[248] EXERCITATIO DECIMASEPTIMA.
Tertia ovi inspectio.

17th exercise
The third inspection of the egg

VIDIMUS secundum processum, sive praeparationem ovi ad foetum, quae die tertio observanda venit. Sequitur, ut tertium eius apparatum intueamur; qui post tres dies totidemque noctes considerandus est. De eo Aristoteles[1]: Generationis indicia exstare incipiunt in gallinis post tres dies totidemque noctes (puta, die Lunae mane, si die Veneris praecedenti, in aurora, ova gallinae incubiturae supposita fuerint): estque tertiae figurae, apud Fabricium, facies.

I have seen the second progress, that is, the preparation of the egg for the fetus, that one observable at the third day. It follows that we succeed in seeing its third preparation which is to be examined after three days and as many nights. Aristotle writes about it in this way: «The signs of the generation in hens start to appear after three days and as many nights» (suppose the morning of Monday if the eggs have been put under a hen being about to brood, at the dawn of preceding Friday): in Fabrizi it is the image of the third figure.

Quarto itaque die si inspexeris, occurret iam maior metamorphosis, et permutatio admirabilior; quae singulis fere illius diei [249] horis manifestior fit; quo tempore in ovo de vita plantae ad animalis vitam fit transitus. Iam enim colliquamenti limbus linea exili sanguinea purpurascens rutilat: eiusque in centro fere punctum sanguineum saliens emicat; exiguum adeo, ut in sua diastole, ceu minima ignis scintillula, effulgeat; et mox, in systole, visum prorsus effugiat et dispareat. Tantillum nempe est vitae animalis exordium, quod tam inconspicuis initiis molitur plastica vis naturae!

Therefore if you will examine on the fourth day, already a greater change will appear and a rather amazing transformation, which becomes more apparent at almost each single hour of that day, in that moment when in the egg the passage happens from the life of the sprout to the life of the animal. Already in fact the rim of the liquid is resplendent for a thin sanguineous purple line, and almost at its centre a blood coloured pulsating point sticks out, so little that during its diastole glows as a tiny spark of fire, and then, during the systole, almost escapes the sight and disappears. So small is in fact the beginning of the life of an animal that the modelling force of nature takes the start with so invisible beginnings.

Observationem hanc, si sub finem tertii diei experiri libuerit, adhibita summa diligentia, et clara magnaque luce, vel radiis solaribus adaptatis, aut perspicilli ope, discernere poteris. Alias autem ita tenuis est et exilis purpurissata linea, punctique salientis adeo imperceptibilis motus, ut plane frustra sis. Quarti vero diei principio evidenter, et sub finem eius evidentissime apparet punctum sanguineum saliens, quod iam movetur, ait Aristoteles, ut animal in candido liquore (quem ego colliquamentum nomino): ab eoque puncto meatus venarum specie duo, sanguine pleni, flexuosi feruntur ad circulum purpurissatum, et tunicam ambientem colliquamentum. Sparsis interea per ipsius colliquamenti spatia plurimis fibrosis propaginibus, quae omnes ab uno principio (ut arborum virgulta ab eodem trunco) profluunt. In huius radicis angulo inflexo, colliquamentique medio, punctum rubrum saliens ponitur, quod in pulsu suo rhytmum et ordinem, ex systole et diastole compositum servat. In diastole quidem, quasi maiorem sanguinis quantitatem imbiberet, ampliatum apparet, atque emicat: in systole vero confestim subsidens, tanquam ictu illo convelleretur, et sanguinem dimitteret, delitescit.

