UMBILICAL CORD. 177 



they are doublings, vascular nooses, whether of the arteries or- of the 

 vein; the former are met with particularly where the cord is very 

 long, are owing to the movements of the foetus, are effected in the 

 same way as the twisting of the cord about the neck, limbs, or other 

 parts of the child, frequently met with in parturition, and it may be 

 said are but the definitive result of this last mentioned disposition. 



The second, known in all ages, are, according to Harvey, more 

 frequently formed by the vein than by the arteries; but, according to 

 my own researches and those of Hoboken, more frequently by the 

 arteries than by the vein: being produced by the folding of one or 

 both these vessels, after the manner of the varicose knots in other 

 parts of the body, there may be only one or several of them on the 

 same cord. Rhodion and Avicenna among the ancients, and the old 

 women of all periods, pretend that by means of the number of these 

 knots, their remoteness from or nearness to each other, and their 

 color, it is possible to ascertain the number and sex of the children 

 the woman is to have in future, the interval between each of the 

 confinements, &c. These ridiculous pretensions, begotten by the 

 superstition of oar ancestors, doubtless do not deserve to be seriously 

 opposed; but they are so often met with among the public, that I 

 thought they ought not to be passed over in silence. Although they 

 have never been accused of interfering with the omphalo-placental 

 circulation, it may nevertheless be concluded that if very numerous 

 and close, and presenting very acute angles, these turnings might be 

 the means of obstructing to a greater or less degree the flow of the 

 blood in its proper vessels. 



462. The point of the belly which gives insertion to the umbilical 

 cord, is at a greater distance from the breast, or nearer the pubis, in 

 proportion as the pregnancy is less advanced. At birth, it generally 

 corresponds, according to Chaussier and M. Bigeschi, to the middle 

 of the space between the vertex and soles of the feet. It ordinarily 

 terminates in the centre of the placenta; but it is also sometimes 

 found attached very near the circumference of that body: in the for- 

 mer case, the branches of which it is composed diverge by expand- 

 ing in the covering of the ovum; in the latter, it is not a rare occcur- 

 rence to find it creeping betwixt the membranes a longer or shorter 

 time before it is lost in the placental parenchyma. Of an equal size 

 throughout its whole extent in some subjects, it is in others much 

 more slender near its root than near the abdomen, and reciprocally. 



463. Development. Trusting to false analogies, hypothetical 

 data, or careless observations, authors have asserted that it does not 

 begin to be distinct until after the first month of gestation. The 

 youngest embryos I have ever dissected had the umbilical cord. I 



16* 



