a term of relation to parent. See PARENT and CHILDREN.

Bartholome, Parè, Licetus, and many other writers, give an account of a petrified child, which has seemed wholly incredible to some people. The child, however, which they describe, is still in being; and is kept as a great rarity in the king of Denmark's museum at Copenhagen. The woman who was big with this, lived at Sens in Champagne in the year 1582; it was cut out of her belly, and was universally supposed to have lain there about 20 years. That it is a real human fetus, and not artificial, is evident to the eyes of any observer; and the upper part of it, when examined, is found to be of a substance resembling the gypsum or stone whereof they made the plaster of Paris; the lower part is much harder, the thighs and buttocks being a perfect stone of a reddish colour, and as hard as common quarry stone; the grain and surface of this part appear exactly like that of the calculi or stones taken out of human bladders; and the whole substance, examined ever so nearly, and felt ever so carefully, appears to be absolute stone. It was carried from Sens to Paris, and there purchased by a goldsmith of Venice; and Frederic III. king of Denmark purchased it of this man at Venice for a very large sum, and added it to his collection of rarities.