If you will do this observation toward the end of the third day, you can distinctly see by using a great attention and a shining and great light, or adapted solar rays or by the help of a lens. Otherwise in fact the purple line is so slim and slender, and the movement of the pulsating point is so imperceptible that you would be completely deceived. But at the beginning of the fourth day is appearing in an evident way, and toward the end of the same day is appearing in a very evident way «a blood point which palpitates, which already moves - Aristotle says - like an animal in a candid liquid (I call it colliquation): and from that point two ducts of the veins full of blood go supple» towards the purple circle and the tunic winding the colliquation. In the meantime, through the spaces of the colliquation itself, numerous fibrous offshoots scattered, all coming from only one starting-point (as the twigs of the trees from the same trunk). In the bent corner of this strain, and in the centre of the colliquation, the pulsating red point is placed, which in its pulsation keeps the rhythm and the sequence, composed by systole and diastole. Really during the diastole, almost absorbing a greater quantity of blood, it appears enlarged and is evident, while in the systole flattens by quickly decreasing, as if lacerated by that hit and sending away the blood.

Punctum hoc Fabricius in tertia sua figura depinxit, et, quod mireris, pro corpore foetus accepit; quasi aut ipsum saliens pulsansve non observasset, aut Aristotelis locum perperam intellexisset, aut eius omnino non meminisset. Mirandum vero magis, [250] eum toto hoc tempore de chalazis suis nihil fuisse solicitum, ex quibus tamen pulli exordia deducit.

Fabrizi represented this point in his third figure and, a thing by which you would be surprised, he interpreted it as body of the fetus, as if he not observed it palpitating or pulsating, or erroneously meant it as point of Aristotle, or not remembered it at all. But we have more to marvel that for this whole interval of time he didn't give interest at all about its chalazae, from which nevertheless he derives the origins of the chick.

Ulysses Aldrovandus[2], eodem fere tempore Bononiae scribens, ait: Apparebat in albumine exiguum velut punctum saliens, estque illud quod Philosophus cor statuit. Ex eo vero evidenter videbam enasci venae trunculum, et ab hoc duos alios ramulos proficisci, qui meatus illi fuerint sanguiferi, quos ad utramque tunicam ambientem vitellum et album protendi ille dixerat. Sum autem omnino eius sententiae, ut eiusmodi vias credam esse venosas, ac pulsatiles, sanguinemque in iis contineri puriorem, principalium membrorum generationi, iecoris nempe, et pulmonis, similiumque idoneum. Non sunt autem ambae venae, neque utraque pulsat: sed altera arteria, altera vena est, ut postea dicemus: simulque, meatus hos foetui vasa umbilicalia fieri, docebimus.

Ulisse Aldrovandi, who about the same time was writing in Bologna, says: «In the albumen something like a small jumping speck was visible, and this is what the Philosopher established as the heart. Truly, I saw clearly the little trunk of the vein arising from it, and from this two other branches coming forth, which would have been those blood-ducts which he said to go towards the two tunics surrounding the yolk and the albumen. In fact I am entirely of Aristotle’s opinion, since I believe that such ducts are venous, and pulsating, and that the blood they contain is purer, suitable for generation of main organs, particularly of liver and lungs, and similar structures.» But both are not veins, and none of two pulsates, but one is an artery, the other is a vein, as later I will say, and at the same time I will show that for the fetus these ducts become umbilical vessels.

Volcherus Coiter haec habet: Punctus sive globulus sanguineus, in vitello antea inventus, iam in albumine potius repertus, manifeste pulsabat. Male ait, in vitello antea inventus: punctus enim in vitello inventus, albus, non saliens erat; nec secundo post incubitum die, punctus aut globulus sanguineus saliens apparet. Sed punctus ille (quem in medio circuli, quasi centrum, diximus, et vitello adnexum) evanescit, priusquam punctus, qui ab Aristotele saliens dicitur, discerni queat; vel in rubrum, ut opinor, conversus, pulsat. Nam uterque punctus, in centro colliquamenti, et iuxta radicem venarum inde exorientium situs est: nunquam autem simul apparent, sed in albi locum succedit ruber punctus saliens.

Volcher Coiter writes this: «The point or blood globule, at first found in the yolk, now on the contrary found in the albumen, pulsated in an evident way». He is wrong when saying «at first found in the yolk»: in fact the point found in the yolk, white, didn't pulsate, nor in the second day after the beginning of the incubation the point or blood globule appears pulsating. But that point (I said to be inside the circle, almost the centre, and joined to the yolk) fades away before the point, said pulsating by Aristotle, can be identified; or transformed, as I think, into red, it pulsates. In fact both the points are situated in the centre of the colliquation and near the root of the hence rising veins; however they never contemporarily appear, but the pulsating red point goes to locate itself in the place of the white point.

