The collection of anatomical observation_Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.

not only being found in the trunks, but also in the testicles. In

the History of the Old Academy of Sciences, (vol. II. page 91.) we

meet with an observation on this subject. M. Theroude, a surgeon at

Paris, shewed the academy an unformed mass, which he found in the

right testicle of a girl of eighteen years of age. In it were two

open slits, furnished with hair like two eye-lids, above which was a

kind of forehead, with a black line instead of eyebrows; immediately

over that were many hairs matted together in two separate lines, one

of which was seven, and the other three inches long; under the great

angle of the eye, two of the grinding teeth appeared to shoot, hard,

thick, and white; they had their prongs, and a third tooth thicker than

the rest above them. There appeared likewise other teeth at different

distances from each other: two between these, of the canine nature,

issued from an opening where the ear is placed. In the same volume,

page 144, it is related, that M. Mery found, in the testicle of a woman

who had conceived, a bone of the upper jaw, with many teeth therein,

so perfect that some appeared to be of more than ten years growth. We

find, in the _Journal de Medicine_, for January 1683, published by the

Abbé de la Roque, the history of a lady who died with the ninth child,

which was formed in or near one of the testicles, which is not very

clearly explained. The foetus was about an inch in size, completely

formed, and the sex easily to be distinguished. We also find, in the

Philosophical Transactions, some observations on the testicles of

women, wherein teeth, hair, and bones, have been found. If all these

circumstances are true, we must suppose, that the seminal liquor of

the male sometimes ascends, although very seldom, to the testicles of

the female. Yet, notwithstanding all this, I have some difficulty to

believe it; first, because the circumstances, which appear to prove

it, are extremely rare: secondly, because a perfect foetus has never

been seen in the testicles but by M. Littre, who seems to relate it in

a very suspicious manner: thirdly, because it is not impossible, that

the seminal liquor of the female alone may produce organized masses,

as moles, hair, bones, flesh, and, in short, because if we give credit

to anatomists, foetuses may be formed in the testicles of men, as

well as in those of women: for we find, in the History of the Royal

Academy, vol. II. p. 298, an observation of a surgeon, who says, he

discovered in the scrotum of a man, the figure of a child inclosed in

his membranes: and that the head, feet, eyes, bones, and cartilages,

were distinguishable. If all these observations were equally true, we

must necessarily adopt one of these two hypotheses, either that the

seminal liquor, of each sex, cannot produce any thing without being

mixed with that of the other sex, or that either of them can produce

irregular masses of itself. By keeping to the first, we should be

obliged to admit, to explain in all the circumstances we have related,

that the liquor of the male sometimes ascends to the testicle, and,

by mixing with the seminal liquor of the female, forms organized

bodies; and so may also the female fluid, by being plentiful in the

vagina, penetrate, during the time of copulation, into the scrotum of

the male, nearly as the venereal virus often reaches that part; and

that in this case, an organized body may be found in the scrotum, by

the mixture of the male and female fluids; or, if we admit the other

hypothesis, which appears to be the most probable, and suppose, that

the seminal liquor of each individual may produce organized masses,

then we may be able to say, that all these bony, fleshy, and hairy

productions, sometimes found in the testicles of females, and in

the scrotum of males, may derive their origin from the liquor of

the individual in which they are found. But enough of observations

upon facts, which appear to be as uncertain as inexplicable, for I am

much inclined to believe, that, in certain circumstances, the seminal

liquor of each individual may produce something alone and of itself,

and that young girls might form moles without any communication with

the male, as hens form eggs without having received the cock. I might

support this opinion with observations which appear to me as credible

as those I have quoted. M. de la Saone, physician and anatomist of the

Academy of Sciences, published a memoir on this subject, in which he

asserts, that religious nuns, though strictly cloistered, had formed

moles. Why should that be impossible, since hens form eggs without

communication with the cock? and in the cicatrice of these eggs we

perceive a mole, with appendages, instead of a chicken? The analogy

appears to me to have sufficient power for us, at least to doubt, or

suspend our determination. Be this as it will, it is certain that the

mixture of the two liquors are required to form a foetus, and that

this mixture cannot come to any effect but when it is in the matrix,

where the anatomists have sometimes found foetuses; and it is natural

to imagine, that those which have been found out of the matrix, and

in the cavity of the abdomen, have escaped by the extremity of the

trunks, or by some accidental opening, and that they never fall from

the testicles into the abdomen, because it is almost an impossibility

that the seminal liquor of the male can ascend so high. Leeuwenhoek has

computed the motion of these pretended spermatic animals to be four or

five inches in forty minutes, which would be more than sufficient for

the animalcules to traverse from the vagina into the matrix, from the

matrix into the trunks, and from the trunks into the testicles, in an

hour or two, provided all the liquor had that motion. But how is this

to he conceived, that the organic molecules, whose motion ceases as

soon as the liquid fails, can arrive as far as the testicles, unless

brought there by the liquor in which they swim? This progressive

motion cannot be given by the organic molecules to the liquor which it

contains, therefore, whatever activity these molecules may be supposed

to have, we cannot see how they can arrive at the testicles, and form a

foetus there, unless the liquor itself was pumped up and attracted

thither, a supposition not only gratuitous but even against all human

probability.

The doubts which this supposition gives rise to, confirm the opinion

that the male fluid penetrates the matrix, and enters therein by the

orifice, or across the membraneous coat of the viscera. The female

fluid may also enter into the matrix, either by the opening at the

upper extremity of the trunks, or across the skin even of the trunks

and matrix. M. de Weirbrech, an able anatomist of Petersburg, confirms

this opinion:----"Res omni attentione dignissima (says he) oblata mihi

est in utero feminæ alicujus a me dissectæ; erat uterus ea magnitudine

qua esse solet in virginibus, tubæque ambæ apertæ quidem ad ingressum

uteri, ita ut ex hoc in illas cum specillo facile possem transire

ac flatum injicere, sed in turbarum extremo nulla dabatur apertura,

nullus aditus; fimbriarum enim ne vestigium quidem aderat, sed loco

illarum bulbus aliquis pyriformis materia subalbida fluida turgens, in

cujus medio fibra plana nervea, cicatriculæ æmula, apparebat, quæ sub

ligamentuli specie usque ad ovarii involucra protendebatur.

"Dices, eadem a Regnero de Graaf jam olim notata. Equidem non negaverim

illustrem hunc prosectorem in libro suo de organis mulieribus non modo

similem tubam delineasse, Tabula XIX, fig. 3, sed & monuisse, 'tubas

quamvis secundum ordinariam naturæ dispositionem in extremitate sua

notabilem semper coarctationem habeant, præter naturam tamen aliquando

claudi;' verum enimvero cum non meminerit auctor an id in utraque

tuba ita deprehenderit; an in virgine; an status iste præternaturalis

sterilitatem inducat: an vero conceptio nihilominus fieri possit;

an a principio vitæ talis structura suam originem ducat; sive an

tractu tempora ita degenerare tubæ possint; facile perspicimus multa

nobis relicta esse problemata quæ, utcumque soluta, multum negotii

facessant in exemplo nostro. Erat enim hæc femina maritata, viginti

quatuor annos nata, quæ filium pepererat quem vidi ipse, octo jam

annos natum. Dic igitur tubas ab incunabulis clausas sterilitatem

inducere: quare hæc nostra femina peperit? Dic concepisse tubis

clausis; quomodo ovulum ingredi tubam potuit? Dic coaluisse tubas post

partum: quomodo id nosti? Quomodo adeo evanescere in utroque latere

fimbriæ possunt, tanquam nunquam adfuissent? Si quidem ex ovario ad

tubas alia daretur via, præter illarum orificium, unico gressu omnes

superarentur difficultates; sed fictiones intellectum quidem adjuvant,

rei veritatem non demonstrant; præstat igitur ignorationem fateri,

quam speculationibus indulgere[AD]." The difficulties which occurred

to this able author are insurmountable in the egg system, but which

disappear in our explanation. This observation seems only to prove what

we have observed, that the seminal liquor of both male and female may

penetrate the coat of the matrix, and enter across the pores of the

membranes; to be assured of it, it is only necessary to pay attention

to the alteration that the seminal liquor of the male causes to the

viscera, and to the kind of vegetation or expansion that it causes

there. Besides, the liquor which issues by the vacuities of De Graaf,

being of the same nature as the liquor of the glandular bodies, it is

very evident that this liquor comes from the testicles, and yet there

is no vessel through which it can pass; consequently we must conclude,

that it penetrates the spongy coat of all these parts, and that it not

only enters the matrix, but even can issue out when these parts are in

irritation.

[AD] Vide Comment. Acad. Petropol, vol IV. page 261 and 262.

But even should we refuse this idea of penetration, we cannot deny

that the liquor of the female, which flows from the glandular bodies

of the testicles, may enter by the opening at the extremity of the

trunk, as that of the male does by the orifice of the viscera; and that

consequently these two liquors may mix of themselves in this cavity,

and form there the foetus in the manner we have explained.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE EXPANSION, GROWTH, AND DELIVERY OF THE FOETUS, &C.

In the expansion of the foetus, two different degrees of growth make

different kinds of expansion. The first, which succeeds immediately

after the formation of the foetus, is not proportionable in all

the parts of which it is composed. The more distant it is from the

formation, the more in proportion are its parts, and it is only after

it has quitted the womb of its mother that the growth of the parts is

made in nearly an equal manner. It must not be imagined that the figure

of the foetus, at the moment of formation, is absolutely like that of

an adult. It is certain that the embryo contains every part which, must

compose a man, but they differ in their successive expansion.

In an organized body, as that of an animal, we may suppose some parts

are more essential than others, and though some may be useless or

superfluous, there are some on which the rest seem to depend for their

expansion and disposition. We must consider some as fundamental parts,

without which the animal cannot exist, and which are more accessory and

external, and appear to derive their origin from the first, and which

seem to be formed as much for the ornament, symmetry, and external

perfection of the animal, as for the necessity of its existence, and

the exercise of the essential functions of life. These two kinds of

different parts expand successively, and are almost equally apparent

when the foetus quits the womb; but there are others which Nature

seems to keep in reserve, as the teeth, which do not appear for some

time, and also the glandular bodies in the testicles of females, the

beards of males, &c. which do not shew themselves till the age of

puberty.

In order to discover the fundamental and essential parts of an animal

body, we must pay attention to the number, situation, and nature of

the whole; those which are simple, those whose position is invariable,

and those without which the animal cannot exist, will be the essential

parts; those, on the contrary, which are double, or in a greater

number, those whose size and position vary, and those which may be

retrenched from the animal without destroying or even doing it an

injury, may be looked upon as less necessary, and more accessory, to

the animal machine. Aristotle has said that the only parts essential to

animals were those with which they take their nutriment, and throw out

the superfluous parts of it from the body. From the mouth to the arms

are simple parts, which no other can supply. The head and spine of the

back are also simple parts, whose position is invariable. The spine of

the back serves for a foundation to the fabric of the body; and it is

from the marrow which it contains that the motion and action of most

of the members and organs proceed; it is also this part which appears

one of the first in the embryo. Now these simple parts which appear

the first are all essential to the existence and form of the animal.

