The physiological anatomy and physiology of man / by R.B. Todd and William Bowman. Vol.2.
- Robert Bentley Todd
- Date:
- 1856
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The physiological anatomy and physiology of man / by R.B. Todd and William Bowman. Vol.2. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
645/694
![CHAP.XLIll.] LIQUOR AMNII. structui-es of the cord, iu tlie form of a tubular sheath, which becomes continuous with the integument of the foetus at the navel. The amnion is tolerably transparent, and not very thick; but often so firm, that it cannot be ruptured very readily. No vessels, nerves, or lymphatics have yet been demonstrated in the healthy membrane; but in some cases of disease it has been found to be highly vascu- lar. M. Coste speaks of the amnion as the epidermis of the blastoderm a. The sac of the amnion contains a considerable quantity of an albuminous fluid, the liquor amnii, which, according to Vogt, con- sists of common salt, lactate of soda, albumen, and sulphate and phosphate of lime. Dr. G. O. Rees has found urea in the liquor amnii, and the presence of this substance has been confirmed by other observers. The liquor amnii, at three-and-a-half months, had a specific gravity of 1-0182, and contained 1077 of albumen in 1000 parts; and at six months its specific gravity was i'0092, and it contained only 6'67 parts of albumen per 1000. Liquor Amnii.—The liquor amnii enters the mouth of the foetus, and no doubt passes into the trachea as well as the stomach; but the amount of nutrition which the fostus receives from this source, must indeed be small. At the same time, it is interesting to observe, that the composition of the liquor amnii varies at different periods of pregnancy, as has been shown by Vogt; and during the earlier pe- riods of gestation, the quantity of chloride of sodium is much greater than during the latter part of the time. The proportion of this sub- stance appears to be greater at that period of the development of the embryo, when cell-multiplication and growth is most active. Dr. Beale has made, for Dr. A. Farre, an examination of liquor amnii at the eighth month, taken from the bodv of a woman who died at this period of gestation. The fluid was of a very pale straw colour, slightly turbid, and contained flocculi sus- pended in it. It was quite limpid, and readily dropped from a tube. It was very feebly acid, and remained so for several days after it had been removed. The deposit was subjected to micro- scopical examination, and found to contain many epithelial cells and oil-globules from the vernix caseosa, the soft oily coating with which the skin of the foetus becomes covered in the later months of pregnancy. Besides these, there were several clear, transparent, elongated cyUndrical bodies, evidently casts of the uriniferous tubes of the kidney of the foetus. This observation proves, very satisfac- torily, that the urinary secretion becomes mixed with the liquor amnii in the human subject.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21521062_0645.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
