The Dublin practice of midwifery / by Henry Maunsell.

Henry Maunsell

Date:: 1856

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

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$malj whereby an egg-like cyst was rendered %dsil3le. This effect, however, might be produced by the mere coagulation of the albumen probably con- tained in the fluid rudiments. It is not improbable that the matter may be absorbed in a fluid form, and furnished with a cyst composed of the future amnion and chorion during its transit through the tube; in siipport of which conjecture we have an analogy in the addition of the shell to the o\'um of birds during its passage tlu'ough the o-\iduct. As to the time occupied by these actions, which may be properly considered as constituting the process of conception, much uncertainty prevails. It may probably be set down at about a fortnight, as I believe the ovum has seldom been recognised in the uterus in less than two or three weeks from the period of impregnation. In multiparient animals, and in the human fe- male who conceives of more than one child, the number of cicatrices and of corpora lutea in the ovaries exactly corresponds with the number of foetuses in the uterus. Conception has been hitherto spoken of entirely with reference to the operations of the female; with respect to the part borne by the male, but httle is ascertained with certainty. We are, in fact, qiiite ignorant as to the mode in which the semen effects the awakening of the ovum, which we laave already seen may be brought, in some animals^ to$

The Dublin practice of midwifery / by Henry Maunsell.

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