A sketch of human embryology : read before the New Haven County Medical Society, April 8, 1958 / by Chas. L. Ives.

  • Ives, Charles L., 1831-1879.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sketch of human embryology : read before the New Haven County Medical Society, April 8, 1958 / by Chas. L. Ives. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    /f v-^ ( %& ' A SKETCH OF HUMAN EMBRYOLOGY, Bead before the New Haven County Medical Society, April 8, 1858. BY CHAS. L. IVES, M. D., OF NEW HAVEN. To instruct, or to interest should be the aim of an Essay presented to this Society. The former is not within the province, nor often the ability, of a Junior in the Profession ; the latter is the more appro- priate object of his endeavor. With this view, I have selected a topic of but little practical value, and yet one, I conceive, of unusual interest to all. I propose to lay before you, briefly, the Development of the Human Embryo.* Omne vivum ex ovo—that every living thing comes from an egg is a maxim of Physiology now universally received. Where do we find the egg to which Man may trace his origin ? Down within the ovary of a human female is an almost impercep- tible cyst. It has lain there in quiet, perhaps for years. But the vital force, so long dormant, at last arouses it to action. It begins to enlarge, new forms appear in its interior, it gradually makes its way outward. Reaching, at length, the surface of the ovary, the cyst bursts, and its contents are discharged. A minute vesicle, invisible save to the microscope, is thus set free, and falls into the embrace of the Fallopian tube. Carried down this channel by peristaltic and ciliary action, it enters, and slowly traversing the uterus, is finally, with the secretion of that organ, cast out and lost—an aborted ovum. Another month rolls by; another cyst matures, is ruptured, and exudes the vesicle it enclosed. More fortunate than its predecessor, ~~ * In submitting this paper to publication, the writer desires to disclaim any pre- tension to originality. His only endeavor has been to present to his brethren of the County Society, a simple, concise, and at the same time intelligible account of the more prominent points of Human Embryology, which require, for their com prehension, a patient study of details in the larger Physiological Works.