VOL. XLIX.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6\g 



XLIL Some Observations, proving that the Fetus is in Part Nourished by the 

 Liquor Amnii. By Malcolm Fleming, of Brigg, M.D. p. 254. 



July 25, 1753, being informed that a calF, come to full maturity, was just 

 then brought forth dead in this town (Brigg, in Lincolnshire,) which had been 

 alive, and appeared strong a very short time before its birth ; Dr. F. begged it of 

 the owner, such instances being rare. The skin being of value, for it was an 

 extraordinary large calf, it was sent to his house flayed. He first examined the 

 thorax, which was his chief motive for begging it. He here adverts to the ex- 

 periment of the lungs of a new-born animal sinking in water. After cutting 

 out the lungs and heart, he clipped off a piece of the former with sharp 

 scissars, about an oz. weight, or more, and threw it into a basin full of water. 

 It quickly sunk to the bottom, and settled there. Immediately after, he blew 

 into the remaining part of the lungs, through the trachea ; and though he could 

 by that means distend them but very little, because the air flowed out readily 

 through the cut bronchia, and therefore acted but faintly on the other parts ; yet 

 a piece about the same size as the first, clipped off in the same manner, and 

 thrown into the same basin, constantly kept at the top. This might seem foreign 

 to his present purpose ; but he thought proper briefly to mention it here, not 

 only on the account of the importance of the experiment, but likewise to show, 

 that he was not misinformed in the account of the calf's being brought forth 

 dead, and that it had not even respired ; much less taken any nourishment after 

 exclusion, to influence the appearances described below. 



Having opened the abdomen, he observed the thick intestines, especially the 

 rectum, extremely distended with an incredible quantity of meconium ; which 

 for several inches above the anus was formed into distinct scybala or balls. He 

 made an incision in the rectum, where it was very turgid, about 2 inches from 

 the anus, and let out about 25 or 30 of these scybala ; which he laid on clean 

 paper to dry, that he might examine them at his leisure. About 3 or 4 days 

 after, when they were dry and brittle, and of the colour and consistence of aloes, 

 he was surprised to find, on examination, every ball stuck full of tough, thick, 

 white hairs, some of which were an inch long, or more. There seemed to be 

 some scores in each, though, being shrunk with drying, they scarcely exceeded 

 the bulk of an ordinary pea. This unexpected appearance set him oti consider- 

 ing, whence these hairs had come; how got they there? and he could think on 

 no other tolerable solution of the difficulty than to conclude that they belonged 

 originally to the calfs skin; and, being loosened by maceration in the liquor 

 amnii, were propelled into the stomach and intestines ; till they were at length 

 entangled in the meconium. He was confirmed in the belief of this by being 

 informed, on inquiry, that the calfs skin was white ; a circumstance unknown 



4k 2 



