THE PROCESS OF REPRODUCTION. 453 



by following this path, if any, to solve the mystery 

 of creation. Aristotle appears to have pursued it 

 with peculiar complacency ; and his great work On 

 Animals contains 1 an extraordinary collection of 

 curious observations relative to this subject. He 

 had learnt the modes of reproduction of most of 

 the animals with which he was acquainted; and 

 his work is still, as a writer of our own times has 

 said 2 , "original after so many copies, and young 

 after two thousand years." His observations re- 

 ferred principally to the external circumstances of 

 generation : the anatomical examination was left to 

 his successors. Without dwelling on the interme- 

 diate labours, we come to modern times, and find 

 that this examination owes its greatest advance to 

 those who had the greatest share in the discovery 

 of the circulation of the blood; Fabriciusof Acqua- 

 pendente, and Harvey. The former 3 published a 

 valuable work on the Egg and the Chick. In this 

 are given, for the first time, figures representing the 

 developement of the chick, from its almost imper- 

 ceptible beginning, to the moment when it breaks 

 the shell. Harvey pursued the researches of his 

 teacher. Charles 4 the First had supplied him with 

 the means of making the experiments which his 

 purpose required, by sacrificing a great number 

 of the deer in Windsor Park in the state of ges- 

 tation : but his principal researches were those 



1 Bourdon, p. 161. 2 Ib. p. 101. 



3 Cuv. Hist. Sc. Nat. p. 46. 4 Ib. p. 53. 



