[266] EXERCITATIO DECIMANONA.
Quinta ovi inspectio.

19th exercise
The fifth inspection of the egg

DIE sexto, capitis tres bullae evidentius apparent, oculorumque tunicae iam distinctae sunt: simul etiam pedes atque alae expullulant: quemadmodum, sub finem Iunii, gyrinis (Italis ranabottoli dicuntur, Anglis tadpoles) pedes adnasci solent, cum iam aquas deserunt, caudam amittunt, et ranulae formam induunt.

At the sixth day the three blisters of the head appear in a more evident way and the tunics of the eyes are already distinct; at the same time also the feet and the wings are budding, like toward the end of June the feet are accustomed to sprout in the tadpoles (by Italians are called ranabottoli, tadpoles by English), when by now they abandon the waters, lose the tail and wear the aspect of a small frog.

Pullo autem non alia adhuc uropygii forma adest, quam quae in caeteris omnibus animalibus, ipsisque serpentibus, conspicitur; cauda nempe teres et exigua. Parenchyma cordis pulsanti vesiculae obnascitur: pauloque post iecoris, et pulmonum cernuntur rudimenta; rostrumque simul apparet: albissima omnia, praesertim rostrum. Circa hoc tempus etiam viscera omnia, et intestina conspicua sunt. Cor vero ante reliqua se videndum exhibet: pulmones etiam ante iecur, aut cerebrum. Omnium tamen primi oculi videntur, propter amplitudinem ipsorum, et nigredinem.

But in the chick a shape of the uropygial gland* doesn't already exist different from that seen in all other animals and in snakes themselves; in fact the tail is smooth and  very small. The parenchyma of the heart is born from the pulsating vesicle, and soon after the sketches of liver and lungs are seen, and at the same time the beak appears: all extremely white things, above all the beak. Around this period of time also all the viscera and the bowels are well visible. But the heart shows itself to the sight before the remaining structures, also the lungs before the liver or the brain. Nevertheless the eyes are seen first among all because their size and the black colour.

Iam quoque foetus sese movet, et leniter contorquet, caputque exporrigit: licet nihil etiamnum cerebri, praeter aquam limpidam vesiculae inclusam, comperiatur. Est denique perfecta galba; hoc solum ab erucis discrepans: quod hi vermes emancipati cum sint, huc illuc serpant, victumque sibi aliunde quaerant: ille vero vermiculus loco stabilis, proprioque pabulo innatans, cibum per vasa umbilicalia mutuetur.

By now the fetus also stirs and gently twists, and lengthens the head, although till now no trace of the brain is found, except a clear water contained in the vesicle. In short, it is a perfect worm of the oak, disagreeing from the caterpillars only for this: when these worms are emancipated, they crawl here and there and look for food for themselves in another place, while that little worm, motionless in a place and swimming in its nourishment, takes the food through the umbilical vessels.

Exstructis iam visceribus, atque intestinis, foetuque motum exercente; pars tamen corporis anterior, thorace et abdomine privata, plane aperta decernitur; corque ipsum, iecur, et intestina foris pendula conspiciuntur.

The viscera and the bowels being formed by now and the fetus moving, nevertheless the anterior part of the body, devoid of thoracic and abdominal wall, is seen entirely open, and are seen the heart itself, the liver and the bowels hanging outside.

[267] Sub finem huius diei, et principium septimi, digiti pedum distinguuntur; foetusque iam pulli effigiem induit, rostrum aperit, et calcitrat: omnes denique partes adumbrantur, prae caeteris vero oculi. Viscera adeo obscure patent, ut Coiterus vere affirmet, se oculos quidem et rostrum percepisse, nullum vero viscus potuisse discernere, vel absconditum, vel confusum.

Toward the end of this day and the beginning of the seventh, the toes are distinguishable, and the fetus already assumes the appearance of the chick, it opens the beak and kicks, and finally all the parts take a sketch, but above all the eyes. The viscera show themselves in a so unclear way that rightly Coiter affirms to have observed the eyes and the beak, but that he didn't succeed in identifying any viscus, either hidden or indistinct.

Quae sequuntur ab initio {sextiad} <sexti ad> septimi diei finem, ut plurimum in aliis ovis citius, in aliis paulo tardius contingunt. Oculorum tunicae iam videntur, licet humorem solum liquidum et limpidum in se contineant. Ipsi oculi extra orbitas suas prominuli sunt: eorumque singuli non minus cerebrum amplitudine excedunt, quam caput, cui innascuntur, totum reliquum corpus mole exsuperat.

The things happening from the beginning of the sixth until the end of the seventh day, for the more in some eggs they happen more hastily, in others a little bit more slowly. The tunics of the eyes are already seen, although containing only a liquid and clear humor. The eyes themselves are slightly sticking out from their orbits, and each of them exceeds in size the brain not less than the head, in which they originate, is overcoming in size the whole rest of the body.

Bullula quaedam, instar cristae, extra cerebri ambitum expansa, cerebelli vicem supplet; ipsaque similiter aqua limpida referta est.