Id quidem Volcherus verissime: Punctus saliens iam in albumine potius reperitur, quam in vitello. Quibus verbis permotus, quaesivi diligenter, numnam punctus ille albus, in sanguineum punctum transmutaretur; quoniam ambo eiusdem pene [251] magnitudinis, et eodem in loco videbantur. Et aliquando quidem inveni rutilantem et purpurissatum circulum extimum, desinentem iuxta horizontem miniatum colliquamento circumdatum; in cuius centro punctus albus, non autem ruber aut saliens reperiebatur: nunquam vero simul utrosque illos punctos conspicatus sum. Magni certe momenti est haec disquisitio: utrum scilicet sanguis insit ante pulsum? et, num punctus ex venis; an venae ex puncto oriundae sint?

Volcher affirms this in a very truthful way: «The pulsating point is already found in the albumen rather than in the yolk». Pushed by such words I investigated with diligence if in fact that white point was turning into the blood point, since both seemed about of the same size and in the same position. And in fact one day I found the most external circle being shining and red, which went to end near a horizon minium in colour surrounded by the colliquation, at whose centre was found a white point, but not red or pulsating. In fact never I have contemporarily seen those two points. Certainly this query is of great importance, that is: is there some blood before the pulsation? And: does the point originate from the veins or the veins originate from the point?

Quantum mihi observare licuit, videtur sanguis esse ante pulsum: cuius sententiae hanc causam dicam. Die Mercurii, sub vesperam, tria ova gallinae supposui; dieque Saturni paulo ante eandem horam reversus, inveni haec ova frigida, utpote a gallina derelicta: aperto nihilominus eorum uno, pulli exordium reperi; lineam nempe rubram et sanguineam in ambitu; in centro autem, pro puncto saliente, punctum album exsangue. Quo indicio percepi gallinam haud multo prius incubationem deseruisse. Quare vi captam, et in cista conclusam, per integram noctem ibidem detinui; postquam scilicet ova duo reliqua, cum aliis novis illi supposuissem. Quid fit? Postridie, summo mane, ambo ova rediviva erant: apparuitque in centro ipsum punctum micans, albo puncto multo minus; e quo, albo nimirum, scintilla, tanquam e nube prosiliens, in diastole duntaxat comparuit. Adeo ut videretur mihi, ex albo puncto, rubrum punctum emicare; utcunque in illo punctum saliens generari: idque, existente iam sanguine, aut nasci, aut saltem moveri. Imo saepissime comperi, punctum saliens, cum (ceu plane intermortuum) ab omni motu quiesceret; a novo fotu motum denuo et pulsationem recuperasse. Quare in ordine generationis, punctum et sanguinem primum exsistere arbitror; pulsationem vero non nisi postea accedere.

As far as it has been possible for me to observe, it seems that the blood exists before the pulsation, and I will say the following reason of this affirmation. Wednesday toward the evening I put three eggs for brooding under a hen, and Saturday, returned just before the same hour, I found these eggs cold, since they had been abandoned by the hen. Nevertheless, after I opened one of them, I found the beginning of the chick, just a red and blood line on the periphery, while in the centre, instead of a pulsating point, a bloodless white point. From this sign I deduced that the hen abandoned the incubation not a long time before. That's why, captured with force and shut up in a basket, I held her confined for the whole night, obviously after having put under her the remaining two eggs with other new ones. What happened? The day after at midday both the eggs had resumed to live and at the centre appeared that same bright point, much smaller than the white point, from which, that is, from the white point, only during the diastole appeared a spark as spurting from a cloud. So that it seemed to me that from the white point a red point was coming out every time that in it a pulsating point was produced, and that this, the blood already being there, or was born or at least was moving. Or rather, very frequently I ascertained that the pulsating point, when resting from any movement (that is, totally dead) had newly recovered the movement and the pulsation from the new heating. Therefore in the succession of the generation I believe that at first the point and the blood exist, while the pulsation occurs only afterwards.

