Abstract
INVESTIGATIONS in recent years have shown that there is an exchange of water between amniotic fluid and the blood streams of the mother and fœtus. This has been observed in the guinea pig1 and human2. In the latter, a volume of water equal to about one-third the total volume of amniotic fluid is exchanged every hour from the twenty-eighth week to term3. At present, there is neither a set of observations nor a hypothesis to account for such a rapid and voluminous turnover of water, and no one has shown by what route or routes this fluid is derived.
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References
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REYNOLDS, S. A Source of Amniotic Fluid in the Lamb: the Naso-Pharyngeal and Buccal Cavities. Nature 172, 307–308 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/172307b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/172307b0
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