SECT, i] EMBRYOLOGY IN ANTIQUITY 83 



serves for nourishment; whiles the chick is unhatched and within the 

 egge, the head is bigger than all the bodie besides; and the eies 

 that be compact and thrust together be more than the verie head. 

 As the chick within growes bigger, the white turneth into the middest, 

 and is enclosed within the yolke. By the 20 day (if the eggs be stirred) 

 ye shall heare the chick to peepe within the verie shell; from that 

 time forward it beginneth to plume and gather feathers ; and in this 

 manner it lies within the shell, the head resting on the right foot, 

 and the same head under the right wing, and so the yolke by little 

 and little decreaseth and faileth". But the best way to illustrate 

 Pliny's embryology is to copy out some of his index, as follows : 



The Table to the first Tome of Plinies Naturall Historie. 



Egs diverse in colour 298 



Egs of birds of 2 colours within the shell ibid. 



Egs of fishes of i colour ibid. 



Egs of birds, serpents, and fishes, how they differ ibid. 



Egs best for an hen to sit upon 299 



Egs hatched without a bird, onely by a kind heat ibid. 



Egs how they be marred under an hen ibid, 



wind-egs, called Hypenemia 300 



how they be engendred 301 



wind-egs, Zephyria ibid. 



Egs drawne through a ring ibid. 



Egs how they be best kept ibid. 



The Table to the second Tome of Plinies Naturall Historie, 



Egs of hens and their medicinable properties 351 



yolke of hens egs, in what cases it is medicinable 352 



Egs all yolke, and without white, be called Schista ibid, 



skinne of an Hens egge-shell, good in Physicke ibid. 



Hens Eggeshell reduced unto ashes, for what it serveth ibid, 



the wonderfull nature of Hens Eggeshels ibid. 



Hens Egges, all whole as they be, what they are good for 353 



the commendations of Hens Egges, as a meat most medicinable ibid. 

 Hens Egge, a proper nourishment for sicke folks, and may go 



for meat and drinke both ibid. 



Egge-shels, how they may be made tender and pliable ibid, 



white of an Egge resisteth fire ibid, 



of Geese Egges a discourse 354 

 the serpents egge, which the Latines call Anguinum, what it 



is, and how engendred 355 



This last item exhibits Pliny at his worst. It is worth quoting, apart 

 from its intrinsic value, for it shows to what depths embryological 

 knowledge descended within four hundred years after Aristotle col- 

 lected his specimens on the shores of the lagoon of Pyrrha, and talked 

 with the fishermen of Mitylene. "I will not overpasse one kind of 

 eggs besides, which is in great name and request in France, and 

 whereof the Greeke authors have not written a word ; and this is 



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