[274] EXERCITATIO VIGESIMASECUNDA.
Inspectio post diem decimum quartum.

22nd exercise
The inspection after the fourteenth day

A die septimo ad quartum et decimum, omnia aucta magis, ut diximus, et conspectiora fiunt. Cor, aliaque viscera omnia, intra pulli ventres iam abscondita latent; et quae nuda prius, forisque prominentia cernebantur, nunc, nisi aperto thorace atque abdomine, neutiquam conspiciuntur. Pullus nunc primum plumis vestitur; quarum radices, ceu puncta nigra, visuntur. Oculi pupilla iam distinguitur; palpebrae apparent; atque etiam membrana nictatoria, in maiore oculi cantho, sese conspiciendam dat; quae avibus omnibus est peculiaris, qua oculos suos detergere solent. Cerebri gyri quoque distinguuntur, et cerebellum calvaria occluditur; cauda etiam uropygii figuram adipiscitur.

From seventh until fourteenth day all the things are larger, as I said, and they become more visible. The heart and all the other viscera, by now concealed inside the cavities of the chick, are hiding, and those structures previously seen to be naked and protruding outside, now are not seen at all but by opening the chest and the abdomen. Now the chick starts to wear feathers, of which the roots are seen - the follicles, or black points. The pupil of the eye is already distinguishable, the eyelids are seen, and also the nictitating membrane offers itself to the sight in the greater angle of the eye - medial angle, which is peculiar to all the birds, with which they are usual to cleanse their eyes. Also the cerebral convolutions are distinguishable, and the cerebellum is covered by the skull. Also the tail assumes the appearance of the uropygial gland.

Post diem decimum quartum, viscera, prius alba, carneum sive rubicundum colorem paulatim induunt. Cor iam thoracis latebras ingressum, sternoque opertum, aedificium propria opera exstructum inhabitat. Cerebrum et cerebellum intra cranii fornicem solidescit. Intestina autem et ventriculus nondum abdomine concluduntur, sed interioribus adnexa foris propendent.

After the fourteenth day the viscera, before white, slowly wear a fleshy colour or red. The heart, having entered by now the refuge of the chest, and covered by the sternum, lives in a building built by its own job. The brain and the cerebellum  strengthen inside the cranial vault. But the bowels and the stomach are not yet shut up by the abdomen, but joined to the inner structures they hang outside.

Duarum venarum iuxta anum e ventre in umbilicum derivatarum altera est arteria, ut pulsus indicat, ab arteria magna oriunda; altera, vena, a vitello per intestinorum latera in venam portam, sima hepatis parte, deducta: alter enim vasorum umbilicalium truncus, ramulis ex albumine collectis, transit iecoris gibbam; et in venam cavam iuxta cordis basin perforatur.

Of the two blood vessels in proximity of the anus, which from the abdomen go toward the navel, one is an artery, as the pulsation shows, coming from the big artery; the other is a vein coming from the yolk through the lateral parts of the bowels to get into the portal vein in the flat part of the liver; in fact one of the trunks of the umbilical vessels, after having picked some little vessels from the albumen, crosses the hump of the liver and goes to end in the vena cava in proximity of the base of the heart.

Haec ut indies luculentius apparent, ita maior quoque albuminis portio quotidie absumitur; quod vitello non contingit, qui pene integer etiamnum permanet, eademque mole qua primo die conspiciebatur.

Like day by day these things appear in a more evident way, so daily also a greater quantity of albumen is consumed, which doesn't happen to the yolk which still continues to be almost intact and of the same size in which the first day was seen.

[275] Diebus sequentibus, quinque vasa umbilicalia videre est; quorum unum est vena maxima, e cava supra iecur oriunda, ramosque in albumen dispertiens: aliae duae venae a porta proficiscentes (eiusdem ambae originis) in binas vitelli partes, quas modo descripsimus, distribuuntur; et utramque hanc arteriolae, ex lumbaribus natae, comitantur.

In the following days five umbilical vessels are seen, one of which is the big vein originating from the vena cava located above to the liver and dividing the ramifications in the albumen; the other two veins coming from the portal vein (both with the same origin) are distributed in the two parts of the yolk I just described, and to both are joining some small arteries born from the lumbar ones.

