Natural History. 199 



adhesive between the fingers, always perfectly neutral. Its 

 specific gravity is 101.15. It contains no albumen; its con- 

 stituents being mucus in large quantity, an animal matter soluble 

 in alcohol and salts of soda and lime. Subjected to the pile, it 

 loses its consistency, and deposits a considerable coagulura at the 

 positive pole, which, though in appearance resembling albumen, 

 has all the properties of very condensed mucus. The first portion 

 of the intestinal canal contained a substance analogous to that 

 found in the young foetus, but more abundant and more highly 

 coloured. The latter portion of the intestines, with the ccecum 

 and rectum, contained a solid meconeum* of a greenish-brown 

 colour, composed of mucus, albumen, and much colouring matter: 

 there were also many hairs dispersed through it; their colour 

 was the same as that of the skin of the fcetus : they were also 

 found in the mucus of the stomaehs. As similar hairs floated in 

 the waters of the amnios, it appear to the author a conclusive 

 argument in favour of the opinion that the fcetus swallows some 

 portion of the waters in which it is immerged. 



The waters of the amnios were very thick and drawing into 

 threads ; they were neutral, and resembled the liquid of the 

 Stomachs in the effects of re-agents upon them ; they contained 

 no albumen. They never gave traces of the amniotic acid de- 

 scribed by MM. Vauquelin and Buonira. This was inexplicable, 

 until having left a portion for two days in a hot place, it was 

 found very acid, and then, treated according to the process de- 

 scribed by those chemists, 170 parts gave about 1 part of pure 

 amniotic acid. 



No free muriatic acid was found at any time in the stomach 

 of a fcetus of the mammalia class ; its appearance is probably 

 very near the moment of its birth, or otherwise it would be 

 present before the young animal had received the milk of its 

 mother. 



It is then observed, that in a future memoir upon the manner 

 in which the foetus is nourished, it will be seen that the foetal 

 parts of the placenta form the blood of the new animal, and 

 that no mixture takes place between this and the blood of the 

 mother : the following observation, terminating the present 

 paper, proves this statement. A young foetus of a goat was 

 procured, and its blood microscopically examined, and compared 

 with that of its mother. The globules of the former had a 

 diameter precisely double that of the globules of the latter, i. e., 

 two inillemetres (.079 of inch) seen with a magnifying power of 

 300, whilst those of the goat were only one millemetre in 

 diameter. — Bib. Univ.\ xxix. 138. 



17. Remedy for Effects produced by InJialed Chlorine. — The 

 * The name given to the contents of these parts. 



