410 



into the world. A child, however, has been known to live, though born 

 at the sixth month of pregnancy, in premature labour ; but, in general, 

 the child is the more likely live when born at the usual period ; that is, 

 towards the end of the ninth solar month, or of the tenth lunar. It is ob- 

 served, that children born at seven months, however robust they may 

 prove afterwards, are very feeble when born, have their eyes clos- 

 ed, and are in a, state of extreme debility and suffering, during the two 

 months which they ought to have spent in their mother's womb: this proves 

 how necessary it is that gestation should be carried on to the end of the 

 ninth solar month. 



If the foetus may live though separated from its mother, before the 

 natural period, may it not, likewise, remain longer within the womb, 

 grow with less rapidity, and be expelled some days, weeks, and even 

 months later? How difficult, therefore, will it not be to assign a precise 

 term, beyond which we shall not be able to admit the possibility of a late 

 birth ! 



There are said to be authentic cases of children born more than ten 

 moths after conception ; yet the laws, which cannot be founded on rare 

 exceptions, do not allow of so long a period in deciding on the legiti- 

 macy of children born after the dissolution of matrimony. 



CCVI. Of parturition. When the foetus has remained sufficiently 

 long within its mother's womb, to acquire the degree of strength requir- 

 ed for its insulated existence, it becomes separated from her carrying 

 along with it the parts which inclosed it, and by which it was connected 

 to the uterus. Its expulsion from the uterus is called delivery. The 

 most riduculous opinions have been entertained, with regard to -causes 

 which determine the coming on of labour: according to some, Fabricius 

 of Aquapendente, for instance, it is the want of fresh air, which makes 

 the foetus rupture its membranes; according to others, the foetus is de- 

 termined to the same process, by the necessity of voiding the meconium, 

 an excrementUious fluid, which fills the intestinal canal. It has been said, 

 that the foetus was urged to it by the want of food, or that labour de- 

 pends on the re-action of the fibres of the uterus, which, distended beyond 

 measure, towards the end of pregnancy, close on themselves, and over- 

 come the resistance of the cervix uteri, which is thinned and gradually 

 dilated. But, if this last hypothesis be correct, and it is the only one 

 that is, at present, in any esteem, how comes it, that in a woman, whose 

 uterus is of a determinate size, labour does not come an, when there are 

 twins, at the end of four months and a half, by which period, the same 

 degree of distension would be produced, as by one child at the full 

 time? 



It is very true, that for a fortnight and even sometimes for a month, 

 before labour, the uterus seems to be preparing for the expulsion of the 

 fetus. This, at least, may be inferred from the prominence of the cer- 

 vix of the uterus, which may then, sometimes, be felt ; and which is 

 evidently produced by the membranes containing waters, which in- 

 sinuate themselves within the orifice of the uterus, when this organ 

 contracts, and which collapse and recede, when the uterus is relaxed. 



The product of conception, after a certain time, reaches a period at 

 which it may exist, separated from the mother. When this period is 

 arrived, the ovum in which it is contained, detaches itself from the 

 uterus, by a mechanism, in every respect, similar to that by which the stalk 

 of a ripe fruit drops from the bough on which it hung. Then in all pro- 



