Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/420

 although the egg be very large in comparison with the body and the orifice of the uterus, and it does nothing to further its exit, (as is customary with the young of viviparous animals,) yet she brings forth easily and without pain, and immediately after- wards commences her exultations ; and with her loud cackling calls the cock as it seems to share in her triumph.

But, although many rudiments of eggs are found in the hen's ovary, of various sizes and in different stages, so that some are larger and nearer to maturity than others, yet all of them appear to be fecundated, or to receive the prolific faculty from the tread of the cock at the same time and in the same degree. And though a considerable time elapse (namely, thirty or more days) before the common hen or hen-partridge lay all the eggs which she has conceived, yet in a stated time after the mother has begun to sit upon them (say twenty or two and twenty days) all the young are hatched nearly at the same time ; nor are they less perfect than if they had commenced their origin simultaneously, from the period of one and the same concep- tion, as the whelps of bitches do.

And while we are here, and while I think how small are the prolific germs of eggs, mere papulae and exudations less than millet-seeds, and contemplate the full proportions of the cock that springs from thence, his fine spirit, and his handsome plumage, I cannot but express my admiration that such strength should be reposed in the nature of things in such insignificant elements, and that it has pleased the omnipotent Creator out of the smallest beginnings to exhibit some of his greatest works. From a minute and scarce perceptible papula springs the hen, or the cock, a proud and magnificent creature. From a small seed springs a mighty tree ; from the minute gemmule or apex of the acorn, how wide does the gnarled oak at length extend his arms, how loftily does he lift his branches to the sky, how deeply do his roots strike down into the ground ! " It is in truth a great miracle of nature," says Pliny, 1 " that from so small an origin is produced a material that resists the axe, and that supplies beams, masts, and battering-rams. Such is the strength, such the power of nature ! " But in the seeds of all plants there is a gemmule or bud of such a kind, so

1 Lib. xvii, cap. 10.