I: 



I N T E L L I G E X C E, 

 MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 



MIDWIFERV. 



.X our Second Volume, p. iti, wt announced a difcoverjr 

 faid to nave been made bv Mr. Herholdt, an eminent accou- 

 cheur at Copenhagen, that the apparent death of new-bora 

 children arofe from the trachea being filled with a liquid, 

 and that they might often be reftored by merely ginng them 

 a pofidon favourable to its effiiix. We then exprefled a doubt 

 as to the corre^^efs of the obfen-ations; becaufe il appeared 

 impoflible, from Dr. Goodwyn's experiments, that water 

 could in anv cafe enter into the trachea : and becaufe, in 

 thofe experiments in which it had been forced into the tra- 

 chea, it had alwavs been abforbed, if the animal was fuf- 

 fered to live. Candour, however, now calls upon us to ftate, 

 that we find the following article in the Journal de Phyfiqud 

 for Floreal, an. ^^I. 



** An important difcoverv is announced in the Medico- 

 chirurgical Journal, publiflied by Profeflbr Tode of Copen- 

 hagen *. Herholdt has found, on opening the bodies of ftill- 

 bom animals, that the cavity of the tympanum was filled 

 with the liquor of the amnios and with phlegm (vifcous 

 water). This fluid after birth ifliies by the auditory con- 

 duit, and is replaced by atmofpheric air. This difcovery 

 induced him to fuppofe that the liquor of the amnios is in- 

 troduced alfo into the canal of refpiration before the child is 

 bom. Experiments made at the veterinary fcbool have con- 

 firmed this bypolbejis. Nature, in general, difcharges this 

 liquor, but fometimes it is neceffarv' for that purpofe to 

 •mploy the affiftance of art. A child cannot breathe cafily 



• Vd. III. chap. 3. i7s8. 



P 3 liniil 



