ON PARTURITION. 523 



crease the area of the hypogastric region. When all these 

 circumstances concur, it is quite clear that delivery is not far 

 distant. Nature, in her provident care, contrives this dilata- 

 tion of the parts in order that the foetus may come into 

 the world like the ripe fruit of a tree ; just as she fills the 

 breasts of the mother with milk that the being who is soon to 

 enjoy an independent existence may have whereon to subsist. 

 These, then, are the circumstances which immediately precede 

 birth ; and thus it happens that the presence of milk has espe- 

 cially been regarded as a sign of approaching delivery milk, 

 I mean, of a character suitable for the sustenance of the off- 

 spring ; and this, according to Aristotle, 1 is only visible at the 

 period of birth ; it is therefore never observed before the 

 seventh month of pregnancy. 



Fabricius 2 maintains that on the subject of parturition there 

 were two special heads of inquiry, viz. the time at which and 

 the manner in which the process took place. Under the first 

 of these heads he considers the term of utero-gestation ; under 

 the second, the way in which the foetus comes into the world. 



Aristotle 3 thought that the term of utero-gestation varied 

 much. " There is," he says, " a certain definite term to each 

 animal, determined in the majority of cases by the animal's 

 duration of life ; for it follows of necessity that a longer pe- 

 riod is required for the production of the longer-lived ani- 

 mals." He attributes, however, the chief cause to the size of 

 the animal ; " for it is scarcely possible," he continues, " that 

 the vast frames of animals or of aught else can be brought to 

 perfection in a short period of time. Hence it is that in the 

 case of mares and animals of cognate species, though their du- 

 ration of life is small, their term of utero-gestation is con- 

 siderable; and thus the elephant carries its young for the space 

 of two years, the reason being its enormous size, for each 

 animal has a definite magnitude, beyond which it cannot 

 pass/ 1 I would add, that the material of which each is formed 

 has also its fixed limit in point of quantity. He says, more- 

 over, "There is good reason why animals should have the 

 periods of gestation, generation, and duration of life in certain 

 cycles I mean by cycle, a day, night, month, and year, and 



1 De Gen. Anim. lib. iv, cap. 8, ct lib. vii, cap. 5. a Page Ml. 



:) De Gen. Anim. lib. iv, cap. 4 et ult. 



