A. W. Meyer 43 1 



"It is further quite certain that in the crop of the chick,— and the same thing 

 occurs in reference to the stomach of other embryos— there is a certain matter 

 having a colour, taste, and consistence, very similar to that of the liquid men- 

 tioned, and some of it in the stomach digested to a certain extent, like coagu- 

 lated milk; and further, whilst we discover a kind of chyle in the upper 

 intestines, we find the lower bowels full of stercoraceous excrements. In like 

 manner we perceive the large intestines of the foetuses of viviparous animals 

 to contain excrements of the same description as those that distend them when 

 they feed on milk. In the sheep and other bisulcated animals we even find 

 scybala" (pp. 438-439). This he said was observed by "Volcher Goiter, a careful 

 and experienced dissector." Harvey concluded that "The embryo, therefore 

 seeks for and sucks in nourishment by the mouth; and you will readily be- 

 lieve that he does so if you rip him from his mother's womb and instantly put 

 a finger in his mouth; which Hippocrates thinks he would not seize had he 

 not previously sucked whilst in the womb" (p. 440). 



"In the stomach of the foetus there is a watery fluid contained, not unlike 

 that in which it swims, but somewhat more turbid or less transparent. It re- 

 sembles the milk that begins to be secreted in the breasts of pregnant women 

 about the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy, and may be pressed out of the 

 nipples, or it is like the drink which we call white posset. 



"In the small intestines there is an abundance of chyle concocted from the 

 same matter; in the colon greenish faeces and scybala begin to appear" (pp. 



493-494)- 



"Just as the colliquament found in the crop of the chick is a kind of crude 



milk, whilst the same fluid discovered in the stomach is concocted, white, and 

 curdled; so in viviparous animals, before the milk is concocted in the mammae, 

 a kind of dew and colliquament makes its appearance there, and the colli- 

 quament only puts on the semblance of milk after it has undergone concoction 

 in the stomach. And so it happens, in Aristotle's opinion, that the first and 

 most essential parts are formed out of the purer and thinner portion of the 

 colliquament, and are increased by the remaining more indifferent portion 

 after it has undergone elaboration by a new digestion in the stomach. In the 

 same way are the other less important parts developed and maintained. Thus 

 has nature, like a fond and indulgent mother, been sedulous rather to provide 

 superfluity, than to suffer any scarcity of things necessary. Or it might be said 

 to be in conformity with reason to suppose that the foetus, noAV gro-^vn more 

 perfect, should also be nourished in a more perfect manner, by the mouth, 

 to wit, and be a more perfect kind of aliment, rendered purer by having under- 

 gone the two antecedent digestions and been thereby freed from the two kinds 

 of excrementitious matter. In the beginning and early stages, nourished by the 

 ramifications of the umbilical veins, it leads in some sort the life of a plant; 

 the body is then crude, white, and imperfect; like plants, too, it is motionless 

 and impassive. As soon, however, as it begins by the mouth to partake of the 



