Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/362

 When the albumen is almost all removed, and only a very small quantity of the colliquament is left, for several days before the exclusion, the chick no longer swims, but, as I have said, bends over the vitellus ; and rolled up into a round ball, with the head for the most part placed between the right thigh and wing, it is seen with its beak, nails, feathers, and all other parts complete. Sometimes it sleeps, and sometimes it wakes, and moving about it breathes and chirps. If you apply the egg to your ear, you will hear the chick within making a noise, kicking, and unquestionably chirping; according to Aristotle, he now also uses his eyes. If you cautiously drop the egg into warm water, it will swim, and the chick within, aroused by the warmth, will leap, and, as I have already said, cause the egg to tumble about. And it is by this means that our country folks distinguish prolific from unproductive eggs which sink when put into water.

When the albumen is entirely gone, just before the exclusion, the umbilical vessel, which we have described as distributed to the albumen, is obliterated; or as Aristotle says, 1 "that um- bilicus which proceeds to the external secundiues is detached from the animal and dies; but the one which leads to the vitellus becomes connected with the small intestine of the chick."

The excrement that is first formed in the intestines is white and turbid, like softened egg-shell; and some of the same matter may be found contained in the secundines. The philo- sopher admits this when he says : "At the same time, too, the chick discharges a large quantity of excrement into the outer membrane ; and there are white excrements within the abdo- men, as well as those that have been evacuated."

Time running on, very shortly before the exclusion, light green faeces are formed, similar to those which the chick dis- charges when excluded from the egg. In the crop, too, AVC can discover a portion of the colliquament which has been sAval- lowed ; and in the stomach some curd or coagulum.

Up to this time the liver has not yet acquired its purple or blood-red colour, but has a tint verging from white into yellow, such as the liver of fishes presents. The lungs, however, are of a florid red.

1 Hist. Anim. lib. vi, cap. 3.