Hoc certo constat, futuri foetus nihil omnino hoc die apparere, praeter sanguineas lineas, et punctum saliens, venasque illas, [252] quae omnes ab uno trunco (quemadmodum iste a puncto saliente) propagantur, et per totum colliquamentum plurimis fibrarum ramificationibus sparguntur; quae postmodum vasa umbilicalia constituunt: quibus longe lateque disseminatis, foetus demum, prout augetur, ex albumine et vitello sibi alimentum haurit. Harum venarum, earumque propaginum vivum exemplar videas in arborum foliis, quorum fibrae omnes a pedunculo oriuntur, et ab uno trunco per totum folium diffunduntur.

The following comes out with certainty: in this day the future fetuses are only blood lines and a pulsating point, and all those veins branching off from only a trunk (as this from the pulsating point) and scattering through the whole colliquation with many ramifications of the fibres that later constitute the umbilical vessels; from which, far and wide disseminated, finally the fetus, little by little increasing, draws for itself the food from albumen and yolk. In the leaves of the trees you could see a living example of these veins and their ramifications, whose all filaments are born from a peduncle and from only a trunk they spread through the whole leaf.

Totum hoc colliquamentum, sanguineis fibris distinctum, ambarum papilionis alarum magnitudinem et formam refert. Estque illa Aristotelis[3] membrana, quae fibras sanguineas habens, eo tempore album liquorem continet, a meatibus illis venarum oriens.

This whole colliquation divided by blood fibres resembles in size and shape both wings of a butterfly. And it is that membrane of Aristotle «which, possessing some blood fibres, in that moment contains a white liquid which is born from those venous ducts.»

Sub finem quarti diei, et initium quinti, punctum sanguineum iam adauctum, in vesiculam exiguam et tenuissimam, sanguinem in se continentem, transiisse cernitur; quem singulis contractionibus propellit, factaque diastole recipit denuo.

Toward the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth day the blood point is seen already increased and turned into a small and very thin vesicle containing in itself some blood that the vesicle pushes with single contractions, and again receives during the diastole.

Hactenus nullum vasorum discrimen deprehendere potui: neque enim arteriae a venis, vel tunica, vel pulsu distinguuntur. Ideoque vasa omnia indiscriminatim venas nominanda censeo; vel, cum Aristotele[4], meatus venales.

Until this moment I have not been able to gather some difference of the vessels: in fact neither the arteries differ from the veins either for the structure of the wall or for the pulsation. And therefore I believe that all the vessels have indiscriminately to be called veins, or else, joining myself to Aristotle, venous ducts.

Punctum hoc, ait Aristoteles, movet iam sese, ut animal. Quippe, animal a non animali, motu distinguitur, et sensu. Cum itaque punctum hoc iam primum sese moveat, merito animalis naturam induisse dicimus; et ovum anima vegetativa pridem imbutum, iam motiva, et sensitiva potentia insuper donari; et a planta in animal transiisse; eodemque tempore animam pulli ingredi, quae ex ovo pullum format, eumque postea informat. Quippe ex operationibus, inesse facultates; et ex his, vitae causam et principium, animam, scilicet, idque actu [253] (cum operationes actu sint) Philosophus demonstrative concludit[5].

Aristotle says: «This point already moves as an animal». In fact an animal distinguishes itself from a non-animal for movement and sensibility. Therefore since this point moves very soon, rightly we say that it wore the nature of an animal, and the egg, since a long time impregnated by the vegetative soul, besides this receives as gift a moving and sensorial ability, and from sprout became an animal. At the same time the soul of the chick begins forming the chick from the egg and later moulds it. Really from the actions of the natural forces the powers proceed, and from these the cause and the principle of the life, that is, the soul, and the Philosopher concludes showing that this happens for a push (since the operations happen for a push).

