Bartholinus anatomy made from the precepts of his father, and from the observations of all modern anatomists, together with his own ... / published by Nich. Culpeper and Abdiah Cole.

CHAP. XXXVI. Of the Membranes which infold the Child in the Womb.

ALL the Parts serving for Generation, both in Men and Women are explained. But because my de∣sign is to discourse of what ever comes under knife of an Anatomist, I must also propound some things which are contained in the Womb of a woman with child, such as are

I. The Infant, whose Structure differs* 1.1 only in some things, from that of a grown person. Which I shall briefly recount, as I did publickly, not long since de∣monstrate the same, at the Diffection of a Child. Now the parts of a large Child differ from those of a render Embryo, and the parts of both these from those of a grown Man. 1. In Mag∣nitude, either proportionate to the whole Body, or less proportionate. 2. In Colour, some parts are more red, some more pale then in a grown person. 3. In Shape, as may be seen in the Kidneys and Head. 4. In Ca∣vity, as in the Vessels of the Navil and Heart. 5. In Number, either abounding, as in the Bones of the Head, Breast, and Sutures of the Skull; or deficient, as in the Call, some Bones, of the Back, Wrist, &c. 6. In Hardness, as in the said Bones. 7. In Situation, as the Teeth. 8. In Use, as the Navil-vessels, and those of the Heart, the Gut Caecum, &c. 9. In Motion, as the Lungs, &c. 10. In Excrements. 11. In Strength and Perfection of the Whole.

[illustration]

The XXIX. TABLE.

This TABLE shews how the Parts of a Child in the Womb differ from those of a grown Person.

The FIGURES Ex∣plained.

FIG. I.

• AA. The Deputy-kidneys.
• BB. The true Kidneys, as yet distinguished into sundry Kernels, il expressed by the Graver, in respect of their Situation.
• C. The Arteria magna, out of which bran∣ches go to the Deputies and the Kid∣neys.
• D. The Vena cava out of which the Emul∣gents proceed, and the little Veins of the Deputies.

FIG. II. Shews the Posture of a Child in the Womb, which does nevertheless somtimes vary.

• A. The Head of the Child hanging down∣wards, so as its Nose is bid between its Knees.
• BB. The Buttocks to which the Heels are applied.
• CC. The Arms.
• D. The Cord drawn along its Neck, and turned back over its Fore-head, which is continued with the Womb-cake, ex∣pressed in the next Figure.

FIG. III.

• AAA. The Membrane Chorion divided.
• BB. The Membrane Amnios, as yet covering the Cord.
• CC. The hollow and inner side of the womb∣cake which looks towards the Child, with the Twigs of Vessels.
• D. A Portion of the twisted Cord.

FIG. IV. Shews the outside of the Placenta, which cleavs to the Womb, though here separated, with the Clifts and Chinks [EEEE] which vary in Number and Depth.

FIG. V. Shews the Skeleton of a young Child, in very many things differing from that of a Person grown up; as appears by the Text

FIG. I.

• AA. The Deputy-kidneys.
• BB. The true Kidneys, as yet distinguished into sundry Kernels, il expressed by the Graver, in respect of their Situation.
• C. The Arteria magna, out of which bran∣ches go to the Deputies and the Kid∣neys.
• D. The Vena cava out of which the Emul∣gents proceed, and the little Veins of the Deputies.

FIG. II. Shews the Posture of a Child in the Womb, which does nevertheless somtimes vary.

• A. The Head of the Child hanging down∣wards, so as its Nose is bid between its Knees.
• BB. The Buttocks to which the Heels are applied.
• CC. The Arms.
• D. The Cord drawn along its Neck, and turned back over its Fore-head, which is continued with the Womb-cake, ex∣pressed in the next Figure.

FIG. III.

• AAA. The Membrane Chorion divided.
• BB. The Membrane Amnios, as yet covering the Cord.
• CC. The hollow and inner side of the womb∣cake which looks towards the Child, with the Twigs of Vessels.
• D. A Portion of the twisted Cord.

FIG. IV. Shews the outside of the Placenta, which cleavs to the Womb, though here separated, with the Clifts and Chinks [EEEE] which vary in Number and Depth.

