An Account of the Dissection of a Bitch, Whole Cornua Uteri being Fill'd with the Bones and Flesh of a Former Conception, had after a Second Conception the Ova Affix't to Several Parts of the Abdomen. By an Ingenious Physitian, a Fellow of the Royal Society

4. An account of the Dissection of a Bitch, whose Cornua Uteri being fill'd with the bones and flesh of a former conception, had after a second conception the Ova affix't to several parts of the Abdomen: By an ingenious Physician, a Fellow of the Royal Society. It would seem a needless thing, to publish an observation, to confirm the opinion of the production of Animals from Eggs, which is almost Universally received: but that some time since the Learned Deimerbroeck, and very lately Monsieur Verney have endeavor'd to confute and expose it. The most considerable argument they use is taken from the narrowness of the Fallopian Tubes, where they open into the Womb, and at their extremities. But, tho these Authors lay a great deal of stress on the structure of that passage, it cannot be accounted of any force, when ocular demonstration is brought against it; and the Eggs discover'd in the Entrance, and afterward to have made their way through them into the Womb. The sagacious Dr. Harvey was very near the discovery of the Egg, and its use: He came within sight of it, but unhappily over look't it. After many repeated dissections of impregnated Deer, he asserts, that Nothing for about 6 or 7 Weeks can be seen in the Horns of their Wombs: That there then appeared somewhat like an Egg, a transparent liquor included in a very thin Membrane, in which after a Week he could plainly see the rudiments of a Fetus. He gives gives his Opinion very expressly in his Treatise de Partu. Vipera ovum Unicolor & molli cortice (qualis Muliebris conceptrus est) intra se continet, &c. The Viper has Eggs, whose parts are of one colour, inclosed in a soft Shell; and the very same is a Woman's conception. But he could not inform himself, how that Egg in Women or in Does comes into the Womb. He declares himself fully satisfied after several Tryals, that no liquor can be so forcibly injected into the Womb, as to make its passage into the place of Conception. Nor would he suspect, that the Seed of the Female lay till the Egg appear'd, in any crannies or recesses of the Horns; which he asserts are then as smooth and soft, as the Corpus callosum of the Brain. Dr. Harvey having thus sufficiently confuted the opinion, which till his time prevail'd, of the production of Animals from the mixture of the Seminal matter of both Sexes: 'twas not so difficult to discover, whence the Egg came, which he saw about 7 Weeks after impregnation. The Fallopian Tubes, which join to the Horns and terminate very near the ovaria (as the testes Muliebres are generally now call'd) directed the Ingenious and Industrious de Graff to make more accurate dissections of them. He presently saw, that the limpid liquor, which Dr. Harvey thought was designed to humect the parts adjacent, was contain'd in an entire Membrane, and exactly answered the description he gives of the Eggs he saw in the Womb. As he first discover'd the use of those Globules in the ovaria, so he has been so happy in that excellent piece de Mulieris Organis, to give so demonstrative an account of the alteration of those wch are impregnated, the way of excluding them by the glandulous substance swelling behind them, and the Aperture through which they pass, remaining open all the time of the gestation, and exactly in each Ovarium answering the number of Embryos in each Horn: But more particularly he has so very nicely observed the Progress of the Eggs in Conies; the very time of their passing into the Tubes, and appearing in the Horns of the Womb, (which (which comes very near that proportion of time Dr. Harvey observed the Egs in his Deer), that nothing can be objected of force enough to shake an Opinion confirmed by so many and so exact observations. He has prevented the Objection which Deumerbroech and Mr. Verney use against him, That the Tube is too narrow at each end to transmit Globules of that bigness: Alleging that the Hole by which it has its exit out of the Ovarium is as narrow; that no Force is used to open it, but it expands itself, as the Os Uteri before the Birth: As Nuts and Peach-Stones &c. give way to the germinating Plant, which is less able to make its way than the Eg. But besides, (which these Authors urge,) tho the extremity of the Tube be membranous in most Quadrupeds, in which its possible a seminal Liquor might be transmitted to the Womb; in Women its divided, like a Knot of Ribbon, and is no more adapted to receive any thing but an Eg, then the Fingers expanded to receive and contain a Fluid. The Eg has not been able sometimes to get into the Womb; Riolanus speaks of a Human Fetus seen in one of the Tubes: and Dr. Harvey assures you he has seen it himself. In the dissection of a Bitch at Oxford, the Embryos either could not get into it, the Membranous Expansion being hindered from ascending to and clipping the Ovaria, by the fulness of the Womb; or from the same cause were forc’d back again. She had been with Whelp: By a blow she received the Fetus died within her. She discharged by the rudendum a great quantity of putrid Flesh and Matter. She was afterward able to run in the Pack. After the second Impregnation she was observed to have a very ill shap’t belly. When dead the owner a Person of Quality sent her to Oxford. The Horns of the Womb were so stuff up with the Bones and firmer Muscles and thicker Skin of the Fetus’s, (some of them lay in the usual posture, the Skeletons of which were entire, the interstices of the bones only filled up with Skin and Flesh,) that no Seminal matter, or Aura seminalis could possibly find a passage passage to the Ovarium. The Eggs affected in the second impregnation, finding no room in the Horns, were forc'd back into