Conrad Gessner

Historiae animalium liber III qui est de Avium natura - 1555

De Gallina

transcribed by Fernando Civardi - translated by Elio Corti

417

 

The navigator's option display ->  character ->  medium is recommended

Et genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi, | Ni sciret fieri, quis nasci posse putaret? Ovidius 15. Metam.[1] Ova inter animal et non animal veluti ambigere videntur, Caelius. Ova e quibus mares nascentur, gallina gerit in parte ventris dextra: e quibus foeminae, in sinistra, Physiologus. Quonam modo ova in utero increscant, et quomodo adhaereant, explicat Aristoteles lib. 3. cap. 2. de gener. anim.[2] Gallinis porro tertia die ac nocte postquam coepere incubare, indicium praestare incipiunt, (Vide etiam infra ubi de incubatione seorsim agetur.) At maiorum avium generi plus praetereat temporis, necesse est. minori autem minus sufficit. Effertur per id tempus luteus humor ad cacumen, qua principium ovi est: atque ovum detegitur ea parte, et cor quasi punctum sanguineum in candido liquore consistit: quod punctum salit iam, et movetur, ut animal. Tendunt ex eo meatus venales sanguigeri duo tortuosi ad tunicam ambientem utranque, dum augetur. Membrana etiam fibris distincta sanguineis, iam {album liquorem}[3] <luteum> per id tempus {circundat} <circumdat>[4], a meatibus illis venarum oriens. Paulo autem post, et corpus iam pulli discernitur, exiguum admodum primum et candidum, conspicuum capite et maxime oculis inflatis, quibus ita permanet diu. sero enim decrescunt oculi, et se ad ratam contrahunt proportionem. Pars autem inferior corporis, nullo membro a superiore distingui, inter initia cernitur. Meatuum, quos ex corde tendere diximus, alter ad ambiendum album liquorem fertur, alter ad luteum velut umbilicus. Origo itaque pulli in albumine est, cibus per umbilicum ex luteo petitur.

And the whole population of birds is born from the central part of an egg, | who would think this, if he would be unaware that it happens in this way? Ovid Metamorphosis XV. The eggs almost seem to be midway between a living and not living being, Lodovico Ricchieri. The hen carries in the right part of the abdomen the eggs from which males will be born: in the left those from which females will be born, Physiologus. To whatever point the eggs grow in uterus and how they stick to it, Aristotle explains this  in III book 2nd chapter of De generatione animalium. Then in hens - the eggs - begin to show a sign on third day and night after they began to incubate (see also below, when we will particularly deal with incubation). But in the genus of larger birds there is need for more elapsing time. But less time suffices for a smaller bird. During this period the yellow liquid is moving to the sharp end, where the principle of the egg is located: and the egg is uncovered in that area, and the heart appears like a speck of blood in the white liquid: and this speck still jumps and moves like a living creature. Two winding vein-ducts with blood are detaching themselves from it and while it is growing they go towards both the enveloping membranes. In this moment also a membrane marked with bloody fibers is already surrounding the yolk, arising from those vein-ducts. But a little later it is yet possible to see the body of the chick, quite small at first and white, with a big head, and with very prominent eyes, a condition which lasts for a long time. Since the eyes decrease in size belatedly and contract themselves to their proper size. At the beginning it is impossible to distinguish the lower part of the body from the upper one by no anatomical structure. One of the vein-ducts which I said are detaching themselves from the heart goes to surround the albumen, the other moves towards the yolk like an umbilical cord. Thus the origin of the chick lies in the albumen, its nourishment is sought out of the yolk through the navel-string.

