[Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch]@TWC D-Link book
Essays and Miscellanies

CHAPTER XV
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WHETHER THE INFANT IN THE MOTHER'S WOMB BE AN ANIMAL.
Plato says, that the embryo is an animal; for, being contained in the mother's womb, motion and aliment are imparted to it.

The Stoics say that it is not an animal, but to be accounted part of the mother's belly; like as we see the fruit of trees is esteemed part of the trees, until it be full ripe; then it falls and ceaseth to belong to the tree; thus it is with the embryo.

Empedocles, that the embryo is not an animal, yet whilst it remains in the belly it breathes.

The first breath that it draws as an animal is when the infant is newly born; then the child having its moisture separated, the extraneous air making an entrance into the empty places, a respiration is caused in the infant by the empty vessels receiving of it.


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