[183] EXERCITATIO SECUNDA.
De generationis loco.

2nd exercise
The place of the generation

NATURA (inquit Fabricius) inprimis de loco fuit solicita; quem aut in animali, aut extra animal constituit: atque in animali, uterum esse voluit; extra vero, ovum: in utero quidem, ex semine et sanguine; in ovo vero, ex iis, quae in ipso consistunt, foetus generationem molita est.

Fabrizi* says: «First of all the nature has been attentive in choosing the place she established to be inside the animal or outside the animal, and she wanted that the uterus was in the animal, but the egg on its outside. In actual fact she established that the generation of the fetus in the uterus comes from the semen and the blood, while in the egg it comes from the structures present in it.»

Quaecunque enim ex semine vere dicto procreantur, ea vel in eodem loco et oriuntur et perficiuntur; vel in diversis. Vivipara omnia, in ipso utero incunabula sua habent et complementum: Ovipara autem, ut intra parentem prima ducunt exordia, et ovum fiunt; ita, extra eam, in foetum perficiuntur. Et in horum numero, alia ovum eousque intra se servant, donec maturum et perfectum fuerit; ut genus pennatorum, et quadrupedum oviparorum, ac serpentum. Alia vero semen adhuc imperfectum et immaturum excludunt; incrementum et perfectionem, sive maturitatem, foris acquisiturum: ut plurima genera piscium, ranae, item mollia, crustata, testacea, et cochleae: quorum ova, primum exposita, sunt veluti origines duntaxat, inceptiones, et vitelli; qui postea albumina sibi ipsis circumcirca induunt, tandemque alimentum sibi attrahentes, concoquentes, et apponentes, in perfectum semen atque ovum evadunt. Talia quoque sunt insectorum semina (vermes ab Aristotele dicta) quae initio imperfecte edita sibi victum quaerunt, indeque nutriuntur et augentur, de eruca in aureliam; de ovo imperfecto in perfectum ovum et semen. Gallina autem et reliqua omnia ovipara perfectum ovum excludunt; unde extra uterum foetum generant. Ideoque Aquapendentes duo generationis loca constituit; unum internum, nempe uterum; alterum externum, quem ovum dicit. Sed meliore iure (mea quidem [184] sententia) nidum, sive repositorium, externum locum appellasset: in quo scilicet exclusum semen fovetur, maturatur, et in foetum perficitur. Ab huius enim loci differentia, oviparorum generatio potissimum discriminatur. Et profecto res admiratione digna est, animalcula illa locum hunc tanta providentia eligere; eundemque arte et ingenio haud imitabili fingere, fabricare, munire, et abscondere; adeo ut inesse iis divinae aurae particulam (quod poeta de apibus asseruit) confiteri necesse sit; et indoctam eorum artem atque sapientiam mirari nobis potius, quam assequi concedatur.

In fact, whatever thing is procreated by the properly so called semen, it is born and is perfected either in the same place, or in different places. All the viviparous animals have their point of origin and completion in the uterus itself, on the contrary the oviparous animals, so as they have their beginning inside the mother parent and become egg, likewise they become perfect by growing into a fetus outside her. And among the oviparous, some preserve the egg inside themselves until when it became mature and perfect, as it happens for the genus of feathered animals and oviparous quadrupeds, as well as of snakes. Others on the contrary send forth a still defective and immature semen which outside will acquire increasing and improvement, that is, maturation, as a lot of genus of fishes, as the frogs, likewise the molluscs, the shellfishes, the shelled molluscs and the snails, whose eggs, just laid, are only like starts, like beginnings, and like yolks which subsequently become covered all around with albumen, and finally, attracting to themselves the food, digesting and arranging it, they turn into a perfect semen and into an egg. Such are also the seeds of the insects (called worms by Aristotle), which at the beginning, having been laid in a defective way, look for food for themselves, and by it they are fed and increased from caterpillar into chrysalis, from defective egg into perfect egg and seed. On the contrary the hen and all other oviparous animals lay a perfect egg, from which they produce a fetus outside the uterus. Therefore Fabrizi established two places of generation, one inside, that is, the uterus, the other outside which he calls egg. But more rightly (in my opinion) he had to call nest or storeroom an external place, in which, precisely, the laid semen is heated, matured and improved into fetus. In fact it is especially according to the difference of this place that the generation of the oviparous is differing. And actually it is a thing worthy of wonder that those little animals choose this place with so much foresight, and that with art and absolutely inimitable talent they mould, build, strengthen and hide it. So that it would be necessary to admit that in them is present a particle of divine breath (which has been affirmed by a poet - Virgil? - about the bees), and that it was granted us to admire their ignorant art and wisdom rather than to come to understand it.