322 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



other he has made. In the lecture upon that subject, he expresses 

 himself thus : — 



" The discovery I am about to promulgate, was most undoubt- 

 edly the result of accident ; but similar accidents have before 

 occurred, without the discovery having been made, and now that 

 the fact is established, there will not be wanting in every country 

 of Europe, opportunities of confirming it. But without the aid of 

 the microscropical observations of a Bauer, the fact even now, 

 could not have been satisfactorily established, and with that assist- 

 ance T have met with it a second time. 



" That the professor of Comparative Anatomy to this college, 

 should in his lectures be enabled to prove to demonstration the 

 origin of the human foetus, which the great Harvey, who gave 

 lectures upon the same subject in the neighbouring College of 

 Physicians, was unable to discover, must be gratifying to every 

 one of our members." 



The mode in which the discovery is detailed, is so clear and 

 distinct, and at the same time so interesting to all who prosecute 

 anatomical pursuits, that we shall indulge our readers with it. 



" In this examination I was assisted by Mr. Clift : on observing 

 accurately the right ovarium, there was upon the most prominent 

 part of its external surface, a small ragged orifice; this induced 

 me to make a longitudinal incision in a line close to this orifice, 

 and a canal was found leading to a cavity filled with coagulated 

 blood, surrounded by a narrow yellow margin, in the structure of 

 which, the lines had a zigzag appearance. 



" The cavity of the uterus was then opened, by making an incision 

 through the coats from each angle, and where these met in the 

 middle, a third incision was continued down through the os tincie. 

 The three angles were turned back, so as to expose the cavity, and 

 the sides were gently separated from each other. The os tincse 

 was completely blocked up by a plug of mucus, so that nothing 

 had escaped by that passage ; the orifices leading to the fallopian 

 tubes were both open, and the inner surface of the cavity of the 

 uterus was composed of a beautiful efflorescence of coagulable 

 lymph, resembling the most delicate moss. This efflorescence had 

 fibres of a greater length on the posterior surface, a little way 

 beyond the os tincse than at any other part. Being certain that 

 nothing could have, escaped, I began gently shaking the efflorescent 

 fibres with a needle point, and said to Mr. Clift, that if we found 

 any thing it would be in that part. During this examination, the 

 whole of the uterus was immersed in spirit, and the needle point 

 in its movements brought a small transparent body above the 

 surface of the efflorescence of coagulable lymph, but it immediately 

 sunk again ; I raised it a second time, and saw distinctly that the 

 moment it was exposed to the spirit, it became opaque ; it had an 



