36 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CAVTO i. 



With gills placental seeks the arterial flood, 



And drinks pure ether from its Mother's blood. 



Erewhile the landed Stranger bursts his way, 



From the warm wave emerging into day; 



Feels the chill blast, and piercing light, and tries 



His tender lungs, and rolls his dazzled eyes; 



Gives to the passing gale his curling hair, 



And steps a dry inhabitant of air. 400 



" Creative Nile, as taught in ancient song, 

 So charm'd to life his animated throng; 

 O'er his wide realms the slow- subsiding flood 

 Left the rich treasures of organic mud ; 



voluntary power; it then seems to awake, and to stretch its limbs, 

 and change its posture in some degree, which is termed quickening. 



With gills placental, 1. 393. The placenta adheres to any side of 

 the uterus in natural gestation, or of any other cavity in extra- 

 uterine gestation; the extremities of its arteries and veins probably 

 permeate the arteries of the mother, and absorb from thence through 

 their fine coats the oxygen of the mother's blood; hence when the 

 placenta is withdrawn, the side of the uterus, where it adhered, bleeds; 

 but not the extremities of its own vessels. 



His dazzled eyes, 1 398. Though the mem'brana pupillaris described 

 by modern anatomists guards the tender retina from too much light; 

 the young infant nevertheless seems to feel the presence of it by its 

 frequently moving its eyes, before it can distinguish common objects. 