Die iam decimo pullus totus perspicuus est, et membra omnia patent. Caput grandius toto corpore est. oculi capite grandiores haerent. quippe qui fabis maiores per id tempus emineant nigri, nondum cum pupilla. quibus si cutem detrahas, nihil solidi videris, sed humorem candidum rigidumque admodum refulgentem ad lucem, nec quicquam aliud. ita oculi et caput. Iam vero et viscera eo tempore patent: et alvi intestinorumque natura perspicua est. Venae etiam illae a corde proficiscentes, iam sese iuxta umbilicum constituunt. Ab ipso autem umbilico vena oritur duplex. Altera tendens ad membranam ambientem vitellum, qui eo tempore humet, et largior, quam secundum naturam est: altera permeans ad membranam ambientem eam, qua pullus operitur, et eam quae vitellum, humoremque interiectum continet[5]. dum enim pullus paulatim increscit, vitellus seorsum in duas partes secatur. quarum altera locum tenet superiorem, altera inferiorem, et medius humor candidus continetur. nec partem inferiorem a vitello liquor deserit albus, qualis ante habebatur. Decimo die albumen exiguum iam, et lentum: crassum, pallidulum novissime inest. Sunt enim quaeque locata hoc ordine. prima, postremaque ad testam ovi membrana posita est, non testae ipsius nativa, sed altera illi subiecta. liquor in ea candidus est. deinde pullus continetur obvolutus membrana, ne in humore maneat. mox pullo vitellus subiacet, in quem alteram ex venis prorepere dictum est, cum altera albumen ambiens petat. Cuncta autem ambit membrana cum humore, specie saniei. Tum vero membrana alia circa ipsum foetum, ut dictum est, ducitur, arcens humorem. sub qua vitellus alia obvolutus membrana. in quem umbilicus a corde, ac vena maiore oriens pertinet: atque ita efficitur, ne foetus alterutro humore attingatur.

Now on the tenth day the complete chick is visible and all parts of its body are observable. The head is larger than the entire body. The eyes continue to be larger than the head. Larger than broad-beans, at this time they are bulging and black, not yet provided with pupil. If you remove their covering you will see nothing solid, but a snow-white and stiff liquid very shining in the light, and nothing else. Such are eyes and head. Also the viscera are already visible at that time, and the conformation of the stomach and of the intestinal loops is recognizable. Also those veins that branch out from the heart are now placing themselves close to the umbilical cord. A pair of veins arises from the umbilical cord itself. One of them goes to the membrane – allantoid - which wraps up the yolk which in this moment is hydrated and larger than naturally is: the other goes to that enveloping membrane – amnios - by which the chick is wrapped up, and which wraps up that one containing the yolk and the interposed liquid. For while the chick is gradually growing the yolk splits distinctly itself into two parts. One occupying the upper space, the other the lower space, and a snow-white liquid is contained between them. And the albumen is not running out from the lower part of the yolk, such as it was before. On the tenth day by now the white is slight in amount and sticky: thick, and finally somewhat dull. The various parts are arranged in the following order. Set against the eggshell there are a first and a second membrane, the latter not being that belonging to the shell, but being the other lying beneath the first one. There is a snow-white liquid in it. Then the chick is contained, which is wrapped up by a membrane so it is not lying in the fluid. Then beneath the chick there is the yolk towards which I said is going one of two veins, while the other goes towards the surrounding albumen. A membrane with a liquid sticky in appearance envelops all these things. Then, as I said, there is a second membrane arranged around the foetus itself, separating it from the liquid. Under this, enveloped by the other membrane, there is the yolk. Towards which goes the umbilical cord arising from the heart and the larger vein: and so it follows that the foetus is not touched by either liquid.

Vicesimo die iam pullus si quis putamine secto solicitet, movet intus sese, pipitque aliquantulum: et iam ab eodem die plumescit, quoties ultra vicesimum exclusio protelatur. ita positus est, ut caput super crus dextrum admotum ilibus, alam super caput positam habeat, quinetiam membrana, quae pro secundis habetur, post ultimam testae membranam, ad quam alter umbilicus pertendit, evidens per id tempus est, pullusque in eadem iam totus locatur. et altera quoque membrana, quae et ipsa vicem secundarum praestat, vitellumque ambit, ad quem alter umbilicus procedit, latius patet. Oritur umbilicus uterque a corde, et vena maiore, ut dictum est. Fit autem per id tempus, ut umbilicus alter, qui in secundas exteriores fertur, compresso iam animante absolvatur: alter, qui adit vitellum, ad pulli tenue intestinum annectatur. Iam et pullum ipsum multum humoris lutei subit: atque in eius alvo fecis aliquid subsidit luteum. excrementum etiam album eodem tempore pullus emittit, et in alvo quiddam album consistit. Demum vitellus paulatim absumitur totus membrorum haustu, ita ut si pullo decimo die post excluso rescindas alvum, nonnihil adhuc vitelli comperias.

