[184] EXERCITATIO TERTIA.
De uteri gallinae parte superiore, sive ovario.

3rd exercise
The upper part of the hen's uterus or ovary

UTERUS gallinae a Fabricio dividitur in superiorem et, inferiorem: superiorem, ovarium nominat.

The uterus of the hen is divided by Fabrizi* into superior and inferior: he calls ovary the superior.

Locus ovarii positus est statim infra iecur ad spinam, supra arteriam magnam descendentem. Quo enim loco, in maioribus animalibus sanguineis, arteria coeliaca mesenterium ingreditur, ad exortum nempe venarum emulgentium, vel paulo inferius; et quo loco, caeteris animalibus sanguineis et viviparis, vasorum praeparantium, ad testiculos tendentium, exortus est; et ubi gallus suos testiculos gerit, ibi etiam gallinae ovarium reperitur. Quaedam enim animalia testiculos foris, alia intus ad lumbos gerunt; media quasi ab origine praeparantium intercapedine. Gallus vero ad ipsum eorundem exortum suos habet: quasi ipsius genitura praeparatione nulla indigeret.

The place of the ovary is located immediately under the liver in proximity of the spine, above the great descending artery - aorta. In fact in this place, in the greater animals endowed with blood, the coeliac artery enters the mesentery, that is, in proximity of the exit of the deferential veins or a little bit below, and in this place in the other animals endowed with blood and viviparous is located the origin of the blood vessels which are preparing themselves to go toward the testicles; and where the cock has his testicles, here too the ovary of the hen is located. In fact some animals have the testicles outside, others have them inside near the loins, almost halfway from the origin of the vessels that prepare themselves to go toward the testicles. But the cock has his testicles in proximity of the origin of such vessels, as if his sperm doesn't need any preparation.

Aristoteles dicit[1], ad septum transversum ovum inchoari. Nos autem, inquit Fabricius, in respirationis tractatu, negavimus pennata septum obtinere. Solvitur dubium, pennata septo prorsus non destitui; quia membranam habent tenuem loco septi [185] positam, quam Aristoteles cinctum et septum appellavit: sed non habent septum, quod musculus sit, et ad respirationem conferat; ut alia animalia. Aristoteles autem musculum non agnovit.

Aristotle says that the egg starts in proximity of the transverse septum - the diaphragm. Fabrizi says: «But in the treatise on respiration I denied that the birds have a diaphragm. The doubt is solved: the birds are not completely devoid of diaphragm, being that they have a thin membrane there where the diaphragm is, which Aristotle called cincture and septum; but they don't have, as the other animals, a septum made up by muscle and useful for the respiration. Actually Aristotle didn't know a muscle.»

Ita eodem halitu culpam, quam summo philosopho afflaverat, difflat: ipsemet vero erroris haud immunis. Quippe certum est, et Aristotelem musculos agnovisse (ut alibi a nobis observatum, et demonstratum est); et membranas in avibus (non modo transversim positas ad cinctum corporis, sed et secundum ventris longitudinem protensas) vicem diaphragmatis subire, et ad respirationem conferre; ut alibi in exercitationibus de respiratione animalium luculenter probavimus. Et, ut alia nunc taceam, avis, prae caeteris animalibus, non modo facillime respirat, sed vocem etiam in cantu diversimode modulatur: cum tamen eius pulmones lateribus et costis adeo affixi sint, ut parum admodum dilatari, assurgere, et contrahi possint.

So by the same breath he dispels the guilt he had blown on the utmost philosopher: he himself - Fabrizi - was not immune from an error. In fact it is certain both that Aristotle knew the muscles (as by me in a point has been observed and shown), and that in the birds the membranes (not only transversally arranged to serve as belt to the body, but also arranged according to the length of the abdomen) stand in for the diaphragm and contribute to respiration, as I have abundantly shown in a point of the exercises on the respiration of the animals. And, not to speak now of other things, the bird, in comparison to the other animals, not only breathes very easily, but also modulates the voice in the song in different manners, even if nevertheless its lungs are so attached to the flanks and to the ribs to succeed in swelling, rising and contracting very little.

