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EMBRYOLOGY IN THE SEVENTEENTH [pt. n 



Streeter of his age, who, in his Recherche de la Verite of 1672, reaHsed 

 its philosophical possibilities, and gave it a kind of metaphysical 

 sanction. That mystical microscopist, Swammerdam, made use of 

 it as an explanation of the doctrine of original sin. In a remarkably 

 short space of time it was a thoroughly established piece of biological 

 theory. 



Malebranche refers to it in his Recherche de la Verite in the chapter 

 where he treats of optical illusions and emphasises the deceitfulness 

 and inadequacy of our senses. "We see", he says, "in the germ of a 

 fresh Qgg which has not been incubated an entirely formed chicken. 

 We see frogs in frogs' eggs and we shall see other animals in their 



B^-xh- 



Fig. 9. Malpighi's drawings of the chick embryo's blood-vessels. 



germs also when we have sufficient skill and experience to discover 

 them. We must suppose that all the bodies of men and animals which 

 will be born until the consummation of time will have been direct 

 products of the original creation, in other words, that the first females 

 were created with all the subsequent individuals of their own species 

 within them. We might push this thought further and belike with 

 much reason and truth, but we not unreasonably fear a too premature 

 penetration into the works of God. Our thoughts are, indeed, too 

 gross and feeble to understand even the smallest of his creatures." 

 Malebranche, who was a priest of the Oratory of the Cardinal de 

 Berulle, took an ardent interest in the scientific life of his time — for 

 example, in a letter to Poisson, the Abbe Daniel wrote, "Reverend 

 Father, M. Malebranche has written to me saying that he has in- 

 stalled an oven in which he has hatched eggs. He has already opened 



