ABSTRACT
J. Rueff may be taken as typical of the sixteenth century theory as it persisted in the seventeenth century also. According to him, on conception male and female seed curdled together in a mass, membranes promptly enclosed the mass and little fibres formed throughout, then three specks formed — the future brain, liver and heart. The foetus was a milky blob for six days, then a blood-mass, then flesh, and by 18 days a fully-formed tiny human being. According to J. Sharp the navel vein and then the liver formed first, and from them the venous system developed. But T. Willis said 'it is greatly disputed among Authors, by what Ductus's that Humour is conveyed both unto the Breast, and unto the Placenta'. Mauriceau also thought the placenta performed the functions of respiration for the infant. The female pelvis, Mauriceau maintained being larger and shaped differently from the male, only presents an obstacle to the birth in deformed persons.
