THE HUMOURS. 559 



gined by some that the humours which I believe serve for the 

 nutrition of the foetus are excrementitious, led chiefly by the 

 fact that they increase as the foetus grows larger, and in some 

 animals are observed to exist in immense quantities at the pe- 

 riod of birth (at which time it might be supposed that all 

 alimentary matters would have been absorbed), and serve be- 

 sides other uses hardly compatible with their supposed function 

 of nutrition. I nevertheless most confidently assert my belief 

 that these humours are at the commencement destined for 

 the nourishment of the foetus, just as the colliquament 

 and albumen are in the case of the chick ; but that, in course 

 of time, when the thinner and purer portions are absorbed, 

 the remainder takes on the character of excrementitious mat- 

 ter, but still has its uses, and in some animals especially con- 

 duces to the safety of the foetus, and also greatly facilitates 

 birth. For just as wine becomes poor and tasteless when the 

 spirit has evaporated; and as all excreted matters owe their 

 origin for the most part to what has been previously food; so, 

 after all the nutrient portions of the fluid contained in the 

 chorion have been taken up by the foetus, the remainder become 

 excrementitious, and is applied to the above-mentioned uses. 

 But all the fluid of the amnion is usually consumed by the 

 time of birth ; so that it is probable the foetus seeks its exit on 

 account of deficiency of nutriment. 



Lastly, if any other fluid is ever contained within the allan- 

 tois, and this is sometimes the case, I believe it to be unnatural. 

 For sometimes we see women at their delivery have an enor- 

 mous flow of water, sometimes a distinctly double flow ; and 

 this the midwives call the ' ' by -waters." And so some women 

 are seen with the abdomen immensely distended, and yet they 

 bring forth a little shrivelled foetus accompanied by a vast flow 

 of water. Some imagine that a larger quantity of water is 

 found with weakly and female children, whilst stronger and 

 male foetuses have a smaller share. I have often seen the 

 waters come away in the middle of pregnancy, and abortion not 

 take place, the child remaining strong and vigorous until 

 birth. Since, then, there are naturally two collections of fluid, 

 one in the chorion, the other in the amnion, so it sometimes 

 happens that unnatural accumulations take place either in mem- 

 branes of their own, or between the duplicatures of the chorion. 