There are many more double than simple parts in the body of an animal,

and seem to be produced on each side of the simple parts by a kind of

vegetation; for these double parts are similar in form, and different

in position. The left hand exactly resembles the right, because it is

composed of the same number of parts; nevertheless, if it was placed

in the situation of the right, we could not make use of it for the

same purposes, and should have reason to regard it as a very different

member. It is the same with respect to the other double parts; they are

similar as to form, and different as to the position which is connected

to the body of the animal; and by supposing a line to divide the body

into two equal parts, the position of all the similar parts would refer

to this line as a centre.

The spinal marrow, and the vertebræ which contains it, appear to be the

real axis, to which we must refer all the double parts of the animal,

for they seem to derive their origin, and to be only symmetrical

branches issuing from this trunk or common base, for we see the ribs

shoot out on each side of the vertebræ in the young chicken as the

young branches shoot out from the principal branch of a tree. In all

embryos the middle of the head and vertebræ appear to be the first

formed; afterwards we see on the two sides of a vesicle which forms the

middle of the head two other vesicles which appear to proceed from the

first. These two vesicles contain the eyes and the other double parts

of the head; so likewise we perceive little tubercles shoot out in

equal numbers from each side of the vertebræ, which extend by degrees

and form the ribs, and other double parts of the trunk. On the side

of this trunk already formed, as the conclusion, the legs and arms

appear. This first expansion is very different from that which is made

afterwards; it is the production of parts which appear for the first

time; that which succeeds is only a growth of all the parts already

created.

This symmetrical order of all the double parts found in every animal,

the regularity of their position, the equality of their extension and

growth, and the perfect resemblance between them, seem to indicate that

they derive their origin from the simple parts; that there must reside

in these simple parts a power which acts equally on each side, or,

which answers the same meaning, they are the fixed points against which

the power that produces the expansion of the double parts is exercised.

That the power which acts on the right is equalled by that of the left

side, and consequently they are counterbalanced by this re-action.

From hence we may infer, that if there is any defect or excess in the

matter which is to serve for the formation of the double parts, as the

powers which impel them on each side are equal, the defect or excess

must be formed the same both on the right and left; for example, if,

from a defect of matter, a man has but two fingers instead of five on

the right hand, he will have but two on the left hand; or if, by an

excess of matter, he has six fingers on one hand, he will have six on

the other; or if the matter be vitiated, and causes an alteration in

the right part, it will be the same on the left. This fact is very

often seen. Most monsters are made with symmetry; the disarrangement

of the parts of monsters appears to be made with order: Nature,

therefore, even in her errors, mistakes as little as possible.

This harmony of position in the double parts of animals is found also

in vegetables; branches shoot out from buds on every side; the veins in

the leaves are equally disposed as to the principal vein; and although

symmetrical order appears to be less exact in vegetables than in

animals, it is only because it is more varied, and its limits are more

extended, and less precise; but we may nevertheless easily discover

this order, and distinguish the simple and essential parts from those

which are double, and the latter we must regard as having taken their

origin from the former. We shall more fully discuss this point, as far

as relates to vegetables, when we come to treat of them.

It is not possible to determine under What form the double parts exist

before expansion, nor in what manner they are folded, nor what figure

results from their position by connection with the simple parts. The

body of the animal, in the instant of formation, certainly contains

every part which is to compose it; but the relative position of these

parts must be very different then from what it becomes afterwards.

It is the same with vegetables, for if we observe the expansion of

a young leaf, we shall perceive that it is folded on both sides the

principal vein, and that its figure does not resemble at that time what

it afterwards assumes.

When we amuse ourselves by folding paper to form crowns, boats, &c.

the different folds of the paper seem to have no resemblance to the

form which must result by the unfolding; we only see that these folds

are always made in an uniform order, and exactly the same on one side

as that we have made on t he other; but it would be a problem beyond

known geometry, to determine the figures which may result from all the

unfoldings of a certain given number of folds. All what immediately

relates to the position, is beyond our mathematical sciences. This art,

which Leibnitz calls _Analysis Situs_, is not yet found out; though the

art, which would shew us the connections that result from the position

of things, would perhaps be more useful than that which has only bulk

for its object, for we have often more need to know the form than the

matter.

In the unfolding of Nature's productions, not only the folded parts

take new positions, but they acquire, at the same time, extent and

solidity. Since we cannot therefore determine the result of the simple

unfolding of a folded form, in which, as in a piece of folded paper,

there is but one change of position between the parts, without any

augmentation or diminution of the bulk or mass of the matter, how is

it possible for us to judge of the complex unfolding of the body of

an animal, in which not only the relative position of the parts, but

also their mass of matter, undergoes considerable changes? We cannot,

therefore, reason upon this subject, but by drawing some inductions

from the examination of the things at the different periods of their

unfolding, and by assisting ourselves with the observations that we

have had the opportunity to make.

It is true we see the chick in the egg before incubation; it floats

in a transparent liquor, contained in a small purse, formed by a very

fine membrane in the centre of the cicatrice; but this chick is then

only a particle of inanimate matter, in which we cannot discern any

organization, nor any determined figure. We judge by the external form

that one of the extremities is the head, and the rest to be the spine

of the back. It appears that this is the first product of fecundation

resulting from the mixture of the seed of the male and female;

nevertheless, before asserting this as a fact, there are many things

should be considered. When the hen has cohabited with the cock for a

few days, and afterwards separated from him, the eggs she produces for

a month after separation are as fertile as those she produced during

the time of cohabitation with the male, and unfold at the same time;

they only require twenty-one days sitting, and the embryo of the one

will be as forward and as completely formed as that of the other. From

hence we might think, that this form, under which the chick at first

appears to us in the egg, does not immediately proceed from a mixture

of the two liquors, but that it existed in other forms during the time

the egg remained in the body of the mother; for the embryo in the form

we see it before incubation, requires only heat to unfold and bring it

forth. Now, if it had this form twenty days, or a month before, when

the egg was first fecundated, why was it not hatched by the internal

heat of the hen? and why is not the chicken perfectly formed in those

eggs which are fecundated twenty-one days before the hen lays them?

This difficulty is not so great as it appears; for we must conceive,

that in the time of the cock's cohabitation with the hen, each egg

receives in its cicatrice, wherein the female liquor is contained,

a small portion of the semen of the male. The egg attached to the

ovary is in oviparous females, what the glandular substance is in the

testicles of viviparous females. The cicatrice of the egg corresponds

with the glandular bodies in which the seminal liquor of the female

resides; that of the male penetrates and mixes there with it; from

this mixture, the formation of the embryo instantly results. The first

egg which the hen lays after coition is fecundated, and capable of

producing a chicken; those which she lays afterwards were fecundated at

the same instant; but as there is still wanting essential parts to this

egg, the production of which is independent of the seed of the male,

as the white, membranes, and shell, the young embryo contained in the

cicatrice cannot unfold in this imperfect egg, although assisted by the

internal heat of the mother. It remains, therefore, in the cicatrice

in the state in which it was formed, until the egg has acquired all

the parts necessary to the growth and nourishment of the chicken: and

it is not till the egg has attained its perfection that the embryo

begins to unfold: this unfolding is performed by the external heat of

incubation; but it is certain, if the egg could be confined within the

body of the hen for 21 days after it was completely formed, the chicken

would be produced, unless the internal heat of the hen should prove too

powerful, for the degrees of heat necessary to hatch chickens are not

very extended, and the least defect or excess is equally prejudicial

to their unfolding. The last eggs the hen lays, containing the same as

the first, proves nothing more than that the egg must acquire entire

perfection before the embryo can unfold itself; and for want of the

heat necessary to this unfolding, eggs may be kept a considerable time

before incubation, without preventing the produce of the chickens they

contain.

It appears, therefore, that the state of the embryo, when the egg is

laid by the hen, is the first state which succeeds fecundation; that

the form under which we see it is the first form resulting from the

intimate mixture, and form the penetration of the two seminal liquors;

and consequently by following, as Malpighius has done, this unfolding

from hour to hour, we discover all that is possible to be known, unless

we could see the two liquors mix before our eyes, and how the first

arrangement of the particles are made, which produces the first form of

the embryo.

If we reflect on this fecundation (which is made at the same time) of

these eggs, which are laid successively, and along time after each

other, we shall find new arguments against the existence of eggs in

viviparous animals; for if the females of viviparous animals, or if

women contained eggs, like hens, why are there not many fecund at

the same time? why are not some of them produced in nine months,

and others at distant periods? and when women have two or three

children, why do they all come into the world at one time? If these

foetuses were produced by the means of eggs, would not they come

successively, according as the eggs come to perfection, after the time

of impregnation? And would not super-foetation be as frequent as they

now are scarce, or as natural as they appear to be accidental?

We cannot follow the unfolding of the foetus in the matrix as we

pursue that of the chick in the egg; the opportunities of observing it

are few, and we can only know what anatomists, surgeons, and midwives

have written thereon. It is by collecting all their particular

observations, and by comparing their remarks and their descriptions,

that we have made the following abridged history of the human foetus.

There is a great appearance that, immediately after the mixture of

the two seminal liquors, the whole materials of generation exist in

the matrix under the form of a globe; since we know, by anatomists,

that three or four days after conception there is a small oval ball in

the matrix, this ball is formed by an extremely fine membrane, which

incloses a limpid liquor like the white of an egg. We can then perceive

some small united fibres in this liquor, which are the first outlines

of the foetus. A net-work of fine fibres collects on the surface of

the ball, which extends from one of the extremities to the middle.

These are the first vestiges of the placenta.

Seven days after conception we may distinguish, by the naked eye, the

first lineaments of the foetus, as yet unformed; being only a mass of

transparent jelly, which has acquired some small degree of solidity;

the head and trunk are easily discernible, because this mass is of an

oblong form, and the trunk is more delicate and somewhat longer. Some

small fibres, in form of a plume of feathers, spring from the body

of the foetus, and which turn towards the membrane in which it is

included; these fibres are to form the umbilical cord.

Fifteen days after conception, the head, and the most apparent

features of the face, are distinguishable; the nose resembles a small

prominent and perpendicular thread affixed to a line, which indicates

the division of the lips. Two small black points are in the places of

the eyes, and two little holes in those of the ears; the body of the

foetus has also received some growth. On each side of the upper and

inferior parts of the trunk, little protuberances appear, which are the

first outlines of the arms and legs.

Eight days after, that is in three weeks, the body of the foetus

has only increased about a line; but the arms and legs, the hands and

feet, are apparent; the growth of the arms is more quick than that

of the legs, and the fingers separate sooner than the toes. At this

time internal organization begins to be discernible; the bones appear

like small threads as fine as hairs; the ribs are disposed regularly

from the two sides of the back bone; and as well as the arms, legs,

fingers, and toes, are represented by very small threads.

At a month the foetus is more than an inch long; it naturally takes

a curved posture, in the middle of the liquor which surrounds it, and

the membranes which contain the whole are increased in extent and

thickness; the mass is oval, and it is then about an inch and an half

in its greatest, and an inch and a quarter the smallest diameter.

