[13]. This doctrine has been controverted by two more recent experimentalists, Prevost and Dumas, as far as the chick is concerned. They assert that the rudiments of the spinal marrow appear before any other important organ.
[14]. In describing the figures in Plate I. under the head of “remarks” it is to be understood that by the expression of “the mossy vessels discharge their blood” is meant that they present themselves, immediately after the expulsion of the Ovulum, with very feeble tokens of the presence of blood at that early period of gestation.
[15]. The consideration of the development of the human embryo in its minutest parts, progressively watched and carefully examined and described, as those parts appear in succession, appertains to transcendant physiology, and would be out of place in these Prolegomena to a work which is intended to supply my brethren with practical information, obstetrical as well as medico-forensic. It is sufficient for my purpose to mention (as I have endeavoured to do) the forms which the fœtus presents, its different sizes, and the weights which correspond with those forms. To those of my readers who take an interest in embryogenesy, I recommend the careful perusal of the various continental modern authors repeatedly named in these Prolegomena. Unfortunately, since Hunter and Home, there has not been a single British practical and experimental physiologist who has investigated this subject either originally or otherwise. This fact, not at all flattering to us, is no where placed in so strong a light as in Breschet’s very erudite and classical memoirs, entitled “Etudes anatomiques, physiologiques et pathologiques de l’Oeuf duns l’Espèce humaine” which that indefatigable inquirer has enumerated and analyzed every statement and experiment made on that subject by upwards of thirty physiologists, down to the present day; among whom there is not, since Hunter and Home, a single English name besides that of Dr. Burns, recorded.
[16]. See Journal Complementaire, Vol. 6. p. 375.
[17]. I possess a placenta exhibiting these appearances (78, 79) in so distinct and beautiful a manner, that it would be a violation of truth and sincerity, or a sure sign of ignorance, to state that they do not properly resemble those which are observed in the Chorion of some of the mammalia. Those are cotyledons. So are these. I shewed the preparation to Dr. Hugh Ley. He was delighted with it, and instantly admitted the similarity in question.
[18]. Observations relatives à la Géneration. Par F. Lallemand. Paris, 1818.
[19]. Precis Elementaire de Physiologie, 2d edit. Paris, 1825.
[20]. Dr. Hunter on the Placenta. In Gravid Uterus, page 43, 9th edit. 1794.
[21]. A complete ovum, with the investing cortical membrane, and the entire decidua expelled nine weeks and three days after the last regular menstruation, in the case of a lady recently married, whom I attended (March, 1833), has afforded me ample opportunity of verifying the above and most of the previous propositions, through a careful dissection of the parts under water, and the use of the microscope.
[22]. MS. Lectures of Dr. Hunter, taken by John Sheldon, 2 Vol., formerly in the possession of Joshua Brooks, Esq. and now before me (Vol. II. page 485).