334 - O F T H E G R O W T H, &c. 



offification firft commences, and is, of courfe, 

 the moft hard and folld part. I conceive, there- 

 fore, that the infant in queftion has been affect- 

 ed with the venereal diforder while in the womb 

 of its mother, and that this was the reafon why- 

 it came into the world with its bones broken 

 through the middle. 



The fame effedl: might be produced by the 

 rickets: In the roval cabinet, there is a fkeleton 

 of a rickety child, the bones of whofe legs and 

 arms are joined in the middle by a callus: From 

 infpeiting this fkeleton, it appears that its bones 

 had been broken before birth, and afterwards re- 

 united by a callus. 



But we have dwelt too long upon a fa6t which 

 credulity alone has rendered marvellous. Pre- 

 judice, efpecially that fpecies of it which is 

 founded in wonder, will always triumph over 

 reafon. It is needlefs to attempt to perfuade 

 women that the marks on their children have no 

 conned:ion with their ungratified longings. I 

 have fometimes afked them, before the birth of 

 a child, of what particular longings they had 

 been difappointed, and, of courfe, what marks 

 the child would bear ? But I had only the fatis- 

 fadion of perplexing, without convincing them. 

 The time of geftation is generally about nine 

 months, but it is fometimes longer and fome- 

 times fliorter. Many children are born in the 

 feventh and eighth, and fome not till after the 

 ninth month : But, in general, the births before 



the 



