the Egge, to their own pre-conceived opinions, they are all wide from the mark.

For some conceive the Seed and Blood to be the Matter which doth constitute the Chicken: Others [Page 80] conceive the Seed to be the Efficient and producing cause, or Artificer that builds the fabrick of it: wh [...] yet upon deliberate consideration it appears most infallible, that there is no matter at hand at all, [...] no menstruous blood, which the Seed of the Male can fall to work upon, or coagulate: (as Aristotle would have it) nor is the Foetus made of the Seed of Male or Female, or any commixture of them both.

THat we may the better discover what the first day of incubation hath produced in the Egge we must first know what alterations will befal o [...] egges of their own accord; by which a stale egge is distinguished from a fresh, (without any consi­deration of the Hens sitting at all) that so it may appear, what is wrought by the very incubation it selfe. There is therefore (as we have declared before) in all egges, a certain cavity or hollow i [...] the blunt end of the egge; which cavity as the egge groweth staler, increaseth accordingly: especi­ally in hot Countries and seasons (by reason the exhalation of a thinner part of the white:) we have spoken in the History of the egge. An [...] while that cavity doth exspatiate, it enlarges mo [...] according to the longitude, then latitude of the [Page 81] Egge, and obtaineth a figure at last which doth re­ [...]e from being orbicular.

The Egg-shell being now less transparent, grow­th cloudy.

The White groweth thicker, and more viscous, [...]ding towards a duskey or Straw-colour.

The Proper membrane or coat of the Yolke be­cometh more remiss and loose, shrinking up into winckles.

The Chalazae continue still the same place, site, and consistence, at each end of the egge (and that not in new-layed egges onely, but stale ones; nor [...] those alone that are conceived after coition, but wind-eggs also;) by whose firme connexion, the Yolk and White are so fast cemented together, that both retain their proper position. For these are two abiliments mutually opposed, or the Poles and [...]inges of this Microcosme: so composed, as if they were onely a conflux of the numerous coats of the White, and were wound as it were into a knotty [...]rd, at both ends where they respect the yolk. And hence it cometh to pass, that the yolk is not easily [...]ted from the company of the White, except the Chalazae be first divided: which done, they pre­sently dis-join. And by the assistance of these hin­ [...]es, the yolk is both fixed in the center, and preser­ [...]ed in its right consistence. So that the chief part [...]f all, namely the Cicatricula, retaineth still the [...] region or altitude in the Egge, and continueth a middle space from both the extremities. For [...]is Spot, or Cicatrice, as well in a stale, as new-laid [...]gge, is still found in the same consistence, magni­fide, colour, and site. But so soon as ever the egge [...]lineth to Pullulation, be it either from the Incu­bation of the Hen, or the accession of any other fo­ [...]ing heat whatsoever, this Spot is presently di­lated, [Page 82] and widened like the Ball of the eye: and from it (as from the choisest center of the egg) the secret plastick faculty doth issue out, and germi­nate. And yet this first Principle of the egge was never yet (to my knowledge) observed by any man.

Now, at the second day of Incubation, when the Egge hath grown warm four and twenty houres under the Hen, as its cavity which is in the obtuse angle is much amplified, and fallen lower; so al­so doth the interiour constitution of the egge vary and change. For the Yolk which before stuck fast in the center of the White, ariseth towards the bl [...] angle; and the middle part of it, where the Spot i [...] ingrafted, is elevated, and applyeth it self to that membrane which encompasseth the cavity, so that now the Yolk seemeth to be annexed to the cavity by the Cicatrice. And as much as the Yolk riseth upward, so much is the grosser part of the White depressed towards the acute or lower angle Whence it appeareth (as Fabricius rightly noted) that either Aristotle was in an errour, or else the Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. there is a fault in the impression, where it is said, A­bout that time (namely, within three dayes and a nights) the yellow humour is lifted to the [...] there where the eggs beginning is, and where the egg [...] is naked there about (namely, at the dilated cavity. For Aristotle calleth that the beginning where the Acute Angle is, which parteth last from the Henn [...] Ibid. l. 3. c. 2. But notwithstanding all this, it is an undoubt [...] truth, that the Yolke ariseth towards the Blunt an­gle of the egge, and that the cavity is there dilated And so questionless Aldrovandus is deceived, [...] (though he speak as if he had experimented [...] matter) saith, that the Yolk riseth to the Acute an­gle. I confess, I have sometimes seen, about [Page 83] second and third day, the Cicatricula dilated, and a foundation laid towards the formation of the Foetus, when the yolk as yet was not ascended. But this is very rare, and I conceived it to happen so, by reason of the imbecillity, and infirmity of the Egge.

On the second day of Incubation, or first of Inspe­ction, the fore-said Spot is dilated to the magni­tude of a Pease, or Lentil, and is divided into cir­cles, (as if they were drawn by a pair of Compas­ses) which have a very small white Point for their Center. It is very probable, that Aldrovandus also did observe this Macula, or Spot; for he saith, In the midst of the yolk there appeared some kinde of whi­tish thing. So did Coiterus, where he saith, The second day, there remained in the middle of the yolke a whiter part. And Parisanus also, who saith, The second day, I saw a white substance about the bigness of an in­different faire Lentile, and of that figure: and this (saith he) is the Cocks semen, enwrapped in a white and most slender coat, lying under the two common membranes of the egge, but above the proper contain­ing coat of the yolke. And yet I conceive, that no man hitherto hath acknowledged, that this Cica­tricula was to be found in every egge, nor that it was the first Principle of the Egge.

In the meane while the Chalazae or seed-pearls, do decline on each side from the two ends of the egge, towards the sides: and this proceedeth from the shifted scituation of the White and Yolk. So that one of the Chalazae descendeth something from the obtuse angle, and the other ascendeth pro­portionably, from the Acute; as in an Oblique Sphere, by how much one Pole is elevated above the Horizon, by so much is the other depressed un­der it.

[Page 84] And now the Yolk (especially about that part where the Cicatricula resideth) doth begin to dis­solve and melt a litle, and the proper coat thereof (which in staler egges is remiss, slack, and wrinc­kled) groweth smooth and full; the Yolk it self also seemeth to have regained the same colour, consistence, and inoffensive taste, which it former­ly had, when the egge was new.

And this is the first dayes Progress of the Egge, towards a Chicken, and the first platform of its approach. But Aldrovandus addeth, that there is as yet no alteration at all in the White; wherein hee saith right. But where he affirmeth, that the Se­men of the Cock is perceived in the Yolk, he is appa­rently in the wrong. His Argument by which he would maintain the Chalazae to be Semen Galli, is exceeding slender, and that is, because egges which are destitute of these Chalazae, are not fruitfull. Hee is much in the right; for indeed they are not Eggs without them. For in all eggs, be they fertile, or not fertile, these Chalazae are inseparable In-mates. But perhaps the Good-wives deceived him (which call these Chalazae, Galladura, in Italian) and so be­trayed him into the common Heresie. Nor is Hie­ronymus Fabricius less guilty of Imprudence, who offereth to our view the formation of the Pullus, graven in several Tables; contending, that it is bo­dyed, and constituted out of these Chalazae; not so much as taking notice, that the Chalazae are all this while both of them entire, and unaltered (ha­ving onely removed their stations) and that the Exordium of the Chicken is to be sought a good distance from the Chalazae.

WHen two dayes are now passed, the afore­said circles of the Cicatricula are more am­ple, and conspicuous, being of the breadth of the Ring-finger, and sometimes of the Middle; where­in the whole Macula or Spot is divided into two (and sometimes into three) Regions, and those oftentimes inammelled, and obscurely shadowed with several colours; fully representing the figure of an Eye, and that not only by reason of its pro­tuberance, like that in the Tunica Cornea, or horny membrane, or coat of the Eye; but magnitude al­so, and likewise of that most transparent, most lu­cid humour contained in it: whose Center repre­senteth the Pupilla, or sight of the eye; but having a white point fixed in the center, it resembleth the eye of some small Bird, where the middle of the Pupilla is blemished and disfigured by some suffu­sion, or Cataract: (as they call it) and from this Resemblance we call it Oculum Ovi, the Eye of the Egge. Between these Circles is contained a most bright refulgent liquor, clearer then any Crystal­line humour in the world; which if you look upon against the light, the whole Macula will now ra­ther appear in the White of the Egge, then rivited into the membrane of the Yolke (as formerly it did) and (like some part or portion of the White, dis­solved, and clarified) contained and bounded within a most slender coat belonging to it self. And this is the reason why I call this Liquor, Oculum, the Eye, or Colliquamentum Candidum, the white [Page 86] dissolved substance; as if it were some portion of the white of the Egge, melted and liquefied by the heat shining in its own sphere apart, (unless it be scattered and distracted by concussion) and seem­eth like a more refined, and more concocted, spiri­tuous part, distinguished from the courser White by a peculiar inclosure of its own, and seated and in­throned in the midst, between both Yolk and White. It as much surpasseth the rest of the White in clear­ness, and transparence, as the most Crystal Spring excelleth the troubled Lake. The Coat encircling this humor, is so nice and fraile, that (if you be not exceeding circumspect) it will soon be rent, and so disparage the purity of this, with the confu­sion of other liquors.

And here my thoughts were a long time strang­ly divided, what I should resolve concerning this Candidum colliquamentum; whether I should name it the Calidum Innatum, or Humidum Radicale, the Radical Heat, or Moysture, or the prepared matter from which the future foetus was to take its rise: or the Aliment exactly concocted, such as the Ros is reputed to be amongst the secundary humours? For I was fully satisfied (as I shall declare hereaf­ter) that in the midst of this the first rudiments of the Foetus lay, and that this also was its nourish­ment, and after it was of some growth, the place of its abode.

Hence it appeareth, that this Colliquamentum is soon enlarged, (namely in the compass of a day) as is evidently deciphered in Fabricius his second Figure, especially the inward Region of it; which, while it dilateth it self, it obliterateth and quite expungeth the outward. As you may observe in the Eyes of those creatures whose fight of the Eye is very large, and therefore they see better in the [Page 87] Night then in the Day (of which kinde are Owles, Cats, and the like; whose Sight is most dilated in the dark, but more contracted in the Light:) for if you transferre such a creature nimbly from the light into the shade, you shall perceive plainly how the the sight is distended, so that it will much diminish the other circle, (which is called the I­ris) and almost quite over-run it.

Parisanus lighting upon these circles, was much mistaken; for he mustereth up amongst his cir­cles, a white one, a yellow one, one of the complexion of honey, and another white one besides; asserting the foetus to be made of the middle white point (which doth indeed really appeare in the midst of those circles) which he fancieth to be the Semen Galli. And that he may approve himself more cunning and subtile yet, Before (saith he) there appeareth any blushing or redness in the body of the Foetus, there are in it as it were two exceeding small Bullulae or Bubbles; neither of which hath any ruddiness at all at the first: and one of these Bullulae he would obtrude upon us for the Heart, and the other for the Liver. But the truth is, that no such Bullula is to be seen at all, before a sanguine ruddiness doth appear; Nor doth the Foetus look red at all at first; Nor do any of those Bullulae give us any representation at all of a Liver, but both of them express the two Ventricles of the Heart, and by leaping (as shall be explained hereafter) do make mutual returns to one another by their Systole and Diastole.

Aristotle seemeth to have understood this colli­quamentum, Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. where he saith, About that time (name­ly the third day) there is a certain membrane diva­ricated with certain sanguineous fibers, which contain a white liquor, arising from the spriggs of those veines. For by white liquor, he could not mean the whole [Page 88] white of the egge; because the coat of the white is not then sprinckled with veins, but onely the coat of this colliquamentum. And therefore he saith, There is a membrane also, intimating a distinct mem­brane from those of the Yolk and White, in that he saith it ariseth from the spriggs of the veines, about the third day. Coiterus also seemeth to have ac­knowledged this colliquamentum, saying, Some part of the White approacheth neerer to white­ness then the other, and some to density. Now the aforesaid colliquamentum is encompassed with its proper coat, and is distinct and separate from the rest of the White, before any part at all of the blood appear.

We shall have occasion to discourse hereafter of the mighty use of this colliquamentum, in relation to the foetus of all kinde of Animals. For while they swim there, they are guarded, and skreened from all concussion, contusion, and other outward in­juries, and are also nourished by it.

I saw long since a foetus of the magnitude of a Pease-cod, cut out of the Uterus of a Doe, which was complete in all its members (so that it was appa­rently a Male by the parts:) I shewed this pretty Spectacle and Rarity of Nature to our late King, and Queen. It did swim, trim and perfect, in such a kinde of White, most transparent, and crystalline moysture (as if it had been treasured up in some most clear glassie receptacle) about the bigness of a Pigeous egge, and was invested with its proper coat.

WE have seen the second Progress, or prepa­ration of the Egge towards the Foetus, which falleth within the third dayes Observation. It fol­loweth that we now attend the third Appearance; which presenteth it selfe to our view after three daies and as many nights.

And of this Aristotle: There doe begin to appear Hist. [...] 1. [...]. 6. c. 3. some indications of Generation in Hennes, after three dayes, and so many nights; (as suppose upon Mun­day morning, in case that on the precedent Fryday­morning the Eggs were layed under the Hen, then ready to sit) and the declaration of this Inspection, is the purpose of Fabricius his third Figure.

