Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/423

 EXERCISE THE FORTY-SECOND.

Of the manner in which the generation of the chick takes place from the egg.

Hitherto we have considered the egg as the fruit and end ; it still remains for us to treat of it as the seed and beginning. " We must now inquire," says Fabricius 1, " how the generation of the chick results from the egg, setting out from that prin- ciple of Aristotle and Galen, which is, even conceded by all, to wit, that all things which are made in this life, are mani- festly made by these three : workers, instruments, and matter.

But since in natural phenomena, the work is not extrinsic, but is included in the matter, or the instruments, he concludes that we must take cognizance only of the agent and the matter.

As we are here about to shew in what manner the chick arises from the egg, however, I think it may be of advantage for me to preface this, by showing the number of modes in which one thing may be said to be made from another.

For so it will appear, more clearly and distinctly, after which of these generation takes place in the egg, and what are the right conclusions in regard to its matter, its instruments, and efficient cause.

Aristotle 2 has laid down that there are four modes in which one thing is made from another : " first, when we say that from day night is made, or from a boy a man, since one is after the other ; secondly, when we say that a statue is made from brass, or a bed from wood, or any thing else from a cer- tain material, so that the whole consists of something, which is inherent and made into a form ; thirdly, as when from a musical man is made an unmusical one, or from a healthy, a sick one, or contraries in any way : fourthly, as Epicharmus exagge- rates it, as of calumnies, cursing ; of cursing, fighting. But all these are to be referred to that from whence the movement took its rise ; for the calumny is a certain portion of the whole

1 Op. cit. p. 28. 2 De Gen. Anim. lib. i, cap. 19.