I shall only farther hypothetically observe, that, if the Infant was perfectly form’d about the 35th Day, it was animated about the 70th, and consequently will be born about the 210th Day, the last of the 7th Month.
IF the Formation was perfected about the 40th Day, the Animation happen’d about the 80th, and the BIRTH will (unluckily) happen towards the close of the 8th Month.
IF Formation happen’d the 45th, Animation follow’d the 90th Day, and the BIRTH will succeed about the close of 9 Months.
IF Formation was compleated the 50th, Animation follow’d the 100th Day, and consequently the BIRTH[[21]] will appear about the last of 10 Months; and so of any other certain Time, definite Day, or stated Hour.
IT is, in all the above-mentioned Cases, to be farther animadverted, that the Male, as he proceeds from the more calid, siccid, and spirituous Seed, arrives sooner to Perfection in Formation and Animation; and is consequently sooner born than the Female, whose Nature is more cold, flaccid, and weak, even in the Womb: Hence an Allowance of a few Days more or less[[22]], may be justly made, according to the Sex.
CHAP. X.
Of the NUTRITION and POSTURE of the INFANT.
THIS is manifest, that the Foetus is nourished in the first Months, by the Umbilical Vessels only: But the several following Reasons engage me to think; that, in the latter Months, it is alimented by the Mouth also, and That by a glutinous limpid Liquor: Which, being (probably) secreted from the Amnion for that Purpose, is found to surround it.
I. BECAUSE this Liquor, which seems very proper for that Use, is found not only in the Mouth, but also in the OEsophagus and Stomach of the INFANT.
II. IT is found changed in the smaller Intestines[[23]]; and being chylify’d in the Ventricle, it turns to Excrements, call’d Meconium, in the Rectum, or strait Gut.