If therefore you observe on the fourth day, you will meet a great Metamorphosis, and wonderfull alteration; which are more evident, for almost e­very hour all that day long: about which time the Egg beginneth to step from the life of a Plant, to the life of an Animal. For now the Limbus or hemme of the colliquamentum beginneth to blush and purple, being encompassed with a slender bloody line: and in the center almost of it, there leapeth a capering bloody point, which is yet so ex­ceeding small, that in its Diastole, or Dilatation, it flasheth onely like the most obscure and almost in­discernable spark of fire; and presently upon its Systole or Contraction, it is too subtile for the eye, and quite disappeareth. So slender are the first Ru­diments of Creatures lives, which the Plastical fa­culty [Page 90] sets on foot by so undiscoverable beginnings.

If you are desirous to make discovery of this observation toward the declining of the third day, you may if you be extreamly intent, by the assi­stance of a clear & great light, or by the Sun beams, or a Perspective, make a shift to discerne it. For else, this purple streak is so exceeding nice, and fine, and the motion of the Punctum saliens is so impercepti­ble, that you will only loose your labour. But, at the beginning of the fourth day it is evident, and at the end thereof, most notoriously visible, that the Punctum sanguineum saliens hath now Animal mo­tion (saith Aristotle) in the candid liquor: (which I call colliquamentum.) And from that (Point) two hollow threads like veines, full of blood, are car­ried crooked to the purple Line, and the coat en­compassing the colliquamentum: scattering as they pass along many fibrous branches through the whole space and continent of the colliquamentum, all which spring from the same Original (as the boughs of Trees from the same Trunke,) In the crooked Angle of this Root, and the Middle of the colliquamentum, the Punctum Rubrum Saliens is en­throned, which keeps time and decorum in its pul­sation, compounded of a Systole, and Diastole. In the Diastole, as if it did imbibe a larger proportion of blood, it dilates it self, and leaps; but connives in the Systole, as if it suffered a convulsion by the stroke, and resigned the blood again.

Fabricius hath described this Punctum or Point, in his third Figure, and, (which is strange) took it for the body of the Foetus; as if either he had not observed its leaping, and pulsation, or else had not understood that text of Aristotle, or at best had forgotten it. But that which is yet more strange, is, [Page 91] that he should be nothing mindfull all this while of his chalazae, from which himself deduces the rudiments of the chicken.

Ulysses Aldrovandus, a Writer in Bouonia, about Ornithol. l. 14. pag. 217. that time saith, There appeared in the White a litle kinde of Punctum saliens, or capering Point, which is the same which Aristotle decrees to be the Heart. Out of which I plainly discovered a litle Trunke of a vein to arise, and two other litle branches tending to­wards this, which were those very channels of blood, which he had wrote to be sent forth to the two coats en­compassing the Yolk and White. Now I am clear of his Opinion, conceiving those passages to be Veins, and to have a pulsation, containing a purer blood in them, and such as is usefull and proper for the generation of the more principle parts; namely, the Liver, and the Lungs, and the like. But both these are not veines, nor have they both a pulsation; for one is an Arte­rie, the other a vein, as wee shall hereafter shew: where we shall also declare, that these Meatus do become the Umbilical vessels of the Foetus.

Volcherus Coiter hath these words: The litle bloo­dy Point, or Globulus found before in the yolke, is now rather in the white, and evidently pulsatile. Now he is out, in sayng, It was found before in the yolke; for that Point which was in the yolke was white; and did not leap neither; nor doth the bloody point or Globulus appear to leap the second day af­ter Incubation. But that Point (which we have de­clared to be placed in the Middle of the round, as if it were the center, and which is annexed to the yolke) doth vanish quite away, before the Point, which Aristotle calleth Punctum saliens, can be dis­cerned at all, or (as I believe) becometh red, and leaping. For both these Points are seated in the center of the colliquamentum, and neer the root and [Page 92] original of the veines which spring from thence: but they are never seen together, but the Red, which is the Punctum saliens, succeeds in the place of the White one.

In this indeed Volcherus is in the right, where be saith, The Punctus saliens is now rather found in the White, then in the Yolke. By which words, [...] was incited to make diligent search, whether th [...] Punctus albus be transmuted into the Punctum san­guineum; because both of them are almost of the same magnitude, and did seem scituate in the same place. And sometimes, I found, the glistering purple circle which is the outermost, ending about the vermilion horizon, encompassed by the Colliqua­mentum; in whose center there was the Punctus al­bus, but not the Ruber, or Saliens: but I never saw those two Points together. This disquisition is of great moment; namely, Whether there be blood before Pulsation, and, Whether the Punctus arise from the Veines, or the Veines from the Punctus?

According to my observation the Blood seems to be before the Pulse; and I therefore believe it, be­cause, Upon Wednesday about the Evening, I put three egges under the Henne, and upon Saturday, a litle before the same time, I found these egges cold, as being forsaken by the Henne; however, open­ing one of them, I found the rudiments of a Chicken; namely the Purple and bloody Line in the circle: but in the center, instead of the Punctum saliens, I found the Punctum album, which is bloodless. By which I perceived the Henne had not long desert­ed her charge: whereupon, seizing upon her by force, I penned her up all night, having first layed the two former remaining egges, with other that were not there before, into the Nest. Now for the success: The next morning betimes, my two egges [Page 93] were well recovered; and I found in the center the Punctum Micans, which was much less then the Punctum Album; out of which (namely the Pun­ctum Album) a spark or lightning, darting as it were from a cloud, appeared in the Diastole onely: So that to my Apprehension, the Punctum Rubrum did leap out of the Punctum Album, at least that Punctum is generated in the Punctum Album, and [...] being now there, hath its Birth, or at least its [...] there. Nay, I have many times observed, The Punctum saliens, when (as quite expired) it lay deprived of all motion, it hath regained fresh motion and pulsation, by a new heat and cherish­ing. Therefore in order of Generation, I conceive that the Punctum and Blood do first exist, but the pulsation arriveth not till afterward.

And this is most certain, that nothing at this time appears, besides the bloody streaks, the Pun­ctum saliens, and those Veins which are all derived from one Trunk (as that Trunk it self from the Pun­ctum saliens) and do afterward constitute the Um­bilical Vessels: which being disseminated farre and wide, the foetus at length (according to it growth) doth attract sustenance from the Yolk and White. You may see a lively resemblance of these Veins & their propagations in the leaves of Trees, whose fibres do all proceed from the pedunculus or stalk, and are diffused from one Trunk through the whole capa­city of the Leaf.

This whole entire Colliquamentum, distinguished and sprinkled with bloody fibres, representeth the form & magnitude of the two wings of a Butterflie. And it is no other then that Membrane which Ari­stotle In loc. supra dict. speaks of, where he saith, The Membrane diva­ricated with bloody fibres, containeth then a white li­quor, springing from those Meatus of the Veins.

[Page 94] About the end of the fourth, and beginning of the fifth day, being now enlarged, it seemeth to be changed into a small thin bladder, containing blood in it; which it ejects at every contraction, and recalls again at every diastole.

Hitherto I could not discover any distinction of Vessels: for the Arteries do not yet differ from veines, either in coat, or Pulsation: and therefore I call the vessels indifferently veines, or with Ari­stotle, Meatus Venales, Veinal Passages, or Chan­nels.

This Punctum (saith Aristotle) now bestirres it self like an Animal; for Motion and Sense distin­guish an Animal from a non Animal. Since there­fore this Punctum begins now first to move, wee may justly say it hath put on the nature of an A­nimal: and that the Egge which was before en­dowed with a vegetative soule, is now over and a­bove that, furnished with a Motive and sensation power; and is raised from a Plant to an Animal and that at the same time the soule of the Foetus is gone in, which first formes the chicken ou [...] of the Egge, and afterward informs that chic­ken. For Aristotle demonstratively resolves of the Lib. de A­nimâ. 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 repe [...] injuries, that they did confound the chime and [Page 95] 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 [Page 96] 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 [Page 97] 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 pag. 217. 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 [Page 98] 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 white is turned into a kind of straw-co­loured substance. For that complexion is in the the thicker white, of all egges that are stale, and is daily increased in them, (namely, according as the Egge groweth Staler, as is said) and that without any assistance of veins, by reason of the thinner substance exhaling.

But the Foetus growing bigger, (as we shall de­clare in its place) and the circles of the branches of the veins being disseminated up and down, part of both the juyces are dissolved, not (as Al­drovandus would have it) by an innate vertue of the veins, but by the heat of the blood inhabiting there. For into what part soever of the moisturer [Page 99] the foresaid veins extend their Territories, there presently appears a colliquation or resolution in the bordering parts; and therefore the Yolk at that time seems double, because its superior part (which is joined to the cavity above, about the obtuse angle) being more mollified, and dissolved then the rest of the Yolk, appears like melted Wax, compared to the other cold, compacted part. And upon that score (as all melted things do) it obtaineth a larger roome. And that Upper part, liquefied by the genital warmth is disterminated from the other li­quors (and especially from the White) by a peculiar most thin coat of its own. Whence it happens, that a breach being made upon this slender, frail, and invisible membrane, there presently follows a con­fusion and mixture of the Yolk and White, which disturbs the whole frame. And it is many times a cause to frustrate and void Generation (when those liquors become to be of a diverse, nay of a contrary nature) according to that Text in Ari­stotle, de gen. an. l. 3. c. 2. so often cited. Egges are depraved and made addle most in hot weather, and that upon good rea­son. For as Wines grow sower in hotter weather, the dregs being subverted (for that is the cause of their depravation) so Egges are destroyed, their Yolk being corrupted: for these are the more terrene and earthy parts in both. So that Wine is disturbed by a com­mixture of the dregs, and the Egges by diffusion of the Yolk. And hither you may justly reduce that of Hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. him too, where he saith, Egges that are under the Henne in tempestuous thunders, are corrupted. For the exceeding smal membrane is by so great a noise quickly torne asunder. And therefore perhaps, confused and putrid Egges, are called Ova Cynosu­ra, because (as we have observed) it thunders Lib. 8. c. 5. most in the Dog-days. And therefore Columella [Page 100] rightly admonisheth, that most men deeme the Sum­mer-Solstice to be inconvenient for hatching of chickens.

This is most certain, that Egges suffer quassation, concussion, and dissolution very easily, if any man disturb them while the Hen is Sitting, because at that time the liquors in them are liquefied, and swell, and the membranes embracing them are di­lated, and grow tender.

THE fifth day of Incubation, is discerned first (saith Aristotle) the body of the Pullus, being ve­ry Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. small, and white, wherein the head is conspicum and in it the eyes much turgent, which continue so a long time, for it is long ere they abate, and connive. But in the lower part of the body, there is no part [...] first extant, correspondent to the upper. But th [...]s [...] Branches which shoot out from the Heart, one tending to the ambient membrane, the other to the Yolk, do supp [...] the office of the Navel. The original of the Chicken therefore from the White, but its nourishment from the Yolk by the Navel.

By which words Aristotle seems to distrib [...] the whole Generation of the Pullus into three class [...] or orders, namely from the first day of Incubation to the fifth: and thence, on to the tenth or fourteenth and so on to the twentieth. As if he had o [...] recorded those things in his History, which he [...] covered at these three Inspections. The great [Page 101] changes in the Egge do indeed happen at these times: as if by these Decretory days, as by three distinct degrees, the progresse of the perfect Egge, to the utmost exclusion of the Chicken, were di­stinguished. For the fourth day the first particle of the Foetus, namely the Punctum saliens, and the Blood appear; and after that the Foetus is corporated. The Seventh, the Chicken is distinguished into parts, and beginnes to move. The tenth it beginnes to be down-feathered; about the twentieth, it breathes, and cryes according to its kind, and seeks to make its escape. The Life which it obtains about the fourth day, seems to emulate that of Plants, and is to be esteemed onely a vegitative animation. But from that to the tenth, it enjoyes a sensative and moving soul as Animals do: and after that, it is compleated by degrees, and being adorned with Pl [...]es, Bill, Clawes, and other furniture, it hastens to get out, that being at length emancipated, it may be unconfined and free.

Aristotle therefore enumerates amongst those things which befall after the fourth day, chiefly three; that is to say, the fabrick of the body, the branchings of the veines, which now supply the Nature and Office of the Navel: and the matter or substance whence the Foetus doth first spring, and is constituted, and nourished.

Concerning the Fabrick of the Body, he relates four things, first, what magnitude it is of; second­ly, what complexion; thirdly, what parts are most conspicuous, (namely the Head, and Eyes) and last­ly, what distinction or difference there is between the Parts. Truth is, the Body is exceeding small, resembling in form that common worm or Mag­got, out of which the Flie is bred; it is also white of colour, like that little Worm, which the [Page 102] Flie depositeth in putrified flesh. to be cherished, and bred up; and he elegantly addes, that it is most notorious from its Head and Eyes. For that which first appears, is a similar and indistinct Body, as if it were some concrete and congealed substance of the colliquamentum it self (like that Gelly which is made of the decoction of Harts-horn) being like a transparent cloud, which were hardly distinguish­able, were it not divided as it were into two parts; whereof the one lies in a heap together; and is much larger then the other, being the Rudimens of the Head; which is first discerned on the fifth day: in which the Eyes are anon manifestly distin­guished; which at first are the biggest of all, much puffed up, and prominent, and are discriminated both from the rest of the Head, and the whole Body besides, by a certain blackness cast round about them. Any one of these, is larger then the whole Head; as also, the Head alone exceeds all there of the Body in magnitude. This Whiteness of the Body, endureth a while, as also, the tumor of the Eyes: (which are filled also with a most clear moisture or water within, but are dark and black­ish without, as it is also with the Brain) that is to say, to the tenth day, and more: for (saith A­ristotle) It is late ere they diminish, and contract to their allotted proportion. Nay, according to my observation, the Eyes of Birds do never reduce themselves to the Proportion, which is allotted as the standard between the Eyes, and the Head of a Viviparous Animal. For if you lay aside the Skin, which covereth the Eyes of a Henne, or any other Bird, either of them alone will soon countervail the whole bulk of the Braine: In a Woodcock and the like, any one of the Eyes is bigger then all the Head besides, (bateing onely the Bill) but it is [Page 103] common to all Birds whatsoever to have the Orbita, or cavity which containes the Eyes to exceed the Braine it selfe, as you may see in their cranium, or Scull. But yet it falls out that their Eyes seem les­ser, because they are all (except the Sight or Ap­ple onely) shrouded with Skin and Plumes; nor are they of an Orbicular Figure (which might oc­casion their prominence or standing out) but of a Depressed, as Fishes eyes are.

