(our
understanding concludes) there are little dugs, and the embryos have
small mouths by which they receive their nutriment. The Stoics, that
by the secundines and navel they partake of aliment, and therefore
the midwife instantly after their birth ties the navel, and opens the
infant's mouth, that it may receive another sort of aliment. Alcmaeon,
that they receive their nourishment from every part of the body; as a
sponge sucks in water.

CHAPTER XVII. WHAT PART OF THE BODY IS FIRST FORMED IN THE WOMB.

The Stoics believe that the whole is formed at the same time. Aristotle,
as the keel of a ship is first made, so the first part that is formed
is the loins. Alcmaeon, the head, for that is the commanding and the
principal part of the body. The physicians, the heart, in which are the
veins and arteries. Some think the great toe is first formed; others
affirm the navel.

CHAPTER XVIII. WHENCE IS IT THAT INFANTS BORN IN THE SEVENTH MONTH ARE BORN ALIVE.

Empedocles says, that when the human race took first its original from
the earth, the sun was so slow in its motion that then one day in its
length was equal to ten months, as now they are; in process of time one
day became as long as seven months are; and there is the reason that
those infants which are born at the end of seven months or ten months
are born alive, the course of nature so disposing that the infant
shall be brought to maturity in one day after that night in which it is
begotten. Timaeus says, that we count not ten months but nine, by reason
that we reckon the first conception from the stoppage of the menstruas;
and so it may generally pass for seven months when really there are not
seven; for it sometimes occurs that even after conception a woman is
purged to some extent. Polybus, Diocles, and the Empirics, acknowledge
that the eighth month gives a vital birth to the infant, though the
life of it is more faint and languid; many therefore we see born in that
month die out of mere weakness. Though we see many born in that month
arrive at the state of man, yet (they affirm) if children be born in
that month, none wish to rear them.

Aristotle and Hippocrates, that if the womb is full in seven months,
then the child falls from the mother and is born alive, but if it falls
from her but is not nourished, the navel being weak on account of
the weight of the infant, then it doth not thrive; but if the infant
continues nine months in the womb, and the