372 OF CONCEPTION 



orifice. It has frequently been removed after inversion, and 

 several lives have lately been saved by this operation.* 



A dissection is described by Dr. Granville f of a woman who had 

 borne eleven children, male and female, and who died soon after 

 being delivered of twins of both sexes. The right half only of 

 the uterus was found developed, the left extending scarcely half 

 an inch from the centre and shaped to a perfectly straight line : the 

 left tube and ovary did not exist. This proves, if the proof were 

 required, that one ovary is, like one testis, sufficient, not only for 

 procreation, but for the procreation of offspring of both sexes. 

 Dr .Granville thinks the case useful in proving also both that twins 

 and twins of different sexes may come from the same ovary, con- 

 trary to the opinion of all physiologists, he says, except Sir Eve- 

 rard Home. The common fact, however, of three or four chil- 

 dren being produced at a birth, sufficiently establishes the former 

 conclusion. 



As each foetus, where there are more than one, may possess a 

 separate placenta and chorion, and may come into the world 

 solitarily, at some months distance perhaps from the other deli- 

 very, we see how easily practitioners may fancy a superfetation, 

 when there is simply an" expulsion of twins, triplets, &c. at dif- 

 ferent periods. 



(C) Mr. Bauer has detected the human ovum on the eighth 

 day from coition. It consisted of two membranes : — the external 

 open throughout its length, but with its edges turned inwards, 

 like shells of the genus voluta ; the internal pointed at one end and 

 obtuse at the other, slightly contracted in the middle, and con- 

 taining, besides a slimy fluid, two globules that might be moved 

 by pressure but quickly resumed their situations and were pro- 

 bably the rudiments of the heart and brain. J 



(D) During 57 years, above 78,000 women have been deli- 



• N«wuliam, on Inversiu I'teri. Davis, ibid. T. Windsor, Mtd. Ckir. Tram. 

 ro\. x. 

 f Phil. Tram, 1818. % Phil. Tra»t. 1817. 



