[27] In making these observations upon the formation of the ductus arteriosus, we must request our readers to consider this as still an unsettled question.
[28] The vernix caseosa is a viscid fatty matter of a yellowish white colour, adhering to different parts of the child’s body, and in some cases in such quantity as to cover the whole surface; it seems to be a substance intermediate between fibrine and fat, having a considerable resemblance to spermaceti. From the known activity of the sebaceous glands in the fœtal state, and from this smegma being found in the greatest quantity about the head, arm-pits, and groins, where these glands are most abundant, there is every reason to consider it as the secretion of the sebaceous glands of the skin during the latter months of pregnancy.
[29] Fourcroy, it is true, has shown that the fœtal blood is not only of a darker colour, but incapable of becoming reddened by the contact of atmospheric air, and that it coagulates very imperfectly. Others have shown that there is no perceptible difference in the colour of the blood of the umbilical arteries from that of the umbilical vein. Still, however, this by no means disproves what we have now stated, and which is now generally allowed to be the office of the placenta during the latter periods of pregnancy.
[30] “A gentleman,” says Dr. Montgomery, “lately informed me that, being afflicted with a stepmother naturally more disposed to practise the fortiter in re than to adopt the suaviter in modo, he and all the household had learned from experience to hail with joyful anticipations the lady’s pregnancy, as a period when clouds and storms were immediately changed for sunshine and quietness.” (Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy, p. 9.)
[31] Dionis says, that “women of a sanguine complexion, who form more blood every month than is necessary for the nourishment of the fœtus whilst it is small, discharge the overplus by the vessels which open into the vagina during the first months.”
[32] The menstrual blood is more pale and sparing: it usually comes from the hæmorrhoidal vessels of the vagina, or at most, from those of the cervix uteri. (Levret, Art des Accouchemens, § 233.)
[33] Should the vessels of the cervix uteri take upon them the secretion of the menses, this discharge can thus continue through pregnancy. (Carus, Lehrbuch der Gynakologie, bd. ii. p. 67.)
[34] L’Art d’Accouchemens, § 369. (note;) also Deventer, Novum Lumen Obstet. chap. xv.; Perfect’s Cases of Midwifery, vol. ii. p. 71. [Meurer, American Journ. Med. Sc., April 1841, p. 494.]
[35] This fact was observed so long ago as by Aristotle, also by Schenk, as quoted by Mauriceau, lib. i. chap. 1. Mauriceau himself mentions having seen several cases, one of which forms the subject of his 393d observation. “Le 8 Juin, 1685. J’ai vu une jeune femme agée seulement de seize ans et demi, marié depuis un an qui était grosse de cinq mois ou environ, quoiqu’elle n’eut jamais eu ses menstrues, à ce qu’elle me dit aussi bien que son marie, qui ne pouvait pas se persuader qu’elle cût pû devenir grosse, n’ayant pas encore eu ce premier signe de fécondité; m’alleguant, pour soutenir son opinion, qu’on ne voyait jamais de fruit d’un arbre qui n’eut été précédé de sa fleur. Mais je lui dis qu’il était certain, comme il reconnut bien par sa propre experience en voyant accoucher sa femme d’un enfant vivant quatre mois ensuite, que les jeunes femmes pouvaient bien quelquefois devenir grosses, ainsi qu’il était arrivé à sa femme, sans avoir jamais eu leur menstrues, si elles usaint du coit dans le temps méme quelles étaient sur le point d’avoir effectivement cette evacuation naturelle pour le premier fois.”
[36] Rœderer, Elm. Art. Obst. p. 46. The original is a masterly specimen of description, not less remarkable for its singular comprehensiveness than the beauty of the style. “Menstruorum suppressionem mammarum tumour insequitur, quocirca mammæ crescunt, replentur, dolent interdum, indurescunt; venæ earum cœruleo colore conspicuæ redduntur; crassescit papilla, inflata videtur, color ejusdem fit obscurior; simili colore distinguitur discus ambiens qui in latitudinem majorem expanditur, parvisque eminentiis quasi totidem papillulis tegitur.”