Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/529

 gall bladder, are contemporaneous with the existence of the concocting organs themselves. Lastly, not only is there a soul or vital principle present in the vegetative part, but even be- fore this there is inherent mind, foresight, and understanding, which from the very commencement to the being and perfect formation of the chick, dispose and order and take up all things requisite, moulding them in the new being, with consummate art, into the form and likeness of its parents.

In reference to this subject of family likeness, we may be permitted to inquire as to the reason why the offspring should at one time bear a stronger resemblance to the father, at another to the mother, and, at a third, to progenitors, both maternal and paternal, further removed ? particularly in cases where at one bout, and at the same moment, several ova are fecundated. And this too is a remarkable fact, that virtues and vices, marks and moles, and even particular dispositions to disease are transmitted by parents to their offspring ; and that while some inherit in this way, all do not. Among our poul- try some are courageous, and pugnaciously inclined, and will sooner die than yield and flee from an adversary; their de- scendants, once or twice removed, however, unless they have come of equally well-bred parents, gradually lose this quality ; according to the adage, " the brave are begotten by the brave." In various other species of animals, and particularly in the human family, a certain nobility of race is observed ; numerous qualities, in fact, both of mind and body, are derived by here- ditary descent.

I have frequently wondered how it should happen that the offspring, mixed in so many particulars of its structure or con- stitution, with the stamp of both parents so obviously upon it, in so many parts, should still escape all mixture in the organs of generation ; that it should so uniformly prove either male or female, so very rarely an hermaphrodite.

Lastly, many things are present before they appear, and some are begun among the very first which are completed among the very last, such as the eyes, the organs of generation, and the beak.

Several doubts and difficulties have thence arisen as to the principality and relative dignity of the several members, in which they who are fond of such things have displayed their