In the lower part of the Body (saith Aristotle) there is no part extant at first, which is correspondent to the Superior: And so indeed it is: The Body at first were scarce discernable, were it not for the Eyes and the Head; so that downwards, it is not di­stinguished by any members at all, whether Wings, Feet, Breast-bone, Rump, or any Viscus: nor in­deed is it graced with any Shape of a Body: but as far as I could discover, it is onely a Litle Sub­stance, next adjacent to the small veine, like the carina or keele of an imaginable small Ship wound up together, and like a Maggot or Worme, with­out any platform of Ribbes, Legs, or Wings: to which is fastned a litle round body, which is the rudiment of the Head, which is more discernable th [...]n it, and divided into three Bubbles, (on which fid: soever you make your Inspection:) But it is indeed divided into four, whereof two are largest, and blackish, being the rudiments of the Eyes; the third of the Braine; and the fourth of the cerebellum, or After-Braine. All these are full of exceeding clear Water, but in the middle of the Blackness of the eyes, is the Apple or Ball of the Eye (as in the Center) shining like a transparent Spark or Crystal. Hence I suppose, the Tres Bullae, the three Bubbles which are onely conspicuous, have imposed upon those, who have not througly observed the thing. [Page 104] For having learnt, according to the old doctrine of the Schooles, that there were three Principalities in the Animal Body, and three Principal Parts; (namely, the Braine, the Heart, and the Liver) executing the chief Functions: They soon indu­ced themselves to believe, that these Three Bullae were the platformes, and ground-works of these three parts. But Coiterus, as becomes a skilful A­natomist, affirms much truer, that he saw, on the Seventh day after Incubation, the Bill, and the Eyes, but could discover none of the Visce­ra.

But to Aristotle againe. Those Branches, which proceed from the Heart, one of them tendeth to the circumambient membrane, the other to the Yolk, sup­plying the office of a Navel. The Foetus being now bodied, those veines do execute the office of a Na­vel: and one of their branches, or propagations is disseminated into the outward coat, which em­braceth the White; but the sprouts of the other go directly to the coat of the Yolk, and are dissemina­ted through its juyce or liquor. By which it is plaine and evident, that both the Liquors are dedi­cated to the nourishment of the Foetus. And though Aristotle say, that the Original of the chicken is from the White, and its nourishment from the Yolk by the Navel: Yet he doth not say that the chicken is made of the White; for the Foetus is made of that white Liquor which we call the colliquamentum: and all that which we call Oculum Ovi, the Eye of the Egge, is contained in the White. Nor doth he say that the sustenance of the Chicken is onely from the Yolk by the Navel: but I shall interpret his words (according to my one Observations) thus: Though the Pullus assume its original in the White, yet it is not fed by the White onely, but by the Yolk [Page 105] also (to which one of the Sprigs of the Umbilical veines doth extend) nay chiefly by the Yolk; for the White (according to Aristotle) is the more con­cocted, and purer liquor of the egge, but the Yolk the more terrene, and solid, and therefore more congruous to the Chicken, when he is growne stronger: and therefore (as shall be said hereaf­ter) it supplies the place of Milk, and is that which is last consumed; for the remainder of it (after the Chichen is hatched, and walkes a­broad with the Henne) it yet contained in its Belly.

What I have hitherto spoken, cometh to passe, from the fourth day to the seventh. But When, How, and in what Order, all the Particulars are framed, I shall now explaine.

The Next Appearance, which presents it selfe the fifth day, about the short veine drawn from the Angle (where the two points leaping in course are seated) there appears a grosser, and whiter substance, like a little cloud, (which yet is transparent) through which the foresaid veine doth obscurely, and as through a cloud, cast a glimpse of it self. I have seen the same sometimes, in well grown eggs, upon the fourth day. But this is the Rudiment of the Body, which now every hour groweth more close, and compact, and doth encompasse the foresaid veine, and also is annexed to it, like a litle globous body. That globous Rudiment doth much exceed the Keele (as I may call it) of this little Worm, in magnitude: and it is of a trian­gular figure, that is to say, (like the small sprout of a knotted shrubbe) obscurely divided into three pieces: Whereof one is Orbicular, and larger then the other two, and looks black, by reason of some most slender fibres, which are drawn from [Page 106] the Circumference towards the Center: resembling the platform of the Septum Ciliare, and therefore it implyes, that this particle is transformed into the Eye. In the midsts of this, is a very little Pupilla or Eye-Ball, appearing like a most bright point: (as we have said) and upon that ground I raised my conjecture, that this entire litle round body, was designed for the Rudiment of the Head: and that that black circle was to be one of the Eyes, to which the other standeth opposite on the other side: for they are so seated, that you cannot dis­cerne them both at once, because the uppermost covereth and hideth the lower.

This first Rudiment of the Body, which we af­firm to grow about the veine, (hath obtained an oblong, and something an embowed figure, (like the Keel of a Ship; it is of a mucous consistence, like the film or hoariness which is contracted by moist things, when they are pent up in a close place. But the small veine to which this hoary substance doth ac­crew, is the descending Vena Cava, passing along the Spine of the Back: as my subsequent observa­tions have cleared. If you diligently mind the order of the pulsation of the two vesicles, you shall discerne the blood driven by the Systole of that which was last contracted into the beginning of this veine, and this vein distended by it.

So that there are two manifest Contractions and Dilatations of the two vesicles which cause a motion and pulse in one another: and the preceding Con­traction of the one, creates the Distention of the other: for the blood being darted into the second vesicle, by the Contraction of the cavity of the first, causeth an impletion, distention, and pulsation in it: which by and by contracting it self, disgorgeth the blood (which it now received from the former [Page 107] vesicle) into the beginning of the foresaid veine, and so dilateth that. I call it yet a vein, though by its pulse I conceive it to be the Artery, called A­orta; for the Arteries are not yet distinguished from the veines by the thickness of their coats.

Having often observed these things with much caution and circumspection in several eggs, I stood a while in suspense, what opinion I should enter­tain of them. As, whether I should conclude this concrete, and annexed globous body were made of the Colliquamentum, (in which it swam) as out of a compacted and coagulated substance; as Clouds are formed out of vapours in the upper Region of the Air (which vapors were never discovered to ascend:) Or else out of some Effluvium or exha­lation of blood transpiring, or some Transudation, weeping by a kinde of diapedesis, from the vein. For the first Rudiments even of the greatest things, are exceeding small, and so very obscure, because very litle.

This, I presume, I am assured of, viz. that the Pun­cta salientia, the Branchings of the veins, & the Vena cava it self are first existent, & that afterwards this corpulency or bulke is joyned to them. And I am also most certain, that the Blood is driven into this Vein out of the Punctum saliens, and that by this Vein that litle bulke or body is fed. For that first hoariness or Mucus is first of all made by an Ef­fluvium of the Vein, (to which it grows) and from it afterward draweth its nourishment and en­crease: As filme and hoariness doth in other moist places grow between the chincks of walls, which lie long unswept; as Camphyre upon Cedar-planks, and Moss upon Stones, and Barks of Trees; or last­ly, as a kinde of downe is bred upon some kinde of Wormes.

[Page 108] I did also doubt at the same time, whether this Rudiment of the Head and Body had its existence so soon, as the coagulation of the Colliquamentum, together with the Blood, and Punctum saliens had theirs, but was then imperciptible by reason of its thinness, and clearness of substance; till congeal­ing into a grosser film, it put on a more solid, com­pacted whiteness, by which it might be discerned: while yet the Blood which is thicker and shining might be well perceived in the Colliquamentum which is so diaphanous. But whilest I consider the matter more narrowly, I am fully satisfied, that the Blood hath a being, before any other part of the body besides, and is the elder brother to all other parts of the foetus; and that from it, both the mat­ter out of which the foetus is constituted, as also the aliment by which it is supplied, is desumed, and is (if any thing be) the first genital particle. But how I am induced to this perswasion, shall be after­wards copiously recited, when we discourse con­cerning the primitive fructifying Part, the Innate Heat, and Radical Moisture; and when also wee shall resolve what is to be thought concerning the soule, out of many Observations conferred to­gether.

About this time, almost every hour, all things appear larger and clearer, and more distinct, and unfolded; and now there comes a nimble Altera­tion in the Egge, and many things appear one up­on the neck of another. The Cavity of the Egge is now much larger, and layeth the upper part of it all void and empty, as if a fifth part of the Egge were vanished.

The litle branches of the Veins are farther spread out, and grow more numerous in their distributi­ons, not onely into the Colliquamentum, (as be­fore) [Page 109] but up and down both into Yolke and White, & both those liquors are chequered over with fibers. The upper part of the Yolke is much dissolved and melted, as if it were a distinct thing from the infe­riour, and that the yolke were now become two; the superiour shining like melted wax, swelled, and bright; and the inferiour and earthier, together with the duller part of the White, being depressed to the acute angle. And the proper coat of the su­periour part of the yolke is now so thinne, that the least concussion breaks it; upon which ensues a con­fusion of liquors, and an utter frustration of gene­ration.

And now is the first Rudiment of the Foetus to be clearly seen (as you may perceive it in Fabricius his fifth and sixth Tables;) which being put into a bason of clear water, will plainly discover, what parts of the body are already framed, and what are yet wanting and behinde. For there appears the form of a small Worm or Magot, as we see the rudiments of Wormes and Flies in the boughs of Trees, in the knots of the Bark, in Fruits, Flowers, and other things; but especially in Oak apples, in whose center, within a small round Shell or Kernel, is contained a clear liquor, which thickning and coagulating by degrees, is interlaced with most slender fibres, and represents the shape of a Magot, but continues a while immoveable, till at length endued with sense and motion, it becomes an ani­mal, and departs a Flie.

Aristotle describes a Generation like this, in Hist. an. l. 5. c. 19 those things that are called Sponte nascentia. Some creatures are born of the Dew, which falls upon the Leaves. And a while after he saies: Butterflies are made of Worms, but these Worms of green Leaves; and especially of the Leaves of that sort of Raphanus, [Page 110] which some call Brassica. They are first smaller then Millet, and afterward very litle worms; then encrea­sing, within three dayes they become litle Magots; and after this being more grown, they cease to move, and changing their form, are called Crystallides, being contained in a hard crust; and if you touch them, they stirre: a great while after the crust or shell is broken, and so they being become winged creatures, take their flight, and are called Butterflies.

But we shall prove anon, that the Generation of all creatures is alike, and that all creatures, even perfect ones, are begotten of a Worm; which Aristotle also seemeth to have noted, where he saith: In all Creatures, even those which produce a perfect egge, the de gen. an. l. 3. c. 9. first conception groweth before it be distinguished: such is also the nature of the Worm. Now this difference there is between the generation of the Worm, and o­ther Creatures; that the Worm growes before hee have his shape, or distinction into parts: according to that of the Philosopher, An animal is made out of a Worm, not as if it were made out of a part of it, as out of its Egge; but in that the whole Worm grows, and so becomes a dearticulate animal; namely, in grow­ing it becomes to be jointed or distinguished.

We have indeed cause to wonder, that the Ru­diments De hist. an. l. 5. c. 9. of all Creatures whatsoever, especially of Creatures that have blood, (viz. of a Dog, a Horse, a Deere, an Oxe, a Henne, a Viper, nay of Man him­selfe) should so exactly resemble the shape and consistence of a Magot, that you can perceive no difference at all.

Towards the end of the Fifth day, or the begin­ning of the Sixth, the Head is distinguished into three vesicles or litle bladders; whereof the first; and greatest, which is round, and blackish, is that of the Eye: in whose center the Pupilla is discove­red [Page 111] like a crystalline Point. Under this a lesser vesi­cle, whereof part is hidden, represents the Brain; [...] which the third, like a crest adjoyned, or a smal [...]nd knobb, appears uppermost; of which at last [...]he Cerebellum or After-brain is made: yet in all [...]ese you shall finde nothing, besides a cleare wa­ter.

And now the Rudiment of the Body, (which we all the Keel) doth more distinctly represent the [...]pina dorsi, or Chine of the Back: to which, sides begin to be built and appear; for the Wings and legs do now jut out from the Magot. And the ves­sels do now plainly express the Navel.

THe sixth day the three Bullae of the Head doe more plainly appear, and the coats of the eyes are now distinct: also the Legs and Wings do bud forth; as at the end of June, the Gyrini (which the Italians call Ravabottoli, and we Tadpoles) be­gin to have leggs, when now they forsake the wa­ [...]ers, loose their tayl, and put on the shape of Frogs.

The form of the Chickens Rump is yet no o­ther, then that which is seen in all other animals, may in very vipers, namely a round slender tail. The Parenchyma of the heart now groweth to the vesicula pulsans; and a litle after the Rudiments of the Liver, and Lungs are discovered, and also the Bill, all appearing exceeding white, especially the Bill. And about this time all the Viscera and the [Page 112] Guts may be seen. But the heart exposeth it [...] first to sight, and the Lungs before the Liver or the brain. But before all are the eyes visible, because o [...] their largeness and blackness of their colour.

