DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO. 985 



formable to the asserted period : for it weighed only 1 Ib. and measured 11 

 inches; it had only rudimentary nails, and scarcely any hair except a little of 

 reddish color on the back of the head ; the eyelids were closed, and did not 

 open until the second day ; the skin was shrivelled. When born it was wrapped 

 up in a box and placed before the fire. The child did not suck properly until 

 after the lapse of a month, and did not walk until she was nineteen months old. 

 Three years and a half afterwards, this child was in a thriving state, and very 

 healthy, but of small make ; sh'e then weighed 29 \ Ibs. 



991. There is another question regarding the function of the Female in the 

 Reproductive act, which is of great interest in a scientific point of view, and 

 which may become of importance in Juridical inquiries : namely, the possi- 

 bility of Superf cetation, that is, of two distinct conceptions at an interval of 

 greater or less duration ; so that two foetuses of different ages, the offspring per- 

 haps of different parents, may exist in the uterus at the same time. The sim- 

 plest case of Superfcetation, the frequent occurrence of which places it beyond 

 reasonable doubt, is that in which a female has intercourse on the same day 

 with two males of different complexions, and bears twins at the full time ; the 

 two infants resembling the two parents respectively. Thus, in the slave States 

 of America, it is not uncommon for a black woman to bear at the same time a 

 black and a mulatto child ; the former being the offspring of her black husband, 

 and the latter of her white paramour. The converse has occasionally, though 

 less frequently occurred : a white woman bearing at the same time a white and 

 a mulatto child. There is no difficulty in accounting for such facts, when it ig 

 remembered that nothing has occurred to prevent the uterus and ovaria from 

 being as ready for the second conception as for the first ; since the orifice of the 

 former is not yet closed up ; and, at the time when one ovum is matured for 

 fecundation, there are usually more in the same condition. But it is not easy 

 thus to account for the birth of two children, each apparently mature, at an 

 interval of five or six months ; since it might have been supposed that the 

 uterus was so completely occupied with the first ovum, as not to allow of the 

 transmission of the seminal fluid necessary for the fecundation of the second. 

 In cases where two children have been produced at the same time, one of which 

 was fully formed, whilst the other was small and seemingly premature, there is 

 no occasion whatever to imagine that the two were conceived at different periods; 

 since the smaller foetus may have been "blighted," and its development re- 

 tarded, as not unfrequently happens in other cases. Nor is it necessary to infer 

 the occurrence of Superfoetation in every case, in which a living child has been 

 produced a month or two after the birth of another ; since the latter may have 

 been somewhat premature, whilst the former has been carried to the full term. 

 But such a difference can scarcely be, at the most, more than 2 or 3 months; 

 and there are several cases now on record, in which the interval was from 110 

 to 170 days, whilst neither of the children presented any indication of being 

 otherwise than mature. 1 



4. Development of the Embryo. 



992. The history of the evolution of the germ, from its first appearance as a 

 single cell lying in the midst of the yelk, to the time when it presents the form 

 and structure characteristic of its parent species, and is capable of maintaining 

 an independent existence including the details of the progressive development 

 of each separate organ and tissue, from its first appearance as an aggregation of 

 simple cells formed by the duplicative subdivision of the primordial vesicle, to 



1 See the Article " Superfoetation," in Dr. Beck's "Elements of Medical Jurispru- 

 dence." 



