Within the circles of the cicatricula, I say, there is contained a quantity of perfectly bright and transparent fluid, even purer than any crystalline humour; which, if it be viewed transversely and against the light, the whole spot will rather appear to be situated in the albumen than sunk into the membrane of the yelk, as before: it presents itself as a portion of the albumen dissolved and clarified, and included within a most delicate tunica propria. Hence I entitle this fluid the oculum seu colliquamentum album; it is as if a portion of the albumen, liquefied by the heat, shone apart, (which it does, unless disturbed by being shaken,) and formed a more spirituous and better digested fluid, separated from the rest of the albumen by a tunica propria, and situated between the two masses of liquid, the yelk and the albumen. It differs from the rest of the albumen by its clearness and transparency, as the water of a pellucid spring differs from that of a stagnant pool. The tunic which surrounds this fluid is so fragile and delicate that, unless the egg be handled with great care, it is apt to give way, when the pure spring is rendered turbid by a mixture of fluids. I was long in doubt what I should conclude as to this clear diffluent fluid, whether I should regard it as the innate heat, or radical moisture; as a matter prepared for the future fœtus, or a perfectly-concocted nourishment, such as dew is held to be among the secondary humours. For it is certain, as shall be afterwards shown, that the earliest rudiments of the fœtus are cast in its middle, that from this the chick derives its first nutriment, and even when of larger size continues to live amidst it. This solution therefore increases rapidly in quantity, particularly in its internal region, which, as it expands, forces out and obliterates the external regions. This change is effected in the course of a single day, as is shown in the second figure of Fabricius. It is very much as it is with the eyes of those animals which have a very ample pupil, and see better by night than by day, such as owls, cats, and others, whose pupils expand very much in the dusk and dark, and, on the contrary, contract excessively in a brilliant light: one of these animals being taken quickly from a light into a shady place, the pupil is seen to enlarge in such wise that the coloured ring, called the iris, is very much diminished in size, and indeed almost entirely disappears.