394 OK THE MILK. 



cephalopodous mollusca ; while being discharged, as in the frog 

 and toad ; or it may be conveyed to the female system, and this 

 either without the contact of the male, as in vegetables, where 

 the wind, insects, &c. convey it, or by means of copulation, as 

 in the mammalia,* birds, most reptiles, and some fish. In the 

 mammalia, one copulation is sufficient for only one conception ; 

 among poultry its effects are so extensive, that a hen will lay 

 a long succession of fruitful eggs after one intercourse with the 

 cock 5 in the aphis and some monoculi, it is sufficient for the 

 impregnation of several generations. 



The ovum after its formation may be nourished by a fluid en- 

 closed within the same case, and is then hatched out of the body 

 by the common temperature, as in insects, or by that of the 

 parent, as in birds, or hatched within the body of the mother, 

 as in serpents ; or it may be nourished by a substance shed 

 around it in the womb, as in the kangaroo, or by means of an 

 attachment of some of its vessels to the maternal system, as in 



* Ladies were treated formerly with more politeness than at present. An 

 accidental pregnancy was frequently attributed to the warmth of imagination, the 

 influence of demons, and many other circumstances supposed equally powerful 

 as the deed of kind. In Venette's Tableau de rumour conjugal, and in 

 Bartholin's works, may be seen an Arrtit Notable de la cour du Parlement de 

 Grenoble, which, upon the attestation of many matrones and sages femmes and 

 docteurs of the University of Montpellier that women often fall pregnant spon- 

 taneously, declares a lady who had brought forth a son although her husband 

 had been absent four years, to be a woman of worth and honour, and the child 

 to be the legitimate heir of Monsieur the husband. 



The ancients believed that mares were sometimes impregnated by the wind, 



Vere magis, quia vere calor redit ossibus, illae 

 Ore omnes versae in Zephynim stant rupibus altis, 

 l-'xceptantque levis auras ; et saepe sine ullis 

 Conjugiis vento gravidae (mirabile dictu) 

 Saxa per et scopulos et depressas oonvallis 

 Ditfugiimt. 



VUKIIL. (jleurg. Lib. iii, 