A small bubble, as a tuft, expanded out of the contour of the brain, performs the function of the cerebellum, and it also is full of clear water.

Cerebrum obscure bifidum apparet; minusque quam cerebellum fulget; magis tamen candicat. Et, quemadmodum cor foris extra pectoris penetralia conspicitur, ita pariter cerebellum extra cerebri fines protuberat.

The brain appears confusedly bifid and shines less than the cerebellum, however is more white. And like the heart is seen outside of the inner parts of the breast, so likewise the cerebellum sticks out the boundaries of the brain.

Abscisso capite, apparuit (perspicillis utenti) in cervice, venae ad cerebrum ascendentis quasi punctum sanguineum. Spinae quoque vestigium iam primum a reliqua pulpa discernitur, colore quidem lacteo, sed consistentia firmiore. Ita similiter quasi tenues aranearum telae, exiles lineae lacteae per corpusculi pulpam vagantes, costarum, aliorumque ossium specimen exhibent: idemque luculentius in maiorum animalium viviparorum formatione apparet. Cor, pulmones, iecur, et intestinorum loco tenuissima filamenta, omnia alba. Iecoris parenchyma venae umbilicali, qua parte ingreditur, super exilia stamina fibrosa adnascitur: simili prorsus modo, quo rudimentum corporis, venae a corde descendenti, vel vesiculae pulsanti accrescere [268] diximus. Quemadmodum enim uvae racemo; germina virgultis; incipiensque spica gramini accrescunt: ita quoque hepar venae umbilicali adhaeret, indeque oritur, ut fungi ex arboribus, et supercrescens in ulceribus caro, vel sarcoses morbosae arteriarum ramulis conterminae, e quibus nutriuntur, et in maximam interdum molem excrescunt.

After having removed the head, in the neck  appeared (to him who uses magnifying glasses) like a blood point of a vein climbing to the brain. Also a sketch of the backbone for the first time differs from the remaining pulp, milk in colour, but of larger consistence. Likewise, as being slim webs, some thin milky lines wandering through the pulp of the corpuscle show the clue of the coasts and other bones. The same thing appears in a more evident way in the formation of the greater viviparous animals. The heart, the lungs, the liver, and thin filaments in place of the bowels, are all white. The liver parenchyma is formed upon thin fibrous filaments near the umbilical vein in the part where it penetrates, almost in the same way I said that the sketch of the body joins the vein coming down from the heart or the pulsating vesicle. Like in fact the grains of grape join the cluster, the gems join the twigs and an incipient spike joins a stem, so also the liver sticks to the umbilical vein, and hence it is born like the mushrooms from the trees, and the flesh growing upon to the ulcers, or the bordering sick fleshes upon the sprigs of the arteries by which are fed, and in the meantime they become markedly larger.

Ad hoc arteriarum officium, sive sanguinis circulationem respiciens, ingentes aliquando hernias carnosas, praeter omnem spem, perfecte curavi; id solum agens, ut, praecisa vel ligata arteriola, nihil nutrimenti spiritusve ad partem laborantem accederet; quo factum, ut tumor morticinus facile postea, vel ferro, vel igne extirparetur. Habuit quidam prae caeteris (idque complurium fide dignorum testimonio confirmare possum) sarcosin  in scroto, sive herniam carnosam humano capite maiorem, genuum tenus deorsum pendulam: indeque sursum carnosa moles, ad carpi magnitudinem, ceu funis nauticus, abdomen ingrediebatur; adeoque malum increvit, ut nemo ferro, vel aliter, curam aggredi auderet. Hanc tamen ingentem excrescentiam, scrotum tantopere distendentem, testiculumque in medio eius obvolventem, quo dixi modo plane abstuli, et curatione perfecte defunctus sum; relicto interea testi vase suo praeparante, et deferente; reliquisque in scroto, per vaginalem tunicam descendentibus, salvis et intactis. Verum huiusmodi, aliasque curationes, praeter vulgi sententiam et methodum feliciter peractas, in observationibus nostris medicinalibus, si Deus nobis vitam largitus fuerit, copiose enarrabimus.

For this task of the arteries, that is, concerning the circulation of the blood, sometimes I perfectly treated, beyond any hope, fleshy hernias, doing only this: so that, after having cut off or tied a little artery, didn't come any nourishment or vital strength to the sick part; having done this, in order that subsequently the dead tumour was easily removed either with a piece of iron or with fire. A man, in addition to other things (and I can confirm with the testimony of many people worthy of faith), had a sarcoma in the scrotum, that is, a fleshy hernia greater than a human head, which was hanging until under the knees, and hence upward a fleshy mass almost big as a carpus, as the cable of a ship, was entering the abdomen; and the pathology grew to such a point that nobody dared to undertake the care with an iron or in another way. Nevertheless this big tumefaction, stretching so much the scrotum and wounding in its centre the testicle, I removed it completely in the manner I said and I carried out the therapy in a perfect way, having left in the meantime to the testicle its nourishing and deferent vessel, and having left safe and intact the other things that through the vaginal tunic go down in the scrotum. In truth such and other therapies, happily carried out beyond the approval and the popular method, I will report abundantly in my therapeutic observations if God will grant me to live.

