[245] EXERCITATIO DECIMASEXTA.
Secunda ovi inspectio.

16th exercise
The second inspection of the egg

PRAETERITO die secundo, dicti cicatriculae circuli conspectiores atque ampliores fiunt, ad magnitudinem unguis digiti anularis, et interdum medii; quibus tota macula in duas regiones, aliquando tres, easque diversis saepe coloribus obscure distinctas dividitur; oculi figuram plane referens, tum protuberantia aliqua, qualis in cornea tunica visitur; tum magnitudine; tum etiam humore transparente et lucidissimo intus contento; cuius centrum pupillam repraesentat, sed puncto quodam albo [246] in centro existente, tanquam aviculae alicuius ocellus suffusionem sive cataractam (ut vocant) in medio pupillae pateretur: ob quam similitudinem, oculum ovi nominavimus.

When the second day elapsed, the aforesaid circles of the cicatricle become more visible and wider, up to the size of a fingernail of the ring finger and sometimes of the middle finger; by them the whole patch is divided into two areas, sometimes three, often hazily put in evidence by different colors. It fully reproduces the shape of the eye, both for a certain prominence, as observed in the envelopment of the cornea, and for size, as well as also for the transparent and very bright liquid contained inside, whose centre resembles the pupil, but with a certain white point located in the centre, as if the small eye of a birdie was suffering of an effusion or cataract (as they call it) in the centre of the pupil: for this similarity I called the cicatricle the eye of the egg.

Intra hos circulos, inquam, liquor continetur clarissime refulgens, quovis crystallino humore purior; quem si transversim ad lumen intuearis, tota iam macula potius in albumine locata, quam vitelli tunicae, ut prius, impressa conspicitur; et ceu portio quaedam albuminis colliquefacta et clarificata, intra tunicam propriam tenuissimam conclusa apparet. Ideoque liquorem hunc, oculum sive colliquamentum candidum appello: quasi nimirum pars albuminis a calore fusa et colliquata, separatim fulgeret (nisi concussione turbetur), et veluti pars spirituosa magisque cocta, a reliquo albumine tunica propria distingueretur, et inter utrumque liquorem, vitellum scilicet at albumen, posita esset. Differt a reliquo albumine, claritate et transparentia; quemadmodum aqua fontis limpidissima a stagnante turbidiore. Tunica hunc liquorem ambiens, adeo exilis fragilisque est; ut, nisi summa cura adhibeatur, facile dissiliat, fontemque hunc confusione liquorum turbet.

I add that inside these circles an extremely shining liquid is contained, clearer than whatever liquid of the crystalline, and if you looked at it transversally in front of a lamp, the whole patch is already seen located in the albumen rather than driven, as before, in the tunic of the yolk, and it appears as a certain portion of albumen liquefied and lightened, contained inside a very thin proper tunic. Therefore I call this liquid as eye or candid liquid, just as if a part of albumen melted and liquefied by the heat was separately shining (except it is not made turbid by a shaking), and as if an aerial and more cooked part was kept separated from the remaining albumen by a proper tunic, and was located among both the liquids, that is, the yolk and the albumen. It differs from the remaining albumen for shine and transparency, like a water of clear source from a stagnant more cloudy water. The tunic surrounding this liquid is thin and fragile to such a point that, if you don’t pay much attention, it easily gets broken and clouds this source with the mingling of the liquids.

Atque hic anceps animi diu haesitabam, quid de candido hoc colliquamento statuerem; utrum nempe calidum innatum dicerem; an humidum radicale; vel materiam praeparatam futuro foetui; sive alimentum perfecte coctum, quale ros censetur inter humores secundarios? Namque certum erat, ut postea dicetur, in ipsius medio, prima foetus rudimenta iaci, huncque illo nutriri primum, auctum postea in eodem liquore hospitari.

And, doubtful, I was hesitating on what I had to rule about this candid liquid, that is, if I had to judge it an innate heat or a dampness coming from the roots or a prepared matter for the future fetus, that is, a perfectly digested food, as the dew is judged among the liquids of second quality? And in fact it was certain, as after it will be said, that in its centre the first rudiments of the fetus lie, and that it is fed by it at first and that subsequently, when increased, it is housed in the same liquid.

Colliquamentum igitur hoc brevi, eodem nempe die, augetur (quemadmodum in secunda Fabricii figura adumbratur); praesertim interior eius regio; quae, dum expanditur, exteriorem repellit et obliterat. Perinde atque in eorum animalium oculis cernere est, quibus latissimae pupillae contigerunt, noctuque [247] melius vident, quam interdiu (cuius generis sunt bubones, feles, et huiusmodi; quorum pupilla in tenebris atque umbra latissime patet, in luce vero plurimum constringitur): nam si talem oculum e luce subito in tenebras transtuleris, videbis manifesto pupillam ampliari adeo ut reliquam circumcirca regionem, iridem dictam, valde imminuat et propemodum aboleat.

