93. This effect is nutrition. “Considering the power which the Ovulum displays when it first reaches the uterine cavity, of imbibing matter for its growth, together with the facility with which, according to Dutrochet, fluids may be drawn through animal membranes, it is not difficult to believe that nourishment is directly imbibed from the vessels of the mother by the circulating fluid of the embryo, through the fine intervening membranes.” (Mayo’s Outlines of Physiology, p. 437. 3d. Edit.) 94. It is possible, also, that other means may be at play in the promotion of such an effect (93) in the fœtus, besides the one before mentioned (91). We may instance as a probable one, lymphatic absorption. The probable existence of lymphatics in the placenta was admitted by Dr. Hunter. “It is most probable that it (the fœtus) is nourished by thousands of small lymphatic vessels which absorb nourishment from the blood of the mother and carry it along the navel-strings. It is true we cannot see any lymphatics running upon the navel-string, _yet it is reasonable to conclude they do_.”[22] Hunter’s conjecture has since been realized (Chaussier, Fohman, Uttini, Lauth). The second of these anatomists has delineated them in rich profusion, extending from the placenta along the funis, leaving the funis at the navel, and directing their course to the groin (Mayo). 95. Some have ascribed the nutrition of the fœtus to a regular deglutition and digestion of the amnionic fluid. Many facts render this opinion probable (Meckel). But there are also facts which would make nutrition by such a means impossible (Dr. Hunter). 1st. An embryo, at an early period, cannot be nourished by the mouth. 2dly. The amnionic fluid is mere water with a vestige only of albumen, the only nutritive quality in it. 3dly. A fœtus was seen whose intestine, a little below the duodenum, was impervious and divided through, and the lower end began at some distance from the higher portion. (Dr. Hunter’s MS. Lect.) 4thly. A full grown child was brought into the world without head, heart, lungs or intestines (Dr. Cooper, in Dr. Hunter’s MS. Lect.) 5thly. A kitten was sent to the Royal Society, full grown, born without either nose or mouth. (Dr. Hunter, ibid.) 6thly. I have the drawing of a pig (the preparation of which I exhibited at the Med. Ch. Soc. in 1814,) which was born, at the proper period, and full grown, without any vestige of the under jaw, and consequently without either mouth or any passage into the stomach.