Sect. XXXVIII. 3. 3. OF BLOOD. 37 i 



found among the contents of the ftomach in new-born calves ; 

 which muft therefore have licked themfelves before their nativi- 

 ty. Blafii Anatom. See Seel:. XVI. 2. on Inftindl. 



The chick in the egg is feen gently to move in its f unround- 

 ing fluid, and to open and fhut its mouth alternately. The 

 fame has been obferyed in puppies. Halter's El. Phyf. I. 8. 

 p. 201. 



A column of ice has been feen to reach down the cefophagus 

 from the mouth to the ftomach in a frozen fetus j and this ice 

 was the liquor amnii frozen. 



The meconium, or fisft feces, in the bowels of new-born in- 

 fants evince, that fomething has been digefted ', and what could 

 this be but the liquor amnii together with the recrements of the 

 gaflric juice and gall, which were necelTary for its digeflion ? 



Another argument to evince, that the fetus is nourilhed by ali- 

 ment taken into the ftomach and inteftines by the mouth during 

 the latter months of pregnancy,' may be deduced from the liver 

 of the fetus *, which Haller obferves to be very large ; not like 

 the lungs, as if defigned for the future man after nativity. Phy- 

 fiol. Vol. VI. p. 618. Whence a fecreticn of bile muft al- 

 ready exift, which can ferve no purpofe but to be mixed with 

 the digefting aliment. 



There have been recorded fome monftrous births of animals 

 without heads, and confequently without mouths, which feem 

 to have been delivered on doubtful authority, or from inaccurate 

 obfervation. There are two of fuch monftrous productions 

 however better attefted ; one of a human fetus, mentioned by 

 Gipfon in the Scots Medical ElTays ; which having the gula im- 

 pervious was furnilhed with an aperture into the wind-pipe, 

 which communicated below into the gullet ; by means of which 

 the liquor amnii might be taken into the ftomach before nativity 

 without danger of fufFocation, while the fetus had no occafion 

 to breathe. The other monftrous fetus is defcribed by Vander 

 Wiel, who afTerts that he faw a monftrous lamb, which had no 

 mouth ; but inftead of it was fuvnilhed with an opening in the 

 lower part of the neck into the ftomach. Both thefe instances 

 evidently favour the dodtrine of the fetus being nourifhed by the 

 mouth j as otherwife there had been no necdhty for new or 

 unnatural apertures into the ftomach, when the natural ones 

 were deficient. 



From thefe facts and obfervations we may fafely infer, that 



the fetus in the womb is nourilhed by the fluid which furrounds 



it ; which during the fnft period of geftation is abforbed by the 



naked iaCteals ; and is afterwards fwallowed into the ftomach 



. and bowels, when thefe organs are perfected *, and laftly that 



tjif 



