2. The second is the chorion. This skin, and that called the amnios, involve the child round, both above and underneath, and on both sides, which the alantois doth not. This skin is that which is most commonly called the secundine, as it is thick and white, garnished with many small veins and arteries, ending in the placentia before named, being very light and slippery. Its use is not only to cover the child round about, but also to receive and safely bind up the roots of the veins and arteries or navel vessels before described.
3. The third thing which makes up the secundine is the alantois, of which there is a great dispute among anatomists. Some say, there is such a thing, and others that there is not. Those that will have it to be a membrane, say it is white, soft, and exceeding thin, and just under the placentia, where it is knit to the urachos, from whence it receives the urine; and its office is to keep it separate from the sweat, that the saltness may not offend the tender skin of the child.
4. The fourth and last covering of the child is called amnios; and it is white, soft, and transparent, being nourished by some very small veins and arteries. Its use is not only to enwrap the child, but also to retain the sweat of the child.
Having thus described the parts proper to a child in the womb, I will next proceed to speak of the formation of the child therein, as soon as I have explained the hard terms of this section, that those for whose help it is designed, may understand what they read. A vein is that which receives blood from the liver, and distributes it in several branches to all parts of the body. Arteries proceed from the heart, are in continual motion, and by their continual motion quicken the body. Nerve is the same with sinew, and is that by which the brain adds sense and motion to the body. Placentia properly signifies a sugar cake; but in this section it is used to signify a spongy piece of flesh, resembling a cake, full of veins and arteries, and is made to receive the mother’s blood appointed for the infant’s nourishment in the womb. The chorion is the outward skin which compasseth the child in the womb. The alantois is the skin that holds the urine of the child during the time that it abides in the womb. The urachos is the vessel that conveys the urine from the child in the womb to the allantois. I now proceed to
Sect. II. Of the Formation of the Child in the Womb.
The woman having conceived, the first thing which is operative in the conception is the spirit whereof the seed is full, which nature quickening by the heat of the womb, stirs up to action. The internal spirits therefore, separate the parts that are less pure, which are thick, cold and clammy, from those that are more pure and noble. The less pure are cast to the outside, and with these the seed is circled round, and the membranes made, in which that seed which is most pure is wrapped round, and kept close together, that it may be defended from cold and other accidents, and operate the better.
The first thing that is formed is the amnios; the next the chorion; and they enwrap the seed round like a curtain. Soon after this (for the seed thus shut up in the woman lies not idle) the navel vein is bred, which pierceth those skins, being yet very tender, and carries a drop of blood from the veins of the mother’s womb to the seed: from which drop the vena cava, or chief vein, proceeds, from which all the rest of the veins which nourish the body spring; and now the seed hath something to nourish it, whilst it performs the rest of nature’s work, also blood administered to every part of it, to form flesh.
This vein being formed, the navel arteries are soon after formed; then the great artery, of which all the others are but branches; and then the heart; for the liver furnisheth the arteries with blood to form the heart, the arteries being made of seed, but the heart and the flesh of blood. After this the brain is formed, then the nerves to give sense and motion to the infant. Afterwards the bones and flesh are formed; and of the bones, first the vertebræ or chine bones, and then the skull, &c. As to the time this curious part of workmanship is formed, having already in the preceding Chapter, spoken distinctly and at large upon this point, and also of the nourishment of the child in the womb, I shall here only refer the reader thereto, and proceed to show the manner in which the child lies in the womb.
Sect. III. Of the manner of the Child’s lying in the Womb.
This is a thing so essential for a midwife to know, that she can be no midwife who is ignorant of it: and yet even about this, authors extremely differ; for there are not two in ten that agree what is the form that the child lies in the womb, or in what fashion it lies there; and yet this may arise in a great measure from the different figures that the child is found in, according to the different times of the woman’s pregnancy; for near the time of its deliverance out of the winding chambers of nature, it oftentimes changes the form in which it lay before for another.