Gestation

(jes-tā'shun.) [L. gestatio, a carrying.] (Physiol.) The term applied to the period that intervenes in the mammal i a between impregnation and the bringing forth of the young. The period and the number of young produced at a birth vary extremely in different mammals, but usually stand in an inverse ratio to one another. Thus, in the larger herbivora, as, for example, the elephant, the horse, the ox, and the camel, the female seldom produces more than one at a time, but the period of G. is long; while in the smaller ones the progeny is numerous, but the period of G. only afew weeks. In the human race, 40 weeks is the usual period ofG. [s. 406]