ON GENERATION. 177 



have grown to any size. In fishes, therefore, there is no part save 

 the ovary dedicated to purposes of reproduction. The ova of these 

 animals continue to grow without the body, and do not require 

 the protection of an uterus for their evolution. And the ovary 

 here appears to bear an analogy to the testicles or vesiculse 

 seminales, not only because it is found in the same place as the 

 testes in the male, (the testes in the cock being situated, as we 

 have said, close to the origin of the coeliac artery, near the 

 waist, in the very same place as the ovary in the hen,) but be- 

 cause among fishes, in both sexes, as the time of spawning ap- 

 proaches, two follicles, alike in situation, size, and shape, are 

 discovered, extending the whole length of the abdomen ; which 

 increase and become distended at the same period : in the male 

 with a homogeneous milky spermatic matter, (whence the term 

 milk or milt of fishes;) in the female with innumerable gra- 

 nules, which, from their diminutive size and close texture, 

 in the beginning of the season, escape the powers of vision, and 

 present themselves as constituting an uniform body, bearing 

 the strongest resemblance to the milt of the male regularly 

 coagulated. By and by they are seen in the guise of minute 

 grains of sand, adhering together within their follicles. 



In the smaller birds that lay but once a year, and a few eggs 

 only, you will scarcely discover any ovary. Still, in the place 

 where the testicles are situated in the male, there in the female, 

 and not less obviously than the testicles of the male, you will 

 perceive three or four vesicles (the number being in proportion to 

 that of the eggs of which they are the rudiments), by way of 

 ovary. 



In the cornua of the uterus of snakes (which resemble the 

 vasa deferentia in male animals), the first rudiments of the ova 

 present themselves as globules strung upon a thread, in the 

 same way as women's bracelets, or like a rosary composed of 

 amber beads. 



Those ova that are found in the ovary of the fowl conse- 

 quently are not to be regarded as perfect eggs, but only as their 

 rudiments ; and they are so arranged on the cluster, they suc- 

 ceed each other in such an order and of such dimensions, that 

 they are always ready for each day's laying. But none of the 

 eggs in the ovary are surrounded with albumen ; there the yelk 

 exists alone, and each, as it enlarges, extricates itself from the 



