From the above description we perceive-1. That a considerable quantity of the pure blood from the placenta is at once distributed to the liver, which accounts for its large size at birth as compared with the other viscera. 2. That a double current meets in the right auricle, one stream, guided by the eustachian valve, passing through the foramen ovale into the left auricle, the other through the auriculo-ventricular opening into the right ventricle. 3. That the comparatively pure blood sent to the head and arms, as contrasted with the impure blood sent to the lower extremities, causes relatively greater development of the former organs, and prepa'res them for the func tions they are called upon to perform; the development of .the legs at birth being slight as comp'ared with that of the head or arms.
Almost immediately after birth, the foramen ovals becomes closed by a membran ous layer, and the ductus artcriosus and ductus venosus degenerate into impervious fibrous cords.
The lungs, previously to the act of inspiration, are dense and solid in structure, and of a deep-red color, and lie far hack in the chest. Their specific gravity is greater than water, in which they (or portions of them) consequently sink, whereas lungs, or portions of lungs, that have respired, float in that fluid.
In the preceding remarks, we mentioned nine months as the full period of foetal exist ence. The period of gestation is, however, only constant between certain limits, and it is of the greatest importance in reference to questions of chastity and legitimacy to determine these limits.
The average duration of gestation in the human female is comprised betwen the 38th and 40th weeks after conception. It is comparatively seldom that the actual date of conception can be fixed with positive certainty; bUt amongst the few cases of this kind on‘record, Rigby mentions one in which natural labor came on in 260 days, and Reid mentions another in which it did not commence until the lapse of 293 days. Here, then, we have an unquestionable range of 33 days; and many apparently authentic cases are on record in which a longer period of gestation•than in Reid's case has been observed.
Another important question in connectien with this subject is—What is the earliest period at which a child can be born, to enable it to live, and to continue in life after its birth? There is no doubt that children born at the seventh month of gestation are capable of living„althouglkthey usually require inuch ; and children may be born alive at any periotirbetweeglike some instances.
earlier than the sixth; but this is rare, and if born living, they commonly die soon after birth. Various cases of this nature are collected by Dr. Taylor in his Medical Juris prudence; amongst others, he mentions a'case reported by Dr. Barker of Dumfries, in which a child was born at the 158th day of gestation, and (though small) grew up. In the celebrated Kinghorn case, the child was born 174 days, or nearly six calendar months after marriage, and lived for more than eight mouths; and the majority of the medical witnesses who gave evidence on that occasion were strongly in favor of the view that the period of the gestation was circumscribed by the period of wedlock.
Again, questions connected with prolonged gestation have given rise to much dis cussion in legal medicine. No period has been fixed by law beyond which a child if born in wedlock is to be declared illegitimate. In the case of Anderton v. Gibbs, 1834, the vice-chancellor decided that a child born 10 months or about 42 weeks after inter course with the husband, was legitimate. In the Gardner Peerage ease, which came before the house of lords in 1825, the question was, whether a child born 311 days (or 44 weeks and 3 days) after intercourse could be legitimate. Lord and lady Gardner separated on the 30th of Jan., 1802, and did not again meet till the 11th of July. A. full sized child was born on the 8th of Dec. of that year. The principal obstetric practi tioners in the kingdom were examined on this point, and a large majority concurred in the opinion that natural gestation might be protracted to such a period. The decision, which was against the legitimacy, seems to have been mainly if not entirely based on the moral grounds that lady Gardner, after separating from her husband, was living in open adultery. In the case of Commonwealth v. Porter (see American Journal of _Medi cal Science, 1845), it was decided in the United States that a child born 317 days (or 45 weeks and two days) after conception was legitimate. In the case of Cotterall v. Cot terall, decided in the consistory court in 1847, the husband had proceeded against his wife for a divorce on the ground of adultery. In this case, if it were the child of the husband, it must have been born after 12 months' gestation. Dr. Lushington, without entering into the question of protracted gestation, at once pronounced for the divorce, such a duration of pregnancy not being supported by any known facts.