The human figure is no longer equivocal, every part of the face is

already discernible; the body is fashioned, the thighs and belly are

seen, the limbs formed, the toes and fingers divided, the skin thin

and transparent, the viscera marked by fibres, the vessels as fine

as threads, and the membranes extremely delicate, the bones are as

yet soft, and have only taken solidity in some few parts; the vessels

which compose the umbilical cord, are as yet in a straight line by

the side of each other; now the placenta only occupies a third of the

whole mass; whereas in the beginning it occupied the half. It appears,

therefore, that its growth, in superficial extent, has not been so

great as that of the foetus, and the rest of the mass; but it has

increased much more in solidity; its thickness has become greater in

proportion than the membranes of the foetus, both of which are now

easily distinguished.

According to Hippocrates, the male foetus is developed sooner than

the female. He says all parts of the body in the first are apparent in

thirty, whereas the latter are not so till the expiration of forty-two

days.

In six weeks the foetus is nearly two inches long; the human figure

begins to be more perfect; the head is only larger in proportion than

the other parts of the body; the motion of the heart is perceived about

this time. It has been seen to beat in a foetus of sixty days, a long

while after it had been taken out of the womb of its mother.

In two months the foetus is more than two inches long; the

ossification is discernible as far as the middle of the arm, thigh,

and leg, and in the point of the lower jaw, which is then very forward

before the upper. These, however, are only ossified points; but by the

effect of a more ready expansion, the clavicles are wholly ossified.

The umbilical cord is formed, and the vessels which compose it, begin

to twist nearly like threads which compose a rope: but this cord is

still very short in comparison of what it becomes hereafter.

In three months the foetus is nearly three inches long, and weighs

about three ounces. Hippocrates says, that it is at this time the

motion of the male foetus begins to be felt by its mother; but that

those of the female are not felt till after the fourth; there are women

who affirm they have felt the motions of the child at the beginning of

the second month. It is very difficult to be certain on this subject,

the sensations excited by the first motions of the foetus depending,

perhaps more on the sensibility of the mother than the strength of the

child.

Four months after conception the length of the foetus is six or

seven inches; every part of its body is so greatly augmented as to

be perfectly distinguished from each other; even the nails appear on

the fingers and toes. The testicles of the males are shut up in the

belly above the kidneys; the stomach is filled with somewhat of a

thick humour, like that which incloses the amnios. We find a milky

fluid in the little vessels, and in the large ones a black liquid

matter. There is a little bile in the gall, and some urine in the

bladder. As the foetus floats freely in the liquid which surrounds

it, there is always a space between the body and membranes in which it

is contained. These coverings grow at first more than the foetus;

but after a certain time it is quite the contrary. Before the end

of the third month the head is bent forward, the chin rests on the

breast, the knees are lifted up, the legs bent backwards upon the

thighs (sometimes the knees are so high as almost to touch the jaws),

the arms are generally folded across the breast, and one of the

hands, and often both touch the face. The foetus afterwards takes

different situations, as it acquires strength. Experienced midwives

have pretended to be certain that it changes much oftener than is

commonly thought, and which they prove by several observations; first,

the umbilical cord is often found twisted round the body and limbs of

the child, in a manner which necessarily supposes, that the foetus

has moved in many directions, and taken different positions; secondly,

a mother feels the motions of the foetus sometimes on one side of

the womb and sometimes on another; and it often strikes against many

different places, which must be occasioned by different positions, and

supposes that it takes different situations; thirdly, as it floats in

a liquid which surrounds it on all sides, it can very easily turn and

extend itself by its own strength; and it must also take different

situations according to the various attitudes of the mother; for

example, when she lies down, the foetus must be in another situation

to what it was when she stood upright.

Most anatomists have said, that the foetus is constrained to bend

its body, because it is too confined in its covering; but this opinion

does not appear well founded, for in the first five or six months there

is more space than is required for the foetus to extend, and yet

during that time it is bent and folded. We also see the chicken is in

a curved posture in the liquor of the amnios, although this membrane

and its liquor are sufficient to contain a body five or six times as

large as the foetus. Thus we may conclude that this curved form of

the foetus is natural, and not the effect of force. I am somewhat of

Harvey's opinion, who says, it takes this attitude because it is the

most favourable to rest and sleep; and as the foetus sleeps almost

continually, it naturally takes the most advantageous situation. "Certe

(says this famous anatomist) animalia omnia, dum quiescunt & dormiunt,

membra sua ut plurimum adducunt & complicant, figuramque ovalem ac

conglobatam quærunt: ita pariter embryones qui ætatem suam maxime

somno transigunt, membra sua positione ea qua plasmantur (tanquam

naturalissima ac maxime indolenti quietique aptissima) componunt[AE]."

[AE] Harvey on Generation, page 257.

The matrix, as we have already said, takes a very ready growth after

conception, and it continues also to increase in proportion with the

foetus; but the foetus at length outgrows the matrix, and then,

especially when it approaches maturity, it may be too much confined,

and agitate the matrix by reiterated motions and violent efforts. The

mother sensibly feels the impression of these painful sensations,

and which are called periodic pains after the labour commences. The

more power the foetus exerts to dilate the matrix the greater it

finds the resistance, from the natural compression of the parts. From

thence all the effect falls on the orifice, which has been increasing

by degrees during the latter months of pregnancy. The head of the

foetus, forcibly inclining against the sides of the orifice, dilates

it, by a continual pressure, till the moment of delivery, when it opens

sufficiently for the child to escape from the womb.

What makes it probable that the labour-pains proceed only from the

dilatation of the orifice of the matrix is, that this dilatation is

the only means to discover whether the pains felt are in fact the

pains of labour, for women often feel very sensible pains, which

are not those that immediately precede delivery. To distinguish

the false from true pains, it has been recommended for the midwife

to touch the orifice of the matrix, as if the pains be true the

dilatation will always increase, and if they are false pains, that

is to say, pains which proceed from some other cause than that of

the approaching delivery, the orifice will contract rather than

dilate, or at least will not continue to dilate. From hence we have

sufficient foundation to imagine, that these pains proceed from a

forced dilatation of the orifice. The only thing which embarrasses on

this occasion is that alternative of rest and sufferings the mother

endures. This circumstance of the effect does not perfectly agree

with the cause which we have just indicated; for the dilatation of

an orifice, which is made by degrees, should produce a constant and

continued pain, without any intervals of ease. But possibly the whole

may be attributed to the separation of the placenta, which we know

is fastened to the matrix by a number of papillæ, which penetrate

into the vacuities or cavities of this viscera; therefore may it not

be supposed that they do not separate from their cavities all at the

same time; that each separation causes those acute pains, and the

intervals between are those of ease and rest? The effect in this

case perfectly answers the cause, and we can support this conjecture

by another observation.--Immediately before delivery there issues a

whitish and viscous liquor, like that which flows from the nipples of

the placenta when drawn out of their places, which makes it probable

that this liquor, which then issues from the matrix, is produced by the

separation of some of the papillæ of the placenta.

It often happens that the foetus quits the matrix without bursting

the membranes, and consequently without the contained liquor flowing

out. This kind of delivery appears to be most natural, and resembles

that of most animals; nevertheless, the human foetus commonly pierces

its membranes by the resistance it meets with at the orifice of the

matrix. It also sometimes brings away part of the amnios, and even the

chorion, upon its head like a cap. When these membranes are pierced or

torn, the liquors, called the _waters_, which they contain flow out,

and the sides of the orifice of the matrix, and the vagina, being thus

moistened, give way more easily to the passage of the child. After the

flowing of this liquor there remains sufficient room in the matrix for

the midwife to return the child, if the position is unfavourable. When

the foetus is come out the delivery is not entirely completed, the

placenta and membranes remain in the matrix, and the new-born infant

adheres to them by the umbilical cord; the hand of the midwife, or the

weight of the body of the infant alone, draws them out by means of this

cord. Those organs which were necessary to the life of the foetus

become useless, and even noxious to the new-born infant. They are

instantly separated from the body of the child, by tying the umbilical

cord about an inch distance from the navel, and by cutting it about

an inch from the ligature. The remainder of this cord dries away, and

separates of itself from the navel, about the sixth or seventh day.

On examining the foetus previous to its birth we may form some idea

of its natural functions. It has organs, which are necessary to it

while in the womb of its mother, but which become useless. For the

better understanding the mechanism of these functions, we must explain

a little more particularly the nature of those necessary parts, the

umbilical cord, the membranes, the liquor which they contain and the

placenta. The umbilical cord, which is attached to the body of the

foetus at the navel, is composed of two arteries and one vein; these

prolong the circulation of the blood, but the vein is larger than the

arteries. At the extremity of the cord each of these vessels divide

into an infinity of ramifications, which extend between two membranes.

They separate at equal distances from the common trunk; so that these

ramifications are round and flat, and are called, when thus collected,

the _placenta_. The external surface, which is applied against the

matrix, is convex; the internal concave. The blood of the foetus

circulates in the cord, and in the placenta. The arteries of the cord

spring from two large arteries of the foetus, and carry the blood

through the arterial ramifications of the placenta; from thence it

passes into the venous branches which carry it into the umbilical

vessels; these communicate with a vein of the foetus, in which

vessels it is received.

The concave surface of the placenta is clothed by the chorion; the

convex is also covered by a kind of soft membrane, easily torn, which

seems to be a continuation of the chorion, and the foetus is included

under the double coat of the chorion and the amnios. The form is

globular, because the intervals between the membranes and the foetus

are filled with a transparent liquor. This liquor is contained by the

amnios, which is the internal membrane, it is thin and transparent; it

folds round the umbilical cord at its insertion into the placenta, and

covers it the whole length to the navel of the foetus. The chorion

is the external membrane; it is thick and spongy, sprinkled with

sanguinary vessels, and composed of many coats, the exterior of which

covers the convex surface of the placenta. It follows the inequalities,

and covers the papillæ, which spring from the placenta, and are

received in the cavities found at the bottom of the matrix, called

_lacunæ_. The foetus adheres to the matrix by these insertions.

Some anatomists have thought that the human form had, like those of

certain quadrupeds; a membrane called _allantois_, destined to receive

the urine; and they have pretended to have found it between the chorion

and the amnios, or in the middle of the placenta at the root of the

umbilical cord, under the form of a very large bladder, in which the

urine entered by a long pipe that composed part of the chord, and which

opened on one side into the bladder, and on the other in this allantois

membrane, being similar to the urachus in other animals. They owned,

however, that it was not near so large in the human foetus as in

quadrupeds, but that it was divided into many tubes, so minute, that

they could scarcely be perceived, and that the urine passed into their

cavities.

The experience and observations of most anatomists are contrary to

this supposed discovery. They admit there is a kind of ligament which

adheres by one end to the external surface of the bottom of the

bladder, and extends to the navel; but it becomes so delicate, on

entering into the cord, as to be nearly reduced to nothing: in common

this ligament is not hollow, and we can see no orifice at the bottom of

the bladder.

The foetus has no communication with the open air, and the

experiments made upon the lungs prove they have never respired; for

they sink to the bottom when put in water: whereas those of infants

who have breathed always float on the top; the foetus then does not

respire in the womb, consequently it cannot form any sound by its

voice; and therefore what has been related of the groaning and crying

of children before their birth may be considered as fables. After the

flowing of the waters it may happen, that the air has found an entrance

into the cavity of the matrix, and then the infant may begin to respire

before it is brought forth. In this case it may be able to cry, as

the chicken cries before the shell of the egg is broken, which it can

do from there being air in the cavity which is between the external

membrane and the shell. This air is found in all eggs, and is produced

by the internal fermentation of matters contained in them[AF].