And now the foetus moves, and gently tumbles, and stretcheth out the neck, though nothing of a brain be yet to be seen, but meerly a bright water shut up in a small bladder. And now it is a perfect Magot, differing onely from those kinde of worm [...] in this, that those when they have their freedome, crawle up and down, and search for their living abroad: but this worm constant to his station, and swimming in his own provision, draws it in by his Umbilical Vessels.

The Viscera and the Guts being now erected, and the foetus being furnished with motion too; yet the fore-part of the Body still lyes wide open, being deprived of the Thorax, and Abdomen; and the Heart it selfe, the Liver, and the Guts hang­ing out.

About the end of this day, and the beginning of the seventh, the claws are distinguished; and the foetus begins to have the Effigies of a Chicken, it o­pens the bill, and kicks: lastly, all the parts are delineated, especially the Eyes. But the Viscera or bowels are yet so obscure, that Coiterus truly affirme [...]. That he saw indeed the Eyes and the Bill, but could discover no Viscus at all, though never so conceal­ed or confused.

That which followeth from the beginning of the sixth day to the end of the seventh, cometh [...] pass sooner in some, and in some eggs later. No [...] are the coats of the Eyes seen, though they have nothing in them but a liquid clear humor: the Ey [...] themselves are something prominent, or hanging out of their seats, and each of them doth no le [...] [Page 113] exceed the brain in magnitude, then the head, the rest of the body that is fastned to it.

A litle bubble, like a crest, placed out of the cir­cuit of the brain, supplied the place of the cerebel­lum, and that is also full of a clear water.

The brain seemeth obscurely divided, and shines not so much as the cerebellum doth, though it look whiter. And as the Heart is now to be seen without the inclosure of the chest, so is the cerebel­lum, out of the Confines of the cerebrum.

In cutting off the Head, I saw (by the benefit of [...]y Perspective) in the Necke, a bloody speck of [...]e veine which ascends to the braine. And by [...]his means onely could I distinguish the rudiment of the Spine, from the other Pulpe, it was of a milkey complexion, but firmer consistence then milk. And so also like slender cobwebs, narrow white lines, wan­ [...]ing through the pulp of the body, to give some [...]imen of the Ribbs, and other bones; and this is much more discernable in the formation of other Viviparous Animals. The Heart, the Lungs, the Li­ver, and, instead of Guts, the most slender threds, [...]re all white. The Parenchyma of the Liver [...]ows to the Umbilical vein, there where it enters [...]o the Liver, upon thin fibrous strings: in like manner as the Rudiment of the Body grows to the [...] passing from the Heart, or to the Vesicula pul­ [...]s. For as Grapes grow to the cluster, buds to [...]eir stalks, and the eares of corn to the straw: So [...]th the Liver to the Umbilical vessels, like mush­ [...] out of Trees, or proud flesh in Ulcers, or fleshy [...]rs which border upon the branches of the Ar­ [...]es, by which they are fed, and spread sometimes [...] [...] vast tumor.

Having had an Eye upon this emploiment of Arteries, or circulation of the blood, I have some­times [Page 114] perfectly cured exceeding great Herniae car­nosae, beyond all expectation; providing onely, that the litle artery being tyed or cut off, no nu­triment or spirit might have accession to the part affected; by which it fell out, that the fatal tumor was afterwards easily extirpated either by incision, or adustion.

A certain man, besides other infirmities, (and of this story I can produce many testimonies) had a Sarcosis or fleshy tumor in his Scrotum or God, big­ger then a mans head, hanging down to his Knees; and from it, another Hernia carnosa, as thick as ones wrist (or a cable) passed into his Abdomen, so that the disease growing to so great a height, no man would undertake the Cure, by incision, or o­therwise. Yet I perfectly cured this so vast excre­scence, which so much distended the Scrotum, and encompassed the Testicle, by the means aforesaid; and yet left the leading and preparing vessel to the use of the Testicle, without any prejudice or touch upon the other vessels descending into the S [...] ­tum, by the Tunica vaginalis, or coat of the Testi­cles so called. But these and other Cures, accom­plished clean beside the common opinion, I shall in my Physical Observations (if God grant me life) discover at large.

I mention these things with this intent, that men may plainly see, that the Liver grows to the vessels, and is generated some time after the Blood is born, and that its parenchyma is produced by the Arteries, (which administer matter to frame [...] and also that for a while it continues white, and without blood; which is likewise common to o­ther parts of the body. For after the same man [...] and order, as we have declared the production [...] the Chicken to be out of the Egge, doth the [...] [Page 115] ration of Man, and all other Animals proceed. By which it appears, how incongruous their per­swasion is, (though it hath obtained both of old, and now too) who decree the Liver to be both the [...] where the Blood is wrought, and the Author of it; and do upon that account, rank it amongst the [...]hiefe and first-born parts of the Body: who also give so much renown to this Viscus, that they pro­claim it to spring with the Heart, from the first beginning, out of the semen of the mother; and do rigorously maintain the Fable de tribus Capellis, or the three imaginary Bubbles. In which Quire, Pa­risanus of late, with a loud, but unmannageable voice, hath sung his part of the Catch.

These honest men never took notice, that the Vesicles move, the Heart pants, & the Blood is now perfectly concocted, before any track or founda­tion of the Liver appears. Without all question the Blood is to be counted the Author of the Liver, [...]ither then the Liver the Author of the Blood. For the Liver is made after the Blood, and of it, cleaving [...]the Veins that contain the Blood.

Nor yet can I subscribe to the Aristotelians, which repute the Heart to be the Author of the [...]id. For its substance also, or Parenchyma is born [...] the Blood, and is then superadded to the Ve­ [...]la Pulsantes. But I am much in doubt whether Vesicula, or Punctum saliens or the Blood, that is to [...]y, whether the contained liquor, or the containing [...]ssels be the elder. Now it seems in reason, that [...] container is made for the contained; and there­fore after it. This indeed our cies can truly witnese, [...] the Veines are the first woof, and the first visi­ [...] foundation of the body, and that all the other [...] are superadden to them, and born after [...]. But of this matter hereafter more at large.

[Page 116] In the Interim we cannot chuse but smile at that fond and fictitious Division of the Parts, into Spermatical, and Sanguineous; as if any part were immediately framed of the Semen, and were not all of one extract and original.

But I return to our purpose. The extent of the Colliquamentum doth not reach over more then half the Egge. The Heart hanging out, stands something off from the body. And if you makes diligent inspection, you may discover some of the Umbilical Vessels beat.

ON the seventh day all things are clearer, and the primordia of each particular part are now visible; namely, the Wings, Leggs, Genitals, the di­vided Claws of the feet, the Thighs, the Sides [...]ien, &c.

Now the Foetus bestirrs it self, and kicks, and the Chicken is found complete, there being no ad­dition to be expected after but only the growth o [...] the parts yet tender: which the more they en­crease, the more the White decaies; and the out ward membranes uniting, supply the place of the Secundina, or after-birth; as also the Veines do e­very day more and more represent the Navel. Therefore I conceive it convenient to pass from the Seventh, to the Tenth day, because nothing worth observation doth intervene in the mo [...] time, though Authors usually, especially Aristotle do not do so.

[Page 117] Notwithstanding all this, if you observe ma­ny Egges at a time, you shall finde some that are forward, and better grown, have all the parts apparent in them; other Truants will present them Iess distinct. Though on the other side, many things concurre to the work, as the Season of the year, the warmth of the Nest, Outward che­rishings, Deligent Incubation, and the like. I re­member I have sometimes seen in a sluggish Egge, the cavity indeed dilated on the seventh day, and the Colliquamentum sprinkled ore with veines, also a Magot in the midst of it, together with the rudi­ments of the Eyes, and other things which come to pass in other Egges, about the fourth or fifth day; yet there were no vesiculae pulsantes at all: nor could I finde the Trunke or root out of which the Veines rise. And therefore I justly counted it a seeble backward Egge, endowed but with a sickly generative power, and now upon the point to die. And that chiefly, because its Colliquamentum was more cleare and refulgent then usual, and the veines did also shine a litle. For when the Vital spirit departs, that part first declines and corrupts, which is first in order of Generation.

WHatever is visible the tenth day, is delivered so accurately by Aristotle, that litle or no­thing remaines to be added. And this opinion, ac­cording to my Paraphrase, is thus: The tenth day [Page 118] all the Chicken is visible; and all pellucid, and white, save only the Eyes and divarications of the Veines. And the Head is bigger then all the rest of the body besides; and the Eyes stick fast in the Head, or ra­ther stick to the Head as Appendixes, being yet un­furnished of a Pupilla or Eye-ball; (that is, having none yet perfectly formed; and yet it is no hard matter to discover the distinct coats or membranes) for if then you pluck them out, you shall finde them blacke, and bigger then Beanes: from which if you take off the skin, there flows a white, cold humour, very refulgent if you hold it in the light, and beside that humor, there is nothing (namely in the whole entire Head) contained at all. And this is the state of these parts, from the seventh day, to the tenth.

At the same time (saith Aristotle) the Viscera or Intrals also appear, and all the appurtenances belong­ing to the Belly and Guts; namely, the Parenchyma of the Heart, Lungs, and Liver, &c. but all are white, mucilaginous, and washy, and have no firm consi­stence in them. And the Veines also that proceed from the Heart, are applied to the Navel. And from the Navel one Vein passeth to the membrane contain­ing the yolke; which is then more liquid and dissolved, then his natural constitution uses to be. But the other, to the other membrane, which containeth the whole membrane (namely the coat of the Colliquamentum) which encompasseth the Foetus, and the Yolke, and the interjacent humour. For while the Chicken grows by degrees, part of the yolk is above, and part below; but the White being in the midst, is liquid. And the white is also under that lower part of the yolke, as it was under it before. So farre Aristotle.

And now you may plainly see the Veines ac­company the Arteries; as well those which [...] to the Whites, as those which pass to the yolk. The [Page 119] yolke also now dissolves, and yet not all of it, but that which lyes uppermost: nor do the spriggs of the Veines run through the whole yolk, but through that part onely which we have said to be like mel­ted wax. So also the Veines which tend to the White, have some Arteries for their companions. And the greater part of the White it selfe, is dis­solved also into that white moisture (called the Colliquamentum) which surrounds the Chicken swimming in the midst of it, and lieth between the two divisions of the yolke; namely, the Upper, and the Lower: under which (in the acute angle of the Egge) the grosser and more viscous part of the White remaineth. The Upper part of the yolke appeares now more liquid and resolved, then the Inferiour doth; for wheresoever the fibers of the Veines disseminate themselves, the parts grow pre­sently tumid, and softer.

But Aristotle adds, saying, the White at the tenth day sinketh down, being now grown less, viscous, thicker, and yellowish; namely that part of it which is not transformed into the Colliquamentum.

Now the greatest part of the White is resolved into the Colliquamentum, and the Foetus; that is, all the thinner part of the Albumen, and the greater part also of the thicker.

But the Yolk appears now larger, then it was at first. By which it is evident, that the Yolk doth not yet serve for nutrition, but is afterwards de­signed for that office. And as farre as I could con­jecture, by the disseminations and distributions of the Veines, the Foetus is at first nourished by the Colliquamentum; for the Veines are first distributed into it alone, and thence into the membrane of the thinner White; and after that, into the grosser White, and Yolk: so that even the grosser White [Page 120] becomes the nutriment, before the Yolk. For the most tender Foetus, whilest it is yet a small Magot, is fed with the thinnest diet of best concoction; that is, the Colliquamentum, and the thinner White. But when it grows more hearty, it is received with en­tertainment proper for its age and strength.

In the next words, Aristotle describes the scitu­ation of the particulars contained in the egge. At the upper and lower end of the egge, doth the mem­brane of the egge reside, not the membrane which be­longeth to the shell, but under it: and in that mem­brane is contained the white liquor: (namely the Colliquamentum) then the Chicken, and the mem­brane containing it, which provides such a separation, that the Foetus it selfe doth not wallow in the liquor.

Where I suspect a fault in the Text. For the thing it self speaks, that it should be rather thus. Then the Chicken encompassed in a Membrane, is seated, or swims in that white liquor; which Mem­brane is not that exterior one, which immediately lineth the shell, but another Membrane, lying un­der that: which when the exterior White is spent, and the remaining thicker White is depressed into the Acute Angle, of two Membranes (namely, that of the thinner White, and that which is proper to the Colliquamentum) is made one coat, which be­gins to appeare like the Secundine, called Chorion. Yet Aristotle saies well, In that Membrane is contai­ned the white liquor: for by that he doth not un­derstand the Albumen, but the Colliquamentum made of that Albumen, in which the Foetus swims; for the remainder of the Albumen is now sunk down into the Acute Angle.

From the seventh to the fourteenth day, all parts are enlarged (as hath been said) and more visible. The Heart and all the other Intrals are now concealed in the several Venters or Bellies of the Chicken: and those that before were expo­sed, and naked, cannot now be seen, but by o­pening the breast, and lower belly. Now is the Chicken cloathed in Plumes, whose roots appear, like black points. The Apple of the Eye is now distinct, and the Eye-lids are plaine to be seen: likewise the Membrana Nictatoria, or membrane moving the Eye-lid, is visible in the greater Canthus or corner of the Eye, which is a membrane peculiar to all birds, by which they cleanse their Eyes. Also now the Gyri or Involutions of the braine are distin­guished, and the After-braine is covered by the Scull: and the Taile hath attained the form of a Rump.