Iam pullus maiorem ovi partem occupat, quam reliqua omnia quae in eo continentur; plumisque vestiri incipit: quantoque plus foetus, tanto minus albuminis reperitur. Notatu quoque dignum est, membranam colliquamenti, quam diximus cum exteriore tunica coniungi, et secundinam sive chorion constituere, iam vitellum totum una comprehendere, et contractiorem redditam, vitellum simul cum intestinis ad foetum adducere, eique coniungere, et ceu sacculo constricto claudere. Quaeque ante subtilis et transparens fuerat, prout iam magis magisque contrahitur, ita pariter crassescit magis, et carnosior evadit: posteaque, ad similitudinem herniae intestinalis, in scroto dilatato intestina simul cum vitello recondit et sustinet; tandemque quotidiana contractione adductior abdomen pulli constituit. Vitellum hoc modo, circa diem decimum octavum, intra intestina laxiore alvo collocatum reperias; non tamen ita firmiter positum, quin intestina levi momento (ut in hernia intestinali fit) vel intra ventrem repulsa, vel foras in scrotum delapsa, una cum vitello huc illuc pellantur. Vidi aliquando columbae, aestivo tempore festinantius exclusae, vitellum ad hunc modum ex alvo prolapsum.

By now the chick occupies a part of the egg greater than that occupied by all the remaining things contained in the egg, and it starts to wear feathers, and how much more fetus is found, so lesser is the albumen. It deserves to be reported also that the membrane of the colliquation, I said to join the external tunic and constituting the secundine or chorion, by now holds together the whole yolk, and having become more contracted it pushes toward the fetus the yolk together with the bowels and joins them with it, and that it closes it as if being a small contracted sack. Whatever thing before was thin and transparent, now contracts more and more, so at the same time thickens more and becomes more dense, and afterwards, like an intestinal hernia, it puts back and lodges the bowels together with the yolk in a dilated scrotum, and finally, more tense because of a daily contraction, it structures the abdomen of the chick. In this way about the eighteenth day you could find the yolk located inside the bowels by a less contracted abdomen, nevertheless not arranged in a so firm way that the bowels with a light movement (as it happens in the intestinal hernia) are pushed here and there together with the yolk or rejected inside the abdomen or slipped outside in the scrotum. Once I have seen the yolk of a pigeon, born rather in a hurry during the summer, slipped outside the abdomen in this way.

Sub hoc tempus, pullus ventricosus cernitur, quasi herniam, ut dixi, pateretur. Iamque colliquamentum paulatim turbatur, immutatur, et absumitur, cuius pridem magna copia erat, foetusque supra vitellum decumbit. Iisdem diebus, antequam hepar colorem sanguineum nanciscitur, secundamque, ut aiunt, concoctionem instituit; fel (quod in eadem, utpote excrementum, [276] virtute iecoris separari vulgo credunt) virescens iam intra hepatis lobos invenias. In ventriculi cavitate liquor limpidus reperitur, eiusdem plane consistentiae coloris et saporis cum colliquamento, in quo foetus natabat; qui per intestina dilabens, colorem sensim mutat, et in chylum vertitur; tandemque in intestinis inferioribus simile excrementum occurrit, quale eadem in pullis iam exclusis continent. Ubi provectiores fuerint pulli, in eorum ventriculo liquorem hunc coctum videas et coagulatum: quemadmodum in iis qui lacte vescuntur, schiston fit, in serum nempe et colostron permutatum.

In this period the chick appears paunchy, as if suffering, as I told, from a hernia. And by now the colliquation slowly becomes turbid, is modified and consumed, of which in precedence there was a great abundance, and the fetus lies above to the yolk. In the same days, before the liver takes the colour of the blood and undertakes the so-called second digestion, already you will find the greenish bile inside the lobes of the liver (during such digestion they usually believe that it is separated by the ability of the liver as if being an excrement). In the cavity of the stomach a clear liquid is found, almost with the same consistence, colour and taste of the colliquation in which the fetus floated; and this liquid, flowing through the bowels, slowly changes its colour and turns into chyle* - today called chyme*, and finally in the inferior bowels an excrement is present similar to that they contain in the already born chicks. When the chicks will be further on in the time, you can see this digested and coagulated liquid in their stomach, likewise in those people nourished by milk it becomes curdled, that is, transformed into serum and colostrum.

