Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/582

 to pass that many observations, particularly on the generation of insects, have perished, with detriment, I venture to say, to the republic of letters.

EXERCISE THE SIXTY-NINTH.

Of what takes place in the uterus of the doe during the month of November.

Taught by the experience of many years I can state truly that it is from the 12th to the 14th of November that I first discover anything which belongs to the future offspring in the uterus of the hind.

I remember, indeed, that in the year of grace 1633, the signs of conception, or the commencements of the embryos, made their appearance somewhat earlier; because the weather was then cloudy and wet. In does, too, which have rutted six or seven days sooner than hinds, I have always discovered some- thing of the future foetus about the 8th or 9th of November. What this is and how it is begun I shall proceed to state.

A little before anything is perceptible, the substance of the uterus or its horns appears less than it was before the animals began to rut, the white caruncles are more flaccid, as I have said, and the protuberances of the internal coat subside some- what, and are corrugated and look moist. For about the date above mentioned certain mucous filaments like spiders' webs are observed drawn from the extremities, or superior angles of the cornua through the middle of either, and also through the body of the uterus. These filaments becoming conjoined pre- sent themselves as a membranous and gelatinous tunic or empty sac. Even as the plexus choroides is extended through the ventricles of the brain, is this oblong sac produced through the whole of either horn and the intervening cavity of the uterus, insinuating itself between the wrinkles of the flabby internal tunic, and sending delicate fibres among the aforementioned rounded protuberances, being nearly in the same manner as the pia mater dips between the convolutions of the brain.

Within a day or two this sac becomes filled with a clear,