After the fourteenth day, the Intrals (which were white before) put on by degrees a ruddy flesh-colour. The Heart now entered into the cavernes of the Chest, and being guarded by the Sternum, or Brest­bone, enjoyes the habitation which himselfe hath erected. The Braine and After-braine grow firm and solid in the Arch of the Cranium or Scull. But the Guts and Gisard, are not concluded in the Ab­domen, but hang out, being continued and fastned to the rest of the Intrals.

[Page 122] One of the two Vessels which are derived to the Navel from the Belly neer the Fundament, is an Ar­tery (as the Pulse discovers) springing from the Great Artery: the other is a Veine, conveighed from the Yolk by the Guts into the Vena Porta, or Gate­vein, at the concavous part of the Liver: for the other Trunck of the Umbilical vessels having recei­ved its branches from the White, passeth by the convex part of the Liver, and is inserted into the Vena Cava, or Hollow veine, neer the basis of the Heart.

As these parts grow daily more conspicuous, so the greater portion of the White is daily consum­ed; but it is not so with the Yolk, which is hither­to almost entire, and of the same bulk it was the first day.

In the subsequent dayes, you may see the five Umbilical vessels, whereof one is a very large veine, arising from the Hollow veine above the Liver, and scattering branches into the White: the other two veines derived from the Gate-veine (having both the same original) are disseminated into the two parts of the Yolk; (which we have before descri­bed) and have two small Arteries which arise from the Arteries of the loins, accompanying them.

The Chicken doth now possesse a greater roome in the egge, then all the other things contained in it: and beginnes to be down-feathered; and the larger the Chicken growes, the more the White di­minisheth. And it is worth the observation, that the membrane of the Colliquamentum, which were have said is joyned with the outward coate, and with it doth constitute the Secundine, or Chorion) doth now likewise containe all the Yolk, and be­ing grown more contract, doth convey the Yolk [Page 123] together with the Guts to the Foetus, and fasten them to it, and shut them up like a purse, where the strings are drawn together. And though it was subtile, and transparent before, yet now as it growes more contract, so it thickens, and becomes more fleshy: and at length, like a Hernia intestina­lis in the scrotum or Cods dilated, it covereth the Guts together with the Yolk, and sustaineth them all: till at last growing narrower by continuall contraction, it constitutes the Abdomen of the Chicken. You may finde the Yolk thus disposed between the Guts, the belly hanging looser about the 1st day: and yet not so fast rooted, but that the Guts (as it happeneth in the Hernia intestinalis) easily driven either backward into the belly, or downward into the Scrotum, may be moved up and down together with the Yolk. I have seen the Yolk in this manner fall from the belly of a Pigeon, which in the summer time, had too hasti­ly broke loose from the shell.

About this time the Chicken hath a huge belly, as if it laboured of a Hernia. And now the Col­liquamentum by degrees growes troubled and thicke, being altered, and diminished, (which was before in very great quantity) and the Chick­en lies brooding upon the Yolk. And in those days, before the Liver attains a bloody complexion, or executes the of office the second concoction (as they say) the Gall (which is separated by the virtue of the Liver, and is an excrement of that second con­coction, as is commonly thought) is now to be seen, of a green colour between the Lobes of the Liver. In the Cavity of the Stomack there is a clear Liquor, having the very same consistence, colour and tast, with the Colliquamentum, in which the Foetus swam; which gliding down the Guts changeth its colour [Page 124] by degrees, and is converted into Chyle; and at last just such an excrement is discovered in the lower end of the Guts, as that which the Chickens eject after they are hatched. When the Chickens are more grown, you shall see the liquor concocted and coagulated in their Stomack: as in Infants that feed on Milk, there is a thick substance, which turnes into Whey and Curds.

And now the White being almost spent, and a small quantity of the Colliquamentum remaining, the Chicken for some days before exclusion, doth no longer swim, (but as we have said) lies broo­ding upon the Yolk; and rouling himselfe up in a heap, his Head for the most part being nusled between his right Legge and Wing, he is compleat­ly accoutered with Bill, Clawes, Plumes, and other furniture. He sometimes wakes, and sometimes sleepes, and stirring himself, respires and cryes. If you lay the Egge, to your Eare, you shall plainly hear the chicken busling, kicking out his Legs, and according to Aristotle, he will stare upon you, and in his manner cry and complaine. If you let it fall gently into warme water, it will swimme, and the chicken within it, being roused by the am­bient heat, will bound and leap, and the egge (as is said) will tumble up and down. And this is the experiment which women make to prove the fruitful from the barren eggs, for the latter sink in the water. When the White is now clean consu­med, a litle before exclusion, that other Navel (which as we said is derived to the White) is ob­literated & expunged, or as Aristotle saith, that Na­vel which is extended to the exteriour Secundine, is loosened from the Animal, and falls off. But that which is conveyed to the Yolk, is knit to the small gut of the chicken.

[Page 125] The first Excrements that are found in the chick­en, Hist. an. l. 6 c. 3. are white and muddy, like the egge-shell softned and dissolved. And such also are to be found out of the Foetus wrapt up in the Secundine. To which Aristotle consents, saying, At that time the Chick­en discharges much excrement to the outward mem­brane. And a white excrement is discoverable, not onely within, but without the belly. But in processe of time, when the exclusion of the Foetus approa­thes neerer, the excrement growes greenish, like that which the chicken ejects after exclusion. And you may also perceive in his craw, a part of the Colliquamentum swallowed down, and in his Gi­sord a schiston, or coagulated substance.

Nor is the complexion of the Liver hitherto ei­ther purple, or sanguine, but declining from white to yellow, as the Livers of Fishes, yet the Lungs are sanguine.

The Yolk is now concluded in the Abdomen be­tween the Guts: and that not onely while the chicken remaines in the egge, but also when he is excluded, when he walkes abroad with his Mother to seek his provision. By which it appears true, which Aristotle so often repeats: That the yolk is intended for the Aliment of the Chicken: for the yolk being shut up within him, the Chicken for the first dayes after exclusion (till his Bill is confir­med and strong enough to divide and prepare his meat, and his Stomack enabled to digest it) feeds upon it: so that it carrieth some analogy and pro­portion to milk. Aristotle casts in his suffrage with us, in the place so often recited. Much of the yolk Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. doth now lye under the Chicken: which yolk at last de­creases, and in processe of time, is all turned into the chicken it selfe, in whose bowels it is contained: so that ten days after the chicken is excluded, if he be [Page 126] dissected, you shall finde even then some small remain­der of the yolk adhering to his Intestines. Nay I have found some Reliques of the yolk after the thir­tieth day. And, if the argument be of force from the production of the Umbilical veines (which we have shewed to be terminated in the Vena Porta of the Liver, by one or two Trunks) the Chicken is now nourished by Aliment attracted by the Umbili­cal vessels from the yolk: in the same manner as he afterward is sustained by the chyle drawn out of the Intestines by the Meseraike veins. For the vessels on both sides are terminated at the Gate of the Liver, whither they do alike convey the nou­rishment they draw; that we may not flie to the Vene Lacteae in the Mesentery (which in feathered Creatures are no where to be found)

Give me leave to adde something here, which I have tried often; That I might the better discern the scituation of the Foetus, and the Liquors after the fourteenth day, to the very exclusion: (the greate [...] part of the White being now exhausted, and the yolk divided) I have boiled an egge till it grew hard, and then pilling away the shell, and seeing the Scituation of the Chicken, I found both the remaining part of the White, and the two parts of the yolk (which as we have said before, are divi­ded by colliquation caused by the gentle warmth) of the same consistence, colour, tast, and other ac­cidents, as any other stale egge, thus ordered, i [...] And upon this Experiment, I did much pondar whence it should come to passe, that Improlifical Eggs should, from the adventitious heat of a Sitting Henne, putrifie, and stink; and yet no such in convenience befall the Prolifical: But both their Liquors (though there be a Chicken in them to [...], and he also with some Pollution and Excrement) [Page 127] should be sound, wholesome, and incorrupt; so that if you eat them in the dark after they are boyled, you cannot distinguish them from egges that are so prepared, which have never under­gon the Hens incubation.

THe Egge is (as we have said) a kind of an ex­posed Womb, and placed where the Foetus i [...] formed: for it executes the office of the Matrix, and shelters the Chicken till its just time of Birth: who when he is perfect, is born from thence. O­viparous creatures are therefore not distinguished from Viviparous, in this, that these bring forth their Foetus live, but they do not; (for the Chick­en in the Egge doth not onely live and move, but doth breath also, and exercise a voice, and being born, enjoyes a perfecter life, then the issues of other Animals) but their maine difference con­s [...] in the manner of Generation; namely, in that Viviparous creatures continue their Womb within them, in which the Foetus is fashioned, cherished, and compleated: but Oviparous expose their Egge or Matrix without: yet neverthelesse they do ri­pen and cherish it as much by Incubation, as if they did reserve it within their bowels.

For though the Mother do sometimes upon sun­dry occasions desers the Egges, yet her affection [Page 128] continues still with them, and making speedy re­turns, she receives them in her tender bosom, for stereth, and diligently defends them.

But when the Chicken now covets the freer aire, the Shell being parted, he entereth into the world, and this about the one and twentieth, or two and twentieth day.

The Common mistake of Fabricius, and almost all others, concerning this Exclusion or Nativity of the Chicken, must not be passed by. Read Fabricius himself: The Chicken (saith he) doth want the free aire before it wants meat, because there is yet some ali­ment pag. 55. residing within it: in which condition the Chic­ken being unable to break the shell, in regard the shell is hard, and his hill soft, and also by reason of the di­stance between them, his bill being sheltered under his wing he gives his mother a signe, by which he signif [...] the necessity he stands in to have it broke up, and this s [...]ne he uttereth by his cry. For the Chicken is at that time solusty, and the cavity so enlarged, and so great a quantity of air contained within it, that his resto­rations being large, can send forth an exsufflation, and cry proper to his kinde, and probably such a one as doth express his request; which also the standers by may easily heare: and this do both Pliny and Aristotle mu­tually affirm. Which clamour of the Chicken comming Lib. 10. c. 53. de Hist. an. l. 6. c. 3. to the Hennes care, and she finding a necessity of breaking the shell, that her darling may enjoy the fr [...] aire to continue its life; or, if you will, she being affe­cted with a strong desire to see her beloved Infan [...] breaks up the egge with her bill; which is no hard matter to do, since in that place, by reason the cavity hath been long destitute of liquor, and hath been much dryed by the aire within it, and the heat without it, [...] shell is become more fraile, and brittle. The cry there­fore of the Chicken, is the first and greatest taken of [Page 129] desire of enlargement, and of the oxigence it stands in [...]ant of Air: Which the Henne so exactly under­stands, that if it so fall out, that she perceive the [...]ckens cry to be low, and inward, then she turns [...] egge up side down with her feet; that she may cleave [...] egge just in that place from whence the voice comes, [...]out any injury to the chicken. Hippocrates ad­ [...] L. de nat. puer. another token of the Chickens inclination to get out [...] shell; namely, that the Chicken being now strait­ [...] for want of sustenance, bestirres himself strongly, [...]quest of better feeding; and that the Membranes [...]ow every where torne a sunder; and that the Mo­ [...] discovering these violent Motions of her young, [...]ratching holes in the Shell, delivers it from bon­ [...]e.

Thus far Fabricius, pleasantly and elegantly: this arguments are not well bottomed. For [...]e found by Experience, that the Chicken it [...] (and not the Henne) doth break up the Shell: [...] this is also most consonant to Reason. For [...] could the egges which are fostered in Stoves [...] Ovens (as it is in Aegypt and elsewhere) be o­ [...]wise broken up? Where there is no Mother to [...] the distressed supplicants, nor redresse their brings. And so how can the egges of your Land [...]ea-Tortises, your fishes, silkwormes, vipers, and [...]bes be unlockt, when either the Issues them­ [...] are mute and silent, or else lye hid under [...]nd, quite out of hearing. Chickens there­fore born by themselves, and break loose from [...] egges by their own industry. And this I [...]prove by infallible Arguments. For in the [...]rforation of the Shell, the gap is so litle, [...] it bears no proportion at all with the Bill of [...], but exactly answers the chickens; and [...]d about the hole (in manner of a coronet) [Page 130] the Shell stands up in splinters, being always pierced at the same distance from the top: and the shivered pieces (especially if the breach be new made) always jets out erect, and tufted. And as when Glass-Windowes are broken, a man may easily discover whether they were burst from within, or without; if he do but take the paines to compare the bent and inclination of the fragments remaining: So also when the egge is pierced, by the erection of the splinters all along the circuit of the Coronet, it is manifest that the invasion came from within. And I my self, and many more with me, when we have heard the Chicken grate and scrape the Shell with his Claws, have presently seen it bored with his Bill, and a circular breach forced through it in the manner of a coronet. I have also seen the chicken bear up the top of the Shell with his Head, and so shake it off. We have been something large in this sub­ject, because the speculation is not to be contem­ned: as will appear hereafter. But as for Fabri­cius, he is easily answered: For I grant the chicken hath a voice in the Egge, and perhaps a significant petitory voice: But it doth not thence follow that the Henne breaks the Shell, nor that the chickens Bill is so soft, and at so great a distance, that it cannot penetrate the Shell; especially since the Shell, according to his own arguments, is now very brittle. Nor doth the chicken alwayes con­fine his Head to his Wing, that so he may be made incapable of working his passage, but then only when he is asleep, or else hath given up the Ghost For sometimes, as Fabricius confesseth, he wake kickes, scrapes, soratches, straines the Shell, strag­gles, tears the membranes that enwrap him, [...] (and that he implores help by these cries, [...] [Page 131] doe not withstand it) and all these actions may a­ny man hear, that has a mind to it. Wherefore the Hen diligently listening, so soon as she discovers the voice to be remote, and come from below, she doth not burst the egge, but gently move it to and fro with her foote, till she have procured a more commodious scituation for the prisoner. Yet it doth no way appear, that the Pullus doth by his cry signifie the necessity of his release from the Shell to his Mother, or desire an enlargement of her procuring, for you may often times, even for two dayes together before exclusion hear him cry in the Shell. Nor doth the Henne by the se­veral removes of the egge, seeke a convenient place to break it up: but as when the sick Infant in the cradle is disquiet, weepes, and roares, his affecti­onate Mother turnes him from side to side, and rocks him till he lye at ease: so likewise the Hen, when she finds her chicken bufling, or crying in the egge: or after his exclusion tumbling up and down in a distempered posture: she presently [...]arts up, and provides that the weight or heat of her body may not offend him, and moves him from place to place with her Clawes and Bill, till he have procured his ease and quiet.