Quin etiam (quod tamen a nemine hactenus observatum memini) earum bronchia, sive asperae arteriae fines, in abdomen perforantur, aeremque inspiratum intra cavitates illarum membranarum recondunt. Quemadmodum pisces, et serpentes intra amplas vesicas in abdomine positas eundem attrahunt et reservant; eoque facilius natare existimantur: et ut ranae ac bufones, cum aestate vehementius respirant, aeris plus solito in vesiculas numerosissimas absorbent (unde earum tam ingens tumor) quo eundem postea in coaxatione liberaliter expirent: ita in pennatis, pulmones potius transitus et via ad respirationem videntur, quam huius adaequatum organum. Quod si a Fabricio observatum esset, non negasset membranas illas (saltem cum musculorum ventris adminiculo) respirationi inservire et diaphragmatis officium praestare: cum hoc, non sine musculorum ventris adminiculo, instrumentum respiratorium sit; aliudque ei munus incumbat in iis, quibus carnosum sive musculosum contigit. Nimirum, ut ventriculum cibo turgidum, et [186] intestina faecibus flatuque distenta deprimat; ne cor et pulmones ab eorum ingressu patiantur angustias, vitaeque penetralia opprimantur. Cuius periculi cum in avibus nullus sit metus, septum membraneum iis donatum est, respirationis usibus valde accommodum: ideoque diaphragma habere merito dicuntur. Quinetiam licet aves diaphragmate penitus destituerentur, non propterea tamen reprehendendus foret Aristoteles, dum ova ad septum transversum inchoari scribit: quippe hoc nomine locum duntaxat designat, ubi diaphragma in aliis animalibus reperiri solet. Quemadmodum nos etiam dicimus ovarium esse ad exortum vasorum spermaticorum praeparantium; licet gallina vasis his praeparantibus careat.

But indeed (I don't remember that till now this has been observed by someone) their bronchi, or little rough arteries, penetrate in the abdomen and store the inhaled air into the cavities of those membranes - the air sacs. Likewise the fishes and the snakes attract it and preserve it in big bladders located in the abdomen, and because of this it is thought that they swim more easily, and like the frogs and the toads, since in summer they breathe with greater energy, are swallowing more air than usual in very numerous small bladders (whence their so marked swelling is coming) so that subsequently they send it forth abundantly when croaking. So in the feathered animals the lungs seem to be more a transit and a way for the respiration than an organ suitable for this purpose. If this had been observed by Fabrizi, he didn't deny that those membranes (at least with the help of the muscles of the abdomen) serve to the respiration and carry out the role of diaphragm, since this, not without the help of the muscles of the abdomen, is the instrument of the respiration, and that it has another task in those animals that happened to have it fleshy or muscular. Just, to push downward the stomach bulging with food and the intestines swollen by faeces and gases, so that the heart and the lungs don't suffer from difficulties coming from their entry and the inside vital parts are not suffocated. Since in the birds no fear of such a danger  exists, to them a membranous septum has been assigned, extremely proper for the employments of the respiration, and therefore rightly it is said that they have a diaphragm. On the contrary, even if the birds would be without diaphragm at all, nevertheless Aristotle should not be criticized for this when he writes that the eggs start in proximity of the transversal septum, since with this term he designates only a point in which in the other animals usually the diaphragm is found. As also we say that the ovary is found in proximity of the point of origin of the spermatic vessels, although the hen doesn't have the point of origin of these vessels.

Perforatio pulmonum, a me inventa (cuius modo memini) haud obscura et caeca est; sed, in pennatis praesertim, patula admodum; adeo ut in struthiocamelo meatus plurimos repererim, qui digitorum meorum apices facile exciperent. In gallo Indico et gallinaceo ipso, omnibusque fere pennatis, immisso in tracheam stilo, transitus e pulmonibus in cavitates abdominis apertos et patentes invenias. Aer, in eorum pulmones follium opera inspiratus, non sine impetu ad inferiora pertransit.

The perforation of the lungs discovered by me (which I only mention) is not tenebrous and secret at all, but, especially in feathered animals, very accessible, so that in an ostrich I found a lot of openings easily containing the apex of my fingers. In the turkey and also in the cock, and in almost all the feathered animals, after having introduced a stylus into the trachea, you would find a passage that leads from the lungs into cavities of the abdomen which are evident and manifest. The air, blown in their lungs by bellows, spreads rather quickly in the inferior parts.

Imo vero dubitare liceat, an non in homine etiam, dum vivit, aer per dictos meatus in thoracis cavitatem penetret. Quomodo enim aliter, empyicorum pus, et pleuriticorum extravenatus sanguis illac effluant; in vulneribus pectoris (illaesis etiam pulmonibus) aer per vulnus foras erumpat; aut liquores in cavitatem pectoris iniecti, cum sputo reddantur? Verum hac de re alibi, in exercitationibus nostris, de respirationis causis, organis, et usu, plane pleneque dictum est.