Ego vero pluribus experimentis certus sum, non motum solummodo puncto salienti inesse, quod nemo negaverit, sed sensum etiam. Nam ad quemlibet vel minimum tactum, videbis punctum hoc varie commoveri, et quasi irritari (perinde omnino ac sensitiva corpora sensus sui indicia propriis motibus exhibere solent); et ad iteratam saepe iniuriam exstimulari, atque in pulsuum rhytmo et ordine conturbari. Ita nempe in herba, sensili dicta, et zoophytis[6], sensum inesse concludimus; quia cum tanguntur, se contrahunt, quasi aegre ferant.

To tell the truth, according to many experiments I have the certainty that in the pulsating point not only the movement is present, a thing that nobody would deny, but also the sensibility. In fact on the occasion of whatever touching, also very little, you will see this point to move in various way and almost to get excited (in the same way generally also the sensorial structures are usual to exhibit the signs of their sensations with some movements), and to be excited at an often repeated violence and to be troubled as far as rhythm and order of pulsations is concerning. So just I conclude that in a grass, called sensitive, and in the zoophytes a sensibility is present, because when touched they contract, as if bearing it unwillingly.

Vidi, inquam, saepissime, aliique, qui una mecum aderant, ab acus, styli, aut digiti contactu, imo vero a calore aut frigore vehementiore admoto, aut cuiuslibet rei molestantis occursu, punctum hoc varia sensus indicia, pulsuum nempe varias permutationes, ictusque validiores, ac frequentiores edidisse. Ut dubitandum non sit, quin punctum hoc, animalis instar, vivat, moveatur, et sentiat.

I add to have seen very often, and other people with me, that because of the contact with a needle, a stylus or a finger, but even with the approach of the warm or of a rather intense cold, or crashing with whatever troublesome thing, this point sent forth various signs of sensibility, just various changes of the pulsations as well as stronger and more frequent beats. So that we have not to doubt that this point lives, moves and is endowed with sensibility as an animal.

Ovo insuper aeri frigidiori diutius exposito, punctum saliens rarius pulsat, et languidius agitatur: admoto autem digito calente, aut alio blando fotu, vires statim vigoremque recuperat. Quinetiam, postquam punctum hoc sensim elanguit, et sanguine plenum a motu omni cessans, nullumque vitae specimen exhibens, morti penitus succubuisse visum est: imposito digito meo tepente, spatio viginti arteriae meae pulsuum, ecce corculum denuo reviviscit, erigitur; et tanquam postliminio ab orco redux, pristinam choream redintegravit. Idque alio quolibet leni calore, ignis nempe aut aquae tepidae, iterum iterumque a me atque aliis factitatum est; ut, pro libito, misellam animam vel morti tradere, vel in lucem revocare, in nostra potestate fuerit.

Furthermore, when the egg is exposed for a rather long time to a rather cold air, the pulsating point palpitates more seldom and moves in a weaker way; but, by approaching a warm finger or another soft heat, it immediately recovers the strength and the vigor. Besides, after this point slowly lost vigor, full of blood it stops to do any movement, and without showing any sign of life it has been seen to completely succumb to the death. With the imposition of my lukewarm finger, within twenty pulsations of my artery the little heart newly recovers the life and rises, and as if being newly back from the grave, resumed the dance of before. With any other slight heat, that is, fire or lukewarm water, this thing has been repeatedly and often done by me and by others, so that for fancy it would have been in our power either to destine a poor soul to death or to call it back to the life.

[254] Quae diximus, quarto a prima incubatione die, sive tertia inspectione, plerumque eveniunt. Plerumque, inquam; non est enim hoc perpetuum, cum magna sit in ovorum maturitate diversitas, aliaque aliis citius perficiantur. Quemadmodum in arboris cuiuscunque fructibus usu venit, quorum alii praecoces et decidui sunt, dum alii crudi et immaturiores ramis tenaciter adhaerent. Adeo, ut quaedam ova quinto die minus provecta sint, quam alia tertio ut plurimum solent. Idque, ut certi aliquid et explorati haberem, in plurimis ovis, per idem tempus incubatis, eodemque die apertis, comperi. Ut neque sexum sequiorem, nec aeris inclementiam, neque incubandi negligentiam, aut aliud quidpiam causari possem, praeter insitam ovi imebcillitatem, calidive innati pauperiem.