Absumpto fere albumine, et exigua iam colliquamenti relicta quantitate, per aliquot ante exclusionem dies, pullus non amplius natat, sed, ut dixi, supra vitellum decumbit; totusque conglobatus, capite ut plurimum inter femur dextrum et alam posito, rostro etiam, unguibus, et plumis, caeterisque omnibus instructus conspicitur. Modo dormit, modo vigilat; movensque sese, respirat, et pipit. Si ovum auri admoveris, tumultuantem intus foetum, calcitrantem, respicientem etiam auctore Aristotele, atque pipientem manifeste audies. Idem, si in aquam calidam pedetentim dimiseris, innatabit, pullusque intus a calore ambiente expergefactus, saltus edet, ovumque, ut diximus, huc illuc volutabit. Quo experimento mulieres ova foecunda distinguunt a subventaneis, quae aquae imposita subsidunt.

When the albumen has been almost consumed and a little quantity of colliquation remained, for some days before hatching the chick doesn't float anymore, but, as I said, lies above to the yolk, and, wholly rolled up, it is seen with the head located for the more between the right femur and the wing, and also endowed with beak, toenails, feathers and all other structures. Now it sleeps, now it is awake, and moving it breathes and peeps. If you will move the egg to the ear, as Aristotle affirms you will hear that inside the fetus is struggling, kicks and also looks, and you will hear it peeping in a clear way. If with delicacy you will put it in warm water, it will float, and the chick inside being stimulated by the surrounding heat, it will jump, and, as I said, it will make the egg to turn here and there. With this test the women distinguish the fertile eggs from the sterile ones which, put in water, are sinking.

Albumine iam penitus confecto, paulo ante exclusionem, umbilicus alter, quem in albumina derivatum diximus, obliteratur; sive, ut Aristoteles[1] ait, umbilicus is, qui ad secundinas exteriores tendit, solvitur ab animali, et cadit. Qui vero ad luteum fertur, cum pulli tenui intestino connectitur.

The albumen being by now wholly used, just before the hatching the other navel is obliterated, that I said to be above the albumens, or, as Aristotle says: «That navel going towards the external secundines detaches itself from the animal and falls. But that going towards the yolk connects to the small intestine of the chick.»

Excrementa, quae primum in intestinis reperiuntur, alba sunt, et coenosa, testae ovi emollitae similia. Quinetiam eiusmodi extra foetum intra secundinas reperire est. Adstipulatur [277] Philosophus: Eodem tempore etiam multum emittit excrementi ad extremam membranam. Quin album quoque excrementum tam intra alvum, quam extra, habet.

The excrements at first found in the bowels are white and similar to mud, similar to a softened eggshell. But with these characteristics it is possible to found them also out of the fetus inside the secundines. The Philosopher confirms this: «In the same period it sends forth also many excrements toward the external membrane. It also has white excrements both inside and outside the abdomen.»

Tempore vero procedente, paulo ante foetus exclusionem, faeces subvirides cernuntur, quales exclusos pullos eiicere, modo diximus. Visitur etiam in ingluvie portio quaedam colliquamenti deglutita; et in ventriculo schiston sive coagulum.

But with the passing of time, just before the birth of the fetus, greenish faeces are seen as those a little while ago I said to be sent out by the hatched chicks. Also in the crop a portion of swallowed colliquation is seen, as well as in the stomach like curdled milk or rennet is seen.

Nec hactenus quidem iecoris color purpureus aut sanguineus est, sed ab albore in flavedinem vergens: qualia piscium iecora cernuntur. Pulmones tamen sanguinolenti rubescunt.

Neither till now the colour of the liver is purple or  blood-red, but from white verging on yellow, as the livers of the fishes are seen to be. However the lungs are reddish being soaked with blood.

