400 OF THE DIFFERENCES IN THE SYSTEM 



nearly resemble the small ; but, during the latter hall 

 of pregnancy, being turgid with meconium, they really 

 deserve the epithet by which they are commonly 

 distinguished. 



633. The meconium is a saburra, of a brownish green 

 colour, formed evidently from the secreted fluids of the 

 foetus, and chiefly from its bile, because it is first 

 observed at the period corresponding to the first secre- 

 tion of the bile; and in monstrous cases, where the 

 liver has been absent, no meconium, but merely a small 

 quantity of colourless mucus, has been found in the 

 intestines. 



634. The ctecum is extremely different in the new 

 born child from its future form, and continued straight 

 from the appendix vermiformis, &c* 



635. Other similar differences we have already spoken 

 of, and shall now pass over. Such are the urachns (573), 

 the membrana pupillaris, (262) the descent of the testes in 

 the male, (510 sq.) 



Some will be treated of more properly in the next 

 section. Others, of little moment, we shall entirely 

 omit. 



636. This is a favourable opportunity for briefly 

 noticing some remarkable parts which are out of all 

 proportion larger in the foetus and appear to serve im- 

 portant purposes in its economy, although their true 

 and principal design deserves still further investigation. 

 They are usually styled glands, but their parenchyma 

 is very different from true glandular structure, nor has 

 any vestige of an excreting duct been hitherto dis- 



* B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. L. vi. tab. H. fig. 7. 