[AF] See La Statique des Vegetaux, Chap. vi.

The lungs of the foetus being without any motion, have no more blood

enter into them than is requisite to nourish and make them grow; and

there is another road opened for the course of its circulation. The

blood in the right auricle of the heart, instead of passing into the

pulmonary artery, and returning, after having ran through the lungs

into the left auricle by the pulmonary vein, passes immediately into

the left by an opening, called the _foramen ovale_, which is in the

partition of the heart between the two auricles. It enters afterwards

into the aorta, which distributes it by its ramifications, at going

out of which the venous branches receive it, and bring it back to the

heart by uniting all in the _vena cava_, which terminates at the right

auricle of the heart. The blood which this auricle contains, instead

of passing entirely by the foramen ovale, may escape in part into the

pulmonary and the aorta by an arterial canal, which goes immediately

from the one to the other. It is by these roads that the blood of the

foetus circulates without entering into the lungs, as it enters into

those of children, adults, and every animal which breathes.

It has been thought that the blood of the mother passes into the body

of the foetus, by means of the placenta and umbilical cord. It

was supposed that the sanguinary vessels of the matrix opened into

the vacuities, and those of the placenta into the nipples, and that

they joined one to the other; but experience is quite contrary to

this opinion; for if the arteries of the umbilical cord is injected

the liquor returns by the veins, and not any part of it escapes

externally. Besides, the nipples may be drawn from the vacuities

where they are lodged, without any blood issuing either from the

matrix or placenta: a milky liquor only issues from both, and which,

we have already observed, serves the foetus for nutriment. This

liquor possibly enters into the veins of the placenta, as the chyle

enters into the subclavian vein; and perhaps the placenta in a great

measure performs the office of the lungs in bringing the blood to

maturity. It is certain that the blood appears much sooner in the

placenta than in the foetus, and I have often observed in eggs that

have been under the hen for a day or two, that the blood appeared at

first in the membranes, and that their sanguinary vessels are very

large and numerous, while the whole body of the chicken, excepting

the point where these blood-vessels terminate, is only a white and

almost transparent matter, in which there is not the smallest sign of a

sanguinary vessel.

It has been imagined, that the liquor of the amnios is a nutriment

the foetus receives by its mouth. Some naturalists pretend to have

observed this liquor in the stomach, and to have seen some foetuses

to which the umbilical cord was entirely wanting, and others who had

but a very small portion, which did not at, all adhere to the placenta;

but in this case might not the liquor have entered into the body of

the foetus by the small portion of the umbilical cord, or by the

umbilical vessel itself? Besides, to these observations we may oppose

others. Some foetuses have been found whose lips were not separated,

and others without any opening in the oesophagus. To conciliate

these circumstances, some anatomists have thought that the aliments

passed into the foetus partly by the umbilical cord, and partly by

the mouth: none of these opinions appear to have any foundation. It

is not the question to examine the growth of the foetus alone, and

to seek from whence and by what it draws its nutriment, but how the

growth of the whole is made; for the placenta, liquor, and membrane

increase in size as well as in the foetus; and consequently the

instruments and canals employed to receive or carry this nutriment to

the foetus, have a kind of life themselves. The expansion of the

placenta and membranes is as difficult to conceive as that of the

foetus; and we might say, with equal propriety, that the foetus

nourishes the placenta, as that the placenta nourishes the foetus.

The whole mass is floating in the matrix, and without any adherence at

the commencement of this growth: therefore the nourishment can be only

made by an absorption of the milky matter contained in the matrix. The

placenta appears first to draw this nutriment, to convert this milk

into blood, and to carry it to the foetus by veins. The liquor of the

amnios appears to be only this milky liquor depurated, the quantity of

which increases by a like absorption, proportionate to the increase

of the membranes, and the foetus probably absorbs the liquor, which

appears to be the necessary nutriment for its expansion. For we must

observe, that for the first two or three months the foetus contains

very little blood; it is as white as ivory, and appears to be composed

of lymph which has taken some solidity; and as the skin is transparent,

and all the parts very soft, we may easily conceive that the liquor

in which the foetus swims may penetrate them, and thus furnish the

necessary matter for its nutrition and expansion. It may be supposed

that the foetus in the latter stages takes its nutriment by the

mouth, since in the stomach we find a liquor similar to that in the

amnios, urine in the bladder, and excrements in the intestines; and as

we find neither urine nor _meconium_ in the amnios, there is reason to

conclude that the foetus does not void its excrements, especially

as some are born without having the anus pierced, although they had a

great quantity of _meconium_ in the intestines.

Although the foetus does not immediately adhere to the matrix, but

is only attached to it by small external nipples, though it has no

communication with the blood of its mother, but is as independant of

her who bears it, in many respects, as the egg is of the hen that

hatches it, yet it has been pretended, that all which affects the

mother affects the foetus; that the impressions of the one act on

the brain of the other; and to this imaginary influence resemblances,

monsters, and especially marks on the skin of some children, have been

attributed. I have examined many of these marks, and they all appear

to me to have been caused by a derangement in the texture of the

skin. Every mark must have a figure which will resemble something or

other; but I am certain the resemblances so formed depend rather on

the imagination of those who see them than on that of the mother. On

this subject the marvellous has been carried as far as it could go. It

has not been only said that the foetus carried real representations

of the longings of its mother, but that, by a singular sympathy, the

marks, which represent strawberries, cherries, &c. change their colour,

and become deeper in the season of those fruits. With a little more

consideration, and less prejudice, this colour may be seen to change

much oftener, and that it must happen every time the motion of the

blood is accelerated, whether by the heat of summer or from any other

cause. These marks are either yellow, red, or black, because the blood

gives these tints to the skin when it enters in too great quantities

into the vessels. If these marks have the longings of the mother for

their cause, why have they not the forms and colours as varied as the

objects of her desires? What a curious assemblage of figures would be

seen if all the whimsical desires of the mother were written on the

skin of the child?

As our sensations have no resemblance to the objects which cause

them, it is impossible that desire, fear, horror, or any passion, or

internal emotion, can produce real representations of those objects;

and the child being in this respect as independant of the mother as the

egg is of the hen, I should as soon believe that a hen, which saw the

neck of a cock twisted, would hatch chickens with wry necks, as that,

by the power of imagination, a woman, who happened to see a man broke

upon the wheel, would bring forth a child with its limbs broken in the

same manner.

But even supposing this circumstance attested, I should still support

the opinion, that the imagination of the mother had not been the cause,

for what is the effect of horror? an internal motion, a convulsion

in the body of the mother, which might shake, compress, and agitate

the womb. What can result from this commotion? nothing similar to the

cause, for if this commotion was very violent the foetus might be

killed, wounded, or deformed in some of its parts; but how is it to

be conceived that this commotion can produce any thing resembling the

fancy of the mother in the foetus, unless we believe, with Harvey,

that the matrix has the faculty of conceiving ideas, and realizing them

on the foetus?

But, it may be urged, if it was not affected by the imagination of

the mother, why did the child come into the world with broken limbs?

However rash it may appear to explain a matter which is extraordinary

and uncertain, and of which we have no right to exact a solution,

yet this question appears to me answerable in a satisfactory manner.

Circumstances of the most rare and extraordinary kind happen as

necessarily as those which are frequent and common. In the infinite

combinations which matter can take, the most extraordinary arrangements

must sometimes happen; hence we might venture to wager, that in a

million, or a thousand millions of children, there will be one born

with two heads, four legs, or with broken limbs; it may, therefore,

naturally happen, without the concurrence of the mother's imagination,

that a child should be born with broken limbs. This may have happened

more than once, and the mother, while pregnant, might have been

present at the breaking on the wheel, and therefore the defect of the

child's formation has been attributed to what she had seen, and to

her impressed imagination. But, independant of this general answer,

we may give a more direct explanation. The foetus, as we have

said, has nothing in common with the mother; its functions, organs,

blood, &c. are all particular, and belong to itself; the only thing

which it derives from its mother is the liquor, or nutritive lymph,

which filtrates from the matrix. If this lymph is bad, or envenomed

with the venereal virus, the child will be alike disordered; and it

may be imagined, that all the diseases which proceed from vitiated

humours may be communicated from the mother to the child. We know that

the small-pox is communicative, and we have but too many examples

of children who are, directly after their birth, the victims of the

debauches of their parents. The venereal virus attacks the most solid

parts of the bones, and it appears to act with more force towards

the middle of the bone, where ossification commences; I conceive,

therefore, that the child here spoken of has been attacked by the

venereal disorder while in its mother's womb, and from that cause it

came into the world with its bones broken through the middle.

Rickets may also produce the same effect. There is a skeleton of a

rickety child in the French king's cabinet, whose arms and legs have

callosities in the middle of their bones. By the inspection of this

skeleton, it appeared evident that the bones had been broken during the

time it was in the womb, and that afterwards the bones re-united, and

formed these callosities.

But enough of a subject which credulity alone has rendered marvellous.

Prejudice, especially that sort which is founded on the marvellous,

will always triumph over reason, and we should have but little

philosophy if we were astonished at it. We must not therefore ever

expect to be able to persuade women, that the marks on their children

have no connection with their unsatisfied longings. Yet might it not be

asked them, before the birth of the child, of what particular longings

they had been disappointed, and consequently what will be the marks

their children will bear? I have often asked this question, and have

only made persons angry without having ever convinced them.

The time that a woman goes with child is generally about nine months;

but it is however sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. Many children

are born at seven or eight months, and some not till after the ninth;

but in general the deliveries which precede the term of nine months

are more frequent than the others. The common time of a natural

delivery extends to twenty days, that is, from eight months fourteen

days to nine months and four hours.

Many children are born before the 260th day, and although these

deliveries precede the general term, they are not abortions, because

these children mostly live. It is commonly thought that children born

at eight months cannot live, or at least that many more of them die

than those born at seven months. This opinion appears to be a paradox;

and by consulting experience I think we shall find it an error. The

child brought forth at eight months is more formed, and consequently

more vigorous, and likely to live than that which is born at the

seventh. Nevertheless this opinion is pretty generally received, and

founded on the authority of Aristotle.

The beginning of the seventh month is the earliest term for delivery;

if the foetus is brought forth sooner it dies, and is termed an

abortion. There are, however, great limits for the time of human

delivery, since they extend from the seventh to the tenth, and perhaps

to the eleventh month.

Women who have had many children assert, that girls remain longer

in the womb than boys. If this is really the case, we must not be

surprized at female children being born at ten months. When children

come before nine months they are not so well proportioned as those

who are not brought into the world till ten months, the bodies of the

latter are sensibly larger and better formed; their hair is longer,

the growth of the teeth, although still hid under the gums, is more

advanced; the voice is clearer, and the tone more deep.

