482 ON GENERATION. 



to pass that many observations, particularly on the generation 

 of insects, have perished, with detriment, I venture to say, to 

 the republic of letters. 



EXERCISE THE SIXTY-NINTH. 



Of what takes place in the uterus of the doe during the month 

 of November. 



Taught by the experience of many years I can state truly 

 that it is from the 12th to the 14th of November that I first 

 discover anything which belongs to the future offspring in the 

 uterus of the hind. 



I remember, indeed, that in the year of grace 1633, the 

 signs of conception, or the commencements of the embryos, made 

 their appearance somewhat earlier; because the weather was 

 then cloudy and wet. In does, too, which have rutted six or 

 seven days sooner than hinds, I have always discovered some- 

 thing of the future foetus about the 8th or 9th of November. 

 What this is and how it is begun I shall proceed to state. 



A little before anything is perceptible, the substance of the 

 uterus or its horns appears less than it was before the animals 

 began to rut, the white caruncles are more flaccid, as I have 

 said, and the protuberances of the internal coat subside some- 

 what, and are corrugated and look moist. For about the date 

 above mentioned certain mucous filaments like spiders' webs are 

 observed drawn from the extremities, or superior angles of the 

 cornua through the middle of either, and also through the 

 body of the uterus. These filaments becoming conjoined pre- 

 sent themselves as a membranous and gelatinous tunic or empty 

 sac. Even as the plexus choroides is extended through the 

 ventricles of the brain, is this oblong sac produced through the 

 whole of either horn and the intervening cavity of the uterus, 

 insinuating itself between the wrinkles of the flabby internal 

 tunic, and sending delicate fibres among the aforementioned 

 rounded protuberances, being nearly in the same manner as 

 the pia mater dips between the convolutions of the brain. 



Within a day or two this sac becomes filled with a clear, 