FIG. V. Shews the Skeleton of a young Child, in very many things differing from that of a Person grown up; as appears by the Text

These things will be more evident, if we shall run over all the particles which are in a Child different from the parts of our Bodies,

• 1. The Umbilical or Navil-Vessels, vulgarly called the Navil strings, are three, and hollow throughout to pass and repass the Mothers blood, which in grown persons turn to Ligaments.
• 2. There is little or no appearance of the Call, be∣cause there is as yet no publick digestion of the Sto∣mach or Guts, and they are sufficiently cherished by the Members of the Child folded together and the hear of the Womb.
• 3. The stomach is smal, no bigger then a Wall-nut, and for the most part empty, there being no publick Concoction, or it is moistened with a clammy Hu∣mor.
• 4. The Caecum intestinum is large, somtimes thick, other whiles long, for the most part ful of Excrements, of which I spake before.
• 5. The thin Guts appear contracted, colored with yellow Excrements descending through the Gall∣bladder.
• 6. The thick Guts especially the Rectum, do con∣tain thick black Excrements, from the private digesti∣on, of the Stomach, Guts, Liver and Spleen or of the Spleen only, voided hither by the Caeliaca, or of the Liver alone, purged out by the Choler-passage. They are black, through their long stay.
• 7. The true Kidneys, are compacted of very many Kernels. The deputy Kidneys are large and more hollow.
• 8. The Liver with its 〈◊〉〈◊〉 fills both the Hypochon∣dria. The Spleen is smal, because there is yet no fer∣mentation in the Stomach and Veins. The color of both, is more bright and red, then in a grown per∣son.
• 9. In the Dugs there are no kernels, only a little sign of a Nipple.
• 10. The Thymus growing to the Vessels, is visible beyond the Heart with a threefold large kernel.
• 11. The Ears of the Heart are large, especially the right Ear, and pale.
• 12. The Unions of the Vessels in the Heart, by Anastomosis and a little Channel, are singular, of which we shall speak in the following Book.
• 13. The Lungs shine with a yellow redness, which is afterwards allayed by their motion. Because they are at present immoveable, because transpiration alone and the Ventilation of the Mothers Blood do suffice the Child in the Womb, unless it happen to cry in the Womb.
• 14. In the Head all things are large. The Eyes stick out, the skull is exceeding big, but divided into many parts, the brain is soft and commonly overflows with moisture; the Pericranium continued with the Dura mater, passes through the Sutures.
• 15. In the Skeleton, the Bones of the whole Body are soft in the first months, afterwards some are hard, ac∣cording as they are of use, as the Ribs; some are grist∣ly, as the Brest-bone, the Wrist-bone, and the Tarsus or beginning of the Foot (all without any hard Apo∣physes or Epiphyses) which nevertheless in tract of time do grow to a bony hardness, the middle parts growing hard first: and after their hardning some re∣maine one continued bone, others are divided into many Particles.
• 16. The Crown of the Head remains very long open, covered only with a Membrane, which by little and little with age grows close up. The Sagittal future reaches to the Nose. The greater Conjunctions of the bones are moveable, placed one upon another, that in the coming out of the Womb, the skul being pressed, may give way to the straitness of the passage. The Os Cuneiforme is divided into four parts. The Bones of the Nose and both the Jawes are divided, a Gristle coming between. The Teeth lie hid in their sockets, covered with the Gums. The Vertebrae of the Back, have no sharp productions, that they may not hurt the Womb. The Breast-bone being soft, hath in the mid∣dle according to the length thereof, four little round bones, Plane and Pory. Also the Planke, Hip and Share-bones are distinguished by Gristles. The Carpus and Tarsus are Gristly, and afterward as the Child grows bigger, they are spread out into divers bones, when there is a necessity of using the Hands and Feet, to handle and go.
• 17. In the outward parts, as the Skin, Hairs, Nails, &c. there is some difference, known to all.

II. The Membranes which invest the Child, cloath and cover it: of which in this Chapter.

III. The Navil-vessels, of which in the Chapter following.

The MEMBRANES which infold the Child; are the first thing bred in the Womb after Conception, to fence the nobler part of the Seed as may be seen with the Eyes, even in the smallest Conceptions, and as the Authority of all Authors well-near does testifie.

Their Efficient cause, is the formative faculty, and not only* 1.2 the Heat of the Womb; as the Heat is wont to cause a crust up∣on Bread or Gruel. For then,

• I. The Crust would stick hard to the Child and could not be separated.
• II. The Heat of the Womb is not so great, as to be able to bake the substance of the Seed in so short a time; whereas these Membranes are bred well near immediately after the Conception. And if there were so great Heat in the Womb, no Conception could be made, according to Hippocrates in the 62. Aphorism of his fifth Book.