The things I have said mostly happen at the fourth day from the beginning of incubation, or at the third inspection. I say mostly. In fact this is not applicable to all of them, the difference of the eggs being great when they are mature and some reach to be completed more quickly than others. Likewise in the fruits of whatever tree it happens that some of them are precocious and deciduous, while others raw and more immature tenaciously stick to the branches. So that some eggs at the fifth day are less advanced than others are accustomed to be mostly at the third day. And I ascertained this in a lot of eggs incubated for the same time and open in the same day in order to possess something sure and investigated. So that I could not produce as pretext neither a weak sex, nor the inclemency of the air, nor a carelessness of incubation or any other thing, except an inherent weakness of the egg or a deficiency of innate heat.

Ova hypenemia sive infoecunda, hoc ipso tempore, quasi die critico mutari incipiunt, atque indolem suam ostendere. Nam ut ova foecunda in colliquamentum (quod postea in sanguinem transit) ab insita vi plastica mutantur; ita subventanea ova eodem tempore corrumpuntur et putredinem induunt. Observavi tamen aliquando maculam sive cicatriculam in ovis etiam infoecundis latius explicari; nunquam tamen ad cacumen assurgere, nec circulis ordine dispositis circumscribi. Vidi quoque interdum vitellum alicubi clarescere, et liquefieri, sed inaequaliter; partesque coagulatione quasi temeraria concretas, instar nubium sparsim volitantium, innatare. Et licet ova haec nondum rancida, putrida, et foetida dicantur; sunt tamen ad putredinem prona, et ad eam tandem continuato incubantis calore pertingunt: idque eodem illo loco ducta corruptionis origine, quo ova prolifica generationem auspicantur.

In this same period of time, the windy or infertile eggs start to modify as being the decisive day and to show their nature. In fact, as the fertile eggs by the inborn moulding strength are transformed into the colliquation (which after passes in the blood), so the windy eggs in the same period of time spoil and get dressed of rot. Nevertheless sometimes I observed that the patch or cicatricle also in infertile eggs is wider, but it never turns into a prominence nor is circumscribed by circles placed with order. Sometimes I have seen also the yolk to clear up and liquefy in some point, but in a not homogeneous way, and some parts, made dense as by an impetuous coagulation, to float as clouds fluttering here and there. And although these eggs are not yet said rancid, rotten and fetid, nevertheless they are inclined to putrefaction and finally will become rotten with the continued heat of the brooder, brought by the origin of the corruption in that same place where the prolific eggs begin the generation with good auspices.

Perfectiora itaque ova, iam sub finem quarti diei, duplicem vel bipartitam habent vesiculam pulsantem, duplici ictu alteram alteri vicissim respondentem; eo nempe modo atque ordine, ut una sese contrahente, altera sanguine distenta, et rutilans appareat; [255] quae mox pariter contracta sanguinem liquido exprimit; momentoque interiecto, prior denuo resurgit, pulsumque repetit. Clareque videas, actionem harum vesicularum, esse contractionem; a qua sanguis impellitur, et in vasa protruditur.

Therefore the more improved eggs already toward the end of the fourth day have a double pulsating vesicle or divided into two parts, answering each other with a double pulsation, that is, in that manner and with that sequence so that, while one contracts, the other appears full of blood and shining, and which, being likewise immediately contracted, clearly squeezes the blood; spent an instant, it gets back to be still as before and repeats the pulsation. And you could clearly see that the activity of these vesicles is the contraction, by which the blood is pushed and made to enter the blood vessels.

Quarta die, inquit Aldrovandus[7], bina videbantur puncta, et quodlibet eorum sese movebat: quae haud dubie cor, et iecur fuerint; quae viscera in ovis triduo incubatis Aristoteles dixit.

Aldrovandi says: «The fourth day two points were seen and both moving, which without doubt will have been the heart and the liver, entrails that Aristotle told to be present in eggs incubated since three days.»