By now on the twentieth day, if the shell is broken and the chick is touched, it moves inside and peeps a little: and already from this day onward it begins to become covered with down every time the hatch goes on the twentieth day. It is so placed that its head is over the right leg which is close to the flanks, it has its wing placed above its head, and the membrane regarded as placenta is also well visible at this time, which lies after the innermost shell’s membrane, and towards which goes one of two umbilical cords, and by now the chick is entirely contained in it. And also the other membrane, which also acts as placenta and surrounds the yolk, towards which the other navel-cord goes, is more largely visible. Both navel-cords arise from the heart and the larger vein, as has been said. It happens at this time that the navel-cord which goes to the outermost placenta tears itself away from the living creature now in cramped conditions: the other navel-cord which goes towards the yolk keeps fastened to the slender intestine of the chick. By this time much of the yolk enters the chick itself: and in its intestine some yellow residue remains. The chick at the same time emits also a white secretion and something white is present in his intestine. At last the yolk is all gradually consumed since it is used by the various parts of the body, so much so that if you cut open the intestine on the tenth day after the chick has been hatched, you will still find some of the yolk in it.

Umbilico vero absolvitur pullus, nec quicquam praeterea haurit. totus enim humor, qui in medio continebatur, absumptus iam est. Tempore autem supradicto pullus dormit quidem, sed non perpetuo, quippe qui excitetur interdum, et movens sese respiciat, atque pipiat. Cor enim eius cum umbilico, ut spirantis reflat et palpitat. Sed avium ortus ad hunc modum ex ovo agitur, Haec omnia Aristot, de hist. anim. 6. 3.[6] Quae etiam Albertus in suis de animalibus libris paraphrasi [paraphrase] reddidit, quam in praesentia relinquo.

The chick becomes detached from the navel cord and it does not receive anything further. For the entire liquid contained within the egg has been already used up. During the period of time mentioned above the chick sleeps, but not continually, for it wakes up now and then, and in moving casts a glance around and peeps. And its heart together with the navel cord lifts up as in a breathing creature, and palpitates. Well, the birth of birds from the egg takes place in this fashion. Aristotle is writing all these things in Historia animalium VI,3. Things paraphrased by Albertus in his books on animals and which for the moment I leave.

Omnibus ovis medio vitelli parva inest velut sanguinea gutta, quod esse cor avium existimant, primum in omni corpore id gigni opinantes: in ovo certe gutta salit, palpitatque. Ipsum animal ex albo liquore ovi corporatur. Cibus eius in luteo est. Omnibus intus caput maius toto corpore: oculi compressi capite maiores. In crescente pullo, candor in medium vertitur, luteum circumfunditur. Vicesimo die, si moveatur ovum, iam viventis intra putamen vox auditur. Ab eodem tempore plumescit, ita positus: ut caput supra dextrum pedem habeat, dexteram vero alam supra caput. Vitellus paulatim deficit. Aves omnes in pedes nascuntur, contra quam reliqua animalia, Plin.[7]

In all eggs there is like a small drop of blood in the middle of the yolk which people think is the heart of birds, under the opinion that this is firstly generated in whatever organism: in the egg this drop certainly leaps and palpitates. The animal itself is formed from the white liquid of the egg. Its food is in the yolk. In all chicks the head is larger than the entire body while they are still in the egg: the closed eyes are larger than the head. As the chick grows the white is turned to the middle and the yolk spreads around it. On the twentieth day, if the egg is moved, the voice of the living creature can already be heard within the shell. At about the same time the down grows out, and the chick’s position is such that its head is above the right leg and its right wing above the head. The yolk gradually decreases. All birds are hatched breech, contrary to all other animals, Pliny.

Principio (inquit Aristot. de generat. anim. 3. 2.[8]) corde constituto, et vena maiore ab eo distincta, umbilici duo de vena eadem pertendunt, alter ad membranam, quae luteum continet: alter ad membranam cui secundarum species est, qua animal obvolutum continetur: quae circa testae membranam est.

