404 ON GENERATION. 



formed. The bones of the extremities and skull, and the teeth, 

 do not arise any sooner than the brain, the muscles, and the other 

 fleshy parts : in new-born foetuses, perfect in other respects, the 

 place of the bones is supplied by mere membranes or cartilages, 

 which are only subsequently and in the lapse of time converted 

 into bones; a circumstance which sufficiently appears in the 

 crania of new-born infants, and in the state of their ribs and 

 articulations. 



And although it be true that the first rudiments of the body 

 are seen in the guise of a recurved keel, still this is a soft 

 mucous and jelly-like substance, which has no affinity in nature, 

 structure, or office to bone ; and although certain globules 

 depend from thence, the destined rudiments of the head, still 

 these contain no solid matter, but are mere vesicles full of 

 limpid water, which are afterwards formed into the brain, cere- 

 bellum, and eyes, which are all subsequently surrounded by the 

 skull, at a period, however, when the beak and nails have 

 already acquired consistency and hardness. 



This view of Fabricius is therefore both imperfect and in- 

 correct; inasmuch as he does not think of what nature per- 

 forms in fact in the work of generation, so much as of what in 

 his opinion she ought to do, betrayed into this by his compa- 

 rison with the edifice reared by art. As if nature had imitated 

 art, and not rather art nature ! mindful of which he himself 

 says afterwards : l "It were better to say that art learned of 

 nature, and was an imitator of her doings ; for, as Galen every- 

 where reminds us, nature is both older and displays greater 

 wisdom in her works than art." 



And then when we admit that the bones are the foundation 

 of the whole body, without which it could neither support itself 

 nor perform any movement, it is still sufficient if they arise 

 simultaneously with the parts that are attached to them. And 

 indeed the things that are to be supported not yet existing, the 

 supports would be established in vain. Nature, however, does 

 nothing in vain ; nor does she form parts before there is a use for 

 them. But animals receive their organs as soon as the offices of 

 these are required. The first basis of Fabricius, therefore, is dis- 

 tinctly overthrown by his own observations on the egg, and the 

 comparison drawn by Galen. 



1 Op. cit. p. 44. 