THey are called Ova Gemellifica, or Twin-Egges, de hist. an. l. 6. c. 2. which bring two chickens; being (as Aristotle [...]) Stocked with two yolks, which in some are di­vided [Page 132] with a slender partition of White, to preserve them from confusion: but in others there is no White at all, but the yolks are contiguous.

I have often seen these Ova Gemellifica or Twin-Egges, where they have had two Whites to every yolk, together with common, and proper mem­branes respectively embracing them. And I have againe seen other egges where the two yolks did cleave to one another, and were both encompas­sed with one single Common White.

There are some Hennes (saith Aristotle) which bring none but Twinne-Egges, in which the Yolke is clear­ly disposed, as we said before: for a certain Henne in Ibid. two and twenty egges, layed none but Twinne-Egges; except onely those that were barren. Now it comes to pass, that one of the Twins is bigger then the other: but the last is a Monster.

With us sometimes there are Twin-Egges, and the Chickens also are sometimes Twins too, though very seldome. And for my part I never saw two such Chickens that both of them lived: but one perished either in the egge it self, or in the Exclu­sion. And this also seems to have befalne Aristotles Chickens, because he saith, One was bigger then the other: implying that one of them was hartier then the other, and sooner quickned: but the o­ther weaker, and so less ready to endure exclusion: For (I am perswaded that) the two Yolks are of different production, and maturity. And there­fore it can hardly be, but that the forwarder Chicken, being now ripe for enlargement, in break­ing up the egge, to make way for his own nati­vity, must needs induce abortion to his brother: And should he forbear to break up the egge, his own life were in imminent danger, being now streightned for breath. So that in Exclusion, the [Page 133] one or the other, receives their inevitable doome.

Fabricius either not observing, or not under­standing pag. 29. those words of Aristotle, saith: If there chance to be such an egge that hath two yolks in it, the Chicken that is produced thence, is born with four legs, and four wings, and two heads, and so becomes a kind of Monster: but the Chickens never come forth so distinctly two: (as that they may truly be called two) but have onely one main Trunk of body, where two heads, and four legs and the like are adjoyned.

Whence it appears, that himself never saw, nor heard by others that had seen it, that such kind of Egges produce Twins: and therefore he must needs be of my mind; namely, that such egges rarely happen; and that they never exclude two vitall Foetuses. Yet I cannot but admire that (if he saw this place of Aristotle) he should say, that such an egg doth never produce two distinct Chickens, but always a Monster: especially since he believes, that the Foetus is formed of the Chalazae, as out of the sub­ject Matter, and he could not but see four chalazae in every Gemellifical Egge. I rather believe that when in a Gemellifical Egge there are two Yolkes concluded in the same White, and are so conjoy­ned together, that their cicatriculae, while they are opened together, do constitute one Eye (which we call the colliquamentum) a Monster chicken may be then produced, having four Legs, two Heads, [...]. because I can see nothing to hinder it; and such a one I suppose was bred of Fabricius his Egge.

Yet nevertheless, where the two yolks are di­stinct, and separate by their proper Coats, and are furnished with their Grandines, and Whites, and other necessaries conducing to the Generation [Page 134] of the Foetus: I conceive we ought to conclude with Aristotle, that such an egge as it hath all the parts required to two egges (save only the Shells) so it obtaines the virtue and power too; and un­less it be barren and addle, will for the most part produce two chickens, but seldom a single Mon­ster.

THe History of the Hen-Egge, is such as hath been said. Wherein we have delivered how the Egge it selfe is ge­nerated, and how by its Action (which is Propagation) it formeth the chicken. All which, hath perhaps been sufficiently prolix, and tedious to such who are not yet acquainted, whither these so great undertakings, and so exact and accurate Observations, tend. And therefore I hold it convenient to discover what fruit and advantage may be reaped by my labour: and hereupon (to use the expression of our most lear­ned Verulamius) we shall proceed to our Second Vintage: collecting certain Theorems out of our former History; some of which are Infallibly True, some Doubtful, and must submit to a farther Dis­cussion: Some are Paradoxical, and contrary to the received opinion: Some of them also relate [Page 136] to the Cock, or Male, some to the Female; some, to the Egge it self; and lastly, some to the Forma­tion of the Pullus. Which when we have once throughly discussed, and understood, Our know­ledge and insight into the Generation of all other Animals, will be lesse exposed to difficulty, and Errour.

THe Theorems, which are employed about the Contemplation of the Egge, some do teach what an Egge is, some what its Generation, and others what Parts go to its Constitution.

And first it is evident, that One Chicken pro­ceeds but from one Egge: which though it be a One Chic­ken pro­ceeds but from One Egge. kind of an exposed Womb, yet it seldome produces more Chickens then One. And though sometimes it produce two, yet that egge is not to be accounted a single, but a double egge; as having obtained both the Nature and Parts of two eggs.

For the egge is a certain Conception procee­ding from Male and Female, qualified with the An egge is a Con­ception. power of both: and out of it being One, one A­nimal is constituted.

Nor is it the Beginning, but the Fruit also, and the End; Namely, the Principium, the Beginning Both the Beginning and the Fruit. or Principle of the Ofspring, that is to be genera­ted; but the Fructus, the Fruit of Both Parents; namely, the Cocks and the Hens Work (or End, [Page 137] which they proposed to themselves in Generation) and the Original of the future foetus. Now, the De gen. an. l. 1. c. 18. Seed and the Fruit (according to Aristotle) are di­stinguished from one another, under the notion of For­ [...]ar, and Latter: for the Fruit is that which is made [...]ut of another, and the Seed is that out of which ano­ther is made; for otherwise they were both the same.

The Egge also seemes to be a kinde of Medium; It is also a certain 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 [...]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 [Page 108] come to discourse of the Generation of all Animals in general.

The Egge also (which is chiefly to be noted It is also the Sper­ma. 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 Ibid. The dif­ference between Sperma & Genitura. to Aristotles definition) That is called Genitura, which proceeding from the Male-Parent, is the chief and principle cause of Generation; namely, in f [...]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 Fr [...] [Page 139] 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, Gen. an. l. 1. c. 20. 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 pag. 47. 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 de gen. an. l. 2. c. 4. indeed the Agent and the Instrument are divided, as [Page 140] the Smith and his Hammer, the Painter and his P [...] ­cil. And the reason is rendered by Galen, becau [...] in artificial Operations, the Artificer is without 1. de form. Foet. 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 ad [...] 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 Phys. l. 1. e. 1. also Plants, and simple bodies, as the Earth, Fire, [...] and Water, consist: For these and the like, we s [...] 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 s [...], 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 therefore these two things are some­times apart. And thus it is in all other artificial things: for none of them have in themselves an Efficient Principle, but some of them have such a Principle in others, that are without themselves, as a House and [Page 141] all other Manual Productions: some indeed have it in themselves, but not by themselves: namely, all those things which may by accident become causes to them­selves. Nature therefore is that thing which she hath [...]eady been said to be. And all those things have [...]ature in them, which have such a kind of Principle. And all those things are substances. For Nature is ever [...]me subject, and in some subject.

We have related these Passages more at large, The Effi­cient Cause of Generati­on is in the Egge. and in their Authors own words; that so it may appear, that what we attribute to the egge, is [...]ally in it; namely, the Matter, the Organ, the [...]fficient Cause, Place, and what ever else is requi­red to the Generation of the Pullus. And chiefly, for the clearing of some most difficult questions, [...] namely, which is, and what kind of Principle it is, from whence Motion and Generation do pro­ [...]d? Also, by what Power the Seed doth act, according to Aristotle? And lastly, what it is that [...]oth inspire and qualifie the Seed with its faecun­dity? (For Aristotle decrees, that Nature is the Principle of Motion and Rest, Innate in all bodies, [...]d not Accidental.) Whether that which in the [...]gge, is the Cause Efficient, and Principle of Gene­ration, and of the Vegetative and Vital Operations, be some Innate thing in it, or something Added to it? And whether it be in it first, and by it selfe, as a kinde of Nature: or else by Accident, as the Physitian is in the Cure? Whether it be some In­ [...]ed, or some Acquired power which doth trans­form the Egge into a Chicken; or nourish it when it was but begun in the Ovary, augmenting, and perfecting, also preserving it while it is not Set upon by the Henne.

Moreover, what it is that fructifies the egge, whether it be to be called the Soul? or a Part of [Page 142] the Soul? or some faculty of the Soul? or some thing that has a Soul? or an Intellect? or la [...] the Deity? because it acts for some end, [...] disposes all things by providence, and [...] mitable art, and after an incomprehen [...] manner; and always provides what is best, b [...] for the being, and well-being; as also for de­fence, and ornament. And this not onely in perfect egge which it fructifies, but even in a sub­ventaneous one too, nourishing, augmenting, and preserving it. And doth not onely supply and nourish the yolk in the Vitellary, but that very le [...] speck (whence that proceeds) being of no grea [...] magnitude then Millet, or Mustard-seed, which i [...] feeds and enlarges; and at last invests it with the White, the Chalazae, the Membranes, and the Sh [...]ll For it is probable, that even an Improlifical, barr [...] egg [...], by an innate and inbred principle (though it be contained in the Bowels of the Henne, and adhear to her) doth feed, conserve, augment, alter (in like manner as Fishes and Frogs-egges, which being exposed do grow, and are perfected) and transforme it self out of a small Whelke or spe [...]k into a yolk, and afterward take its journey from the Ovary to the Uterus (though it have no Con­nexion to the Uterus) and there inrobe it self in the White; and at last compleat it self with the Membranes, Chalazae, and Shel.

But be it what it will, which doth alike both in a Subventaneous, and in a Fruitful, equally produce the same effects, after the same manner, and from the same Causes or Principles; whether it be the same Soul, or the same Part of the Soul; in both it is very well worth our inquiry. Now in probability, the same things do spring from the same Causes.

[Page 143] Though the egge while it is making, is contai­ned within the Henne, and grows to its parent in Whether the Egge be a Part of the Henne? [...] Vitellary by the Pedunculus or stalk, and is sup­plied from the Hens veines: yet may it not be [...]aid to be a Part of its mother, nor to take life and [...]getation from her soul, but from its own pro­per power, and intrinsecal principle: As Mush­ [...]s, Misletoe, and several kindes of Moss are bred [...] of Trees, (which though they adhere to the [...]lant, and are sustained by the same sap with its [...]wn blossomes, and leaves, yet are they not Parts of those Trees, nor are they called so. Aristotle to salve these doubts, allows a Vegetative soul to de gen. an. l. 3. c [...]e, even in the very Subventaneous Egge, where he saith, Both Females, and all things that live, have a Ve­getative soul, as hath been often said: Wherefore this [...]gge (treating of a Subventaneous egge) considered a [...] the Conception of a Plant, is perfect, of an Animal, it is Imperfect. And in another place he teacheth the same thing, enquiring: After what manner de gen. an. l. 2. c. 4. [...] Subventaneous egges said to live? for they cannot be said to live as fruitful egges live: For then an Ani­mal might be produced out of them. Nor are they in the condition of Wood, and Stones; because they pe­rish by a kinde of corruption, as things that formerly did in some sort partake of life. It is certain therefore that they have some Potential soul: But what Soul is that? doubtlesse that Soul which they last enjoyed, which is a vegetable Soul; for this is indifferently in all Plants as well as Animals.

And yet the same soul is not in Subventaneous Egges, and in fruitful. For if so, A Chicken might alike be formed out of both. But how their Souls differ, and in what, Aristotle doth not suffici­ently declare, in his enquiry, Why all the parts of an egge are framed in a Subventaneous Egge, and [Page 144] yet an Animal is not procreated thence? Because (saith he) it is necessary it should have a sensative soul. As if in fruitful Egges there were a sensative soul, besides the vegetative. Unlesse you apprehend it thus, that the Vegetative soul is Actually in a fruit­ful egge, which containes in it a sensative soul, in Potentiâ; out of which afterwards an Animal, and the sensative parts of an Animal are produced. But this doth not sufficiently salve the scruple, not release the mind involved in perplexities and doubts. For an Egge seems to be the true Sper [...] of an Animal, according to that of Aristotle. In those things that have life, and no distinction of Sexes, de gen. an. l. 1. c. 20. the Seed is a kind of Conception already. I call that a Conception (which bears proportion to Seed) which is the mixture of Male and Female; wherefore out of [...] Seed proceedeth one Body, v. g. out of one egge [...] Animal.