Haec eo fine potissimum a nobis dicta sunt, ut luculenter constet, hepar vasis accrescere; et aliquandiu post natum sanguinem demum generari; eiusque parenchyma ex arteriis, unde materia affunditur, procreari; et aliquantisper sanguine privatum albescere; quod et reliquis nostri corporis partibus commune est. Quemadmodum enim pullum ex ovo nasci diximus, [269] eodem omnino modo atque ordine, hominis, aliorumque animalium generatio contingit.

These things have been reported by me above all so that it clearly results that the liver grows through the blood vessels and that it is just produced some time after the blood is born, and that its parenchyma is produced by the arteries, by which the matter is infused, and that for a certain time it is white being devoid of blood; what is common also for the remaining parts of our body. In fact like I said that the chick is hatched from the egg, in the same identical way and order the generation of man and other animals happens.

Unde constat, absonam prorsus esse eorum sententiam, quanquam olim hodieque passim obtinuit, qui iecur sanguinis officinam et auctorem esse adstruunt; eoque nomine ipsum inter praecipuas primoque genitas corporis partes recensent. Quinetiam tanto viscus hoc honore dignati sunt, ut statim ab initio, una cum corde, e matris semine oriundum dicerent; fabulamque de tribus capellis, vesiculis nempe fictitiis, acriter nimis defenderent. E quorum numero Parisanus nuper, magno quidem sed imprudenti animo, veterem cantilenam occinit. Non animadverterunt scilicet hi boni viri, vesiculas in ovo moveri, cor micare, sanguinemque iam perfecte coctum adesse, antequam hepatis vola aut vestigium conspiciatur. Profecto sanguis potius ipsius hepatis efficiens, quam hoc illius auctor, censendus est. Nam post sanguinem, et ab ipso, hepar generatur, vasisque sanguineis adnascitur.

Therefore it results to be discordant the affirmation, even if once and today prevailed anywhere, of those people sustaining that the liver is the shop and the creator of the blood, and with this name they ascribe it among the principal and first-born parts of the body. Moreover they honoured this viscus to such a point to affirm that immediately, since the beginning, it comes together with the heart from the maternal semen, and to defend in a excessively relentless way the fable about the three goatlings, that is, the false vesicles. Among them recently Parisano*, with big but imprudent boldness, sings the same old story. Obviously these good men didn't realize that in the egg the vesicles are stirring, the heart pulsates, that already perfectly matured blood is present before a trace or a sketch of liver can be seen. Without any doubt we have to affirm that the blood is the producer of the liver rather than this is its craftsman. In fact the liver is produced after the blood and from it, and it is born nearby the blood vessels.

Sed neque Aristotelicis assentiri ausim, cor sanguinis auctorem reputantibus. Nam substantia eius sive parenchyma, aliquanto post sanguinem nascitur, et vesiculis pulsantibus superadditur. Plurimum autem ambigo, utrum vesicula sive punctum saliens, an sanguis ipse sit antiquior: num scilicet liquor contentus, an vasa continentia. Videtur autem, quod continet, contenti gratia fabrefactum esse; ideoque posterius efformari. Id quidem oculorum fidelium testimonio certum est, prima corporis stamina, primumque eius fundamentum conspicuum, venas esse; quibus reliquae omnes partes superadditae, et postgenitae sunt. Verum hac de re postea amplius.

But I would not feel to approve neither the followers of Aristotle, who think that the heart is producing the blood. In fact its substance or parenchyma is born rather after the blood and is adding over the pulsating vesicles. But I am a lot in doubt whether either the vesicle, or pulsating point, is more ancient or the blood; that is, either the contained liquid or the vessels containing it. Really it seems that what it contains is made for what is contained in it, and that therefore it is created afterwards. Thanks to the testimony of the faithful eyes it is ascertained that the veins are the first filaments of the body and its first visible basis, to which all the remaining parts are added and subsequently produced. But on this matter I will later speak in a wider way.

Interea ridere libet fictam illam partium divisionem, in spermaticas, et sanguineas: quasi vero aliquae ex semine immediate natae sint, et non omnes ab eadem origine proficiscantur.

In the meantime it is pleasant to deride that false subdivision of the parts in spermatic and bloody: as if some of them were immediately born from the semen, and not that all are coming from the same source.

[270] Ad propositum revertor. Colliquamenti ambitus iam supra dimidium ovi occupat. Cor foris pendulum, a corpore nonnihil remotum est. Et, si attente inspexeris, vasa quaedam umbilicalia pulsare videas.

I return to my subject. The circumference of the colliquation already occupies above the half of the egg. The heart hanging outside is slightly far from the body. And if you will look with attention you could see some umbilical vessels pulsating.