the Abdomen; where they were found affixed to the Mesentary, Kidney &c. Only Two of the Bags had a Communication with the Womb by a slender Duct. These I suppose fell into the Horns first, and began to fasten to them, but growing larger were forc'd to retire. The other Three had had no reception there at all. The Membranes which contained the Embryos were all of them very thin, and the Animals in them had wanted a due supply of nutritious matter. This seems to give as clear a proof of the truth of the modern opinion, as can be expected or desired. But if Anatomy had not discovered these Eggs and demonstrated their use and progress to the Womb, and the advances they there make; it would appear now a very difficult task from the other opinion to persuade an inquisitive Person, how an Animal can be produc'd from the mixture of the Seminal Liquors of both Sexes. Every Animal, tho upon other accounts esteemed the most despicable, is made up of so many Different parts, and those of so excellent a Contrivance, and so wonderful a Respect to one another, that 'tis not to be imagined, that the Seminal fluids lying loose and at large in the Capacity of the Womb, and expos'd to so many accidents, could give a production so admirable. Every Jogg of it from the frequent Motions of the Female, would disturb and distract the present designs of the Plastic power they speak of. The Humors and Vapors which have a passage to, and humed all the parts of the Body, would in the Womb break in on the soft Seminal Mass, and break off the tender filaments when first forming. In Quadrupeds the Peristaltic motion of the Horns would perpetually separate the parts of the Seminal Collection, and scatter those pieces, which Nature is putting carefully together into the Fabric of an Animal. From this way of Conception Monsters would be very frequently brought forth, and would be much less wondered at than a perfect produc't. duction is now. We see how very industrious Nature is in preserving the Species of Vegetables. When the tender Seed is first formed, it's secured from external injuries by various sorts of Casers. The Embryo of the Plant contained in the Seed hath 3 or 4 Coats to inclose it: the outermost is designed of sufficient strength to preserve it. None of the Juices of the Earth are permitted to enter in, but such as are fit to put into motion or supply the liquor contained in the inner Membrane, from whence it has its first increase. And as the Figs of Animals are designed for the same purpose the Seeds of Vegetables are so there is very great agreeableness between them. The Shell and Membranes of Eggs (except those which are brought to perfection in the Female) are very like those of Seeds. Both have a Colliquamentum, or more fine and Spirituous Liquor which is first to be spent before those which are grosser can be received in the extremely fine and Small-pores of the Tactus when only just begun to be formed. And in Both, the Parts of the Embryo are designed and drawn out, before the Fig has been at all affected by the Masculine-Seed, or the Vegetable Seed put into the Womb of the Earth. The Figure of the Plant may be seen in the larger Seeds, and the Miniature of a Chick in the Spot of the Yolk. But if so great and so various an Artifice is necessary to raise a Plant, shall Nature be thought less careful and industrious in the propagation of Animals, whose parts are more numerous and of a much finer texture. And since those Animals and Vegetables are by some allowed to take their original from Figs and Seeds, whose largeness will permit them to observe them; it seems an opinion with too much precipitancy taken up, that supposes some of the greater Animals, and the least of these and Plants, are supplied from Equivocal generation; That corrupted matter from the Warmth of the Air, or the motions of its own Principles, can form the parts of the One or the Other. For the Heat of the Air endeavours to dissipate and remove the thinner parts from the more gross, like no membrane is supposed to confine them: and the more active principles are from their own nature always struggling to be quit of them. And this way, the parts of an Animal would be sooner broken into pieces, than a new one generated. But they believe it may be allowed, that the least and most insensible Animals and Plants are this way Formed. But how Minuteness make the Difficulty Greater. A Membrane to include the Conception with its first nourishment seems more necessary here, where the parts are more delicately put together, and from their exceeding fineness it might more easily miscarry. If after this method some Animals and Plants can be produc't, why is the same species and these very Individuals they suppose so made, furnished with Organs for Viviparous Generation? If slime and Mud can afford Frogs and Fels, why does the First Spawn so many Eggs, and are the other Viviparous? Why does not so great a diversity of putrid parts in the Earth, differently affected by unaccountable accidents, often present us with new living Creatures, and Vegetables of peculiar species? But no such new Plants are taken notice of, and the Mites are of the same sort from Cheese and from Meal. The objection which is offer'd against Epicurus, will be made with the same force against this Opinion. If the Earth at first equivocally produce Men, Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fish, why has it not done it very frequently or at least sometimes since? We begin to suspect the Cheat, when the Artist is not able to perform the same again. The Anatomy of a Monstrous Pig Communicated to the R. S. By an Ingenious Student in Physick. About the beginning of Decem. 1682, among many Pigs of a Sow, there was one which had no passage for the Faeces either Solid or Liquid, altho the Anus was not outwardly clos'd up; which whether natural, or caused by the Neighbours who had attempted a Cure before I saw it, I cannot