LIQUOR AMNII. 165 



trary, certain that it augments until the close, but in less proportion 

 than at the commencement of gestation. 



But in this respect very great differences are observed; instead of 

 one pound, there may be two, four, and even ten pounds, or only a 

 few ounces; its abundance is generally in an inverse ratio to the 

 vigor, size, and strength of the foetus, and robust constitution of the 

 woman; so that a fcstus weighing five pounds, for example, will 

 float in two, three, or four pounds of the water, while only three or 

 four spoonfuls will be found about a child of eight or nine pounds 

 weight. 



429. According to some authors, its nauseous insipid smell some- 

 what resembles that of semen; on the whole, it is nearly similar to 

 that exhaled from the belly of a slaughtered animal: unctuous, pos- 

 sessing rather more consistence than pure water, the liquor amnii is 

 clear, like simple serum, or of a slightly citron or greenish color, 

 ordinarily transparent, it is not unfrequently lactescent, thick, mixed 

 with albuminous flocks, of a gray, yellow or blackish color; its taste 

 is both sweetish and slightly saltish; in some cases it is so acrid and 

 astringent as to pucker the skin of the accoucheur's fingers, when he 

 keeps them beyond a few seconds in the vagina or womb. 



430. It does not appear to contain more animal matter in the first 

 than in the last half of pregnancy, and in this respect the remarks of 

 Harvey, Lacourvee, Ruysch, and Osiander seem to me to be wholly 

 faulty; its chemical composition is very complicated, and besides, has 

 only been studied in animals, MM. Vauquelin and Buniva found 

 it to contain: water, 98.8; albumen, salts of soda and lime, 1.2. 

 M. Berzelius says that it contains fluoric acid; Scheele says he found 

 free oxygen in it; M. Geoffroi Saint-Hilaire admits that it contains 

 atmospheric air in a state of mixture: but MM. Lassaigne and Chev- 

 reul, at a later period, discovered that what one of them had mistook 

 for air, was nothing but a gas composed of carbonic acid and 

 azote. 



431. The chemical nature of the water of the amnios differs, as 

 has been truly said by Van-den-Bosh from all the other fluids of. the 

 body. The acids, alcohol, ebullition coagulate it only with great 

 difiicully, or even not at all; some suspect it to contain a free acid; 

 others an alkali; but one of these opinions must be incorrect, for 

 acids, as is well known, do not remain in contact with alkalies with- 

 out soon forming salts. From all the foregoing, we may conclude 

 that tlie composition of the amniotic liquid requires new analyses. 



432. Trusting to certain experiments of Monroe, who by inject- 

 ing warm water into the uterine vessels, found it to transude upon 

 the inner surface of the amnios; to Haller's assertion that the waters 



15* 