In the beginning (Aristotle says in De generatione animalium 3,2) when the heart has been formed and the larger vein underwent a differentiation from it, two umbilical cords stretch out from the same vein, one to the membrane containing the yolk: the other to that membrane which looks like a placenta – allantoid - inside which is contained the covered animal: the latter membrane is lying near the shell’s membrane.


417

[1] Metamorphoses XV 385-390: Iunonis volucrem, quae cauda sidera portat, | armigerumque Iovis Cythereiadasque columbas | et genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi, | ni sciret fieri, quis nasci posse putaret? | Sunt qui, cum clauso putrefacta est spina sepulcro, | mutari credant humanas angue medullas.

[2] On the generation of animals book III chapter 2 (753b 18-754a 17): For the present investigation it is sufficient to understand this much clearly, that, when the heart has been first formed and the great blood-vessel has been marked off from it, two umbilical cords run from the vessel, the one to the membrane which encloses the yolk, the other to the membrane resembling a chorion which surrounds the whole embryo; this latter runs round on the inside of the membrane of the shell. Through the one of these the embryo receives the nutriment from the yolk, and the yolk becomes larger, for it becomes more liquid by heating. This is because the nourishment, being of a material character in its first form, must become liquid before it can be absorbed, just as it is with plants, and at first this embryo, whether in an egg or in the mother's uterus, lives the life of a plant, for it receives its first growth and nourishment by being attached to something else. The second umbilical cord runs to the surrounding chorion. For we must understand that, in the case of animals developed in eggs, the chick has the same relation to the yolk as the embryo of the vivipara has to the mother so long as it is within the mother (for since the nourishment of the embryo of the ovipara is not completed within the mother, the embryo takes part of it away from her). So also the relation of the chick to the outermost membrane, the sanguineous one, is like that of the mammalian embryo to the uterus. At the same time the egg-shell surrounds both the yolk and the membrane analogous to the uterus, just as if it should be put round both the embryo itself and the whole of the mother, in the vivipara. This is so because the embryo must be in the uterus and attached to the mother. Now in the vivipara the uterus is within the mother, but in the ovipara it is the other way about, as if one should say that the mother was in the uterus, for that which comes from the mother, the nutriment, is the yolk. The reason is that the process of nourishment is not completed within the mother. As the creature grows the umbilicus running the chorion collapses first, because it is here that the young is to come out; what is left of the yolk, and the umbilical cord running to the yolk, collapse later. For the young must have nourishment as soon as it is hatched; it is not nursed by the mother and cannot immediately procure its nourishment for itself; therefore the yolk enters within it along with its umbilicus and the flesh grows round it. This then is the manner in which animals produced from perfect eggs are hatched in all those, whether birds or quadrupeds, which lay the egg with a hard shell. (translated by Arthur Platt – 1910)

[3] Aristotle says yolk. (Lind, 1963) – Infatti Aristotele dice “il giallo”. L'errore è tratto dalla traduzione di Teodoro Gaza del 1498.

[4] La traduzione di Teodoro Gaza da cui Gessner trae il testo ha circumdat.

[5] Qui Gessner decurta il testo di Aristotele e fa scomparire un vaso sanguigno, quello diretto al sacco del tuorlo. Ecco infatti come si esprime Aristotele in Historia animalium VI,3: Dal cordone ombelicale una vena si estende verso la membrana che avvolge il giallo (che dal canto suo in questo momento è fluido e più abbondante di quanto comporti la sua natura), e un’altra verso la membrana che racchiude sia la membrana in cui è contenuto il pulcino, sia quella del giallo, sia il fluido che si trova fra queste. (traduzione di Mario Vegetti) – Ma il colpevole dell'amputazione del testo è Teodoro Gaza alla cui traduzione (1498) corrisponde perfettamente il testo di Gessner.