In truth it would not be worthwhile at all to doubt that also in the man, while living, the air doesn't penetrate through the aforesaid openings in the thoracic cavity. In fact how otherwise the pus of the patients with empyema, and the blood of patients with pleurisy which came out of the veins, would hence go out; in the wounds of the breast (also with undamaged lungs) the air would go outside through the wound; or the liquids injected in the thoracic cavity would be returned with the spit? In truth on this matter I clearly and broadly discoursed in my exercises about the causes, the organs and the use of the respiration.

Redeo ad ovarium, et superiorem uteri gallinae partem; in qua ovorum rudimenta inchoantur; quae initio (secundum Aristotelem[2]) minuta sunt et candida; adaucta postea, lutea et flava conspiciuntur.

I go back to the ovary and to the superior part of the uterus of the hen in which the sketches of the eggs are starting, which initially (according to Aristotle) are very small and white; subsequently, when increased, they appear yellow and golden.

[187] Uterus Fabricii superior revera nullus est, nisi postquam gallina concepit et ovorum primordia in se habet; quae merito congeriem papularum dixeris. Ideoque rectissime ait: Superior matrix nil aliud est, quam infinita propemodum vitellorum multitudo, quae in uno veluti acervo conglobata conspicitur, rotundae figurae, et cuiusvis magnitudinis, in qua a minimo ad maximum ea intercedit differentia, quae est a grano sinapis ad fructum fere nucis iuglandis aut mespili. Haec vitellorum multitudo simul quasi racematim apposita, collecta, et coniuncta est: ob quam causam ego perpetuo vitellarium, aut potius vitellorum racemum appellabo; quia uvarum racemo quam simillima est. Quod et Aristoteles de mollibus dixit[3], cum ait: reddunturque ova eorum glutino cohaerentia ad speciem uvae. Etenim sicuti in racemo, uvae seu acini, sunt tum maiores, tum minores, tum minimi, singuli suo pediolo appensi; sic in proposito vitellorum racemo videre est.

The superior uterus of Fabrizi exists only after the hen conceived, and contains the rudiments of the eggs within itself, which you could rightly call a cluster of pustules. Therefore he very properly says: «The superior uterus is nothing but an almost endless multitude of yolks grouped together as in a single heap, endowed with round shape and of any size, varying from a minimum to a maximum between a grain of mustard* and approximately a fruit of walnut-tree or of medlar*. This crowd of yolks is placed, gathered and conjoined almost like a cluster, that's why I will always call it vitellarium or vitellorum racemus - cluster of yolks, since it is very similar to a cluster of grapes. And also Aristotle told this about the molluscs when he affirms: their eggs are  gathered together by a bond likewise the grapes. And in fact as in a cluster of grapes the grapes sometimes are greater, sometimes smaller, sometimes dwarfish, every one suspended to its own stalk, likewise it is possible to see in the described cluster of yolks.»

At vero in piscibus, ranis, crustatis, et cochleis res aliter se habet. Haec enim ova eiusdem omnia magnitudinis in se continent; quae foras emissa, simul augentur, perficiuntur, et foetus excludunt. In gallinae autem ovario, reliquorumque oviparorum fere omnium, varia admodum vitellorum incrementa cernuntur, a quantitate propemodum invisibili ad consummatam magnitudinem: licet ova gallinarum (non aliter, quam eorum, quae ova sua omnia simul et concipiunt et pariunt) in eodem nido foetus suos ab incubationis fotu fere simul excludant. In columbino tamen genere (quae bina solum ova uno nido reponunt et incubant) observavi, omnia ova in ovario congesta, uniusmodi esse magnitudinis, praeter bina illa caeteris longe maiora, et iam ad descensum in secundum uterum parata. Ut in his numerosi foetus proveniant, non partus multitudine, sed frequentia; singulis nempe mensibus. Similiter in piscibus cartilagineis; [188] ut raia, pastinaca, canicula etc. bina duntaxat ova simul maturantur, et utrinque a dextro et sinistro cornu descendentia, in utero inferiore foventur, excluduntque foetus vitales (ut viviparis contingit): in ovario tamen infinitus pene ovorum numerus, diversarumque magnitudinum reperitur; in raia supra centum numeravi.

