[214] EXERCITATIO NONA.
De generatione ovi.

9th exercise
The generation of the egg

VITELLUS, in racemo, exigua duntaxat papula est; sensimque auctus colorem et magnitudinem vitelli adipiscitur; indeque abruptus, per infundibulum descendit, et per spiras cellulasque processus devolutus, albumen induit: licet nullibi (quod recte contra Aristotelem Fabricius observavit) utero adhaereat, nec per vasa umbilicalia augeatur; sed, ut piscium vel ranarum ova, foris ex aqua, albumina sibi parant et circumvolvunt; vel, ut fabae, ciceres, caeteraque legumina et frumenta, humore macerata intumescunt, indeque {alimetnm} <alimentum> pullulanti ex sese germini acquirunt: ita similiter ex dictis uteri plicis (tanquam ex ubere, aut placenta uterina) albuginea humiditate promanante, vitellus sibi (vegetativo et innato, quo pollet, calore et facultate) albumen quaerit et concoquit. Ideoque in plicis illis et cavo uteri, liquor albuminis saporem referens copiosissime abundat. Atque hoc pacto vitellus paulatim descendens, albumine cingitur, donec tandem in extremo utero, membranis testaque duriore assumptis, ad partum perficitur.

The yolk in the cluster - in the ovary - is only a little vesicle, and after having slowly increased it acquires the colour and the size of the yolk. After being disconnected from the ovary it goes down through the infundibulum, and after having advanced and gone down along the coils and the little cells, it wears the albumen, besides in no point it sticks to the uterus (what rightly Fabrizi observed, in opposition to Aristotle), and neither it grows through umbilical vessels, but, like the eggs of fishes and frogs, when laid, get the albumen from the water and surround themselves with it, or, as the broad beans, the chickpeas and other vegetables and cereals, soaked in the liquid are swelling, and therefore they acquire food from the sprout that is produced from them. Likewise from the aforesaid folds of the uterus (as happening from a breast or from an uterine placenta), a whitish damp emanating itself, the yolk (with the vegetative and innate heat of which it is rich, and with the force) acquires for itself the albumen and digests it. And therefore in those folds and in the cavity of the uterus a liquid abounds in an excessive way, remembering the taste of the albumen. And in this way the yolk, slowly going down, surrounds itself with albumen, until finally in the lowest part of the uterus, after having acquired the membranes and a rather hard shell, improves itself to be laid.