There is much uncertainty on the occasional causes of delivery, and we

do not perfectly know what obliges the infant to quit the womb. Some

imagine, that the foetus having acquired a certain size, the matrix

is too confined for its longer stay, and that the constraint felt

by the foetus, obliges it to use every effort to quit its prison;

others say, and it is nearly to the same purport, that the weight of

the foetus becomes so great, that the matrix is forced to open to

free itself from the burthen. These reasons do not appear satisfactory;

for the matrix must always have capacity and strength to contain

and sustain the weight of a foetus of nine months, since it often

contains two, and it is certain that the weight and size of the twins

of eight months are more considerable than the weight and size of a

single child of nine. Besides, it often happens that a child born at

nine months is smaller than the foetus of eight months, although it

continues in the womb.

Galen pretends, that the child remains in the matrix till it is able

to receive its food by the mouth, and that it only forces its escape

from the need of nutriment. Others have said, that the foetus always

receives its nourishment by the mouth from the liquor of the amnios;

but which becomes at length so contaminated, by the transpiration and

urine of the foetus, that it becomes disgustful, and obliges the

foetus to use every exertion to quit its confinement. These reasons

do not appear better than the first; for it would from thence follow,

that the weakest and smallest foetuses would remain longer in the

womb than the strongest and largest, which never happens; besides,

it is not food that the foetus seeks immediately after it is born,

for it can stay some time without it; on the contrary, it seems most

desirous to disembarrass itself from the nutriment it took when in the

womb of its mother, and to return the meconium. Other anatomists have

supposed that the excrement accumulated in the bowels of the foetus,

gives it great pain, and causes it to make such efforts, that the

matrix is at length obliged to give way, and to open a passage for its

escape. I acknowledge I am not better satisfied with this explanation

than the rest; because, why cannot the foetus void its excrements

in the amnios, if it was pressed so to do? Now this never happens; it

appears, on the contrary, that this necessity of voiding the meconium

is not felt till after the birth, when the motion of the diaphragm,

occasioned by that of the lungs, compresses the intestines and causes

this evacuation; for the meconium has never been found in the amnios of

a foetus of ten months who had not respired, whereas a foetus of

six or seven months voids this meconium a short time after respiration.

Other anatomists, and among them Fabricius de Aquapendente, have

supposed the foetus quitted the matrix through the need of procuring

refreshment by means of respiration. This cause appears to me still

more remote than all the rest, because the foetus can have no idea of

respiration without having respired.

After having weighed all these explanations, I suppose the foetus's

quitting the matrix depends on a quite different cause. The flowing of

the menstrua is periodical, and at determined intervals; and although

conception suppresses its appearance, it does not destroy the cause;

for notwithstanding the blood does not appear at the accustomed times,

yet a kind of revolution takes place, like that which is made before

conception. Thus it is, there are many women whose menstrua are not

suppressed in the first two or three months. I imagine, therefore,

that when a woman has conceived, the periodical revolution is made as

regular as before; but as the matrix is swelled, the excretory canals

cannot give issue to the blood, at least unless it arrives there with

such force, and in such quantities, as to open a passage in spite of

the resistance, that is opposed to it. In this case blood will appear,

and if it flows in a great quantity abortion will ensue, and the matrix

take the form it had before. But if the blood only forces one part

of these canals, the business of generation will not be destroyed,

although the blood appears, because the greatest part of the matrix

still remains in the state which is necessary for that purpose.

When no blood appears, as is generally the case, the first periodical

revolution is remarkable and felt by the same pains and symptoms. From

the first suppression of the menses, therefore, a violent action on

the matrix is made, and provided the action is augmented, it destroys

the product of generation. It may from thence be concluded, that every

conception which is made just before the useful return of the menses

seldom succeeds, and that the action of that blood easily destroys the

weak roots of a germ so tender and so delicate. The conceptions, on the

contrary, which are made just after the periodical evacuations succeed

the best, because the produce of the conception has more time to grow,

strengthen, and resist the action of the blood, by the time the next

revolution happens.

The foetus having undergone this first trial, and having resisted

it, receives more strength and growth, and is more in a condition to

contend against the succeeding revolutions. Miscarriages may and do

happen in all the periodical revolutions; but they are less frequent

in the fourth and fifth months, than either at the beginning or near

the end. We have assigned the reasons why they are more frequent at the

beginning; it therefore only remains to explain why they are also more

frequent towards the end.

The foetus generally comes into the world during the tenth

revolution. When it is born at the eighth or ninth it lives, and these

deliveries are not looked upon as miscarriages, because the child,

although not so perfectly formed, is still sufficiently so for the

purpose of life. It has been pretended, that examples have been seen

of children born at the seventh and even at the sixth revolution, that

is, at five or six months, which have lived. There is, therefore, no

difference between a birth and a miscarriage but what is relative to

the living powers of the infant. In general the number of miscarriages

in the first, second, and third months are very considerable for the

reasons we have given ; and the number of deliveries of the seventh and

eighth months are also very great, in comparison with the miscarriages

of the fourth, fifth, and sixth months, because in this middle period

the product of generation has received more solidity and strength, and

having resisted the action of the four first periodical revolutions, a

more violent force than the preceding is required to destroy it. The

same reason subsists, with additional force, for the fifth and sixth

months. But the foetus, which till then is weak, and can act only by

its own feeble strength, begins to get strong, and move with vigour;

and at the eighth revolution the foetus, uniting its efforts with

those of the matrix, facilitates its exclusion, and it may come into

the world in the seventh month, and be capable of living, especially

if it happens, as is sometimes the case, to have more than ordinary

strength for that period. But if it comes into the world only through

the weakness of the matrix, which could not resist the action of the

blood in this eighth revolution, the delivery would be regarded as a

miscarriage, and the child would not live. But these cases are very

rare, for if the foetus has resisted the seven first revolutions,

only particular accidents can prevent it from resisting the eighth. The

foetus, which has acquired this same degree of strength and vigour

only a little later, will come into the world at the ninth revolution;

and those which require nine months to obtain this same strength, will

come at the tenth revolution, which is the most common and general

term; but when the foetus has not acquired in nine months this degree

of perfection, it may remain in the womb till the eleventh, and even

till the twelfth revolution; that is, till the tenth or eleventh month,

as we have many examples.

This opinion, that it is the menstrua which is the occasional cause of

delivery at different times, may be confirmed by many other reasons.

The females of every animal which have no menses, bring forth at

nearly the same terms, and there is but a very slight variation in

the duration of their gestation. We may, therefore, suppose that this

variation, which is so great in women, comes from the action of the

menstrual blood, which is constantly exerted at every periodic return.

We have observed, that the placenta adheres to the papillæ, or the

matrix, only by nipples; that there is no blood either in these

nipples or in the vacuities they are niched into, and that when they

are separated (which is easily done) a milky liquor only issues from

them. Now, how happens it that delivery is always accompanied with a

considerable hæmorrhage, at first of pure blood, and afterwards mixed

with a watery liquor? This blood does not proceed from the separation

of the placenta, as the nipples are drawn out without any effusion of

blood. Delivery, which entirely consists, of this separation, should

not, therefore, produce any blood. Is it not then more accordant with

reason to suppose, that it is the action of the blood which causes

delivery, and that it is this menstrual blood which forces the vessels

as soon as the matrix is emptied, and which begins to flow immediately

after delivery as it did before conception?

It is known, that in the first months of pregnancy that which

contains the seed of generation is not adherent to the matrix. By

the experiments of De Graaf it has been seen, that by blowing on the

little ball we can make it move. The adhesion to the matrix is never

very strong, and at first the placenta with difficulty adheres to the

internal membrane of the viscera, and those parts are only contiguous,

or joined by a mucilaginous matter, which has scarcely any adhesion.

Why then does it occur, that in miscarriages of the first and second

month this ball never escapes without a great effusion of blood? It is

certainly not caused by the passage of the ball quitting the matrix,

since it does not adhere to it; but it is, on the contrary, by the

action of this blood that the ball is driven out. Must we not then

conclude this blood to be menstrual, which by forcing the canals,

through which it had been accustomed to pass before impregnation,

destroys the product of conception by retaking its common road?

It appears, therefore, that the periodical revolution of the menstrual

blood has great influence on delivery, and that it is the cause why the

times of delivery in women vary so much more than in every other female

who is not subject to the periodical evacuation, and which always

bring forth at the same times. It also appears that this revolution,

occasioned by the action of the menstrual blood, is not the sole cause

of birth, but that the action of the foetus itself contributes

towards it, since there are instances of a child escaping from the womb

after the death of the mother, which necessarily supposes an action

proper and particular in itself.

The space of time which cows, sheep, and other animals go with young

is always the same, and their deliveries are not attended with an

hæmorrhage. May we not then conclude, that the blood voided by women

after delivery is the menstrual blood, and that the human foetus

being born at such different terms, can only be by the actions of this

blood on the matrix during every periodical revolution? It is natural

to imagine, that if the females of viviparous animals had menses like

women, their deliveries would be followed with an effusion of blood,

and happen at different terms. The foetuses of animals come into the

world clothed with their membranes (and it seldom happens that the

membranes are broken), and the waters flow before the delivery; whereas

it is very rare a child is brought forth with its membranes entire.

This seems to prove that the human foetus makes more efforts than

other animals to quit its prison; or that the matrix of a woman does

not so naturally incline to the passage of the child, for it is the

foetus which tears its membranes, by the efforts it makes against the

resistance it meets with at the orifice of the viscera.

RECAPITULATION.

All animals procure nutriment from vegetables, or other animals which

feed upon vegetables; there is, therefore, one common matter to both,

which serves for the nutrition and expansion bf every thing which

lives or vegetates. This matter cannot perform them but by assimilating

itself to each part of the animal or vegetable, and by intimately

penetrating the texture and form of these parts, which I have called

the _internal mould_. When this nutritive matter is more abundant than

is necessary to nourish and expand the animal or vegetable, it is

sent back from every part of the body, and deposited in one or more

reservoirs, in the form of a liquor; this liquor contains all the

molecules analogous to all parts of the body; and consequently all

that is necessary for the reproduction of a young being, perfectly

resembling the first. Commonly this nutritive matter does not become

superabundant, in most kinds of animals, till they have acquired the

greatest part of their growth; and it is for this reason that animals

are not in a state of engendering before that time.

When this nutritive and productive matter, which is universally

spread abroad, has passed through the internal mould of an animal or

vegetable, and has found a proper matrix, it produces an animal or

vegetable, of the same kind; but when it does not meet with a proper

matrix, it produces organized beings different from animals and

vegetables, as the moving and vegetating bodies seen in the seminal

liquor of animals, in the infusion of the germ of plants, &c.

This productive matter is composed of organic particles, always active,

the motion and action of which are fixed by the inanimate parts of

matter in general, and particularly by oily and saline bodies, but as

soon as they are disengaged from this foreign matter, they retake their

action, and produce different kinds of vegetations and other animated,

beings.

By the microscope, the effects of this productive matter may be

perceived in the seminal liquors of animals of both sexes. The seed of

the female viviparous animals is filtered through the glandular bodies

which grow upon their testicles, and these glandular bodies contain a

large quantity of seminal fluid in their internal cavities. Oviparous

females have, as well as the viviparous, a seminal liquor, which is

still more active than the viviparous. The seed of the female is in

general like that of the male, when, they are both in a natural state:

they decompose after the same manner, contain similar organic bodies,

and they alike offer the same phenomena.

