The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the authorHarvey, William
Science
The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation -- Early works to 1800; Embryology -- Early works to 1800; Physiology -- Early works to 1800
Everything is still more distinct upon the seventh day, and the
rudiments of several of the particular parts are now conspicuous, viz.,
the wings, legs, genital organs, divisions for the toes, thighs, ilia,
&c. The embryo now moves and kicks, and the form of the perfect chick is
recognizable; from this time forward, indeed, nothing is superadded; the
very delicate parts only increase in size. The more the parts grow the
more is the albumen consumed, and the external membranes united come to
be of the nature of the secundines, and ever more and more closely
represent the umbilical cord. Wherefore I conceive that, from the
seventh, we may at once pass on to the tenth day, nothing of any moment
occurring in this interval which is not particularly noted by other
writers, especially by Aristotle.
It happens, nevertheless, that when a number of eggs are examined
together, some are found more precocious and forward, having everything
more distinct; others, again, are more sluggish, and these have the
parts less apparent. The season of the year, the place where the
incubation is carried on, the sedulousness with which it is performed,
and other accidents, have undoubtedly great influence on this diversity
of result. I remember on one occasion, on the seventh day to have seen
the cavity in the blunt end enlarged in a sluggish egg, the colliquament
covered with veins, the vermicular embryo in its middle, the rudiments
of the eyes, and all the rest as it is met with in the generality of
eggs on the fifth day; but the pulsatory vesicles were not yet apparent,
nor was the trunk or root of the veins from which we have said that they
originate, yet to be discovered. I therefore regarded this egg as of a
feeble nature and left behind, as possessed of an inadequate
reproductive faculty, and near to its death; all the more when I
observed its colliquament less pellucid and refractive than usual, and
the vessels not of such a bright red colour as wont. When the vital
spirit is about to escape, that part which is first influenced in
generation and earliest attracts attention is also the first that fails
and disappears.
EXERCISE THE TWENTY-FIRST.
_The inspection after the tenth day._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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