=By the end of the sixth month, or twenty-eighth week=, the fetus still looks thin and scrawny, the skin is reddish and is well covered with vernix caseosa and the intestines contain an increased amount of meconium. If born at this time the child will move quite vigorously and cry feebly. Although it is not likely to live for any length of time, every effort should be made to save its life, for it may be that the high rate of mortality at this age is due to the inadequacy of the attempts which are usually made to save the child rather than to the frailty of the child itself. It is about 35 centimetres long and weighs about 1200 grams. =By the end of the eighth month, or thirty-second week=, the child has grown to about 42 centimetres in length and 1900 grams in weight, but continues to look thin and old and wrinkled. The nails do not extend beyond the ends of the fingers but are firmer in texture; the lanugo begins to disappear from the face but the hair on the head is more abundant. If born at this stage, the baby will have a fair chance to live, if given painstaking care. This is true in spite of the ancient superstition, still widely current, that a seven months’ baby is more viable than one born at eight months (meaning calendar months). The fact is that after the eighth lunar month, a little more than seven calendar months, the probability of the child’s living increases rapidly with the length of its intra-uterine life. =By the end of the ninth month, or thirty-sixth week=, the increased deposit of fat under the skin has given a plumper, rounder contour to the entire body; the aged look has passed and the chances for life have greatly increased. The baby now weighs about 2500 grams and is about 46 centimetres long. =The end of the tenth month, or fortieth week=, usually marks the end of pregnancy. (Fig. 27.) The average, normally developed baby has attained a length of 50 centimetres (20 inches), and a weight of 3250 grams, or about 7¼ pounds, boys usually being about three ounces heavier than girls. It must be remembered, however, that these figures merely represent the average drawn from a large number of cases, for there may be a variation in weight among entirely normal healthy babies from a minimum of 2300 grams (5 pounds) to as high as 5000 grams (11 pounds), or more. Babies actually weighing more than 12 pounds are seldom born, in spite of legends and rumors to the contrary. The length of a normal baby is less variable than the weight. In fact, it is so nearly constant in its increase during the successive months of pregnancy, that the age of a prematurely born fetus may be fairly accurately estimated from its length. This fact is of no little practical importance, since it aids the obstetrician in making a prognosis as to the child’s prospect of living, for he can estimate its intra-uterine age from its body length.