Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/400

 she shakes herself for joy, and, as if already possessed of the richest treasure, as if gifted by supreme Jove the preserver with the blessing of fecundity, she sets to work to prune and orna- ment herself. The pigeon, particularly that kind which comes to us from Africa, expresses the satisfaction she feels from in- tercourse in a remarkable manner ; she leaps, spreads her tail, and sweeps the ground with its extremity, she pecks and prunes her feathers all her actions are as if she felt raised to the summit of felicity by the gift of fruitfulness.

We have said that the primary matter of the egg does not consist of blood as Aristotle would have it, neither does it pro- ceed from any mixture of the male and female seminal fluids. Whence it truly originates we have already stated in part in our history ; and we shall by and by have occasion to speak of the subject more at length when we come to treat generally of the matter from which every conception is originally produced.

EXERCISE THE THIRTY-FIFTH.

In how far is the fowl efficient in the generation of the egg, ac- cording to Aristotle ? And wherefore is the concurrence of the male required?

It has been already stated that the cock and hen are the two principles in the generation of the egg, although of the manner in which they are so I am of a different opinion from Aristotle and medical authorities. From the production of the egg we have clearly shown that the female as well as the male was efficient, and that she had within her a principle whence motion and the faculty of forming flowed ; although in the sexual act the male neither confers the matter, nor does the female eject any semen whence the egg is constituted. It is consequently manifest, in some animals at least, that nature has not, on account of the distinction into male and female, established it as a law that the one, as agent, should confer form, the other, as passive, supply matter, as Aristotle appre- hended ; nor yet that during intercourse each should contribute