112 PLAIN FACTS FOB OLD AND YOUNG 



blood, to changes in which it is very susceptible, as we 

 shall see more clearly hereafter. 



The cord is attached to the body of the child at the 

 point called the navel, being cut off at birth by the ac- 

 coucheur. With the placenta, it is expelled soon after 

 the birth of the child, and constitutes the shapeless 

 mass familiarly known as the after-birth, by the reten- 

 tion of which the most serious trouble is occasionally 

 caused. 



Parturition, or Childbirth.— At the end of the 

 peribd of development, the young being is forcibly ex- 

 pelled from the laboratory of nature in which it has 

 been formed. In other words, it is born ; and this proc- 

 ess is termed parturition. Though at first thought such 

 an act would seem an utter impossibility, yet it is a 

 very admirable illustration of nature's adaptation of 

 means to ends. During the months of gestation, while 

 the uterus has been enlarging to accommodate its daily 

 increasing contents, the generative passages have also 

 been increasing in size, and becoming soft and disten- 

 sible, so that a seeming impossibility is in due time ac- 

 complished without physical damage, though possibly 

 not without intense suffering. However, it is a most 

 gratifying fact that modern medical science may do 

 much to mitigate the pains of childbirth. It is possible, 

 by a proper course of preparation for the expected 

 event, to greatly lessen the suffering usually under- 

 gone; and some ladies assert that they have thus 

 avoided real pain altogether. Although the curse pro- 

 nounced upon the feminine part of the race, in con- 

 sequence of the sin of Eve, implies suffering in the 

 parturient act, yet there is no doubt that the greater 

 share of the daughters of Eve are, through the per- 

 verting and degenerating influences of wrong habits. 