One egge therefore seemes to have one Soul: now What soul is that where­with the Egge is in­formed. whether is that Soul the soul of the Henne? or of the Cock? or a mixt soul of Both? For the doubt chiefly concerns those egges, which proceed from Animals of a distinct kind: as out of a dunghill Henne, and a Cock Pheasant. I enquire whether such an egge participate of the soul of the Henne, or of the Pheasant? or is the soul of the Egge com­pounded of them both? But how can there be a commixture of souls, if (according to Aristotle) the soul (as being the form) be an Act, and a Sub­stance. For no man can deny, but that that thing whatsoever it be, which is the Principle and Cause of those Effects which we see produced in a Fertile Egge, is a substance susceptible of divers powers, forces, and faculties, as also of several conditions, vertues, vices, health, and sicknesse. For some Egges are longer lived then others: and some do [Page 145] procreate Chickens endowed with the vertues, and soundnesse of constitution of the parents; and o­thers produce them inclinable to distempers. Nor can we for this inconvenience accuse the Matter, out of which they are generated, since the disea­ses of the Male are sometimes transferred to the Chickens; who is not concerned any thing at all in the Matter of the egge. For from the Male the Plastical and Generative faculty onely doth pro­ceed, which renders the egge fertile, but doth constitute no part of it. For the Geniture which is emitted from the Male in Coition, doth not en­ter into the Matrix: (where the Egge is formed) Nor (as we have said before, and Fabricius also joynes in the Suffrage) can it any way penetrate those recesses, and much lesse the Ovary, which is seated neer the Precincture, or Midriffe of the body, that so it might communicate any portion of the Matter, or any thing at all besides its sin­gle Vertue. For constant experience testifies, that one and the same act of Coition doth fructifie ma­ny egges together: and not onely those that are existent in the Uterus and the Ovary; but those al­so that are not yet begun: as we shall declare here­after, and have already proved in our History.

If therefore the Egge be rendered Fertile from its own proper soul, or be endowed with an innate The Egge doth not live by the Soul of the Henne. fructifying principle of its own; by which either a dunghil Chicken, or a mongrel-issue between the dunghil-Henne, and the Cock-Pheasant doth arise; and that either Male, or Female, like the Male, or Female-Parent, sound, or sickly; we must then conclude, that the Egge (even while it is contai­ned in the Ovary) doth not live by the Soul of the [...]ne; but is a freeborn, Independant Issue from [...] very first original: As the Acorne taken off from [Page 146] the Tree, and the Seed from the Plant, are no lon­ger to be counted parts of them; but creatures, as it were, at their own dispose; living and sub­sisting, by an inbred vegetative faculty peculiarly their own.

Now if we affirm that a Fertile Egge hath a soul, a question will arise; whether that self-same soul, be now at present in the Egge, and how after, in the Chicken, or whether their souls be distinct. For we must of necessity acknowledge, that some Principle there is which doth constitute, and nou­rish the egge; and also that there is a Principle which produceth and sustaineth the Chicken. The question therefore is, whether the Principle, or soul of the Egge and Chicken, be one and the same, or more then one, and diverse? For if there be more then one soul; (namely, one which belongs to the Egge, and another to the Chicken) it will be farther enquired, whence, and at what time the Chickens soul arrives to it? And what that is in the Egge, which dilates the Cicatricula raises the Yolk to the top, and produces that Eye, (which we call the Colliquamentum) alters the Con­stitution of the liquors, and doth predispose all things for the fabrick and structure of the Chicken when as yet there is nothing at all of the chicken existent? Whence also can we pretend that pro­per and convenient Aliment is derived to [...] Chicken, to sustain and augment it, when there i [...] yet no Chicken at all? For these operations s [...] to belong to the Vegetative soul of the Chicken, [...] cause they relate to the Chickens use; namely [...] nutrition, and Augmentaetion. But now, when the fabrick of the Chicken is in hand, and half-per­fected, what is it that makes the Foetus, One [...] the same thing with the Liquors, conjoining the [Page 147] together by continuity, and concrescence? What is it that feeds, and enlarges the Pullus; that doth vindicate those juices which are advantageous to its nourishment from Putrefaction, preparing, melting down, and concocting them?

Since the soul is the Act of an Organical Body, which hath life in Potentiâ, it is an incredible thing that that soul should be in the Chicken before its body have received any Organization. Nor yet can we believe that the soul of the egge, & the chic­ken is one and the same: for the soul is the Preserver of that thing only, whose soul it is; but the Puttus and the Egge, are two distinct things; and do exer­cise not only distinct vital operations, but Contrary; in so much that one of them seems to result from the Corruption of the other. May we then say, that the Cause and Principle of life to them both is one and the same? namely to the Chicken which is yet but an Embryo, and to the rest of the Egge, as if it were the simple and single act of one and the some body; or as if out of the parts constituting [...] natural body, one soul did spring, which were all in the whole (as they say) and all in every part. As we finde in the Trunk, Leaves, and Fruits [...] Tree: in which, wheresoever we make a sepa­ration or division (be it in what part it will) wee say, that the first Cause and Principle of that part, [...] the same with that of the Whole, as being the Form and End of the One, but the Principle only of the Other. For so in a Line, in what point so­ever a division be made, it will be the End of the [...]ore-going part, but the Beginning of the subse­quent. And the same thing may seem to befall in [...]lity, and Motion; namely, in every Trans­mutation, and Generation.

And so much at present concerning these mat­ters: [Page 148] which we shall more exactly, and more co­piously handle, when we treat in General of the Nature of the Soul of the Foetus, of any Animal what­soever; as also what it is? From whence, and when it comes? What part it takes first possession of? and how it is all in the Whole, and all in every part? And also how it is the same, and yet diverse? All which we shall determine and resolve out of multiplied experiments.

AS we conclude (saith Fabricius) the Action of the Stomack to be Chylification; and the acti­on pag. 8. of the Testicles to be the Generation of Seed; because the Chyle is found in the Stomack, and Seed in the Testicles: So we positively resolve, that the Generati­on of Egges is the action of the Uterus of the Fowle, be­cause the egge is found resident there. So then we evidently know, and understand, which is the Instru­ment and Place of the Generation of Egges. But [...] againe, since there are two Wombs in a Fowle, th [...] Superior and Inferior, and those much unlike one ano­ther, and therefore their Actions are divers, yet it i [...] apparent which action is peculiar to each. For [...] Superior is ordained for the Generation of the Yolk the Inferior of the White, and the other parts, [...] the whole, as is evident even to sense: For in the Supe­rior nothing is contained but a throng of Yolks, but [Page 149] the Inferior the entire perfect egge. And yet this is not all the employment of the Womb; but the Augmen­tation of the egg, which presently insueth after the egge is generated, and continueth till it be compleated and have attained its just stature or magnitude, is also im­plyed herein. For a Hen doth not naturally lay her egge till it be perfect, and have its just proportion. The Action therefore of the Womb, is both the Generation and Augmentation of the Egge. Now Augmentation includeth and supposeth Nutrition. But since all Gene­ration is effected by two; namely, the Agent, and the Matter: The Agent in the procreation of Egges is no­thing else, but the Instrument or proposed Organs, namely the twofold Uterus. But the Matter is nothing else but Blood.

Now we, though we acknowledge the Action of the Uterus to be in some sort the Generation of the Egge, yet we do not agree upon any termes in the world, that the Egge is nourished and encrea­sed by the Uterus. And this both for the reasons before alledged, when we discoursed concerning the soul of the Egge, which nourisheth it: and al­so because it is an improbable thing, that an Ex­ternal Agent (as the Womb is, in regard of the Egge) should form, nourish, and angment all the interi­or parts of the Egge, according to their several dimensions: nay according to Aristotle, it is alto­gether de gen. an. l. 2. c. 1. impossible. For how can an agent that is ex­trinsecal in respect of the patient, work upon the Aliment that is elsewhere provided, and restore it into the place of that which is wasted away, ac­cording to all dimensions; or how can any thing be affected and altered by that, which doth not touch it? Therefore doubtlesse the same things befall the Generation of Egges, as happen to the exordiums of all living creatures; namely, that they [Page 150] should be constituted by some preexistent external thing; but presently (upon the reception of life) nourish, and augment themselves; and that by [...] proper inspired efficacy, proceeding from a Prin­ciple which is now borne, and implanted in them.

What we have lately delivered concerning the soul, doth seem to evince clearly, that the Egge is neither the Workmanship of the Uterus, nor con­trouled or governed by it: For it is apparent that even a Subventaneous egge is furnished with a Vege­tative Soul, because we discover even such an egge also to enjoy Vegetation, Nutrition, Augmentati­on, and Conservation, which are infallible sight of the fore-said Soul. Now these faculties can­not issue out of the Mother, or Matrix, because the Egge hath no Coherence, or Union to it; but tumbles and roules in its Cavity free, and dis­joyned (like a Son who hath obtained his Free­dom) and growes up to perfection, as the Seeds of Plants do in the Womb of the Earth, by an in­ternal Vegetative Principle, which can be no lesse then a Vegetative Soul.

Much more will it appear, that it hath a Soul, when we consider, after what manner, and by whose impulsion, the Round and Ample Yolk, being new loose from the Vitellary, maketh its de­scent through the Infundibulum, (which is a slen­der Tunnel, wrought with a niost thin membrane, which hath no provision of motory fibres) working out its own way, till through all those streights it arrive at the Uterus; where it nourisheth, aug­menteth, and invests it self in the White. And yet all this while, there is no Motory Instrument at all in the Vitellary, which should expell it thence, nor in the Infundibulum, which should transmit [Page 151] it, or in the Uterus which should attract it: Nor is the Egge fastned by veins to the Uterus, as in the Ovary, nor hath any dependance upon it by the Umbilical Vessels; as Fabricius truely affirms, and is obvious to every eye. What then remains, but that upon discovery of such wonderful Operati­ons, we should cry out with the Poet,

And though the first ground-workes of Egges (which we have proved to be but Whelkes, as it were, and of the magnitude of the Seed of Mil­let) do cohear to the Vitellary by the mediation of Veins and Arteries; (as the Seeds of Plants are born adhearing to the Plants) and thereupon seem to be Parts of the Henne, and to be nourished and live after the manner of other Parts: yet it is evi­dent, that as the Seeds of Plants being dis-united from the Plants, are no more accounted parts of them; no more are Egges, now come to maturity, impowred with fertility, and separated from the Vitellary, any longer to be ranked amongst the Parts of the Henne, but like a Son come to age, and at his own dispose, are regulated and enliven'd by their own proper soul.

But of this morefully hearafter, when we shall discourse concerning the Soul of an Embryo in ge­neral; and of the excellence and divinity of the Vegetative Soul, ordering all things after a won­derful manner: (which providence, art, and di­vine discretion, as farre exceeding our capacity, [Page 152] as God excells Man; and therefore are (confessed by all) truly admirable, not to be gazed upon by our cloudy apprehensions, by reason of their in­effable lustre.

What shall we say then of those litle Animals, which are begotten in our own bodies, which no man ever doubted to be regulated and vegetated by their own proper soul? And of this kind are Worms in the Stomack, Guts, and Fundament, Lice, Nittes, litle Wormes in the Flesh, Mites: Or what shall we resolve concerning those Wormes, which proceed from Plants, and their fruit? such as you may finde in Galls, Nuts, the Scarlet-Berry, and Eglantine, &c. For an Animal may be created al­most in all drye things, growing moist, or moist things Hist. an. l. 5. c. 32 growing drye. It is impossible that those Animals which are bred in the Galls should be enlivened by the Okes soul, though they live joyned to the Oke, and provide their Aliment out of the Sap of the Oke. And so it is credible, that the very Ru­diments of the Eggs, while they are yet in the Cluster, do subsist by their own, and not by the Hennes Soul, though they are united to her by Veins and Arteries, and she also do administer nourishment to them. For (as we have observed in our History) the Whelkes do not all grow at once (as Grapes grow in the Bunch, and Graines in the Eare of Corne) as if they were inspired by the same concocting and formative faculty; but are increased one after another; (as by their own efficacie) and that which first separates its selfe from its fellowes, changeth colour and consist­ence, and of a White Whelke is made a Yolke; and so they follow one another in order: And which is more remarkable, in Pigeons, and some other Birds, they grow up from the Cluster in [Page 153] paires to make up one Laying, and one of them moves for the most part a Cock, and the other a Henne. And yet in the meane time some of the Papulae, or Whelks in the Ovary stay at a stand, till two other grow up for a new production, which have received fecundity from the repeated coition of the Male, and are both inspired with a Soule. Which when they have received, they order them­selves, and grow; living at their own, not at their Parents command. For indeed what can you fancie to dispose, select, separate, and perfect these Papulae, or Whelks (rather then the other) unless it be their own proper soules. For though they assume nourishment from their Parent, yet they doe it no otherwise, then the Plants attract from the Earth, or the Foetus from the Yolke and White.

Lastly, because the Papula continuing in the Ovary, receives its fecundity from coition, and such a one too, that it by and by passeth into the forme of the Cock concerned in the coition; (whe­ther it be Dunghill-Cock, or Cock-Pheasant) and since so great a difference befalls the Papulae, as there is in the males themselves of different kinde, what shall we conclude to be in the Papulae them­selves, by whose virtue they are distinguished both from themselves, and their female parent? Doubt­less it must needs be the soule, by which they are diversified both from one another, and from their Mothers also.