We conceive their matter to be* 1.3 the thicker part of the womans seed. Others, as Arantius, will have them to be productions of the inner Tu∣nicles, the Chorion of the Perito∣naeum, and the Amnion of the Membrana 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Others that the Mothers seed alone makes these Memi∣branes: others, that they are made as well of the mans as the Womans seed.

These Membranes in Man-kind* 1.4 are two, in brute Beasts three: which being joyned and growing together, do make the SECUNDINE so cal∣led.

• 1. Because it is the second tabernacle of the Child, next the Womb.
• 2. Because it comes away by a second birth, after the Child. [Hence in English we call it the After∣birth.]

The first Membrane is termed AMNIOS because of of its softness and thinness, also Agnina, Charta Virginea, Indusium, &c. And it is the thinnest of them all, white, soft, transparent, furnished with a few very smal Veins and Arteries, dispersed within the foldings thereof. It compasses the Child immediately and cleaves every where almost to the Chorion, especially at the ends, about the Womb-Cake, united in the middle thereof, where the Umbilical Vessels come forth. Yet we can easily separate it from the Chorion. There is in it

plenty of Moisture and Humors wherein the child swims which proceeds in Brutes from Sweat, in Man∣kind from Sweat and Urin. But Aqua∣pendent having observed that in Brutes* 1.5 the Sweat and Urin were contained in several little Membranes, the latter more low and externally in the Chorion, the former higher, and more inwardly in the Amnion; he thought it was so in Mankind much more. But Experience and Reason are against it, because there are no Passages to the Cho∣rion. And because we do not find the Urachus open in Mankind, therefore the Urin cannot be thence col∣lected in the Amnios, but is voided by the Yard if it be troublesom, and the remainder is kept till the time of the Birth, in the Bladder, which in Children new born is for the most part distended and full, but in Brutes empty. Nor does the sharpness of the Urin offend the Child in the Womb, because 1. It is but little in a Child in the Womb, because of the benignity and purity of its Nourishment. 2. The Skin is daubed with a clammy Humor, and Brutes are defended by their hairiness. Therefore the Use is

I. That the Child floating therein as in a Bath, may be higher and less burthensom to the Mother.

II. That the Child may not strike against any neighboring hard Parts.

III. That in the Birth, the Membrane being broke, this Humor running out, may make the way through the Neck of the Womb, smooth, easie, and slippery.

Part of the Amnios does ever and anon hang about the Head of the Child when it comes forth, and then the Child is said to be Galeatus or Helmeted. This Helmet the Midwives diligently observe for divers respects, and they prognosticate good fortune to the Child, and others that use it, if it be red; but if it be black, the praesage bad fortune.

Paraeus, Lemnius and others, conceive that the happy and strong Labor of the Mother, is the cause that the foresaid Helmet comes out with the child, but in a troublesom Labor it is left behind. Spigelius contra∣riwife, thinks that when the Mother and child are weak, it comes away. Besterus makes the Reason to be the roughness of the Amnios, which the child is not able to break through, or the weakness of the child, for which cause it seldom lives to ripeness of Age. I have seen both those that have come into the world with this Helmet, and those without it, miserable; and by chance it comes to cleave both to the Heads of strong and weak children.

The second Membrane is termed Chorion, because it compasses the child like a Circle.

This immediately compasses the former, and lies beneath it in a round shape like a Pancake, whose inner or hollow part it covers and invelops, spreading it self out according to the measure thereof. It is hardly se∣parated therefrom, and it strongly unites the Vessels to the Womb-liver, and bears them up. Towards the child it is more smooth and slippery, but where it is spread under the Womb-cake, and fastned thereto, it is more rough: also it is sufficiently thick and double. In Brutes the Cotyledons* 1.6 cleave hereunto, which consist of a fle∣shy and spungy substance. But in Man∣kind, this Membrane cleavs immediately to the womb, by a certain round and reddish lump of flesh, fastned to one part only of the womb (commonly the upper and former part) nor does it compass the whole child; be∣ing framed of an innumerable company of Branches, of Veins, and Arteries, among which bl••••d out of the Vessels seems to be shed and interlarded.

That same round Mass is called PLACENTA UTERI the Womb-pancake, by reason of its Shape; also the WOMB LIVER: which I will now exactly describe ac∣cording as it hath been my hap to see it.

Its Figure is circular, but the Circumference une∣qual, in which I have observed five Prominences ran∣ked in due order, and the Membrane Chorion in the intermediate spaces, thicker then ordinary. Where it looks towards the Womb, it is rough and waved, like baked bread that hath chinks in it; and being cut in this part, it discovers an infinite number of fibres, which if you follow, they will bring you to the Trunks of the Veins.

