Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/158

 "Perfect animals are generated in two distinct periods of time—some in seven months, some in nine. Those generations that are completed in seven months proceed in this order: in the first six days after conception, the humour is milky; in the next eight, it is turned into blood, which number 8 bears the proportion of 1 to 6; in nine days more it becomes flesh, 9 is in a sescuple proportion to 6; in twelve days more the embryo is formed, 12 is double to 6: here then are these stages—6, 8, 9, 12. 6 is the first perfect number, because it is the sum of 1, 2, 3, the only numbers by which it can be divided; now if we add these four numbers 6, 8, 9, 12 together, the sum is 35, which multiplied by 6, makes 210, the number of days from the conception to the birth—which is just seven months, allowing 30 days to a month. A like proportion must be observed in the larger period of nine months; only 10, the sum of 1, 2, 3, 4, added together, must be added to 35, which makes 45; that multiplied by 6 gives 270, or nine times 30, the number of days in larger births."

If these fine notions be compared with Dr Harvey's upon the same subject, no doubt but we shall all be