All animal or vegetable substances include a great quantity of this

organic and productive matter. To perceive it, we need only separate

the inanimate parts in which the active particles of this matter are

engaged. And this is done by infusing animal or vegetable substances

in water. The salts will dissolve, the oils separate, and the organic

particles will be seen by their putting themselves in motion. They are

in greater abundance in the seminal liquors than in any other parts,

or rather, they are less entangled by the inanimate parts. In the

beginning of this infusion, when the flesh is but slightly dissolved,

the organic matter is seen under the form of moving bodies, which are

almost as large as those of the seminal liquors: but, in proportion as

the decomposition augments, these organnic particles diminish in size

and increase in motion; and when the flesh is entirely decomposed,

or corrupted, these same particles are exceedingly minute, and their

motion exceedingly rapid. It is then that their matter may become a

poison, like that of the tooth of a viper, wherein Mr. Mead perceived

an infinite number of small pointed bodies, which he took for salts,

although they are only these same organic particles in a state of

great activity. The pus which issues from wounds abounds with little

insects, and it may take such a degree of corruption as to become

one of the most subtle poisons; for every time this active matter is

exalted to a certain point, which may be known by the rapidity and

minuteness of the moving bodies it contains, it will become a species

of poison. It is the same with the poison of vegetables. The same

matter which serves to feed us when in its natural state, will destroy

us when corrupted. Spurred barley, for instance, throws the limbs of

men and animals into a gangrene who feed on it. It is also evident by

comparing the matter which adheres to our teeth, which is the residue

of our food, with that from the teeth of a viper or mad dog, which is

only the same matter too much exalted, and corrupted to the last degree.

When this organic and productive matter is found collected in a great

quantity in some part of an animal, where it is obliged to remain,

it forms living beings which have been ever regarded as animals;

the tænia, ascarides, all the worms found in the veins, liver, in

wounds, in corrupted flesh, and pus, have no other origin; the eels in

paste, vinegar, and all the pretended microscopical animals are only

different forms which this active matter takes of itself, according to

circumstances, and which invariably tends to organization.

In all animal and vegetable substances, decomposed by infusion, this

productive matter manifests itself immediately under the form of

vegetation. Filaments are seen to form, which grow and extend like

plants. Afterwards these extremities and knots swell and burst, to give

passage to a multitude of bodies in motion, which appear to be animals;

so that it seems as if all nature began by a motion of vegetation. It

is seen by microscopical objects, and likewise by the expansion or

unfolding of the animal embryo; for the foetus at first has only a

species of vegetable motion.

Sound food does not furnish any of these moving molecules for a

considerable time. Several days infusion in water is required for fresh

meat, grain, kernels, &c. before they offer to our sight any moving

bodies; but the more matters are corrupted, decomposed, or exalted, the

more suddenly these moving bodies manifest themselves; they are all

free from other matters in seminal liquors; but a few hours infusion

is required to see them in pus, spurred barley, honey, drugs, &c.

There exists therefore, an organic matter, universally diffused in

all animal and vegetable substances, which alike serves for their

nutrition, their growth, and their reproduction. Nutrition is performed

by the intimate penetration of this matter in all parts of the animal

or vegetable body. Expansion or growth is only a kind of more extended

nutrition, which is made and performed as long as the parts have

sufficient ductility to swell and extend; and reproduction is made

by the same matter when it superabounds in the body of the animal

or vegetable; each part of the body sends back, to the appropriate

reservoirs, the organic particles which exceed what are sufficient

for their nourishment. These particles are absolutely analogous to

each part from which they are sent back, because they were destined

to nourish those parts from hence, when all the particles sent back

from, collect together, they must form a body similar to the first,

since each particle is like that part from which it was detached; thus

it is that reproduction is effected in all kinds of trees, plants,

polypuses, pucerons, &c. where one individual can produce its like; and

it is also the first mode which Nature uses for the reproduction of

animals which have need of the communication of different sexes; for

the seminal liquors of both sexes contain all the necessary molecules

for reproduction; but something more is required for its effectual

completion, which is the mixture of these two liquors in some places

suitable to the expansion of the foetus which must result therefrom,

which place is the matrix of the female.

There are, therefore, no pre-existing germs, no germs contained one in

the other, _ad infinitum_; but there is an organic matter perpetually

active, and always ready to form, assimilate, and produce beings

similar to those which receive it. Animals and vegetables, therefore,

can never be extinct; so long as there subsist individuals the species

will ever be new; they are the same at present as they were three

thousand years ago, and will perpetually exist, by the powers they are

endowed with, unless annihilated by the will of the Almighty Creator.

HISTORY OF MAN.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE NATURE OF MAN.

Though so much interested in acquiring a thorough knowledge of

ourselves, yet I do not know if man is not less acquainted with the

human, than with any other existence. Provided by nature with organs,

calculated solely for our preservation, we only employ them to receive

foreign impressions. Intent on multiplying the functions of our senses,

and on enlarging the external bounds of our being, we rarely make use

of that internal sense which reduces us to our true dimensions, and

abstracts us from every other part of the creation. It is, however, by

a cultivation of this sense alone that we can form a proper judgment

of ourselves. But how shall we give it its full activity and extent?

How shall the soul, in which it resides, be disengaged from all the

illusions of the mind? We have lost the habit of employing this sense;

it has remained inactive amidst the tumult of our corporeal sensations,

and dried up by the heat of our passions; the heart, the mind, the

senses, have all co-operated against it.

Unalterable in its substance, and invulnerable by its essence, it

still, however, continues the same. Its splendor has been overcast,

but its power has not been diminished: it may be less luminous, but

its guidance is not the less certain. Let us then collect those rays,

of which we are not yet deprived, and its obscurity will decrease; and

though the road may not in every part be equally filled with light, we

yet shall have a torch that will prevent us from going astray.

The first and most difficult step which leads to the knowledge of

ourselves, is a distinct conception of the two substances that

constitute our being. To say simply, that the one is unextended,

immaterial, and immortal, and that the other is extended, material, and

mortal, is only to deny to the one, what we affirm the other possesses.

What knowledge is to be acquired from this mode of negation? Such

negative expressions can exhibit no positive ideas: but to say that we

are certain of the existence of the former, and that of the latter is

less evident; that the substance of the one is simple, indivisible, and

has no form, since it only manifests itself by a single modification,

which is thought; that the other is a less substance than a subject,

capable of receiving different forms, which bear a relation to our

senses, but are all as uncertain and variable as the organs themselves;

that is to say something; it is to ascribe to each such distinct and

positive properties as may lead us to an elemental knowledge of both,

and to a comparison between them.

From the smallest reflection on the origin of our knowledge, it is

easy to perceive that it is by comparison alone we acquire it. What

is absolutely incomparable, is utterly incomprehensible; of this

God is the only example; he exceeds all comprehension, because he

is above all comparison. But whatever is capable of being compared,

contemplated, and considered relatively, in different lights, may

always come within the sphere of our understanding. The more subjects

of comparison we have for examining any object, the more methods there

are for obtaining a knowledge of it, and with greater facility.

The existence of the soul is fully demonstrated. To be and to think are

with us identically the same. This truth is more than intuitive; it is

independent of our senses, of our imagination, of our memory, and of

all our other relative faculties. The existence of our bodies, and of

external objects, is however held in uncertainty by every unprejudiced

reasoner; for what is that extension of length, breadth, and thickness,

which we call our body, and which seems to be so much our own, but as

it relates to our senses? What are even the material organs of those

senses, but so many conformities with the objects that affect them?

And with regard to our internal sense, has it any thing similar or

in common with these external organs? Have the sensations excited by

light or sound any resemblance to that tenuous matter, which seems to

diffuse light, or to that tremulous undulation, which sound produces in

the air? The effects are certainly produced by the necessary conformity

there is between the eyes and ears, and those matters which act upon

them. Is not that a sufficient proof, that the nature of the soul is

different from that of matter?

It is then a certain truth, that the internal sensation is altogether

different from its cause; as also, if external objects exist, they are

in themselves very different from what we conceive them. As sensation

therefore bears no resemblance to the thing by which it is excited;

does it not follow, that the causes of our sensations, necessarily

differ from our ideas of them? The extension which we perceive by our

eyes, the impenetrability, of which we receive an idea by the touch in

all those qualities, whose various combinations constitute matter, are

of a doubtful existence; since our internal sensations of extension,

impenetrability, &c. are neither extended nor impenetrable, and have

not even the smallest affinity with those qualities.

The mind being often affected with sensations, during sleep, very

different from those which it has experienced by the presence of

the same objects, does it not lead to a belief, that the presence

of objects is not necessary to the existence of our sensations; and

that, of consequence, our mind and body may exist independent of

those objects? During sleep, and after death, for example, our body

has the same existence as before; yet the mind no longer perceives

this existence, and the body with regard to us, has ceased to be. The

question is therefore, whether a thing which can exist, and afterwards

be no more, and which affects us in a manner altogether different from

what it is, or what it has been, may yet be a reality of indubitable

existence.

That something exists without us, we may believe, though not with a

positive assurance; whereas of the real existence of every thing within

us, we have a certainty. That of our soul, therefore, is incontestable,

and that of our body seems doubtful; because the mind has one mode of

perception when we are awake, and another when we are asleep; after

death, it will perceive by a method still more different, and the

objects of its sensations, or matter in general, may then cease to

exist with respect to it, as well as our bodies with which we have no

further connection.

But let us admit this existence of matter; and that it even exists as

it appears to our senses, yet by comparing the mind with any material

object, we shall find differences so great, and qualities so opposite

that every doubt will vanish of the latter being of a nature totally

different, and infinitely superior.

The mind has but one form, which is simple, general, and uniform.

Thought is this form; has nothing in it of division, extension,

impenetrability, nor any other quality of matter; of consequence,

therefore, our mind, the subject of this form, is indivisible, and

immaterial. Our bodies on the contrary, and all other objects have

many forms, each of which is compounded, divisible, variable, and

perishable; and has a relation to the different organs, through which

we perceive them. Our bodies, and matter in general, therefore, have

neither permanent, real, nor general properties, by which we can

attain a certain knowledge of them. A blind man has no idea of those

objects, which sight represents to us; a leper, whose skin has lost

the sense of feeling, is denied all the ideas which arise from the

touch; and a deaf man has no knowledge of sounds. Let these three

modes of sensation be successively destroyed, yet the mind will exist,

its external functions will subsist, and thought will still manifest

it within the man so deprived. But divest matter of all its qualities;

strip it of colour, of solidity, and of every other property which

has any relation to our senses, and the consequence will be its

annihilation. Our mind, then, is unperishable, but matter may, and will

perish.

It is the same with all the other faculties of our soul when compared

with the most essential properties of matter. As the mind wills and

commands, so the body obeys in every thing within its power. The

mind forms, at pleasure, an intimate union with any object; neither

distance, magnitude, nor figure, can obstruct this union, when the mind

wills it, it is effected in an instant. The body can form no union;

whatever touches it too closely injures it; it requires a long time in

order to approach another body; it every where meets with resistance,

and obstacles, and from the smallest shock its motion ceases. Is will

then nothing more than a corporeal movement; and is contemplation but a

simple contact? How could this contact take place upon a remote object

or abstracted subjects? How could this movement be accomplished in an

indivisible instant? Is it possible to have a conception of motion

without having a conception of space and time? Will, therefore, if it

be a motion, is not a material one; and if the union of the mind with

its object be a contact, it is effected at a distance: and is not this

contact a penetration? qualities which are absolutely opposite to those

of matter, and which of consequence can only belong to the immaterial

being.

