F GET 
dark green mucous, and semifluid sub- 
stance, called meconium. The liver is of 
an immense size, and fills two-thirds of the 
belly. 
The renal capsules are very large, equal 
indeed to the kidnies themselves. Their 
use is unknown. 
The testicle is placed originally in the 
abdomen, near the kidney; but it passes 
into the scrotum towards the latter periods 
of gestation. Sometimes it does not de- 
scend on one or both sides till after birth, 
and sometimes not even during life. 
Of the Uterus and its Contents in the earlier 
Months of Pregnancy. 
The conception at first is lodged entirely 
in the fundus uteri ; and no part of it ex- 
tends into the cervix ; which, on the con- 
trary, remains contracted and hard, and fill- 
ed with a tough and firm jelly. The neck, 
however, is gradually distended, so that at 
last there is no distinction between it and 
the fundus. 
The corpus luteum is larger and more 
vascular, and contains a cavity filled with 
fluid. 
There is a small membranous bag placed 
en the outer surface of the amnion, and 
connected to the navel-string, called the 
vesicula umbilicalis. 
The chorion is at first covered all over 
with fine shaggy and floating processes, 
which are continuations of the umbilical 
vessels. By these it adheres to the decidua, 
and derives its nourishment and supply. 
These processes are the foetal portion of the 
placenta at that time. As the ovum in- 
creases they disappear from the general sur- 
face of the chorion ; become confined to 
one part, and form the fleshy mass of the 
placenta. 
The decidua is most manifest in'the early 
state of conception, and is thickest at 
that time. It adheres to the uterus by nu- 
merous fine flocculent processes. It is 
formed by the uterus previously to the en- 
trance of the ovum into its cavity ; and is 
even formed in cases of extra uterine ftetus, 
where the ovum never enters the uterus. 
The placenta does not exist in a very 
young ovum. The whole outer surface of 
the chorion is covered wifh shaggy vessels. 
In the course of a few weeks one half of the 
membrane becomes smooth, the remainder 
being covered as before. These vessels, at 
their floating extremities, are covered with 
decidua ; and these parts, which at first are 
separable, gradually become intimately 
FOL 
connected, and form a firm mass adhering 
to the uterus, which is the placenta. 
The navel-string is not visible till towards 
the sixth or seventh week. 
The fetus is discernable about the fourth 
week after conception. In a particular 
instance, a very small fetus was discernible 
where, from peculiar circumstances, the 
conception was clearly ascertained to be 
twenty-two days old. 
At this period it consists of two oval 
masses, the head and trunk ; of which the 
former is bent forwards upon the chest; 
the eyes are very conspicuous, and form 
large black prominences; the mouth and 
tongue are discernible; the body forms a 
larger and longer oval than the head, with 
the lower part of the spine curved towards 
the belly : the upper extremities sprout out 
from each side of the chest ; and the lower 
from the lower part of the trunk, being 
considerably smaller than the upper. 
FOG, or Mist, a meteor consisting of 
gioss vapours, floating near the surface of 
the earth. See Meteorology. 
FOIL, among glass-grinders, a sheet of 
tin, with quicksilver or the like, laid on the 
backside of a looking-glass, to make it re- 
flect. 
Foil, among jewellers, a thin leaf of 
metal placed under a precious stone, in or- 
der to make it look transparent, and give it 
an agreeable different colour, either deep 
or pale. Thus, if you want a stone to be 
of a pale colour, put a foil of that colour 
under it ; or if you would have it deep, lay 
a dark one under it. 
FOLIATE, in the higher geometry, a 
name given by M. de Moivre to a curve of 
the second order, expressed by the equation 
x* -(- if — a x y ; being a species of defec- 
tive hyperbolas with one asymptote, and 
consisting of two infinite legs crossing one 
another, and forming a sort of leaf. 
FOLIATING of looking-glasses, the 
spreading the plates over, after they are 
polished with quicksilver, &c. in order to 
reflect the image. It is performed thus : 
a thin blotting paper is spread on the table, 
and sprinkled with fine chalk ; and then a 
fine lamina or leaf of tin, called foil, is laid 
over the paper ; upon this mercury is 
poured, which is to be distributed equally 
over the leaf with a hare’s foot, or cotton : 
over this is laid a clean paper, and over that 
the glass-plate, which is pressed down with 
the right hand, and the paper drawn gently 
out with the left : this being done, the plate 
is covered with a thicker paper, and loaden 
