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
Aristotle describes the relative situation of the several parts in the
following words: “In the anterior and posterior part, the membrane of
the egg lies under the shell,--I do not mean the membrane of the shell
itself, but one under this, in which there is contained a clear
fluid”--the colliquament; “then the chick and the membrane including it,
which keeps it distinct from the fluid around it.” But here I suspect
that there is an error in the text; for as the author himself indicates
the thing, it ought rather to stand thus: “then the chick, enveloped in
a membrane, continues or swims in the clear fluid;” which membrane is
not exterior to the one that immediately lines the shell, but another
lying under this; which, when the first or external albumen is consumed,
and the remainder of the thicker albumen is depressed into the sharp end
of the egg, of two membranes forms a single tunic that now begins to
present itself like the secundine called the chorion. And Aristotle says
well, “there is a clear fluid contained in it,” by which words he does
not mean the albumen, but the colliquament derived from the albumen, and
in which the embryo swims; for the albumen that remains subsides into
the small end of the egg.
EXERCISE THE TWENTY-SECOND.
_The inspection after the fourteenth day._
From the seventh to the fourteenth day everything has grown and become
more conspicuous. The heart and all the other viscera have now become
concealed within the abdomen of the embryo, and the parts that formerly
were seen naked and projecting externally, can now only be perceived
when the thorax and abdomen are laid open. The chick too now begins to
be covered with feathers, the roots of which are first perceived as
black points. The pupils of the eyes are distinguished; the eyelids
appear, as does also the membrana nictitans in the greater canthus of
the eye, a membrane which is proper to birds, and which they use for
cleansing the eyeball. The convolutions of the brain farther make their
appearance; the cerebellum is included within the skull; and the tail
acquires the characteristic shape of the bird’s rump.
After the fourteenth day the viscera, which up to this time have been
white, gradually begin to assume a flesh or reddish colour. The heart,
having now entered the penetralia of the thorax and been covered with
the sternum, inhabits the dwelling place which itself had formed. The
cerebrum and cerebellum acquire solidity under the dome of the skull;
the stomach and intestines, however, are not yet included within the
abdomen, but, connected with the parts within, hang pendulous
externally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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