PART III. MATERNITY.
CHAPTER X.
PREGNANCY.
Nature of Conception; Pregnancy Defined; Duration of Pregnancy; the Signs of Pregnancy; Quickening; the Determination of Sex at Will; the Influence of the Male Sexual Element on the Female Organism; Heredity; Hygiene of Pregnancy; Causes of Miscarriage.
"Happy he
With such a mother, faith in womankind
Beats with his bood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall,
He shall not bind his soul with clay." TENNYSON.
Nature of Conception. Conception, or impregnation, is the union of the germ and the sperm cell, the result of which is a new being. On coition, the semen being received into the female organs, which are at that time in a state of turgescence, the spermatozoa, by means of their own vibratile activity, find their way into the Fallopian tubes, and here come in contact with the ovule.
The ovule is a minute cell with a transparent membrane, within which is the yolk containing the germinal vesicle. The spermatozoon penetrates into the ovule and becomes fused with it. The processes of development begin at once to occur. There is congestion of the uterine mucous membrane out of proportion to the rest of the uterus; the ovum finds lodging here, and becomes surrounded by a membrane which incloses it in a separate sac.
Pregnancy Defined. Pregnancy begins with conception and ends with parturition; it provides for the nutrition and the expulsion of the embryo and for its nutrition for a short time after birth.