But I fear I have already dwelt too long on a subject which, by many,

may be considered as foreign to our purpose; and it might be asked,

"Ought Metaphysical Considerations on the Soul to find a place in a

System of Natural History?" Were I conscious of abilities equal to

the discussion of a topic so exalted, this reflection, I must own,

would have little weight with me; and I have contracted my remarks

only because I was afraid I should not be able to comprehend a subject

so enlarged and so important in its full extent. Why retrench from

the Natural History of Man the history of his noblest part? Why thus

preposterously debase him; by considering him merely as an animal,

while he is of a nature so different, and so superior, to that of

the brutes, that those must be immersed in ignorance like the brutes

themselves who ever thought of confounding them.

Man, as to the material part of his existence, certainly bears a

resemblance to other animals, and in comprehending the circle of

natural beings there is a necessity for placing him in the class of

animals. Nature, however, has neither classes nor species; it contains

only individuals. These species and classes are nothing but ideas which

we have ourselves formed and established, and though we place man in

one of such classes we do not change his being; we do not derogate from

his dignity; we do not alter his condition. In a word, we only place

him at the head of those who bear a similitude to him in the material

part of his being.

In comparing man with the animal we find in both an organized body,

senses, flesh, blood, motion, and a multitude of other resemblances.

But these resemblances are all external, and not sufficient to justify

a decision, that the human and the animal natures are similar. In

order to form a proper judgment of the nature of each we ought to

have as distinct a knowledge of the internal qualities of an animal

as we have of our own. As the knowledge of what passes within animals

is impossible to be attained, and as we know not of what order and

kind its sensations may be, in relation to those of man, we can only

judge from a comparison of the effects which result from the natural

operations of both.

Let us, then, take a view of these effects; and, while we admit of

all the particular resemblances, limit our investigation to the most

general distinctions. It will be allowed, that the most stupid man is

able to manage the most acute animal; he governs it, and renders if

subservient to his purposes; and this, not so much on account of his

strength or skill as by the superiority of his nature, and from his

being possessed of reason, which enables him to form a rational system

of action and method, by which he compels the animals to obey him.

The strongest and most acute animals do not give law to the inferior,

nor hold them in servitude. The stronger, it is true, devour the

weaker, but this action implies no more than an urgent necessity, or

a rage of appetite; qualities very different from that which produces

a series of actions, all tending to the same end. Did animals enjoy

this faculty, should we not see some of them assume dominion over

others, and oblige them to furnish their food, to watch over them, and

to attend them when sick or wounded? Now, throughout the creation of

animals, there is no vestige of such subordination, no appearance that

one of them knows, or is sensible of, the superiority of his own nature

over that of others. It follows, then, that they must all be considered

as of one nature, and that the nature of man is not only highly

superior to that of the brute, but also entirely different from it.

Man, by outward signs, indicates what passes within him; he

communicates his sentiments by speech, which is a sign common to the

whole human species. The savage and the civilized man have the same

powers of utterance; both speak naturally, and so as to be understood.

No other animal is endowed with this expression of thought; nor is that

defect owing, as some have imagined, to the want of proper organs.

Anatomists have found the tongue of an ape to be as perfect as that

of a man. The ape, therefore, if he had thought, would have speech,

and if its thoughts had aught analogous to ours, this speech would

have an analogy to ours also. Supposing its thoughts were peculiar to

its species, it still would hold discourse with those of its kind, a

circumstance of which we should have heard had it been endowed with the

powers of speech. So far then is the ape from having any thought like

ours, that it has not even any order of thoughts of its own. As they

express nothing by combined and settled signs, they of consequence are

void of thought, or at most have it in a very small degree.

That it is from no organical defect animals are denied the gift of

speech is plain, as several species of them may be taught to pronounce

words, and even repeat sentences of some length. Perhaps many others

might be found capable of articulating particular sounds[AG]; but

to make them conceive the ideas which such sounds denote is an

impracticable task. They seem to repeat and articulate merely as an

echo, or an artificial machine. It is not in the mechanical powers, or

the material organs, but in the intellectual faculties, that they are

deficient.

[AG] Leibnitz mentions a dog which had been taught to pronounce several

German and French words.

As all language supposes a chain of thought, it is on that account

that brute animals have no speech, for even allowing something in

them which resembles our first apprehensions, our most gross and

mechanical sensations, they still will be found incapable of forming

that association of ideas which can alone produce reflection; and in

this consists the essence of thought. To this inability of connecting

and separating ideas it is that they are destitute of thought and

speech, as also that they neither can invent nor improve any thing.

Were they endowed with the power of reflection, even in the most

subordinate degree, they would be capable of making some kind of

proficiency, and acquire more industry; the modern beaver would build

with more art and solidity than the ancient; and the bee would daily

be adding new improvements to its cell; for if we suppose this cell as

perfect already as it can be, we ascribe to the insect an intelligence

superior to our own; by which it could discern at once the last degree

of perfection to which its work might be carried, while we ourselves

are for ever in the dark as to this degree, and stand in need of much

reflection, time, and practice, in order to perfect even one of our

most trivial arts.

Whence can arise the uniformity that is in all the works of animals?

Why does each species invariably perform the same actions in the same

manner? And why does not one individual perform them better or worse

than another? Can there be a stronger proof that their operations are

merely the effects of mechanism and materiality? If they possessed

the smallest spark of that light which is inherent in mankind, their

works would display variety at least, if not perfection, and one

individual would, in its performance, make some little difference from

what another had done. But this is far from being the case. One plan

of action is common to the whole species, and whoever would attribute

a mind or soul to animals, must of necessity allow but one to each

species, of which each individual would be an equal partaker, and as

thereby it would be divisible, it would consequently be material, and

of a nature widely different from ours.

Why, on the other hand, are the productions and performances of men

so various, and so diversified? Why is a servile imitation more

troublesome to us than an original design? It is because our souls are

our own, and independent of any other, and because we have nothing in

common with our species but the matter which forms our body, and in

which our resemblance to brute animals is confined.

Were internal sensations dependent on corporeal organs, should we

not see as remarkable difference in the works of animals of the same

species as in those of men? Would not those which were the most happily

organized, build their nests and contrive their cells in a manner

more solid, elegant, and commodious? And if any individual possessed

a superior genius, would it not take an opportunity to manifest that

superiority in its actions? But nothing of this kind has ever happened,

and therefore the corporeal organs, however perfect or imperfect,

have no influence on the nature of the internal sensations. Hence we

may conclude, that animals have no sensations of this kind; that such

sensations have no connection with matter, no dependence in their

nature on the texture of corporeal organs, and that of consequence

there must be a substance in man different from matter, which is the

subject and the cause that produces and receives those sensations.

But these proofs of the immateriality of the human mind may be carried

still farther. In all the works of nature there are imperceptible

gradations maintained. This truth, which in no other instance admits

of exception, is here expressly contradicted. Between the faculties of

man and those of the most perfect animal the distance is infinite; an

evident proof that man is of a different nature from the brute species,

and that of himself he forms a distinct class, between which and that

of animals there is an immense chasm. If man belonged to the class

of animals, there would be a certain number of beings in nature less

perfect than man, and more perfect than beast, in order to complete

the gradation from a man to the monkey. But this is not the case; the

transition is immediate from the thinking being to the material being;

from intellectual faculties to mechanical powers; from order and design

to blind motion; from reflection and choice to sensual appetite.

Enough has been here advanced to demonstrate the excellence of our

nature, and of the immense distance which the bounty of the Creator has

placed between man and the brute. The former is a rational being, the

latter a being devoid of reason. And as there is no medium between the

positive and the negative, between the rational and irrational being,

it is evident that man is of a nature entirely different from that of

the animal; that all the resemblance he bears to it is merely external;

and that to judge of him by this resemblance, is wilfully to shut our

eyes against that light, by which we ought to distinguish truth from

falsehood.

Having thus considered man as to his internal properties, and proved

the immateriality of his soul; we shall now proceed to examine his

external part, and give the history of his body. We have already traced

him from his formation to his birth, and after taking a view of the

different ages of his life, we shall conduct him to that period when he

must be separated from his body, and then resign him to the common mass

of matter to which he belongs.

CHAPTER II.

OF INFANCY.

Nothing can give us a more striking idea of imbecility, than the

condition in which an infant appears on its first entrance into the

world. Incapable of making use of its organs, or senses, the infant is

in want of every assistance. It is an image of pain and misery; it is

more helpless than the young of any other animal; it seems as if every

moment would finish its doubtful existence; it can neither move nor

support itself; hardly has it strength enough to exist or announce, by

its cries, the sufferings it experiences; as if nature chose to apprise

it, that it was born to suffer, and that it has obtained a place among

the human species to partake of its infirmities and sorrows.

Let us not disdain to consider that state through which we have all

passed; let us view human kind in the cradle; let us enquire by what

degrees this delicate machine, this new-born and hardly existing body,

acquires motion, consistency, and strength.

The infant at its birth comes from one element into another. On

emerging from its watery residence in the womb, it becomes exposed

to the air, and instantly experiences the impressions of that active

fluid. The air acts upon the olfactory nerves and upon the organs of

respiration, and thereby produces a shock, a kind of sneezing which

expands the chest, and allows the air a passage into the lungs; the

vesicles of which it dilates, and the air remaining for some time

becomes warm and rarified to a certain degree; after which this spring

of the fibres thus dilated re-acts upon this light fluid, and expels

it from the lungs. Instead of undertaking to explain the causes of

the alternate motion of respiration, we shall confine ourselves to an

elucidation of its effects. This function is essential to the existence

of man and of several species of animals. It is by respiration that

life is preserved; and when it is once begun, it never ceases till

death. Yet there is reason to believe that the foramen ovale is not

closed immediately after the birth; and of consequence a part of

the blood may continue to pass through that aperture. All the blood

cannot, therefore, at first have a communication with the lungs; and

it is probable a new-born child might sustain a privation of air for

a considerable time without losing its existence. Or at least the

possibility of this, I once seemingly confirmed fey an experiment

upon some young dogs. I put a pregnant bitch, of the large greyhound

species, just as she was about to litter, into a tub filled with warm

water, where after fastening her in such a manner that the lower parts

were covered with some water, she brought forth three puppies, which

were accordingly received into a liquid as warm as they had left.

After washing them in this water, I removed the puppies, without giving

them time to breathe, into a smaller tub filled with warm milk; I chose

milk in order that they might receive nourishment if they required

it. In this milk they were kept immersed above half an hour: and when

taken out they were all found alive. They began to breathe, and to

discharge some moisture by the mouth. Having allowed them to respire

for half an hour, I again put them into warm milk, and left them a

second half-hour; at the expiration of which two of them were taken

out vigorous and seemingly no wise incommoded, but the third appeared

rather in a languishing state; this I caused to be carried to the

mother, which by this time had produced, in the natural way, six other

puppies; and though it had been brought forth in water and had lived

in milk one half hour before, and another after it had breathed, it

yet received so little injury from the experiment, that it presently

recovered and was as strong and lively as the rest of the litter. After

allowing the other two about an hour to breathe, I put them once more

into the warm milk, in which they remained another half hour. Whether

they swallowed any of this liquor or not is uncertain; but on being

taken out they appeared nearly as vigorous as ever. After being carried

to the mother, however, one died the same day; but whether by any

accident, or by what it had suffered while immersed in the liquid, and

deprived of air, I could not determine. The other lived, as well as the

first, and both throve equally with those which had not gone through

the same trials. This experiment I never carried farther; but I saw

enough to convince me that respiration is less necessary to a new-born,

than to a grown animal; and that it might be possible, with proper

precautions, to keep the foramen ovale from being closed, and thus

produce excellent divers, and different kinds of amphibious animals,

which might live equally in air or in water.