Then this liquid increases in a short time, that is, during the same day (as suggested in the second figure of Fabrizi), above all its inner part, which, while expanding, pushes and obliterates the external one. It is possible to see the same thing also in the eyes of those animals whit very wide pupils, and by night they see better than during the day (to this genus belong the owls, the cats and such animals, whose pupil in darkness and in shade extends a lot, while in the light narrows a lot): in fact if suddenly you will move such an eye from the light to the darkness, you will clearly see that the pupil becomes larger to such a point to reduce quite a lot the remaining surrounding area called iris, and almost abolishes it.

In has regiones incidens Parisanus, egregie hallucinatur, dum circulos suos, melinum, album, et gilvum, aliumque denuo album comminiscitur; foetumque ex albo medio puncto (quod revera hactenus in istarum regionum centro apparet) fieri ait, semenque galli esse fabulatur. Porro, ut nobiliore subtilitate superbiret, priusquam, inquit, rubor aliquis in foetus corpore appareat, duae exstant in eo minimae bullulae; initio tamen, rubore earum nulla praedita est: earumque alteram, pro corde; alteram, pro iecore obtrudit. At vero, nec bullula aliqua conspicua est, antequam rubor sanguineus appareat: nec foetus unquam primis statim diebus rubescit; neque ulla earum bullularum nobis hepatis vestigium exhibet; sed ambae binos cordis ventriculos et auriculas referunt; et micando, ut postea dicemus, systole et diastole sibi invicem respondent.

Parisiano, arriving in these areas, makes a tremendous mistake when inventing «its circles with the colour of the quince, white and yellowish, and finally another white»; and he says that «the fetus is formed from the central white point» (since really until this moment it appears at the centre of these areas), and he tells tales «to be the semen of the cock». Furthermore, for boasting thanks to a better subtlety, he says «before in the body of the fetus a certain redness appears, two dwarfish little bubbles are present in it, and nevertheless at the beginning none of them is provided with redness», and he foists one of them as heart, the other as liver. But in truth no little bubble is big before the red of the blood appears, neither the fetus never becomes immediately red in the first days, nor any of those little bubbles shows us a sketch of the liver, but both resemble the two ventricles and the two atriums of the heart, and, as after I will say, pulsating with systole and diastole, they answer each other.

Colliquamentum hoc Aristoteles[1] videtur intellexisse, cum ait: Membrana etiam, fibris distincta sanguineis, iam album liquorem per id tempus, tertio scilicet die, circundat, a meatibus illis venarum oriens.

It seems that Aristotle understood what this liquid is when saying: «Also a membrane adorned with blood fibres already during this period (that is, the third day) surrounds the white liquid originating from those openings of the veins».

Neque enim Philosophus, per album liquorem, totum albumen intelligere potuit; quoniam eo tempore, albuminis tunica necdum venis distincta est; sed sola colliquamenti huius tunica, cum venularum ramulis huc illuc sparsis, cernitur. Et propterea dixit, membrana etiam: quasi aliam intelligeret, praeter illas, quas albumen et vitellum ante incubationem ambire dixerat; cum hanc post tertium demum diem a meatibus venarum [248] oriri affirmet. Coiterus etiam colliquamentum hoc videtur agnovisse, cum ait, albuminis quaedam pars ad candorem accedens, quaedam crassior. Dictum enim colliquamentum propria membrana cingitur, et a reliquo albumine separatur et distinguitur, antequam quidpiam sanguinis appareat.

In fact the Philosopher didn't succeed in intending the whole albumen as white liquid, since in that moment the tunic of the albumen is not yet adorned with veins, but only the tunic of this liquid is seen with some sprigs of small veins spread here and there. And therefore he said «also a membrane», almost he wanted to intend another one besides those he said to surround the albumen and the yolk before the incubation, since he affirms that this one finally after the third day originates from the openings of the veins. Also Coiter seems to have known this liquid, when he says «a part of the albumen approaching to the snowy whiteness, another is denser». In fact the aforesaid liquid is surrounded by an its own membrane and is separated as well as distinguished from the remaining albumen before some trace of blood appears.

De summa huius utilitate erga omnium animalium foetus, posthaec erit dicendi locus. Quippe in eo dum natant, ab omni concussione sive contusione, aliisque externis iniuriis immunes sunt; et eodem insuper nutriuntur. Foetum iampridem magnitudine phaseoli, ex utero cervae exemptum, omnibusque suis membris perfectum (adeo ut marem esse, ex genitalibus facile discerneremus) regi nostro serenissimo reginaeque intuendum exhibui. Gratum profecto naturae spectaculum! natabat politus et consummatus foetus in eiusmodi candido, lucidissimo, et crystallino liquore, tanquam in vase vitreo purissimo, qui ovum columbinum magnitudine aequabat et propria tunica pellucida investiebatur.

After these things the moment will come to speak of its very big utility towards the fetuses of all the animals. In fact, while swimming in it they are immune from any shake or contusion and from other external insults, and besides this they are fed by it. Since a long time I brought to see to our serene king and queen the fetus of the size of a bean drawn from the uterus of a hind and completed in all its parts (so that easily from the genitals it was seen to be a male). A really pleasant spectacle of nature! The elegant and perfect fetus was swimming in such candid, very bright and crystalline liquid, as if being in a very clean vase of glass, and for size it was like an egg of pigeon and was covered with an its own transparent tunic.