[6] History of animals book VI chapter 3 (VI,3, 561a 6-562a 21): Generation from the egg proceeds in an identical manner with all birds, but the full periods from conception to birth differ, as has been said. With the common hen after three days and three nights there is the first indication of the embryo; with larger birds the interval being longer, with smaller birds shorter. Meanwhile the yolk comes into being, rising towards the sharp end, where the primal element of the egg is situated, and where the egg gets hatched; and the heart appears, like a speck of blood, in the white of the egg. This point beats and moves as though endowed with life, and from it two vein-ducts with blood in them trend in a convoluted course (as the egg substance goes on growing, towards each of the two circumjacent integuments); and a membrane carrying bloody fibres now envelops the yolk, leading off from the vein-ducts. A little afterwards the body is differentiated, at first very small and white. The head is clearly distinguished, and in it the eyes, swollen out to a great extent. This condition of the eyes lat on for a good while, as it is only by degrees that they diminish in size and collapse. At the outset the under portion of the body appears insignificant in comparison with the upper portion. Of the two ducts that lead from the heart, the one proceeds towards the circumjacent integument, and the other, like a navel-string, towards the yolk. The life-element of the chick is in the white of the egg, and the nutriment comes through the navel-string out of the yolk. When the egg is now ten days old the chick and all its parts are distinctly visible. The head is still larger than the rest of its body, and the eyes larger than the head, but still devoid of vision. The eyes, if removed about this time, are found to be larger than beans, and black; if the cuticle be peeled off them there is a white and cold liquid inside, quite glittering in the sunlight, but there is no hard substance whatsoever. Such is the condition of the head and eyes. At this time also the larger internal organs are visible, as also the stomach and the arrangement of the viscera; and veins that seem to proceed from the heart are now close to the navel. From the navel there stretch a pair of veins; one towards the membrane that envelops the yolk (and, by the way, the yolk is now liquid, or more so than is normal), and the other towards that membrane which envelops collectively the membrane wherein the chick lies, the membrane of the yolk, and the intervening liquid. (For, as the chick grows, little by little one part of the yolk goes upward, and another part downward, and the white liquid is between them; and the white of the egg is underneath the lower part of the yolk, as it was at the outset.) On the tenth day the white is at the extreme outer surface, reduced in amount, glutinous, firm in substance, and sallow in colour. The disposition of the several constituent parts is as follows. First and outermost comes the membrane of the egg, not that of the shell, but underneath it. Inside this membrane is a white liquid; then comes the chick, and a membrane round about it, separating it off so as to keep the chick free from the liquid; next after the chick comes the yolk, into which one of the two veins was described as leading, the other one leading into the enveloping white substance. (A membrane with a liquid resembling serum envelops the entire structure. Then comes another membrane right round the embryo, as has been described, separating it off against the liquid. Underneath this comes the yolk, enveloped in another membrane (into which yolk proceeds the navel-string that leads from the heart and the big vein), so as to keep the embryo free of both liquids.) About the twentieth day, if you open the egg and touch the chick, it moves inside and chirps; and it is already coming to be covered with down, when, after the twentieth day is ast, the chick begins to break the shell. The head is situated over the right leg close to the flank, and the wing is placed over the head; and about this time is plain to be seen the membrane resembling an after-birth that comes next after the outermost membrane of the shell, into which membrane the one of the navel-strings was described as leading (and, by the way, the chick in its entirety is now within it), and so also is the other membrane resembling an after-birth, namely that surrounding the yolk, into which the second navel-string was described as leading; and both of them were described as being connected with the heart and the big vein. At this conjuncture the navel-string that leads to the outer afterbirth collapses and becomes detached from the chick, and the membrane that leads into the yolk is fastened on to the thin gut of the creature, and by this time a considerable amount of the yolk is inside the chick and a yellow sediment is in its stomach. About this time it discharges residuum in the direction of the outer after-birth, and has residuum inside its stomach; and the outer residuum is white (and there comes a white substance inside). By and by the yolk, diminishing gradually in size, at length becomes entirely used up and comprehended within the chick (so that, ten days after hatching, if you cut open the chick, a small remnant of the yolk is still left in connexion with the gut), but it is detached from the navel, and there is nothing in the interval between, but it has been used up entirely. During the period above referred to the chick sleeps, wakes up, makes a move and looks up and Chirps; and the heart and the navel together palpitate as though the creature were respiring. So much as to generation from the egg in the case of birds. (translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson – 1910)