The air, on its first admission into the lungs, generally meets with

some obstacle, occasioned by a liquid collected in the wind-pipe. This

obstacle is more or less great, in proportion as the liquid is more

or less viscous. At its birth, however, the infant raises its head,

which before reclined on its breast, and by this movement the canal of

the wind-pipe is lengthened, the air obtains a place, and forces the

liquid into the lungs: and by dilating the bronchia, it distributes

over their coats the mucous substance which opposes its passage. The

superfluity of this moisture is presently dried up by the renewal of

the air; or, if the infant is incommoded by it, it coughs, and at

length relieves itself by expectoration, which, as it has not yet the

strength to spit, is seen to flow from the mouth.

As we remember nothing of what happened to us at this period, it is

impossible to determine what feelings the impression of air produces

in a new-born infant. Its cries, however, the instant it first draws

breath, are pretty certain signs of the pain it feels from the action

of the air. Till the moment of its birth, the infant is accustomed to

the mild warmth of a tranquil liquid; and we may suppose, that the

action of a fluid, whose temperature is unequal, gives too violent a

shock to the delicate fibres of its body. By warmth and by cold it

seems to be equally affected; in every situation it complains, and pain

appears to be its first, its only sensation.

For some days after they are brought into the world, most animals

have their eye-lids closed. Infants open them the moment of their

birth, but they are fixed and dull; they want that lustre which they

afterwards acquire; and when they move, it is rather an accidental

roll than an act of vision. The pupil of the eye is seen to dilate, or

contract, in proportion to the quantity of light it receives, yet is

incapable of distinguishing objects, because the organs of vision are

still imperfect; the tunica cornea, or horny tunicle is wrinkled, and

perhaps the retina is also too soft to receive the images of external

objects, and admit the sense of seeing.

The same remark is equally applicable to the other senses; they have

not acquired that consistency which is necessary to their operations;

and even when they have, a long time must elapse before the sensations

of the infant can be just and complete. The senses are so many

instruments which we must learn to employ. Of these sight, which seems

to be the noblest and the most admirable, is also the most uncertain

and delusive; and were its effects not every moment corrected by the

testimony of touching we should constantly be misled and draw false

conclusions. This sense of touching is the measure and criterion of

all the others; it alone is essential to the animal's existence; and

is alone diffused universally over its body. Yet, even this sense,

in an infant just born, is imperfect; by its cries, indeed, it gives

indication of pain; but it has no expression to denote pleasure. It

is forty days before it begins to smile; about the same time also it

begins to weep; its former expressions of pain being unaccompanied with

tears. On the countenance of a new born infant there appears no vestige

of the passions, the features of the face not having acquired that

consistence and form which are necessary for expressing the sentiments

of the soul. All the other parts of its body are alike feeble and

delicate; its motions are unsteady and uncertain; it is unable to

stand upright; its legs and thighs are still bent, from the habit it

contracted in the womb; it has not strength enough to stretch forth its

arms or to grasp any thing with its hands; and, if abandoned, it would

remain on its back, without being able to turn itself.

From all which it appears, that the pain felt by infants soon after

their birth, and which they express by crying, is a sensation merely

corporeal, similar to that of other animals, who also cry the minute

they are brought forth; as also, that the mental sensations do not

begin to manifest themselves till forty days have elapsed; smiling

and weeping being produced by two internal sensations, which both

depend on the action of the mind. The former is the effect of an

agreeable emotion, which can only arise from the sight, or resemblance

of an object known, beloved, and desired; the latter is that of a

disagreeable impression, compounded of sympathy, and anxious concern

for ourselves; both imply a certain degree of knowledge, as well as an

ability to compare, and to reflect. Smiles and tears, therefore, are

signs peculiar to the human species, for expressing mental pleasure or

pain; while cries, and the other signs of bodily pain and pleasure, are

common to man, and to the greatest part of the animal creation.

But let us return to the material organs and affections of the

body. The size of an infant born at the full time, is usually about

twenty-one inches; this is not without exception, some falling short

of and others exceeding this measurement. In children of twenty-one

inches, the breast, measured by the length of the sternum, is nearly

three inches; and in those of fourteen, only two inches. At nine

months, the foetus generally weighs from twelve to fourteen pounds.

The head is large in proportion to the rest of the body; but this

disproportion gradually wears off as the size of the child increases.

Its skin is very soft, and from its transparency, by which the blood

beneath appears, it is also of a reddish cast. It is even pretended,

that those children whose skins are the most red when born, will

afterwards be the fairest, and the most beautiful.

The form of the body and the members of a new born infant, are by no

means perfect: all the parts are too round, and even when the child

is in good health, they seem swelled. At the end of three days,

there generally appears a kind of jaundice; and at this time there

is generally milk in the breasts of the infants, which is squeezed

out with the fingers. The superfluous juices, and the swelling of the

different parts diminish by degrees, as the child increases in growth.

In some children just born, the brain-pan may be observed to palpitate;

and in all, the action of the sinuses, or arteries of the brain, may be

felt at this place. Over this aperture is formed a kind of scurf, which

is sometimes very thick, and must be rubbed with brushes in proportion

as it begins to dry. This matter seems to have some analogy with that

of the horns of some animals, which also derive their origin from an

aperture of the skull, and from the substance of the brain. We shall

hereafter take an opportunity to shew, that the extremities of the

nerves become solid by being exposed to the air, and that it is this

nervous substance produces claws, nails, horns, &c.

The fluid contained in the amnios leaves a viscous, whitish matter upon

the infant, which is sometimes so adhesive, that it must be diluted

with some mild liquid before it can be removed. In this country we

never wash the infant but in warm water; yet there are whole nations,

who inhabit climates much more severe than ours, that plunge their

children into cold water the minute they are born, without their

suffering the least injury. The Laplanders are even said to leave their

infants in snow, till by the cold their respiration is nearly stopped,

and then plunge them into a bath of warm water. They are treated thus

roughly thrice every day during the first year, and afterwards as often

every week, do they undergo an immersion in cold water. The people of

the North are persuaded that the practice of cold bathing renders men

more healthy and robust; and it is for this reason they enure their

progeny to it from their birth. The truth is, we are ignorant with

the extent of what our body is capable of suffering, acquiring, or

losing by the power of habit. The Indians in the isthmus of America,

for example, receive no injury from plunging into cold water when in

a sweat; and as the most speedy remedy for intoxication, the women

throw their husbands into the river when they are drunk; the minute

after delivery, mothers scruple not to bathe in cold water with their

infants, and yet dangerous as we should consider this practice, these

women are rarely known to die in child-bearing.

A few minutes after birth the infant discharges urine, and this

generally when it feels the heat of the fire: and sometimes also the

meconium or excrement which have been collected in the intestines

during its residence in the matrix. This last evacuation is not always

performed so soon, but if it does not happen in the course of the first

day, the child is often affected with a pain in the bowels; in which

case methods are taken to facilitate the discharge. The meconium is

black, and when the infant is effectually eased of it, the subsequent

stools are of a whitish cast. This change generally happens on the

second or third day, and then the excrement becomes more foetid than

the meconium; a proof that the bile and other bitter humours of the

body begin to intermix with it. This fact tends to support our former

remark, that the foetus did not receive any food by its mouth, but

received all its nourishment by absorption.

The infant is allowed time to throw off the slime and meconium, which

are in its bowels and intestines, before it is allowed to suck. As

these substances might sour the milk, and produce bad effects, it is

first made to swallow a little wine and sugar, in order to fortify the

stomach, and to procure such evacuations as may be necessary to prepare

it for receiving and digesting its food; nor ought it to receive the

breast till 10 or 12 hours after the birth.

Hardly has the infant left the womb of its mother, and enjoyed the

liberty of extending its limbs, when it is again put into a more cruel

confinement. The head of the helpless infant is fixed to one position;

its arms and legs put in strict bondage, and it is laced with bandages

so strait as not to be able to move a single joint. Well is it when the

compression is not so great as to obstruct the respiration, or that

the midwife has taken the precaution to lay it upon its side, that the

natural moisture may emit of itself from the mouth, since it is denied

the power of turning its head in order to facilitate this emission.

Do not then those nations act more wisely than we who cover or clothe

their children without shackling them in swathing-bands? the Siamese,

the Japanese, the Indians, the Negroes, the Savages of Canada, of

Virginia, or Brazil, and almost all the inhabitants of South America,

lay their infants naked upon a suspended bed of cotton or put them into

their cradles lined with fur. Those practices are certainly liable to

less inconveniences than ours. In swaddling a child, it is impossible

but the restraint must give it uneasiness; and the efforts it makes to

disentangle itself have a greater tendency to injure the form of the

body, than any position it might assume was it left at full liberty.

Swathing-bands may be compared to stays, which young girls are made to

wear in order to preserve their shapes, but which nevertheless occasion

more diseases and deformities than they are supposed to prevent.

If the efforts which children make for liberty, when confined in the

swaddling-clothes, are hurtful, the inaction in which they are held by

it, is perhaps still more so. Want of exercise naturally retards the

growth of their limbs, and diminishes the strength of their bodies;

and of consequence such children as enjoy the liberty of moving at

pleasure, must be the most vigorous. It was for this reason that the

ancient Peruvians gave their infants the full freedom of their arms in

a swathing-bag; afterwards, as their children grew, they put them up to

the middle in a hole dug in the earth, and lined with linen; by this

method they had their arms free, and could move their heads and bend

their bodies, without falling or hurting themselves. So soon as they

were able to step, they were presented with the breast, at a little

distance, as an incentive for them to walk. The children of Negroes are

often exposed to much greater fatigues, in order to come at the nipple,

they cling round one of their mother's haunches with their legs, and

support themselves without any assistance from her; seizing the breast

they continue to suck in perfect safety, notwithstanding she is all the

while in motion, or at work. These children begin to walk, or rather

creep on their knees and hands, in the second month; and this exercise

qualities them for running afterwards in this manner, almost as nimble

as they do upon their feet.

_END OF THE THIRD VOLUME._

T. Gillet, Printer, Wild Court.

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

All paragraphs split by illustrations were rejoined.

All obvious typographical errors were corrected.

In the Table of Contents, Chapter VI's starting page was corrected

to 81.

On page 203, the word sospetare was changed to sospettare.

Chapter XI (p. 260) was mislabeled as "IX" and was corrected.

Likewise, Chapter II (page 334) was mislabeled "III" and

was corrected.

Otherwise, all text is as presented in the printed version.

Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c. · 第 4 / 4 章

The collection of anatomical observations makes mention of foetuses