558 THE HUMOURS. 



brane, moreover, is loaded with vessels. '* It is, in fact, 

 the chorion ; so called from the conflux or multitude of 

 veins. I have often observed ova of this kind escape in the 

 second and third month ; they are frequently decomposed in- 

 ternally, and come away gradually in the form of a leucorrhoeal 

 discharge, and thus the hopes of the parent are lost. 



Another reason why these humours cannot be sweat and 

 urine, is, that they exist in such abundance at the very be- 

 ginning ; for the purpose, no doubt, of preventing the body 

 of the foetus from coming in contact with the adjacent parts 

 when the mother runs, jumps, or uses violent exertion of any 

 kind. 



Added to which, many animals never sweat at all, (and we 

 must remember what is said by Aristotle, l " that all creatures 

 which swim, walk, or fly," I will add serpents and insects, 

 whether viviparous or oviparous, or generated spontaneously, 

 "are produced after the same manner,") as is the case with 

 birds, serpents, and fishes, which neither sweat nor pass urine. 

 The dog and cat also never sweat ; neither in fact does any 

 animal in which the urinary secretion is very abundant. Be- 

 sides, it is impossible that urine can be passed before the kidneys 

 and bladder are formed. 



Moreover, and this is the strongest argument that can be 

 brought forward, those humours can never be excrementitious 

 into which so many branches of the umbilical vessels are dis- 

 tributed by means of the chorion ; these vessels, in fact, in this 

 manner taking up nourishment, (as it were from a large reser- 

 voir,) and then conducting it to the foetus. 



Besides what need is there of an allantois, if the fluid within 

 the chorion is urine ? And if that in the amnion is sweat, why 

 does Nature, who contrives all things well, ordain that the 

 foetus should float about in its own excrement ? And why, too, 

 should the mother (as is the case with some animals) imme- 

 diately after birth, so greedily devour the excretions of its own 

 offspring, together with the containing membranes ? Some 

 have even observed that if the animal fails to eat up these 

 matters it does not give its milk freely. 



Notwithstanding these arguments, it may possibly be ima- 



1 Hist. Anim. lib. vii, cap. 7. 



