th well defined and well proportioned in all its
parts. The bones of the cranium, hitherto quite flat, now appear a
little arched, and as the process of ossification goes on, the arching
increases till the vault is quite complete. The brain presents greater
firmness, and the eye-lids are opened. The skin is much firmer and red.
The gall-bladder contains bile.

At the end of the _eighth month_ the foetus seems to thicken up rather
than to increase in length, since it is only from sixteen to eighteen
inches long while its weight increases from four to five pounds. The
skin is red, and characterized at this period by a fine downy covering,
over which is spread a quantity of thick viscous matter, called the
sebaceous coat, which has been forming since the latter part of the
fifth month. The lower jaw has now become as long as the upper one, and
in the male the left testicle may be found in the scrotum. Convolutions
appear in the brain structure.

At _nine months_ the anxious time of parturition has arrived. The foetus
is from nineteen to twenty-three inches in length and weighs on an
average from six to eight pounds. Children at birth sometimes weigh as
much as fourteen pounds; but such extremes are very rare. At this period
the white and grey matter of the brain are distinct, and the
convolutions are well marked; the nails assume a horny consistence, hair
upon the head is more or less abundant, the testes are in the scrotum,
and the entire external genital organs of both male and female are well
formed.

The above particulars respecting the development of the human being have
been narrated to show that one organ is just as important as another,
and that each is really dependent upon the other; no one could exist
without the other and all are to subserve a use. First must be the
_esse_ (the inmost) the vital force imparted to the ovule. A little
later certain changes take place in the ovule, later still other
changes, and finally about the fifteenth day a slight development of the
new human being can just be outlined by the help of the microscope,
which, as before stated, has form at about the third week after
conception. First the vestige of a head and body, a little later the
heart and lungs appear lying in the open chest; then the hands are
protruded from the sides of the trunk, afterwards the forearms, then the
arms, all pushed out from the body; the feet and legs gradually protrude
from the lower end of the trunk, a