THE EXPERIMENTS. 219 



ning Nature more clofely, we fhoiild find inter- 

 mediate organized beings, which, without ha- 

 ving the faculty of reprodudion, like animals 

 and vegetables, would ftill enjoy a fpecies of 

 life and motion ; beings which, without having 

 the properties either of animals or vegetables, 

 might enter into the conftitution of both; and, 

 laftly, beings which would confift of the firft 

 alTemblages of the organic particles mentioned 

 in the preceding chapters. 



Eggs conftitute the firft clafs of this fpecies of 

 beinjis. Thofe of hens and other female birds 

 are attached to a common pedicle, and derive 

 their nourifhment and growth from the body 

 cf the animal. But, when attached to the ova- 

 rium, they are not properly eggs ; they are only 

 yellow globes, which feparate from the ova- 

 rium as foon as they acquire a certain magnitude: 

 Such is their internal organization, however, 

 that they abforb nourifhment from the lymph 

 contained in the uterus, and convert it into the 

 white, membranes, and fhell. Thus the egg pof- 

 feflesa fpecies of life and organization. It grows 

 and aflumes a form by its own peculiar powers : 

 ]t neither lives like an animal, nor vegetates like 

 a plant, nor enjoys the faculty of reprodudion. 

 The egg, therefore, is a diftind: being, which 

 can neither be ranked with the animal nor mi- 

 neral kingdoms. If it be alledged that the egg 

 is only an animal produdion dcftined for the 

 nourifhment of the chick, and ought to be re- 



garded 



