Human Physiology. 



" Love is of man's life a thing apart ; 

 'Tis woman's whole existence." 



I think, however, that there are women who have brains as 

 well as ovaries ; and that even the faculties which make women 

 most charming as wives and most excellent as mothers, may 

 have a much broader scope than the production, care, and edu- 

 cation of their own offspring. Hundreds of women who have 

 never borne children have been more than mothers to great 

 multitudes. In the actual condition of humanity there may be 

 a higher work for many women in saving the children of others, 

 than in having children of their own. 



CHAPTER IV. 



EMBRYOLOGY. 



Changes at Conception Foetus in Utero Size and Development of the 

 Human Ovum The Hen's Egg Development of Chick in the Pro- 

 cess of Incubation Development of Fishes Growth of the Human 

 Foetus Peculiarities of Foetal Life Phenomena of Birth Lactation. 



WHEN conception, or the fertilisation of the germ, has been 

 accomplished, a great change takes place in the system of the 

 female, in which arises a series of functions totally unknown in 

 the male. The ovary is quiescent. No germs are developed 

 and expelled during the nine months of gestation ; nor, nor- 

 mally, during the whole period of nursing. The mammary 

 glands become active, and, in many cases, the breasts are filled 

 with milk at an early period of pregnancy. Life flows to the 

 bosom instead of the ovaries. As the ovarian action is sus 

 pended, there is no occasion for the menstrual excitement and 

 evacuation. Its cessation is therefore the earliest, and, in the 

 healthy female, the surest sign that conception has taken place. 

 And where there is health, and the entire absence of amative 

 excitement, as there always should be during the whole period 



R 