And just in this manner doe Mushromes, and Plants growing to Trees, live. We discover like­wise often in our own bodies, that Cancers, fleshy, and also phlegmatical Tumors, and such like swel­lings, are supplied and fed as it were with their own proper vegetative soules; while in the interim [Page 154] the true and genuine parts of the Body, doe exte­nuate and wither: And that because these tumors doe seduce all the aliment to themselves, and so defraud the rest of the body of its fostering juyce (as of its Genius) whence they are called Phage­daenae and Lupi, Devouring Cankers and Wolves. And perhaps Hippocrates by his [...], under­stood those diseases, which spring from venom, or contagion; as if they were furnished with a life, or inspired with a certain divine principle, by which they provide for themselves, and pro­pagate their kinde, and so did beget by contagi­on distempers like themselves, in several person [...]. Wherefore (Aristotle saith) Animae plena sunt om­nia, All things are filled with a soule. And i [...] De Gen. an. l. 3. c. 11. Ibid. l. 4. c. 11. another place, he conceives that even Wind hath its life, birth, and decease. But the yolke, which it is now divorced from the Ovary, and spoiled of all commerce with the Henne, then doubtless (a [...] beanes and such like pulse derive of their own ac­cord humidity from the Earth, which they im­bibe, and digest) passing through the Infundibu­lum, and residing now in the Cavity of the Ute­rus, it doth attract a slow thick moisture, which it receives into it selfe, and from it obtaineth nu­trition and augmentation, begirts it selfe with the White, and being ingarrisoned in the membranes and the shell, is at last exact and perfect. All which being duely considered, wee conclude, that it is stored with a peculiar soule of its owne.

TO omit what ever is in dispute; and to wave all controversies till we come to the General contemplation concerning this subject; we now pro­ceed to things of more certainty, & more obvious.

And first it is manifest that an Egge cannot be made fertile, without the help of the Cock and Henne. For without a Cock it cannot be fruit­full, without a Henne it cannot be at all. And this is opposite to that opinion, which deduceth the first rise and fabrick of all living creatures out of the clay of the Earth. For since the several parts of Generation (namely the Testicles and Leading Vessels in the Cock) are formed with such eminent Art, Industry, and Reason, and likewise the O­vary and Uterus in the Henne, together with the Veines and Arteries which are subservient to them, are so skilfully composed, and the situation, fi­gure, and temper of every particular, are dispo­sed in a miraculous method; and all these things are some way or other required to the generation and fecundity of the egge: most certain it is (for nature makes nothing in vain, nor doth she go to work by digressions, where she may be more com­pendious in her dispatch) that an egge cannot be any other way produced, then now it is, (namely, by a cock & a hen) neither by nature of her own ac­cord, nor by any other means whatever; nor can ei­ther cock or hen be produced, but frō an Egge. So that the cock & the hen are made for the Eggssake, and likewise the Egge for the Cock and Hens sake: and [Page 156] you may be justly doubtfull with Plutarch, which of these is first, namely the Egge, or the Henne For she was first in order of Nature, but the Egge i [...] order of Time. For whatsoever excells, is first in order of Nature; but that from which another i [...] produced, is first in order of Time. Or else we may say, That that Egge from which this or that par­ticular Henne sprung, is of more Antiquity th [...] the Henne: and so on the contrary, That Hens which produceth this particular Egge, is elder then it. For this Vicissitude and Circuite perpetuate the Race of Cockes and Hennes; while now the Chicken, and now the Egge by a constant series and return do continue an Immortal Species, out of the decay and ruines of the Individuals. And af­ter this sort do many sublunary creatures emulate and approach to the Perpetuity of Celestial bo­dies.

And whether we affirm a soul to be in the egge or not, yet by this circumvolution it appears, that there is some principle of the vicistitude from the Henne to the Egge, and again from the Egge to the Henne, which conferrs a sempiternity unto them. And that very thing (saith Aristotle) beareth an Analogie to the substance of Starres; and causeth the Parents to propagate, and their seed, or eggs, to be de gen. an. l. 2. c. 3. prolifical: and is like Proteus, disguised in several formes, ever existent both in the Parents, and in the Egges. For as that Minde or Spirit which rules the world, doth continually reduce the same Ri­sing and Setting Sun from several Quarters and Regions of the Earth: so also in the Progeny of Cocks and Henns, the Vis Enthea, or divine Princi­ple, which is now called the Plastical, sometimes the Nutritive, and sometimes the Augmentatin Power or Virtue, is also ever conceived to be the [Page 157] Conservative, and Vegetative too: and now putting on the form of the egge, and now of the Chicken, continues for ever. And though some Animals are born of their own Accord, or (as they common­ly say) of Putrefaction: and others only produced from a Female (as Pliny notes in some kinde of Lib. 9. c. 16. living creatures there is no Male at all; as in the Ruffes, and the Roches: for they are all taken great with spawn) yet whatsoever is produced from a perfect egge, doth not proceed but from both Sexes.

And therefore, saith Aristotle, The Male and the de gen. an. l. 1. c. 2. Female are chiefly to be counted the Principles of Ge­neration. The Cock therefore and the Henne are the two first Principles of the egge; the fruit, or com­mon conception of both which is the egge, containing in it the virtue of both Parents. So that an egge can no more be made without the assistance of the Cock and Henne, then the fruit can be made with­out the Trees aid. And each particular Individuum, both Cock and Henne, seems to be created for the egges sake, that the same Species may be prolong­ed, though by the ruine and obsequies of the Au­thors. And it is also clear, that the Parents are no longer youthfull, beautifull, complete and Jo­vial, then they can generate, or fructifie their eggs, and produce their own like, by the mediation of those eggs. Which work of nature so soon as they have accomplished, as if then they had attained the highest [...], or Pitch of their perfection, and last end for which they were born, they presently wither, grow old, and Emerit, and as if God and Nature had forsaken them, they decline spee­dily, and hasten to their end, like creatures weary of their lives. Whereas on the contrary, the Males when they arm themselves, and are in all respects [Page 158] well appointed for Loves encounter, how strangly doth the potent Cupid heighten their enflamed spirits, how spruce are they, how do they pride it; how vigorous, how testy are they, and prone to conflicts! But when this office and performance ceaseth: oh! how soon doth their force abate, and their late fury coole! how doe they hale in all their swelling sails, and check their darings? Nay even while this jocund Sacrifice to Venus is in sea­son, no sooner is the act performed, but they grow tame and pusillanimous; as if it were then deep printed in their thoughts, that while they impart a life to others, they are in full career to their own urnes. Onely our Cock, full fraught with seed and spirits, approves himselfe the onely cheerfull loser, and with the plaudit of his wings and voice, crownes his past triumphs, and lights his wedding Torch at his own Cinders. And yet he also flags after long game, and like an Emerit souldier resignes his Commission. And so the Hens likewise, like Plants worn out, grow decayed Ma­trons, and fore-go their Nurseries.

WEe have lately said, that an Egge, especi­ally a fruitful one, is no spontaneous issue; nor doth proceed from any thing but a Hen, nor yet a fruitfull one from her neither, without her in­tercourse with a Cock: According to that of A­ristotle; We are to conclude, that male and female De gen. an. l. 1. c. 2. are the chief principles of Generation: the Male, be­cause he hath the preeminence in the original of the Motus and Generation, the Female in the original of the Matter.

Now according to our decision, A fertile egge is truly a sperme, and genit all seed, Analagous to the seed of Plants, and the first conception resulting from both Parents, and the promiscuous produ­ction of them both. For as an Egge cannot have a being without a Hen, so it cannot have fecundity without a Cock.

It remaines therefore that we enquire, how the egge is made by the hen, and how it is made fertile by the Cock; for we see that subventaneous egges, and those animate too, are produced by the hen: but yet are not prolifical without the Cock. And therefore both Cock and Hen lay their stock toge­ther to constitute a fertile egge. And yet (as I conceive) not in that manner as Aristotle would have it; namely, that the Male should be Master only of the original of the Matus and Generation: and [Page 160] the Female onely contribute the Matter. For the con­trary appears in Subventaneous egges: And tho [...] it be true, where he saith: The Male and Female are different according to reason, because their facul­ties are diverse, and according to sense, because some [...] of their parts are divers too. The difference between them according to reason consists in this, that the Male is that creature which doth generate in another; the Female is that, which generates in it selfe, and out of which, that which is generated is made, being contai­ned in that which doth generate it. But since these [...] distinguished by the diversity of the Faculty, and of the Office or imployment; and every performance of [...] office requires an instrument; and the parts of the bo­dy are commodious instruments to the faculties; it i [...] necessary that some parts should be accommodated for procreation and Coition; and that those parts should be different too, that so the Male and Female may be distinguished.

Yet it doth not thence follow, which he see [...] desirous to infer, saying: The Male is the Efficient and by the vertue of its Geniture doth produce that which is designed out of the Matter conteined in [...] Female: and the Female doth always contribute the Matter. So that it is necessary that the Female should contribute the Body, and the Quantity or Magnitude, but there is no such thing required at the males hand. Nor is it necessary that the Instruments, or the Effici­ent it self should be in those things that are produ [...] by them. The Body therefore proceeds from the female, and the soul from the male. For the Substance of [...] Body is the soul. For an egge, and that an anima [...] one too, is produced by the Hen alone, without the Cock. Whence it appears, that the Female [...] Hen is also the Efficient cause; and that all power of Production, or the Soul doth not proceed [...] [Page 161] the Male. And this the example urged by Ari­stotle seemes to confirm: for he saith. Those crea­tures De gen. an. l. 2. c. 4. that proceed to Coition, and [...]re not of the same kind (which they do, whose season is alike, and time of hearing, together neer at hand, and do not much differ in the dimensions of their bodies) do bring forth their first issues like to themselves, partaking of the Species of both kindes: as those that are begotten by a Wolfe and a Bitch, or by a Partridge and the Dunghil­ [...]rood: but in process of time, these diverse Parents, produce a diverse issue, the off-spring at length assum­ing like form with the Hen, as forraigne Seed is at last transformed according to the Nature of the Soile where it growes, for the Soile contributes matter and Body to the Seed.

By which words it is manifest, that in the Ge­neration between a Cock-Partridge and a Dunghil-Hen, the Male is not the sole efficient, but the Fe­male is concerned too: because a Common Spe­cies and form, and not that of the Male onely, is produced; being alike, both in Body, and Soul, as well to the Female as the Male. Now the Soul [...] the Forme and Species of an Animal.

And againe: the Female may seem to have most [...]ight to the title of Efficient, for he saith, in Pro­ [...]sse of time, these diverse Parents produce a diverse [...], the off-spring at length assuming like form with the Hen. As if the Seed of the Male were lesse pow­erful; and did in time lose the Species which it imprints; as being razed out and expunged by [...] more potent Efficient. And this that instance concerning the soil doth more strengthen: For, [...]reign Seed is at last transformed according to the [...]ture of the soile where it growes. By all which it [...] probable, that the Female is a stronger [...] in Generation, then the Male: For in the [Page 162] Universe likewise, the Earth is held to be, as it were, the Female and the Mother: But the Heavens and the De gen. an. l. 1. c. 2. Sun, and the other Bodies of that kind, Philosopher [...] call by the name of Father and Genitor. Now the Earth also produceth many things of its own ac­cord, without any Seed: And amongst Animals, some Females do procreate of themselves without a Male; (thus the Henne generates a Subventane­ous Egge) but the Male never begetteth any thing without a Female.

Nay by those very Arguments which contend to prove the Male to be the Principle of Generati­on, and the primary Efficient; the energy or ef­ficiency of the Female seems to be confirmed, and ratified: For that is to be counted the Primary Efficient, in which the reason of the foetus, and form of the Production is most eminent; and whose apparent similitude is discovered in the foetus, and also which hath an existence it self before, and then generates. Since therefore, the Form, Rea­son, and Similitude of thè foetus is no lesse (not more) in the Female then in the Male; and she also is in being before, as a Primary Mover: We may well conclude, that the Female is as eminent an Efficient of Generation, as the Male.

And though Aristotle truly say, that the Con­ception or egge assumes no part of its body from the Male, but onely its form, species, and soul, and that the Female contributes onely the body, and quantity de gen. an. l. 2. c. 4. Yet it doth no way appear to the contrary, [...] that the Female doth contribute in some s [...] both Form, Species, and Soul, (and not the Ma [...] singly) As is evident in the Hen, which produ [...] Egges without a Male (as the Trees beare the Fruits, Herbs and Seed without any distinction of Sexes at all.) And Aristotle himself confess [...] [Page 163] that even a Subventaneous Egge hath a Soul. The Female therefore must be the Efficient Cause of the Ibid. Egge.

And yet though there be a Soul in the Subven­taneous Egge, yet that Soul is not Prolifical; and therefore we must acknowledge that the Henne is not properly the Efficient of a Perfect Egge, but that she is so made, by Authority and Commissi­on procured from the Cock. For an Egge, except it be Prolifical, cannot justly be said to be Perfect. Now such an Egge is produced onely by the Male; or rather by the Henne, having received such in­structions from the Cock; as if from his Coition, the Female did receive the Art, Reason, Forme, lawes, Rule and Model of the future Foetus. Thus the Female (like a fruitful Tree) being made fer­tile by Coition, is made Oviparous, bearing per­fect and Prolifical Egges. For though the Henne have at present no rudiment of Egges at all ready in the Ovary, yet being fructified upon Coition, [...]he suddainly after, both hath, and layes Egges; and those also Prolifical ones. And here the experi­ment of poor Women is of use; Which having a Hen at home, but never a Cock, they commit her for a Fabric. pag. 37. day or two to a neighbours Cock: and from that small communication, all her egges succeed fruitful, for all that seson.