PECULIARITIES 



IN THE 



ANATOMY OF THE FO3TUS. 



Upon the foetus may be demonstrated almost all the anatomy of the 

 adult human system ; the points in which it differs from that of adults 

 will alone be noticed. 



The full-grown fetus weighs about seven pounds, and is 

 seventeen inches in length, or thereabout ; the umbilicus is 

 situated from a quarter to half an inch below the middle of 

 the body. The external genital organs are largely developed, 

 especially the labia minora in the female, which project be- 

 yond the labia majora ; in the male, the prepuce is adherent 

 to the glans penis, constituting a state of phymosis. The 

 muscles are pale, and of a softer texture than when more 

 developed, and are covered in with a dry and granular fat, 

 easily detached from them. 



The umbilical cord is composed of two umbilical arteries, 

 and an umbilical vein, imbedded in a soft, semi-transparent 

 substance, called the Whartonian gelatine. Within the ab- 

 domen, the arteries are called the hypogastric. 



The abdomen is to be opened in such a way as to avoid injuring the 

 vessels which diverge upward and downward from the umbilicus. 



The HYPOGASTRIC ARTERY is the internal iliac artery of 

 adult life ; it is larger than the external iliac, and may be 

 traced from the common iliac artery upward, along the 

 side of the urinary bladder and urachus, to the anterior 

 wall of the abdomen, upon which it ascends to the umbili- 

 cus, where the two arteries come together, escape from the 

 abdomen with the umbilical vein, and coil around it in the 

 umbilical cord, until they reach the placenta. After the 

 cessation of the placental circulation, this artery becomes 

 impervious from the side of the bladder upward, and is 



