418 ESSAYS anv OBSERVATIONS 
timents about this matter; and only obferve, 
that Dr Smellie, Mr Hunter, Mr M‘Kenzie 
and others, who practife midwifery here, and 
have had occafion to fee a good number of 
impregnated wombs, are of opinion, that 
in general, the w/erus does not alter much in 
its thicknefs by being diftended; tho’ fome- 
times it is found thicker, and fometimes thin- 
ner, than ordinary: and in a colledtion of u- 
tert. in Dr Smellie’s poffeffion, there are 
~~ wombs which feem to favour all the three dif- 
ferent opinions. One of the wombs in this 
collection, is remarkably thin, not being a- 
bove the third part fo thick as an unimpre- 
gnated uterus generally is. If I was to form a: 
judement, from the few gravid uteri 1 have - 
feen, I would be inclined to think, that if the 
womb alters in its thicknefs at all, it rather 
turns thinner; but the difference is fo {mall,. 
for the moft part, that it is difficult to forma 
judgment about the matter. I ought howe- 
ver to obferve, that the gravid uteri will be 
confiderably thicker during life, when they 
are full of blood, than they are in dead bo- 
dies, where the veffels are all collapfed. The 
difference was confiderable, in the bulk and 
thicknefs of the womb, before we injected 
the 
