The vessels are thus joined together, that so they may
neither be broken, severed nor entangled; and when the infant is born
are of no use save only to make up the ligament which stops the hole of
the navel and for some other physical use, etc.
_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.
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