472 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



have Had occafion to fee a good numbef' 

 of impregnated wombs, are of opinion, 

 that, in general, the uterus does not aher 

 much in its thicknefs by being diftended ; 

 though fometimes it is found thicker, and 

 fometimes thinner, than ordinary : And^ 

 iri a colledlion of uteri in Dr Smellie's' 

 poirefTion, there are wombs which feem' 

 to favour all the three different opinions* 

 One of the wombs in this colledion is 

 remarkably thin, not being above the 

 third part fo thick as an unimpregnated 

 uterus generally is. If I was to form a 

 judgment from the few gravid uteri I 

 have feen, I would be inclined to think, 

 that, if the womb alters in its thicknefs ac 

 all, it rather turns thinner ; but the dif- 

 ference is fo fmall, for the moft part, that 

 it is difficult to form a judgment about 

 the niatter. I ought, however, to obferve^ 

 that the gravid uteri will be confiderably 

 thicker during life, when they are fall of 

 blood, than they are in dead bodies,, 

 where the vefTels are all collapfed. The 

 difference was conliderable in the bulk 

 and thicknefs of the womb, before we 



inje^ed 



