ON GENERATION. 347 



lific or wind eggs consist herein, that the former contained the 

 seed of the male, as Aldrovandus supposed; nor has it been 

 noticed that anything has been formed and coagulated in the 

 egg by the seed of the male, nor has any sensible transmuta- 

 tion been discovered (for indeed, there is no sensible difference 

 between the fertile and the wind egg) ; and yet a prolific egg, 

 conceived long after coition, has in itself the faculties of both 

 sexes ; viz., the capability of being both formed itself, and of 

 forming a chick ; as if, according to the idea of Aristotle, it 

 had derived its origin from the coition of the two, and their 

 mutual endeavours towards the same end ; and compelled by the 

 force of this argument, as mentioned above, when speaking of the 

 generation of the ovum, he has endowed the egg with a vital 

 principle (anima.) If such really exist, then, without doubt it 

 would be the origin and efficient of all the natural phenomena 

 which take place in the egg. For if we consider the struc- 

 ture of the chick, displaying, as it does, so much art, so divine 

 an intelligence and foresight ; when we see the eyes adapted 

 for vision, the bill for taking food, the feet for walking, the 

 wings for flying, and similarly the rest of its parts, each to its 

 own end, we must conclude, whatever the power be which 

 creates such an animal out of an egg, that it is either the 

 soul, or part of the soul, or something having a soul, or some- 

 thing existing previous to, and more excellent than the soul, 

 operating with intelligence and foresight. 



From the generation of the chick, it is also manifest that, 

 whatever may have been its principle of life or first vegetative 

 cause, this cause itself first existed in the heart. Now, 

 if this be the soul of the chicken, it is equally clear, that that 

 soul must have existed in the punctum saliens and the blood ; 

 since we there discover motion and sense ; for the heart moves 

 and leaps like an animal. But if a soul exists in the punctum 

 saliens, forming, nourishing, and augmenting the rest of the 

 body, in the manner which we have pointed out in our history, 

 then it, without doubt, flows from the heart, as from a foun- 

 tain-head, into the whole body. Likewise, if the existence 

 of the vital principle (anima) in the egg, or, as Aristotle 

 supposes, if the vegetative part of the soul be the cause of 

 its fertility, it must follow that the punctum saliens, or ani- 

 mate genital part, proceeds from the vital principle (anima) of 



