THE EXPERIMENTS. 243 



animals as are deprived of this organ, we mud 

 confider, that females produce eggs independent 

 of the male. The uterus, in viviparous animals, 

 is a part peculiar to the female fex ; in the fame 

 manner, female fowls, that want this organ, 

 have the defed amply fupplied hy the fuccef- 

 five produdlion of eggs, which neceflarily exifl: 

 in thefe females, independent of all communi- 

 cation with the male. To pretend that the foe- 

 tus pre-exifted in the egg, and that eggs are 

 contained, ad infinitum^ within each other, is 

 equally ridiculous as to maintain that the foetus 

 pre-exifted in the uterus, and that tlie uterus of 

 the firft female contained all the uteri that ever 

 were or will be produced. 



Anatomifts have applied the term egg to 

 things of very oppofite natures. Harvey, in 

 his aphorifm. Omnia ex ouo^ by the word ^o-o-^ 

 when applied to oviparous animals, means only 

 the bag which includes the foetus and all its 

 appendages. He imagined that he perceived 

 the formation of this egg or bag immediately 

 after the jundlion of the male and female. But 

 this egg proceeded not from the ovarium of the 

 female : He even aflerts, that he could not dl- 

 ftinguifh the fmalleft alteration in the ovarium. 

 It is apparent, that there is not here the moft 

 diftant analogy to what is commonly underftood 

 by the word egg^ unlefs, perhnpfv, the figure of 

 the bag might have fome faint refemblance to 

 that of an egg. Harvey, though he dlfredcd 



0^2 many 