Vitellus nunc in abdomine inter intestina concluditur: idque non solum dum foetus in ovo fuerit, sed post exclusionem etiam, cum obambulat, matremque insequens victum quaeritat. Ut verum videatur, quod Aristoteles multoties affirmat; vitellum nempe pullo pro cibo contigisse: eodem enim intus contento, pullus primis ab exclusione diebus (donec rostrum firmitudinem acquisiverit, quo cibaria frangat, et praeparet, ac ventriculus robur, quo eadem conficiat) pro nutrimento utitur; estque adeo lacti analogos. Aristoteles huic sententiae calculum suum adiicit, loco a nobis saepius citato[2]: Iam et pullum ipsum multum humoris lutei subit: qui demum decrescit, procedenteque tempore totum absumitur in ipsum pullum, cuius in corpore comprehenditur; ita ut, decimo post die, quam exclusus est pullus, si dissecetur, etiamnum ad intestinum paulum vitelli reliquum inveniatur. Quinetiam post tricesimum diem, vitelli reliquias ibidem deprehendi. Et, si valet argumentum a ductu venarum umbilicalium, quas ad iecoris portam uno aut altero trunco terminari diximus, pullus iam eodem prorsus modo nutritur, alimento ex vitello per vasa umbilicalia attracto; quo postea chylo ex intestinis per venas mesentericas traducto alitur. Vasa enim utrobique ad iecoris portam terminantur, ad quam [278] nutrimentum pariter attractum deferunt. Ut ad venas lacteas in mesenterio, quae in pennatis nullibi reperiuntur, confugere non sit opus.

Now the yolk is held in the abdomen among the intestines, and this not only occurs when the fetus is inside the egg, but also after the hatching, when it wanders about and by following the mother goes to the frantic search of food. So that it seems true what Aristotle affirms a lot of times, that is, the yolk befell as food to the chick: in fact being contained at its inside, the chick in the first days after the hatching (until when the beak acquired sturdiness, by which to be able to break the foods and to prepare them, and the stomach acquired strength by which to make the same things) is using it for feeding itself, and it is even similar to the milk. In a passage by me quoted a lot of times, Aristotle adds his suffrage to this affirmation: «By now a lot of yellow liquid enters also the chick itself, at the end it decreases and with the passing of time it is all included in the chick itself, in whose body is held, so that if the chick is sectioned at the tenth day after is born, then a little bit of residual yolk is still found near the bowel.» But rather, after the thirteenth day just there I have found some residues of yolk. And, if the observation is valid that from the duct of the umbilical vessels, that I said to end near the door of the liver with one or the other trunk, the chick already feeds just in the same way with a food drawn from the yolk through the umbilical vessels, and then it feeds on the chyle* - today chyme * - transported by the bowels through the mesenteric veins. In fact the blood vessels end at both sides near the door of the liver, to which likewise they bring the drawn nourishment. So that it is not necessary to resort to the milky veins present in the mesentery, which in birds are not found in any place.

Lubet hic adnectere, quod saepe expertus sum. Ut foetus et liquorum posituram apertius discernerem, post diem decimum quartum ad exclusionem usque (albuminis maiore parte iam absumpta, et diviso vitello), ovum integrum ad duritiem decoxi; ruptoque cortice, ac pulli collocatione perspecta, inveni tum albuminis reliquum, tum ambas vitelli partes (quas facta per lenem calorem colliquatione divisas diximus) eadem consistentia, colore, sapore, aliisque accidentibus, quibus ova requieta et similiter cocta dotari solent. Plurimum itaque mecum ipse reputavi, qui fieret, ut ova improlifica gallinae supposita, ab eodem calore extraneo corrumpantur, putrescant, et foetida evadant; ovis autem foecundis idem non contingat. Sed in his liquores ambo (licet foetus una cum excrementi pauxillo adsit) sani, salubres, et immutati permaneant; adeo ut, si quis coctos eos in tenebris comedat, nequeat a requieto ovo similiter cocto distinguere.

I like at this point to add what often I experimented. To detect more clearly the position of fetus and liquids, after the fourteenth day until that of hatching (the most part of the albumen is by now used and the yolk is half) I boiled an intact egg until it became hard. After having broken the shell and detected the position of the chick, I found the rest of the albumen as well as both parts of the yolk (that I said to be separated by a liquefaction gotten through a moderate heat) endowed with the same consistence, colour, taste and other characteristics with which are usually endowed the less fresh eggs boiled in the same manner. Therefore I ruminated a lot about how it happens that the not prolific eggs put under a hen are spoiling, rotting and become smelly because of the same heat, while to the fertile eggs the same thing doesn't happen. But in these last eggs both the liquids (even if there is the fetus with a small quantity of excrement) remain healthy, salubrious and unchanged, so that if someone eat them boiled and in the dark, he is not able to distinguish them from a not recent egg boiled in the same manner.