Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/353

 feet; in short, all the parts are sketched out, but the eyes, above all, are conspicuous. The viscera, on the contrary, are so indistinct, that Coiter affirms, that whilst he plainly saw the eyes and beak he could discover no viscus, even obscurely and confusedly shadowed forth.

The changes that take place from the beginning of the sixth to the end of the seventh day, occur for the major part in some eggs more quickly, in others a little more tardily. The coats of the eyes are now visible, but they only include a colourless and limpid fluid in their interior. The eyes themselves project somewhat beyond their orbits, and each of them does not less exceed the brain in size, than the head with which they are connected exceeds the whole of the rest of the body.

The vesicle, which like a ridge or crest expands beyond the confines of the brain, occupies the place of the cerebellum ; and, like the other vesicles, is filled with a transparent fluid.

The brain is perceived to be obscurely bipartite, and refracts the light less than the cerebellum, though it is of a whiter colour. And as the heart is seen lying without the confines of the thorax, so likewise does the cerebellum protrude beyond the limits of the head.

If the head be removed, the vessels ascending to the brain may be observed as bloody points, with the use of a magni- fying glass. And now, too, the rudiments of the spine begin to be first perceived distinct from the rest of the pulp, of a milky colour, but firmer consistence. So in the same way, and like flimsy threads of a spider's web, the ribs and other bones make their appearance in the guise of milky lines, amidst the pulp of the body ; and the same thing appears more clearly in the formation of the larger oviparous animals. The heart, lungs, liver, and by way of intestines certain most delicate filaments, all present themselves of a white colour. The parenchyma of the liver is developed upon delicate fibrous stamens over the umbilical vein at the part where it enters, almost in the same manner as we have said that the rudiments of the body grow to the vein descending from the heart, or the vesicula pulsans. For in the same way as grapes grow upon the stalk of the bunch, buds upon twigs, and the ear upon the straw, does the liver adhere to the umbilical vein, and arise from it, even as fungi do from trees and excessive granulations from ulcers, or as