Philosophus[8] vero id nuspiam dixit: neque ea viscera, ut plurimum, ante decimum diem conspicua sunt. Mirorque Aldrovandum pulsantium punctorum alterum, iecur existimasse: quasi vero hoc unquam ad eum modum agitaretur.

To say the truth the Philosopher didn't say this in any point, neither that those entrails are visible, mostly, before the tenth day. And I marvel that Aldrovandi judged to be the liver the other of the pulsating points, as if really sometimes it was stirring in that way.

Satius fuerit credere, punctorum salientium alterum, adaucto foetu, in auriculas, alterum in ventriculos cordis abire. Enimvero, in adultis, ventriculi cordis ad eum modum ab auriculis implentur, factaque contractione deplentur denuo; quemadmodum in tractatu nostro de motu cordis et sanguinis observavimus[9].

It would have been more than enough to believe that one of the pulsating points, when the fetus increased, turns into the atriums of the heart, the other in the ventricles. To say the truth in the adults the ventricles of the heart are filled in this way by the atriums, and after contracted they again empty, as I described in my treatise about the movement of heart and blood.

In provectioribus quoque ovis, aliquando sub finem quarti diei, nescio quid turbidi vesiculas pulsantes adumbrabat, visumque, offusae nubeculae instar, impediebat, quo minus clare puncta salientia intueri potuerim. Clariori tamen luce, perspicillisque adhibitis, collatisque una subsequentium dierum observationibus; constitit esse corporis rudimentum, ceu nebulam ex colliquamenti parte concoctam, vel circa venarum principium concrescens effluvium: ut mox amplius de die quinto dicetur.

Also in more advanced eggs, sometimes toward the end of the fourth day, I don't know what was the turbid which was darkening the pulsating vesicles and, as a diffused thin fog, prevented the sight, hence I was able to see less clearly the pulsating points. Nevertheless with a more intense light and using some lenses, and gathering the observations of the following days, it resulted to be a sketch of the body, as a thin foil matured starting from a part of the colliquation, that is, an effluvium condensing around the beginning of the veins, as soon it will be more widely said about the fifth day.

Aldrovandus quoque id videtur observasse: Quinta die, inquit, non amplius punctum illud, quod cor esse diximus, extra videbatur moveri; sed obtegi ac cooperiri; et duo illi meatus venosi evidentiores conspiciebantur, alter vero maior altero. Fallitur [256] autem vir doctissimus: multo enim post tempore, ubi domicilium fere perfecte fabricatum fuerit, {lar} <Lar> iste familiaris aedes ingreditur, seseque in intima earum penetralia abscondit. Erratque etiam, ubi ait, venarum insita vi, reliquam albuminis portionem quasi in palearem colorem immutari. Reperitur enim iste color in albumine crassiore cuiuscunque ovi requieti, indiesque magis intenditur; prout nempe ovum vetustius fuerit, ut pridem diximus; idque sine ulla venarum opera, portione solum tenuiore exhalante.

Also Aldrovandi seems to have seen this, and he says: « On the fifth day that point which I said to be the heart, did not seem to beat more, but that it was hidden and covered up, and those two vein-ducts were more evident, one larger than the other.» But the very learned man is wrong: in fact after a lot of time, when a domicile has been built almost in a perfect way, this Lar - household god - of family enters the houses and hides himself in their intimate parts. And he also is wrong when says: «For the inherent strength of the veins the remainder part of the albumen almost turns into a straw colour.» In fact this colour is found in the denser albumen of any not fresh egg, and with the passing of the days it increases more, that is, as if the egg is more old, as I previously told, and without any intervention of the veins, since it exhales only the less thick part.

