A probationary essay on infanticide : submitted, ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, ... / by James Simson ... July, 1825.

  • Simson, James, 1795-1876.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on infanticide : submitted, ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, ... / by James Simson ... July, 1825. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/68 (page 10)
    cases, now begin to appear. The length is about five or six inches, and the weight four ounces. At jive months, the motions of the foetus begin to be per¬ ceived ; the brain is soft, white, and pulpy, without any con¬ volutions ; when cut into, no greyish matter appears, and we can separate the pia mater from it easily. The heart is very evident, though the auricles and ventricles are not easily dis¬ tinguished ; the lungs are small, and composed of two lobes; the spleen is little developed; the external ear is complete; the testicles of the male are situated a little below the kid¬ neys, near the lumber vertebrae; the ovaria of females are small, soft, and placed in the abdominal region. Soemmer- ring * says, that during the first, second, and third months, the upper extremities are larger than the lower; but that about the fourth they are equal, and towards the fifth they become less. The length is now eight of* nine inches, and the weight nine or ten ounces. Sioo months. Children when born at this time, sometimes live for a few hours. The head is now smaller in proportion to the rest of the body; the brain has more consistence, but gives way when touched; the pia mater lies loosely over it, and the fontanelles are much expanded. The hair is very * Scemmerring, leones Embrynnum Humanorum, page 3, folio. Francof. 1730,