Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/398

 as they style them, and that the foetus from the outset is as it were a portion of the mother, being nourished and growing through her blood, and vegetating through her spirit; so that neither does the heart pulsate, nor the liver compose blood, nor any part of the foetus perform any kind of independent office, but everything is carried on through the mother's means, they in their turn are as certainly mistaken, and argue from erroneous observations. For the embryo in the egg boasts of its own blood, formed from the fluids contained within the egg ; and its heart is seen to pulsate from the very beginning : it borrows no- thing in the shape either of blood or spirits from the hen, for the purpose of forming its so called sanguineous parts and its feathers ; as most clearly appears to any one who looks on with an unbiassed mind. From observations afterwards to be com- municated, I believe indeed that it will be held as sufficiently proven that even the foetus of viviparous animals still contained in the uterus is not nourished by the blood of the mother and does not vegetate through her spirit; but boasts of its own pecu- liar \ital principle and powers, and its own blood, like the chick in ovo.

With reference to the matter which the embryo obtains from its male and female parent, however, and the way and manner of generation as commonly discoursed of in the schools, viz.: that conception is produced or becomes prolific from mixture of the genitures and their mutual action and passion, as also of the seminal fluid of the female, and the parts which are spoken of as sanguineous and spermatic, numerous and striking observa- tions afterwards to be related have compelled me to adopt opinions at variance with all such views. At this time I shall only say that I am greatly surprised how physicians, particularly those among them who are conversant with anatomy, should pretend to support their opinions by means of two arguments especially, which rightly understood, seem rather to prove the opposite ; viz., from the shock and resolution of the forces and the effusion of fluid which women at the moment of the sexual orgasm frequently experience, they argue that all women pour out a seminal fluid, and that this is necessary to generation.

But passing over the fact that the females of all the lower animals, and all women, do not experience any such emission of fluid, and that conception is nowise impossible in cases where