Generation of a chick
Date
28 March 1672
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p160
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 360mm
width (page): 218mm
width (page): 218mm
Subject
Content object
Description
A 'faint mist' [vitelline membrane] separated from the yolk of a newly laid egg, immersed in spirit of wine. Croone saw in this membrane the rudiments of a fully formed chick: op the two eyes; q the beak; dd the milky ribs; r the rudiment of the foot; and cc the umbilical vessels.
This is part of William Croone's paper on generation, read to the Royal Society on 28 March 1672, in which he said that he had found elements of the chick in the egg before incubation. Along with Malpighi, whose tracts on the same topic were known to him, Croone had taken a preformationist position - that a complete foetus is precipitated in the egg after incubation (see Cole, 'Croone on Generation' (1946), p. 116).
Another copy of this figure is at: RBC/3/243.
This is part of William Croone's paper on generation, read to the Royal Society on 28 March 1672, in which he said that he had found elements of the chick in the egg before incubation. Along with Malpighi, whose tracts on the same topic were known to him, Croone had taken a preformationist position - that a complete foetus is precipitated in the egg after incubation (see Cole, 'Croone on Generation' (1946), p. 116).
Another copy of this figure is at: RBC/3/243.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 28 March 1672, ‘There was read part of Dr. Croune’s Latin paper, De Formatione Pulli in Ovo, agreeable to that of signor Malpighi, lately sent to the Society, importing chiefly, that the rudiments of the chick are actually existent in the faecundated egg, even before incubation’ (Birch 3:30). It does not explicitly mention that the paper should be registered. The Latin text with the figures is printed in Birch 3:30-40.
Related fellows
William Croone (1633 - 1684, British) , Physician
Associated place