Crescente autem foetu, ut infra dicemus, surculisque meatuum venalium longe lateque in vitellum et albumina sparsis, colliquantur utriusque liquoris portiones, non quidem, ut Aldrovandus voluit, ab insita venarum vi, sed a sanguinis inibi hospitantis calore. In quamcunque enim utriuslibet liquoris partem dictae venae porriguntur; subito locis conterminis colliquatio apparet; ideoque vitellus eodem tempore quasi duplex conspicitur: quod nempe superior eius pars, quae supra ad obtusum cacumen cavitati iungitur, liquidior iam reddita, ad reliquum vitelli; instar cerae flavae liquefactae, ad eandem frigidam et densam comparatae, appareat: eoque nomine, ut fusa omnia solent, laxiore spatio continetur. Quinetiam pars ista superior, tepore genitali liquefacta, a reliquis liquoribus (sed praesertim albumine) propria tunica tenuissima disterminatur. Quo fit, ut, rupta hac tenui, fragili, atque invisibili membrana, confestim accidat albuminis et vitelli confusio, qua omnia perturbantur. Estque haec saepe causa frustratae generationis (cum liquores isti diversae imo contrariae naturae sint) secundum illud Aristotelis[10], loco saepius citato, Depravantur ova, et fiunt quae urina appellantur, tempore potius calido; idque ratione. Ut enim vina temporibus calidis coacescunt, faece subversa (hoc enim causae est, ut depraventur), sic ova [257] pereunt vitello corrupto: id enim in utrisque terrena portio est. Quamobrem et vinum obturbatur faece permista, et ovum vitello diffuso. Atque huc etiam non immerito retuleris illud eiusdem[11]: Coelo tonante, quae foventur, ova corrumpuntur. Siquidem membrana tenuissima a tanto fragore levi negotio disrumpitur. Ideoque fortassis ova confusa et putrida, cynosura dicuntur, quod nimirum, ut diximus, diebus canicularibus crebrius tonet. Quapropter Columella[12] quoque recte monuit, plerosque ab aestivo solstitio non putare bonam pullationem.

With the increasing of the fetus, as I will say later, and with the dissemination far and wide in yolk and albumens of the ramifications of the venous ducts, the portions of both liquids melt, but not, as Aldrovandi stated, because of a force inborn in the veins, but for the heat of the blood that just there is housed. In fact in whatever part of both the liquids the aforesaid veins stretch out, immediately a colliquation appears in the bordering points, and therefore the yolk in the same moment appears almost double, since, that is,  its superior part, which on the upper part joins the cavity located toward the obtuse side, already made more liquid in comparison to the remaining yolk, it appears as a liquefied yellow wax if compared with a cold and thick one, and for this reason, as all the melted things are usual to be, it is contained in a wider space. Furthermore this superior part, liquefied by the generative warmth, is separated by an its very thin tunic from the remaining liquids (but above all from the albumen). Therefore it occurs that, broken this slim, fragile and invisible membrane, a mixing of albumen and yolk immediately happens, by which all the things are disarranged. And often is this the cause of the frustrated generation (since these liquids are of different nature, or rather, contrary) according to what Aristotle wrote in the rather often quoted passage: «When the season is warm the eggs go bad and preferably are grown up those called not fertilized, and this happens for a reason. As in fact during the warm seasons the wines turn sour for the remixing of the lees (this in fact represents the reason why they decay), so the eggs go bad because of the yolk which went bad: in fact in both cases it represents the earthy element. That's why both the wine becomes turbid due to the remixed lees, and the egg for the spread yolk.» And at this point rightly you can also quote that his sentence: «When the sky thunders, the incubated eggs decay.» Actually a very thin membrane is broken with a little effort by so much crash. Therefore perhaps the remixed and gone bad eggs are called cynosure, that is because, as I said, during the dog days* it thunders more frequently. That's why also Columella* rightly underlined that «beginning from the solstice of summer, most of the people doesn't think that the production of chicks is good.»

Hoc certo constat, ova facile quassari, concuti, et disperdi; si quis avibus incubantibus molestus fuerit, quo tempore dicti liquores colliquantur et turgent, membranaeque eos ambientes dilatantur et tenerascunt.

It is certain that the eggs are easily shaken, knocked and ruined. If someone will be troublesome towards the brooding birds, in that period the aforesaid liquids melt and swell, and the membranes winding them dilate and weaken.