198 Scientific Reviews. 



1820. A lady of Turin, aged 20 years, died intestate, on the 28tli 

 October 1818, in her last stage of gestation, and on the tenth day 

 of a putrid fever. Immediately after she had breathed her last 

 gasp, at half-past two in the morning, there was extracted from her, 

 by the Caesarean operation, a child which was stiU alive, but which 

 died at the end of thirteen minutes, and which was not opened 

 after death. The husband, who was witness of the operation, 

 along with the surgeon who performed it, declared himself the heir 

 of the child, resting his claims upon the declaration of the surgeon, 

 which bore " that the child had all the characters of maturity, and 

 that it was living, which he discovered by motions of the legs and 

 feet which had taken place before, during, and after the operation; 

 by the circumstance of the child's opening its hands which were 

 closed; by the circumstance that on cutting the umbilical cord, 

 blood sprung out, and that pulsations were felt in the cord, the ca- 

 rotid arteries, and the region of the heart ; by the circumstance 

 that on pouring water on the child's head, in administering baptism 

 to it, there resulted a motion of the lips and mouth, and an im- 

 pression which produced an inspiration ; and, lastly, by the circum- 

 stances that the natural heat remained; that, after having lived 

 about thirteen or fourteen minutes, some drops of blood came from 

 the nose of the child; that it became pale, stretched its limbs, clos- 

 ed its eyes, and died," The brothers of the deceased opposed the 

 husband in his claims, and, during the procedure dependent before 

 the Senate of Turin, some distinguished members of the Medical 

 Faculty of that city proposed the following questions to the Faculty 

 of Strasburg : — 1*^, If it be sufficiently proved, by the motions of 

 which mention is made in the above declaration, that the child in 

 question lived a life which rendered it capable of succeeding ; that 

 it had been born capable of living in consequence of the operation 

 performed upon its already dead mother, and that it had really 

 breathed ? 2dly, If the dissection of the child's body, which had 

 been neglected, might not have been of great assistance in deter- 

 mining whether the child had actually lived, and in discovering the 

 cause of its death, which had been so quick ?" The Faculty named 

 a commission, composed of Professors Louth, Lobstein, Flamant^ 

 Tourdes, and Fodere, and it was unanimously decided that the 

 first question should be answered affirmatively, and the second ne- 

 gatively. 



Histoire Naturelle, 8^c. The Natural History, Genei:al and Parti- 

 cular, of the Mammifera and Birds discovered from 1788 to the 

 present day. Vol. I. — The Cetacea. By R. P. Lesson. Paris, 

 Chez Baudouin freres. 1828. 



Op all the departments of natural science, that of which we 

 know least, as the author justly remarks, is Cetology. It alone has 



