Harvey, William, 1578-1657; Physicians -- England -- Biography
hunted, and farther whether the prints are those of a buck or doe. I
shall say this much more, there are some who in hunting, when there
are some forty hounds upon the trace of the game and all are giving
tongue together will nevertheless, and from a distance, tell which dog
is at the head of the pack, which at the tail, which chases on the hot
scent, which is running off at fault, whether the game is still running
or at bay, whether the stag have run far or have but just been raised
from his lair. And all this amid the din of dogs and men and horns and
surrounded by an unknown and gloomy wood. We should not therefore be
greatly surprised when we see those who have experience telling by what
hen each particular egg in a number has been laid. I wish there was
some equally ready way from the child of knowing the true father."
The next extract gives a good example of Harvey's general style.
Speaking of the escape of the chicken from the egg, he says: "Now we
must not overlook a mistake of Fabricius and almost every one else in
regard to this exclusion or birth of the chick. Let us hear Fabricius.
"'The chick wants air sooner than food, for it has still some store of
nourishment within it: in which case the chick by his chirping gives
a sign to his mother of the necessity of breaking the shell, which
he himself cannot accomplish by reason of the hardness of the shell
and the softness of his beak, to say nothing of the distance of the
shell from the beak and of the position of the head under the wing.
The chick, nevertheless, is already so strong, and the cavity in the
egg is so ample, and the air contained within it so abundant, that the
breathing becomes free and the creature can emit the sounds that are
proper to it. These can be readily heard by a bystander, and were
recognised both by Pliny and Aristotle, and perchance have something
of the nature of a petition in their tone. For the hen hearing the
chirping of the chick within, and knowing thereby the necessity of now
breaking the shell in order that the chick may enjoy the air which has
become needful to it, or if you will, you may say, that desiring to
see her dear offspring, she breaks the shell with her beak, which is
not hard to do, for the part over the hollow long deprived of moisture
and exposed to the heat of incubation, has become dry and brittle.
The chirping of the chick is consequently the first and principal
indication of the creature desiring to make its escape and of its
requiring air. This the hen perceives so nicely, that if she hears
the chirping to be low and internal, she straightway turns the egg
over with her feet, that she may break the shell at the place whence
the voice proceeds without detriment to the chick.' Hippocrates adds,
'Another indication or reason of the chick's desiring to escape from
the shell, is that when it wants food it moves vigorously, in search
of a larger supply, by which the membrane around it is torn, and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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