But truly in fishes, frogs, crustaceans and snails the things are otherwise. In fact these animals contain inside of them all eggs of the same size, which, after having been issued outside, contemporarily increase in size, improve and make the feti to hatch. On the contrary in the ovary of the hen, and of almost all the oviparous animals, very different increases of the yolks are seen, starting from an almost invisible dimension until a definitive size. Although the eggs of the hens (not otherwise from those of the animals contemporarily conceiving and giving birth to all their eggs) almost contemporarily make their feti to hatch in the same nest thanks to the heating of the incubation. Nevertheless in the genus of the pigeons (laying and brooding only two eggs in only one nest) I observed that all the eggs stored in the ovary are of only one size, except those two very greater than the others and by now ready to go down in the second uterus. In order that in these birds numerous feti are born, the solution is not in the multitude of the hatched offspring, but in the frequency with which they are hatched: that is, every month. In the same manner, in the cartilaginous fishes as the ray, the stingray, the shark etc., only two eggs contemporarily mature and, going down from both the sides from the right and left uterine horn, are fed in the inferior uterus and vital feti are born (as it happens in the viviparous animals). Nevertheless in the ovary almost an endless number of eggs and of different size is found. In the ray I have counted more than one hundred of them.

Caeterorum autem oviparorum ova, foris, vel perficiuntur, ut piscium; vel concoquuntur, ut cochlearum, crustatorum, et aranearum. Et cochleae quidem sua ova reponunt in spuma; crustata (ut squillae, gammari, astaci) pinnis adhaerentia circumferunt; aranea vero, tanquam in sportula ex tela sua constructa, secum gestat et fovet. Scarabeus ova sua fimo (pedibus posterioribus obvolvendo) circumcludit et reponit. In iis autem omnibus, ovorum copia incredibilis cernitur. Pisces, duas quasi vesicas oblongas sive folliculos nacti sunt: ut videre est in cyprino, halece, et viola[4], quam nostrates smelt vocant; in quibus omnibus, ut nullus cernitur uterus, praeter ovarium; ita hoc ovis aliquando adeo refertum est, ut reliqui corporis molem facile exsuperet.

On the contrary the eggs of the other oviparous animals either are  improved on the outside, as those of the fishes, or are made to mature as those of snails, of crustaceans and of spiders. And the snails lay their eggs in the slime, the crustaceans (as the  mantis shrimps, the crayfishes, the crabs) carry them around adherent to the fins, the spider carries them with itself and heats them as in a small basket built with its web. The beetle (winding them with the back feet) surrounds its eggs with manure and buries them. In all these animals an unbelievable abundance of eggs is seen. The fishes are endowed as with two oblong bladders or bags, as it is possible to see in carp, in herring and in sparling, called smelt by ours - Osmerus eperlanus; in all of them, since no uterus is seen except the ovary, then the ovary sometimes is so full of eggs to easily overcome the size of the remainder body.

Ex eiusmodi mugilum, et cyprinorum ovariis sale conditis, in massam coactis, fumoque induratis, fit edulii genus a Graecis et Italis magnopere expetitum (botarcha[5] ab his appellatum, a Graecis ὠὰ τάριχα, id est ova salita) quale in ventre nostrorum heringorum infumatorum, et astacorum intus granulatim compactum rubrumque reperitur. Quod ex sturionum ovis salitis fit, caviaro dicitur, et saponem nigrum refert; gulonum delitiae.

From such salty, compressed and smoked ovaries of mullets and carps, a type of food is prepared very sought by Greeks and Italians (by these called botarcha - botargo, by Greeks ųą tįricha, that is, salty eggs) like that found in the abdomen of our smoked herrings and inside the crabs, granular, compact and red. That obtained from the salty eggs of the sturgeons is called caviar and it seems a black soap; delights of the gluttons.

In omnibus piscibus (quibus numerosa proles contingit) ovorum tanta copia generatur, ut tota ventris capacitas vix ea recenter concepta, multo minus aucta, continere valeat. Ideoque in piscibus, praeter ovarium, nulla alia pars generationi dicata est. Horum enim ova foris incrementum sumunt, nec [189] utero ad hanc rem opus est. Videturque ovarium hoc testiculis aut vesicis seminalibus analogon: non solum, quod eo in loco reperiatur, in quo maribus testiculi nasci solent (nimirum, testiculi in gallo siti sunt, ut diximus, iuxta ingressum arteriae coeliacae, prope cinctum corporis; ibidemque in gallina ovarium reperitur); sed etiam, quia, in utroque piscium sexu, generationis tempore, duo folliculi per totum ventrem ducti, situ, figura, et magnitudine pares insunt; qui, simul adaucti, replentur, in mare quidem, materia similari, spermatica, lactea (unde lac piscium dicitur); in foemina vero, granulis innumeris, prae exiguitate visum effugientibus; adeo ut in conceptionis principio (propter arctam eorum compaginem) corpus similare, et tanquam maris lac regulate coagulatum, appareant: posteaque tanquam minimae arenulae invicem intra folliculum cohaerentes videantur.

