CHAP. IX. Of the ebullition or swelling of the seed in the wombe, and of the concretion of the bubbles or bladders, or the three principall entralls.
IN the sixe first dayes of conception the new vessels are thought to bee made and brought forth of the eminences or cotylidons of the mothers vessels, and dispersed into all the whole seede, as they were fibres or hairy strings. Those as they pierce the wombe, so do they equally and in like manner penetrate the tuni∣cle Chorion. And it is carried this way, being a passage not only necessary for the nutriment and conformation of the parts, but also into the veines diversly woven and dispersed into the skin Chorion. For thereby it commeth to passe that the seed it selfe boileth, and as it were fermenteth or swel∣leth, not onely through occasion of the place, but also of the bloud and vitall spirits that flow unto it, and then it riseth into the bubbles or bladders, like unto the bub∣bles which are occasioned by the raine falling into a river or channell full of water. These three bubbles or bladders, are certain rude or new formes or concretions of * 1.1 the three principall entrals, that is to say, of the liver, heart and braine. All this for∣mer time it is called seed, and by no other name; but when those bubbles arise, it is * 1.2 called an embrion, or the rude forme of a body untill the perfect conformation of all the members: on the fourth day after that the veine of the navell is formed, it sucketh grosser bloud, that is, of a more fuller nutriment out of the Cotylidons. And this bloud, because it is more grosse, easily congeales & curdles in that place, where it ought to prepare the liver fully & absolutely made. For then it is of a notable great * 1.3 bignesse above all the other parts, & therfore it is called parenchyma, because it is but only a certain congealing or concretion of bloud brought together thither or in that place. From the gibbous part thereof springeth the greater part or trunke of the hol∣low veine, called commonly vena cava, which doth disperse his small branches, which are like unto haires, into also the substance thereof: and then it is divided in∣to two branches, whereof the one goeth upwards, the other downwards unto all the particular parts of the body.
In the meane season the Arteries of the navell suck spirituous bloud out of the e∣minences or Cotylidons of the mothers arteries, whereof, that is to say, of the more servent and spirituous bloud, the heart is formed in the second bladder or bubble, being endued with a more fleshy, sound and thicke substance, as it behooveth that vessell to bee, which is the fountaine from whence the heate floweth, and hath a con∣tinuall motion.
In this the vertue formative hath made two hollow places, one on the right side, another on the left. In the right, the root of the hollow veine is infixed or ingraffed, carrying thither necessary nutriment for the heart; in the left is formed the stamp or roote of an artery, which presently doth divide it selfe into two branches, the grea∣ter whereof goeth upwards to the upper parts, and the wider unto the lower parts, carrying unto all the parts of the body life and vitall heat.