The Dublin practice of midwifery / By Henry Maunsell.

  • Henry Maunsell
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Dublin practice of midwifery / By Henry Maunsell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/260 page 44
    of birds during its passage through the ovi- duct. As to the time occupied by these actions, which may be properly considered as constituting the process of conception^ much uncertainty prevails. It may probably be set down at about a fortnight, as I believe the ovum has seldom been recognised in the uterus in less than two or three weeks from the period of impregnation. In multiparient animals, and in the human fe- male who conceives of more than one child, the number of cicatrices and of corpora lutea in the ovaries exactly corresponds with the number of foetuses in the uterus. Conception has been hitherto spoken of entirely with reference to the operations of the female; with respect to the part borne by the male, but little is ascertained with certainty. We are, in fact, quite ignorant as to the mode in which the semen effects the awakening of the ovum, which we have already seen may be brought, in some animals, to a state of apparent perfection, and expelled from the body, without its aid. It is not even certainly known whether actual contact of the male and female products is an essential requisite of impreg- nation, or whether this result may not be produced by a mere exhalation or aura proceeding from the male semen. In favour of actual contact are some observations of Ruysch, in which he says that he detected semen in the Fallopian tubes of a wo-
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image