ness, than that which was ascribed to the devils
that tempted St. Anthony; of whom 20,000 were said to have been able to
dance a saraband on the point of the finest needle without incommoding each
other.

2. Others have supposed, that all the parts of the embryon are formed in
the male, previous to its being deposited in the egg or uterus; and that it
is then only to have its parts evolved or distended as mentioned above; but
this is only to get rid of one difficulty by proposing another equally
incomprehensible: they found it difficult to conceive, how the embryon
could be formed in the uterus or egg, and therefore wished it to be formed
before it came thither. In answer to both these doctrines it may be
observed, 1st, that some animals, as the crab-fish, can reproduce a whole
limb, as a leg which has been broken off; others, as worms and snails, can
reproduce a head, or a tail, when either of them has been cut away; and
that hence in these animals at least a part can be formed anew, which
cannot be supposed to have existed previously in miniature.

Secondly, there are new parts or new vessels produced in many diseases, as
on the cornea of the eye in ophthalmy, in wens and cancers, which cannot be
supposed to have had a prototype or original miniature in the embryon.

Thirdly, how could mule-animals be produced, which partake of the forms of
both the parents, if the original embryon was a miniature existing in the
semen of the male parent? if an embryon of the male ass was only expanded,
no resemblance to the mare could exist in the mule.

This mistaken idea of the extension of parts seems to have had its rise
from the mature man resembling the general form of the fetus; and from
thence it was believed, that the parts of the fetus were distended into the
man; whereas they have increased 100 times in weight, as well as 100 times
in size; now no one will call the additional 99 parts a distention of the
original one part in respect to weight. Thus the uterus during pregnancy is
greatly enlarged in thickness and solidity as well as in capacity, and
hence must have acquired this additional size by accretion of new parts,
not by an extension of the old ones; the familiar act of blowing up the
bladder of an animal recently slaughtered has led our imaginations to apply
this idea of distention to the increase of size from natural growth; which
however must be owing to the apposition of new parts; as it is evinced from
the inc