298 ON GENERATION. 



as they style them, and that the foetus from the outset is as it 

 were a portion of the mother, being nourished and growing 

 through her blood, and vegetating through her spirit; so that 

 neither does the heart pulsate, nor the liver compose blood, nor 

 any part of the foetus perform any kind of independent office, 

 but everything is carried on through the mother's means, they in 

 their turn are as certainly mistaken, and argue from erroneous 

 observations. For the embryo in the egg boasts of its own 

 blood, formed from the fluids contained within the egg ; and its 

 heart is seen to pulsate from the very beginning : it borrows no- 

 thing in the shape either of blood or spirits from the hen, for 

 the purpose of forming its so called sanguineous parts and its 

 feathers ; as most clearly appears to any one who looks on with 

 an unbiassed mind. From observations afterwards to be com- 

 municated, I believe indeed that it will be held as sufficiently 

 proven that even the foetus of viviparous animals still contained 

 in the uterus is not nourished by the blood of the mother and 

 does not vegetate through her spirit; but boasts of its own pecu- 

 liar \ital principle and powers, and its own blood, like the chick 

 in ovo. 



With reference to the matter which the embryo obtains from 

 its male and female parent, however, and the way and manner 

 of generation as commonly discoursed of in the schools, viz.: that 

 conception is produced or becomes prolific from mixture of the 

 genitures and their mutual action and passion, as also of the 

 seminal fluid of the female, and the parts which are spoken of 

 as sanguineous and spermatic, numerous and striking observa- 

 tions afterwards to be related have compelled me to adopt 

 opinions at variance with all such views. At this time I shall only 

 say that I am greatly surprised how physicians, particularly those 

 among them who are conversant with anatomy, should pretend 

 to support their opinions by means of two arguments especially, 

 which rightly understood, seem rather to prove the opposite ; 

 viz., from the shock and resolution of the forces and the effusion 

 of fluid which women at the moment of the sexual orgasm 

 frequently experience, they argue that all women pour out a 

 seminal fluid, and that this is necessary to generation. 



But passing over the fact that the females of all the lower 

 animals, and all women, do not experience any such emission 

 of fluid, and that conception is nowise impossible in cases where 



