he first egg of a fowl is smaller than
those which follow.

The new-born children in our Western States seem to be larger than the
statistics show them to be in the various States of Europe, and
apparently even than in our Eastern States. In the Report on Obstetrics
of the Illinois State Medical Society for 1868, it is stated that
Quincy, Ill., produced during the year six male children whose average
weight at birth was thirteen and a quarter pounds, the smallest weighing
twelve pounds, and the largest seventeen and a half, which was born at
the end of four hours' labor, without instrumental or other
interference. A recent number of a Western medical journal reports the
birth at Detroit, in February last, of a well-formed male infant
twenty-four and a-half inches long, weighing sixteen pounds. The woman's
weight, _after labor_, is stated as only ninety-two pounds. An English
physician delivered a child by the forceps which weighed seventeen
pounds twelve ounces, and measured twenty-four inches. These are the
largest well-authenticated new-born infants on record.

DURATION OF LABOR.

The length of a natural labor may be said to vary between two and
eighteen hours. The intervals between the pains are such, however, that
the actual duration of suffering, even in the longest labor, is
comparatively very short. The first confinement is much longer than
subsequent ones.

The _sex_ of the child has some influence on the duration of labor.
According to Dr. Collins of the Lying-in Hospital of Dublin, the average
with _male_ births is one hour and four minutes longer than with
_female_. The _weight_ of the child also affects the time of labor.
Children weighing over eight pounds average four hours and eight minutes
longer in birth than those of less than eight pounds weight.

STILL-BIRTHS.

The statistics of nearly fifty thousand deliveries which occurred at the
Royal Maternity Charity, London, show a percentage of nearly five
still-born, or one in twenty-seven.

There are more boys still-born than girls. We have already spoken of the
fact that male births are more tedious, and that a larger number of
males die in the first few years of life than females. This series of
misfortunes has been attributed to the large size which the male foetus
at birth possesses over the female.

IMPRUDENCE AFTER CHILDBIRTH.

After the birth of the child at full term, or at any other period of
pregnancy, the womb, which had attaine