I (ft A HISTORY OF 



in'ei tho expediency of man's living upon all. Beth animals and vege- 

 tables s?em equally fitted to his appetites ; and, were any religious or 

 moral motives to restrain him from taking away life, upon any account, 

 he would only thus give existence to a variety of beings made to 

 prey upon each other ; and, instead of preventing, multiply mutual 

 destruction. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS 



BEFORE we survey animals in their state of maturity, and perform- 

 ing the functions adapted to their respective natures, method re- 

 quires that we should consider them in the more early periods of 

 their existence. There has been a time when the proudest and the 

 noblest animal was a partaker of the same imbecility with the meanest 

 reptile; and, while yet a candidate for existence, equally helpless and 

 contemptible. In their incipient state, all are upon a footing ; the in- 

 sect and the philosopher being equally insensible, clogged with mat 

 ter, and unconscious of existence. Where, then, are we to begin with 

 the history of those beings, that make such a distinguished figure in the 

 creation? Or, where lie those peculiar characters in the parts that go 

 to make up animated nature that mark one animal as destined to 

 creep in the dust, and another to glitter on the throne. 



This has been a subject that has employed the curiosity of all ages, 

 and the philosophers of every age have attempted the solution. In 

 tracing nature to her most hidden recesses, she becomes too minute, 

 or obscure, for our inspection ; so that we find it impossible to mark 

 her first differences, to discover the point where animal life begins, or 

 the cause that conduces to set it in motion. We know little more than 

 that the greatest number of animals require the concurrence of a male 

 and female to reproduce their kind ; and that these distinctly and in- 

 variable are found to beget creatures of their own species. Curiosity 

 has, therefore, been active, in trying to discover the immediate result 

 of this union ; how far either sex contributes to the bestowing animal 

 life, and whether it be to the male or female that we are most indebted 

 for the privilege of our existence. 



Hippocrates has supposed that fecundity proceeded from the mix- 

 ture of the seminal liquor of both sexes, each of which equally contri- 

 butes to the formation of the incipient animal. Aristotle, on the other 

 hand, would have the seminal liquor in the male alone to contribute to 

 this purpose, while the female supplied the proper nourishment for its 

 support. Such were the opinions of these fathers of philosophy ; and 

 these continued to be adopted by the naturalists and schoolmen of 

 succeeding ages with blind veneration. At length, Steno and Har- 

 vey, taking anatomy for their guide, gave mankind a nearer view of 

 nature just advancing into animation. These perceived in all such 

 animals as produced their young alive, two glandular bodies, near the 

 womb, resembling that ovary, or cluster of small eggs, which is found 

 in fowls ; and, from the analogy between both, they gave these also 

 the name of ovaria. These, as they resembled eggs, they naturally 

 concluded had the same offices ; and, therefore, they were induced to 



