Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/613

 EXERCISE THE SEVENTY-SECOND.

Of the primigenial moisture.

We have now dignified the blood with the title of the in- nate heat j with like propriety, we believe, that the fluid which we have called the crystalline colliquament, from which the foetus and its parts primarily and immediately arise, may be designated the radical and primigenial moisture. There is certainly nothing in the generation of animals to which this title can with better right be given.

We call this the radical moisture, because from it arises the first particle of the embryo, the blood, to wit ; and all the other posthumous parts arise from it as from a root ; and they are procreated and nourished, and grow and are preserved by the same matter.

We also call it primigenial, because it is first engendered in every animal organism, and is, as it were, the foundation of the rest ; as may be seen in the egg, in which it presents itself after a brief period of incubation, as the first work of the inherent fecundity and reproductive power.

This fluid is also the most simple, pure, and unadulterated body, in which all the parts of the pullet are present poten- tially, though none of them are there actually. It appears that nature has conceded to it the same qualities which are usually ascribed to first matter common to all things, viz. that potentially it be capable of assuming all forms, but have itself no form in fact. So the crystalline humour of the eye, in order that it might be susceptible of all colours, is itself colourless ; and in like manner are the media or organs of each of the senses destitute of all the other qualities of sen- sible things : the organs of smelling and hearing, and the air which ministers to them, are without smell and sound; the saliva of the tongue and mouth is also tasteless.

And it is upon this argument that they mainly rely who maintain the possibility of an incorporeal intellect, viz. because it is susceptible of all forms without matter ; and as the hand is called the " instrument of instruments," so is the intellect

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