Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/444

344 To escape from such a labyrinth of "efficient causes," it were necessary to be furnished with Ariadne's thread, composed from observations on almost every animal that lives; on this account the subject is deferred till we come to our more general disquisition. Meantime we shall recount the particulars which either manifestly appear in the special history of the chick from the egg, or which differ from the ideas usually entertained, or that seem to demand further inquiry.

It is universally allowed, that the male is the primary efficient cause in generation, on the ground that in him the species or form resides; and it is further affirmed, that the emission of his 'geniture' during coition, is the cause both of the existence and the fertility of the egg. But none of the philosophers nor physicians, ancient or modern, have sufficiently explained in what manner the seed of the cock produced a chick from the egg; nor have they solved the question proposed by Aristotle. Nor, indeed, is Aristotle himself much more explanatory, when he says, "that the male contributes not in respect of quantity, but of quality, and is the origin of action; but that it is the female which brings the material." And a little after, "It is not every male that emits seed, and in those which do so, this is no part of the fœtus; just as in the case of a carpenter, nothing is translated from him to the substance of the wood which he uses, nor does any part of the artist's skill reside in the work when completed; but a form and appearance are given by his operation to the matter; and the soul, which originates the idea of forms, and the skill to imitate them, moves the hands, or other limb, whatever it may be, by a motion of a certain quality; or from diversity proceeds difference; or from similarity proceeds resemblance. But the hands and instruments move the material. So the nature of a male, which emits semen, uses that semen as an