720 



J. Marion Read 



which is characteristic of almost all mammals, but the animals pick 

 up in two or three days and the curve continues on at the same 

 inclination as the line representing the intra- uterine growth of the 

 last eight or ten days before birth. This fact would seem to indi- 

 cate that the figures and curve representing the intra-uterine growth, 

 although obtained indirectly, have some degree of accuracy. 



OsTWALD 1 ) in discussing the curve showing the growth of man 

 says, It is worthy to note again the continuity of the weight 

 changes during the last foetal month and the first years of life. 

 The well known loss of weight of the new born during the first 

 days of life is so insignificant that in comparison to the remaining 



Fig. 2. 



30 - 



20 



10 



Per Cent 



10 20 30 40 



Curve of pregnancies resulting in abortion {constructed from data in Table VI). 



weight changes of the development of man it scarcely needs to be 

 considered . 



It is interesting to note that, as far as we can learn from the 

 data so far obtained, the birth of both guinea-pigs and man does not 

 take place at the juncture of two cycles. This is especially inter- 

 esting in the case of the guinea-pig, which is born in a very mature 

 state 2 ). The period of gestation is very long when we compare it 

 with the gestation period of other rodents. This has led one in- 

 vestigator 3 ) to venture the belief that in some remote period in its 

 evolution the guinea-pig was born in a less mature state, such as 



*) OSTWALD, loc. cit. 



2 ) READ, loc. cit. 



3 ) ABDERHALDEN, Text-book of Physiological Chemistry, 

 p. 371. 



New York 1908. 



