Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/534

 tinually carried upwards and downwards by a natural move- ment, and are excited by any irritation to coughing and more frequent action ; but they cannot form and regulate the voice, nor can singing be executed, without the assistance, and in some sort the command, of the sensorium commune.

But these matters will be more fully handled when we come to speak of the actions and uses of the brain, and to consider the vital principle or soul. So much we have thought fit to say by the way, that we might show the respect in which we hold our illustrious teachers, and our anxiety to carry them along with us in our labours.

EXERCISE THE FIFTY-EIGHTH.

Of the nutrition of the chick in ovo.

That the authority of the ancients is not to be rashly thrown off appears in this : it was formerly current doctrine, though many at the present day, Fabricius 1 among the number, reject it as a delusion and a foolish idea, that the embryo sucked in its mother's womb. This idea nevertheless had Democritus, Epicurus, and Hippocrates for its supporters ; and the father of physic contends for it on two principal grounds : " Unless the foetus sucked/' he says, 2 "how should excrements be formed ? or how should it know how to suck immediately after it is born ?"

Now, whilst in other instances it is customary to swear by the bare statement of this ancient and most distinguished writer, his ipse dixit (O.VTOQ 6^*7) sufficing, because he here makes an assertion contrary to the commonly received opinion, Fabricius not only denies the statement, but spurns the arguments in support of his conclusion. We, however, leave it to the judgment of skilful anatomists and learned physicians to say whether our observations on the generation of animals do not proclaim this opinion of Hippocrates to be not merely probable, but even necessary.

All admit that the foetus in utero swims in the midst of an 1 De Form. Foetu, pp. 19 et 134. 2 Lib. de Carn. et de Nat. Pueri.