_Of the Secundine or After-birth._

Setting aside the name given to this by the Greeks and Latins, it is
called in English by the name of secundine, after-birth or after-burden;
which are held to be four in number.

(1) The _first_ is called placenta, because it resembles the form of a
cake, and is knit both to the navel and chorion, and makes up the
greatest part of the secundine or after-birth. The flesh of it is like
that of the melt or spleen, soft, red and tending something to
blackness, and hath many small veins and arteries in it: and certainly
the chief use of it is, for containing the child in the womb.

(2) The _second_ is the chorion. This skin and that called the amnios,
involve the child round, both above and underneath, and on both sides,
which the alantois does not. This skin is that which is most commonly
called the secundine, as it is thick and white garnished with many small
veins and arteries, ending in the placenta before named, being very
light and slippery. Its use is, not only to cover the child round about,
but also to receive, and safely bind up the roots of the veins and
arteries or navel vessels before described.

(3) The _third_ thing which makes up the secundine in the alantois, of
which there is a great dispute amongst anatomists. Some say there is
such a thing, and others that there is not. Those who will have it to be
a membrane, say it is white, soft and exceedingly thin, and just under
the placenta, where it is knit to the urachos, from which it receives
the urine; and its office is to keep it separate from the sweat, that
the saltness of it may not offend the tender skin of the child.

(4) The _fourth_, and last covering of the child is called amnios; and
it is white, soft and transparent, being nourished by some very small
veins and arteries. Its use is, not only to enwrap the child, but also
to retain the sweat of the child.

Having thus described the parts proper to a child in the womb, I will
next proceed to speak of the formation of the child therein, as soon as
I have explained the hard terms of the section, that those for whose
help it is designed, may understand what they read. A _vein_ is that
which receives blood from the liver, and distributes in several branches
to all parts of the body. _Nerve_ is the same with _sinew_, and is that
by which the brain adds sense and motion to the body. _Placenta_,
properly signifies _sugar_ cake; but in this section it is used to