Here, then, once more, we must observe well the Art [artistic tendency] of Nature — how she has not merely placed in each organ the capabilities11 of useful activities, but has also fore-ordained the times both of rest and movement. For everything connected with the pregnancy12 proceeds properly, the eliminative faculty remains13 quiescent as though it did not exist, but if anything goes wrong in connection either with the chorion or any of the other membranes14 or with the foetus itself, and its completion is entirely despaired of, then the uterus no longer awaits the nine-months period, but the retentive faculty forthwith ceases and allows the heretofore inoperative faculty to come into action. Now it is that something is done — in fact, useful work effected — by the eliminative or propulsive faculty (for so it, too, has been called, receiving, like the rest,its names from the corresponding activities).
Further, our theory can, I think, demonstrate both together; for seeing that they succeed each other, and that the one keeps giving place to the other according as utility demands, it seems not unreasonable15 to accept a common demonstration16 also for both. Thus it is the work of the retentive faculty to make the uterus contract upon the foetus at every point, so that, naturally enough, when the midwives palpate it, the os is found to be closed, whilst the pregnant women themselves, during the first days — and particularly on that on which conception takes place — experience a sensation as if the uterus were moving and contracting upon itself. Now, if both of these things occur — if the os closes apart from inflammation or any other disease, and if this is accompanied by a feeling of movement in the uterus — then the women believe that they have received the semen which comes from the male, and that they are retaining it.
Now we are not inventing this for ourselves: one may say the statement is based on prolonged experience of those who occupy themselves with such matters. Thus Herophilus does not hesitate to state in his writings that up to the time of labour the os uteri will not admit so much as the tip of a probe, that it no longer opens to the slightest degree if pregnancy has begun — that, in fact, it dilates17 more widely at the times of the menstrual flow. With him are in agreement all the others who have applied18 themselves to this subject; and particularly Hippocrates, who was the first of all physicians and philosophers to declare that the os uteri closes during pregnancy and inflammation, albeit19 in pregnancy it does not depart from its own nature, whilst in inflammation it becomes hard.
In the case of the opposite (the eliminative) faculty, the os opens, whilst the whole fundus approaches as near as possible to the os, expelling the embryo as it does so; and along with the fundus the contiguous parts — which form as it were a girdle round the whole organ — cooperate in the work; they squeeze upon the embryo and propel it bodily outwards20. And, in many women who exercise such a faculty immoderately, violent pains cause forcible prolapse of the whole womb; here almost the same thing happens as frequently occurs in wresting-bouts and struggles, when in our eagerness to overturn and throw others we are ourselves upset along with them; for similarly when the uterus is forcing the embryo forward it sometimes becomes entirely prolapsed, and particularly when the ligaments connecting it with the spine21 happen to be naturally lax.
A wonderful device of Nature’s also is this — that, when the foetus is alive, the os uteri is closed with perfect accuracy, but if it dies, the os at once opens up to the extent which is necessary for the foetus to make its exit. The midwife, however, does not make the parturient woman get up at once and sit down on the [obstetric] chair, but she begins by palpating the os as it gradually dilates, and the first thing she says is that it has dilated22 “enough to admit the little finger,” then that “it is bigger now,” and as we make enquiries from time to time, she answers that the size of the dilatation is increasing. And when it is sufficient to allow of the transit23 of the foetus, she then makes the patient get up from her bed and sit on the chair, and bids her make every effort to expel the child. Now, this additional work which the patient does of herself is no longer the work of the uterus but of the epigastric muscles, which also help us in defaecation and micturition.
点击收听单词发音
1 retentive | |
v.保留的,有记忆的;adv.有记性地,记性强地;n.保持力 | |
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2 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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3 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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4 maturity | |
n.成熟;完成;(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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5 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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6 embryo | |
n.胚胎,萌芽的事物 | |
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7 casually | |
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地 | |
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8 quiescent | |
adj.静止的,不活动的,寂静的 | |
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9 propulsive | |
adj.推进的 | |
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10 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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11 capabilities | |
n.能力( capability的名词复数 );可能;容量;[复数]潜在能力 | |
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12 pregnancy | |
n.怀孕,怀孕期 | |
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13 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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14 membranes | |
n.(动物或植物体内的)薄膜( membrane的名词复数 );隔膜;(可起防水、防风等作用的)膜状物 | |
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15 unreasonable | |
adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
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16 demonstration | |
n.表明,示范,论证,示威 | |
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17 dilates | |
v.(使某物)扩大,膨胀,张大( dilate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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19 albeit | |
conj.即使;纵使;虽然 | |
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20 outwards | |
adj.外面的,公开的,向外的;adv.向外;n.外形 | |
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21 spine | |
n.脊柱,脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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22 dilated | |
adj.加宽的,扩大的v.(使某物)扩大,膨胀,张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 transit | |
n.经过,运输;vt.穿越,旋转;vi.越过 | |
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