It is one in Number, even in those who bear two or more children at a burthen. For into one Womb∣cake, so many Cords are inserted in divers places, as there are children.

Its Magnitude varies according to the condition of the Bodies and the children•• Yet it is about a foot in the Diameter.

The Substance thereof seems to be a Body wove to∣gether of infinite little fibres, blood as it were congea∣led being interposed, which is easily separated. See∣ing therefore it hath a Parenchyma, it is no wonder, if like a kind of, Liver it make or prepare blood to nou∣rish the child.

The Nature and Appearance of the Substance, is not every where alike. For here and there it is glandulous, especially in the tops of the Hillocks, as being the E∣munctories of the childs Work-house, placed in the outmost Verges. It is thicker in the middle of the hil∣locks; and thin about the brims, variously interwoven with the Capillary Veins: For,

It hath Vessels, viz. Veins and Arteries running through the same, from the Umbelical Vessels, which by little and little are all extenuated about the brims of the Womb-cake, making wonderful contextures, closely sticking to the Substance thereof, so that no part of the Branches is void. They are joyned together by vari∣ous Anastomoses, which shall be hereafter described, through which the blood in the child runs back, out of the Arteries into the Veins. For I have observed in the Veins of the Womb-cake, how that the blood con∣tained, may easily by ones finger or an instrument, be forced towards the Trunk or Cord, but not towards the Womb-cake. The contrary where to happens in the Arteries, which by impulse of the finger, do easily send the blood to the Womb-liver, but hardly to the Trunk.

Its Use is 1. To support the Navil-vessels, under which it is spred as a Pillow.

2. Because it hath a singular kind of Parenchyma, to prepare blood to nourish the Child, as the true Liver does in grown persons. For it mediately sucks the Mothers blood through its Veins, out of the Veins of the womb, and prepares and tempers it for use, and soon after sends it through the greater Navil-vein, into the Liver of the child, that it may be carried right forth unto the Heart, by the Anastomosis and little Chan∣nel; out of which by the Arteries it is distributed into the whole body of the child to nourish the same. But part of the blood returns through the Iliack Arteries, to the Womb-cake, as an appurtenance to the child; part∣ly to preserve the same by its heat, and to nourismit with Arterial blood, partly that it may be there further perfected; which Labor being finished, it returns back again into the concomitant Veins, that together with other blood, newly supplied by the Pipes of the womb, it may pass back again by the Umbelical Veins, and repeat the foresaid Circle.

[illustration]

[illustration]

The XXX. TABLE.

This TABLE pre∣sents a Child in the Womb naked, al the Coats both proper and common being divided.

The FIGURE Explained.

• AA. Portions of the Chorion dissected and removed from their place.
• B. A portion of the Amnios.
• CC. The Membrane of the Womb dissected.
• DD. The Womb-cake or womb∣liver, being a Lump of Flesh furnished with di∣vers Vessels, through which the Child receives its nou∣rishment.
• E. The Branching of the Ves∣sels, which in this place make one Ligament to co∣ver the Umbilical Ves∣sels.
• FF. The Band or Ligament, through which the Umbe∣lical Vessels are carried from the Womb-cake to the Navil.
• GG. The Situaton of a perfect Child in the Womb, ready to be born.
• H. The Implantation of the Umbilical or Navil-ves∣sels into the Navil.

The third called ALLANTO∣IDES the Pudding-membrane, does not cloath the whol con∣ception, but compasses it round like a Girdle, or a Pud∣ding.

Its Use is, to receive Urin from the Urachus in Brutes. For in Mankind there is no such Membrane: for the child in a woman, its Urin is received by the Amnios mingled with Sweat: or is kept in the Blad∣der till the Birth-time. And therefore Spigelius cannot be excused, for admitting this Membrane in Mankind; whose Description (because it belongs not to this A∣natomy) he that desires to see, let him look in Aqua∣pendent.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Wher••••n the Child in the Womb dif∣fers from a grown person
• * 1.2

  Whether the heat of the Womb only ••e the Efficient cause of the Membranes.
• * 1.3

  Sundry opini∣ons concerning the matter of the said Membranes.
• * 1.4

  Their Number. What the Secon∣dine is, and why so called?
• * 1.5

  Whence the Liquor pro∣ceeds that is in the Amni∣os.
• * 1.6

  What the Co∣tyledons are.