246 REFLECTIONS ON 



and gradually expand till the foetus be perfe<5lly 

 mature. 



De Graaff differs widely from Harvey in his ac- 

 ceptation of the word egg. He maintains, that 

 the female teflicles are real ovaria, and contain 

 eggs fimilar to thofe of oviparous animals, except 

 that they are much fmaller, never fall out of the 

 body, nor detach themfelves till after impregna- 

 tion, when they defcend from the ovarium into 

 the uterus. The experiments of De GraafF have 

 contributed more to the belief of the exiftence of 

 eggs, than thofe of any other anatomift. They 

 are, notwithftanding, totally void of foundation; 

 for this celebrated author, in the firft place, mif- 

 takesthe veficles of the ovarium for eggs, though 

 they are infeparable from the ovarium, form a 

 part of its fubftance, and are filed with a fpecies 

 of lymph. 2. He is ftill more deceived, when 

 he informs us, that theglandulous bodies are on- 

 ly the coverings of thefe eggs or veficles; for it 

 is certain, from the obfervations of Malpighius 

 and of Valifnieri, and from my own experi- 

 ments, that the glandulous bodies contain no ve- 

 ficles. 3. He is wrong in maintaining that the 

 glandulous bodies never appear till after impreg- 

 nation. On the contrary, thefe bodies are uni- 

 formly found in all females, after the age of 

 puberty. 4. He errs in fuppofmg that the glo- 

 bules which he faw in the uterus, and which con- 

 tained the foetufes, were the very veficles that 

 had defcended from the ovarium into the uterus, 



and 



