130- 



.&e ovary, as the eggs of the hen, a 0erm pre-exists in* 

 them, but its transparency conceal^ ii iiom us, fecunda- 

 lion renders it visible, 



14, But if an ass cover a mare, there will be pro- - 

 cFiiced from this commerce an animal that will not pro- 

 perly be a horse, but* a mule. Nevertheless, a horse 

 was delineated in miniature-in the egg of a mare : how 

 then was it transformed into a mule?'" Whence did it 

 acquire these long ears and slender tail, so different* 

 ircm those of the horse? Dissection increases the dif- 

 ficulty: tiiat informs us that this kind of transformation 

 doe.s riot only afrct the exterior part of the animal, but 

 the interior li- evvise. The voice of the mule is very 

 l]ke that of the a-s, and does not at ail resen>bie the 

 weighing of a horse. The org; n of the ass's voice is an 

 instrument that is very much compounded. A drum, , 

 of a singular structure, lodged \\ivhin the larynx, is the 

 principal part of this instrument: this drum does not 

 exist in the horse, but is found in the mule. 



The liquor furnished by the male consequently pene- 

 trates the germ, since it -there* produces such great 

 changes : but these relations of the prolific liquor to 4 the 

 male that furnishes it, must necessarily depend on the - 

 organs that prepare it. 



There are then in -these organs vessels that separate * 

 the nu) It-cities relative to different parts of the great 

 \vhole : these molecules are carried to the correspond- 

 ing parts of the germ, since these parts are modified by 

 the action of the prolific liquor. Therefore, it incor- 

 porates itself with the germ, and is the first aliment of 

 it, as I said above. 



The organs of generation in the ass have then a re- 

 lation to liis ears a?*d larynx ; for they prepare a liquor 

 which .modifies the ears and larynx of the little horse - 

 enclosed in the egg. The prolific liquor creates lio- 

 thing, l>ut it may change what already exists : it does 

 not engender the chick,- which existed before fe- 

 cundation. 



