OF THE FOETUS. 337 



Galen pretends that the foetus continues in 

 the uterus till it is able to take nouriihment by 

 the mouth, and that the want of proper food 

 makes it reftlefs, and anxious to efcape. it has 

 been faid by others, that the foetus is originally 

 nouriihed by the mouth, but that, in procefs of 

 time, the liquor amnii is fo contaminated with 

 the urine and tranfpiration of the foetus, that it 

 becomes perfed:ly difguftful, and obliges the 

 child to ufe every method to effe£t its efcape 

 from the womb. 



Thefe reafons feem not to be more fatlsfacSlorv 

 than the former ; for from them it would fol- 

 low, that the fmalleft and weakeft foetules would 

 necefTarily remain longer in the w^omb than 

 thofe of larger and more robufl bodies ; which 

 is by no means the cafe. Eefides, it is not for 

 nourifhment that the child, immediately after 

 birth, feems to be anxious ; for it can want food 

 for a confiderable time after : It appears, on 

 the contrary, to be extremely dcfirous of eafmg 

 itfelf of the fuperfluous load of nourifhment 

 (the meconium) received in the womb. Tliis 

 circumftance induced Drelincourt, and fome o- 

 ther anatomifts, to think, that the acrimony 

 and uneafmcfs, ariling from an accumulation 

 of excrement in the bowels, is the reafon Vv^hy 

 they become reftlels, and ufe every effort to 

 efcape from the womb. I am not, I acknow- 

 ledge, more fatisfied with this explication than 



Vol. H. Y the 



