[5]. Derham.
Nor will any Vegetation proceed in Vacuo, or without Air: Seeds planted will not grow. Objection. Beans grow in Vacuo. I answer, they grow a little tumid, but that kind of Vegetation is only owing to the Dilatation of the Air within them; they swell a little by the Expansion of the Air, but they never bud.
Among the Ancients were very strange Notions about the Original of Serpents, and other Animals: Bees, says a certain Orator, Historian, and Philosopher, were bred from the Carcass of Oxen; Wasps from the Corruptions of Horses; Beetles from Asses; and Serpents from human Marrow: Hence they consecrated a Dragon to Kings and Princes, as a Creature peculiar to Man[[6]].
[6]. Plutarch’s Lives of Cleomenes and Agis.
I don’t know how to form an Apology for the old Philosophers, whose Account of spontaneous Generation is perfectly romantick: What can be more so, than to say Frogs are engendered of Slime, or in the Clouds, and dropt down in the Showers of Rain? So the Egyptians said, that Mice were produced from the Mud of Nilus, and Insects from putrified Matter animated by the Sun. The Principle of this equivocal Generation, was the old Doctrine of Egypt, and now justly exploded, as contrary to Reason and common Sense, as well as to the Design of the Creator in making Animals Male and Female; the End of which Difference in Sexes, all Animals exactly answer, as if they were endued with human Reason. No Woman more tender of her Babe, or careful in providing for it, than Animals are of their Young Ones.
SECTION II.
The knowledge of mere Animals (who have no School for Arts and Sciences) is most surprising; these without visible Instructors, know how to perpetuate their Species to the End of the World; and how to order their Eggs, as those, who are apprized, their Successors were contained in them, and that it was in their power to produce them, and to perpetuate, or keep up the Name of their Family.
The Serpentine Animals are thus taught by Nature; these differ in the Mode of Propagation; some of them are viviparous, an Epithet applied to such Animals, who lay their Eggs within their Bellies, who bring forth their Young Ones alive and perfect, as Vipers, Sheep, Hares; others are oviparous, and bring forth their Young from Eggs, as Serpents, Snakes, Lizards, Frogs, Salmon, Tortoise, Herrings, &c.[[7]]
[7]. Omnia ab ovo animalia.