In all fishes (having a numerous issue) a so great abundance of eggs is generated that the whole capacity of the abdomen hardly is able to contain those recently conceived, the less if they increased. And therefore in the fishes, besides the ovary, no other part is devoted to the generation. In fact their eggs increase when they are outside and there is no need of the uterus for this purpose. And this ovary seems analogous to the testicles or to the seminal vesicles: not only since it is found in that point where in the males the testicles usually develop (in fact in the cock the testicles are located, as I said, close to the entry of the coeliac artery in proximity of the body girdle, and still here in the hen the ovary is found), but also because in both sexes of fishes, in the reproductive period, two pouches are present extending in length through the whole abdomen, identical for position, aspect and size. Which, increased together, in the male are filled with material similar to sperm, to milk (hence called milk of the fishes), while in the female are filled with very numerous granules which, because of the littleness, escape the sight, so that at the beginning of the conception (because of their compact structure) they resemble a structure similar to the perfectly coagulated milk of the male, and subsequently they seem dwarfish grains of sand sticking each other inside the pouch.

In minoribus avibus (quae quotannis duntaxat semel, et pauciora ova pariunt) vix ovarium reperias: sed ubi in maribus testiculi siti sunt, ibi in foeminis, pro ovario, tres aut quatuor bullae (pro numero scilicet ovorum, quorum sunt primordia) nec minus ipsis marium testiculis conspicuae, inveniuntur.

In the smaller birds (laying only once a year and a rather little number of eggs) with difficulty you would find the ovary. But where in males the testicles are located, there in females, instead of the ovary, three or four bubbles are found (according to the number of the eggs, of which they are the sketches) and not smaller than the testicles of the males.

In serpentum uteri cornibus (quae sunt instar vasorum spermaticorum in maribus) prima ovorum rudimenta, ceu totidem globuli filo adalligati, apparent: ut in mulierum armillis, vel corona precaria, ex orbibus e succino confectis, fieri solet.

In the horns of the uterus of snakes (resembling the spermatic vessels of males) the first rudiments of the eggs are seen as being as many globules tied up to a thread, as usually it happens in the bracelets of the women, or in the rosary, manufactured with spheres of yellow amber.

Quae itaque in vitellario reperiuntur, non ova perfecta censenda sunt, sed horum primordia sive rudimenta; quae in racemo, eo ordine et magnitudine disposita sunt, ut gallinae singulis diebus ad partum priori succedat alterum. Nullum autem ovum in ovario cinctum est albumine, sed vitelli solum reperiuntur; qui, prout e minimorum congerie sese extulerint, in ambitum prodeunt, ut in fusiori spatio facilius amplientur. Ideoque [190] Fabricius vere ait[6]: Vitelli in racemo maiores in circuitu sunt; minores in medio, ceu a maioribus circundati; denique minimi omnibus subiecti. Dum enim augescentes maiorem molem acquirunt, a reliquis separantur: quod dum fit, singuli vitelli, praeter tunicam propriam, aliam ab ovario mutuantur, quae illos extrinsecus amplectitur, et fundamento, unde oriuntur, adnectit. Quare a Fabricio, pediolus sive pedunculus nominatur; quod eius opera, ut fructus ex arbore, sic vitellus e racemo nutrimentum hauriat et crescat. Est enim hic pediolus nexus membraneus cavatus, qui a racemi fundamento ad vitellum producitur; quem cum contingit, dilatatur, et (perinde ac nervus opticus in oculo amplificatus) vitellum externa tunica obducit. Hunc forte[7] Aristoteles στόλον ὀμφαλώδην, i. e. appendiculam umbilicalem, et veluti fistulam nuncupavit. Pediolus iste secum multa vasa in vitellum deducit, per quem passim ramificantur.