[7] Naturalis historia X: [148] Omnibus ovis medio vitelli parva inest velut sanguinea gutta, quod esse cor avium existimant, primum in omni corpore id gigni opinantes: in ovo certe gutta ea salit palpitatque. Ipsum animal ex albo liquore ovi corporatur. Cibus eius in luteo est. Omnibus intus caput maius toto corpore, oculi conpressi capite maiores. Increscente pullo candor in medium vertitur, luteum circumfunditur. [149] Vicensimo die si moveatur ovum, iam viventis intra putamen vox auditur. Ab eodem tempore plumescit, ita positus, ut caput supra dextrum pedem habeat, dextram vero alam supra caput. Vitellus paulatim deficit. Aves omnes in pedes nascuntur, contra quam reliqua animalia. – Non ho mai visto nascere un uccello che non sia un pulcino di gallina, ma posso assicurare che il pulcino becca il guscio e ne fuoriesce con la testa e non con le zampe. Quando con l'approssimarsi della notte faccio l'ostetrico per evitare un aborto notturno, al pulcino lascio sempre il guscio che avvolge la metà inferiore del corpo per evitare, oltretutto, mortali emorragie. L'affermazione di Plinio che tutti gli uccelli nascono di podice di mi sembra alquanto strampalata. Sì, può accadere che un pulcino di gallina nasca di podice. L'ho osservato il 27 aprile 2007. Ma la causa è molto semplice: se quella parte del guscio che si trova all'estremità cefalica del pulcino vi rimane adesa per colpa delle membrane testacee che vi si sono incollate, allora il pulcino, se non vuole morire soffocato, si mette a scalciare e allontana la parte podalica del guscio in modo da potersi muovere, sganciarsi dal casco e respirare liberamente.

[8] De generatione animalium III,2 753b 18-754a 17: Per la presente indagine basta che risulti chiaramente che, costituitosi per primo il cuore e a partire da esso la grande vena, due cordoni ombelicali si tendono dalla vena: l’uno verso la membrana che avvolge il giallo, l’altro alla membrana simile a corion che avvolge tutt’attorno l’animale, e questo è disposto intorno, sotto la membrana del guscio. Per mezzo di uno di essi l’animale riceve l’alimento dal giallo, il giallo infatti diventa più abbondante perché, riscaldandosi, si fa più liquido. Come per le piante, in effetti occorre che l’alimento, pur avendo consistenza corporea, sia fluido, e sia gli animali che si formano nelle uova sia quelli che si formano in altri animali vivono in un primo tempo la vita di una pianta, perché stando attaccati ricevono da un altro essere il primo accrescimento e l’alimento. L’altro cordone ombelicale si tende verso il corion avvolgente. Si deve supporre che tra gli animali che nascono dalle uova e il giallo c’è lo stesso rapporto che esiste tra gli embrioni dei vivipari, quando si trovano nella madre, e la madre (poiché infatti gli animali che nascono dalle uova non sono nutriti compiutamente nella madre, ricevono una parte di questa) e il rapporto dei primi con la membrana esterna sanguigna è come quello dei secondi con l’utero. Nello stesso tempo intorno al giallo e al corion, che è l’analogo [754a] dell’utero, sta il guscio dell’uovo, come se si avvolgesse lo stesso embrione e tutta la madre. Le cose stanno così perché l’embrione deve stare nell’utero e in rapporto con la madre. Ora, mentre nei vivipari l’utero è posto nella madre, negli ovipari al contrario è come se si dicesse che è la madre nell’utero. Perché ciò che si produce dalla madre, cioè l’alimento, è costituito dal giallo. E causa di questo è il fatto che l’alimentazione completa non avviene nella madre. Nel corso della crescita, prima cade il cordone ombelicale diretto al corion perché da questa parte deve uscire l’animale, successivamente la parte restante di giallo e il cordone teso verso il giallo, perché il nato deve ricevere immediatamente alimento, dato che né poppa dalla madre, né può procurarsi subito da sé l’alimento; perciò il giallo con il cordone ombelicale si dispone all’interno e attorno sta la carne. Gli animali che nascono esternamente da uova compiute nascono in questo modo sia nel caso degli uccelli sia nel caso dei quadrupedi che depongono uova dal guscio duro. (traduzione di Diego Lanza)