Therefore those found in the ovary are not to be thought as completed eggs, but their sketches or rudiments, which in the cluster are arranged with such an order and size that in the hen every day one follows the previous in being laid. No egg in the ovary is surrounded by albumen, but only the yolks are found, which, as soon as they become larger in comparison with the heap of those very small, push on to the outskirts, so to be able in more easily growing in a wider space. And therefore Fabrizi rightly says: «In the cluster the yolks are greater in the periphery, are smaller in the middle part, that is, surrounded by the greater ones, finally those dwarfish are placed under everyone.» In fact, while becoming larger they acquire a greater dimension, they separate from the others: while this happens, each yolk takes from the ovary, besides a proper tunic, another tunic winding it from outside and joining it to the base from which it originates. That's why by Fabrizi it is called stalk or peduncle, since, thanks to it, like a fruit from a tree, so the yolk draws from the cluster the nourishment and grows. «In fact this stalk is a hollow membranous connection extending from the base of the cluster to the yolk, and it dilates when reaches it, and (as being the optic nerve that widened in the eye) it surrounds the yolk with an external tunic. Perhaps Aristotle called it stólon omphalųdėn - navel shaped prominence, that is, umbilical appendix, and similar to a tube. This stalk carries with itself many blood vessels in the yolk, through which they branch into all directions.»

Haec quidem a Fabricio vere dicta sunt; sed fallitur dum ait: Tunica haec, non quidem totum vitellum circundat, sed paulo illum ultra medietatem comprehendit; perinde ut in glande operculum retro appositum, calix appellatum; quo fit, ut exterior vitelli portio, a proposita membrana destituta, conspectui sese offerat sine venis, et nudata appareat. Ambit enim integrum vitellum; sed in parte vitelli exteriore, a propria eius tunica non facile distinguitur, quod ambae tenuissimae sint. In parte autem postica, qua vitellus racemi fundamento obvertitur, tunica haec vitello non adhaeret, nec in eum venulas spargit; sed, sacculi instar, solum amplectitur.

These things have been correctly said by Fabrizi, but he is wrong when saying: «This tunic doesn't totally surround the yolk, but winds it a little more than half of it, as in an acorn behaves the cover called cup attached to the back; then it happens that the external part of the yolk, without the described membrane, offers itself to the look without veins and appears naked.» In fact it winds the whole yolk, but in correspondence of the external side of the yolk it is not easily distinguishable from its proper tunic, since both are extremely thin. In fact in the back side, where the yolk is turned toward the base of the cluster, this tunic doesn't stick to the yolk, neither sends to it some little veins, but only surrounds it as being a pouch.

Singulis vitellis totidem tunicae ab eodem fundamento desumuntur. Quare locus iste, communis uterus censendus non est; cum nihil hic reperiatur praeter racemum, sive acervum multorum diversae magnitudinis ovorum ab eodem fundamento prodeuntium.

By each yolk is acquired the same number of tunics from the base itself of the cluster. Hence this structure must not be thought to be an usual uterus, since here nothing is found except the cluster, or heap of many eggs of different size sticking out from the same base of the cluster.

[191] Fundamentum autem hoc, est corpus sui generis, ad pennati spinam obortum; venae et arteriae magnae adnexum; laxum, porosum, et fungosum; ut plurimos vitellos ex se producat, iisdemque tunicas largiatur: quae postea, adauctis vitellis, distenduntur; eosque sacculi instar, cum collo angustiore, ventre autem amplo, ambiunt: quemadmodum a vitriarii flatu ampullae efformantur.

Actually this base is a quite particular structure sticking out near the spine of the feathered animal, connected with the great vein and the great artery; it is soft, porous and spongy, so that produces a lot of yolks starting from itself and supplies them with tunics, which subsequently, when the yolks increased, spread out and wind them as if they were a pouch with a rather narrow neck but with a wide abdomen, likewise by the puff of a glassworker the cruets are modelled.

Fabricius porro: Vitelli, sicuti a parvulo initio incipiunt, ad milii seminis aut sinapis magnitudinem; et minuti sunt ac candidi, ut dicit Aristoteles, sic subinde paulatim increscunt; et, ut ait Aristoteles, lutei ac flavi efficiuntur, quousque ad iustam magnitudinem omnibus notam perveniant. Ego vero milii semine longe minores observavi; qui nempe instar papularum, aut sudaminum, arenularum (quales in piscium ovariis reperiri diximus), prope visum effugerent; et illius loci membranarum veluti scabrities viderentur.

Furthermore Fabrizi: «The yolks, starting from a very small initial structure of the size of a corn of mile* or of mustard*, and small and white, as Aristotle says, subsequently increase gradually, and, as Aristotle says, become yellow and golden, up to reach the correct dimension known to everybody.» Actually, I have seen that they were even smaller than a seed of mile, just like pimples, or drops of sweat, or grains of sand (as I said to be present in the ovaries of the fishes) almost escaping from sight, and in their place a kind of roughness of the membranes was seen.