'J6 Observations on the Natural History 



We will suppose the woman to be entering on her 

 ninth month, as, until the first ten days of that shall have 

 elapsed, there is no symptom of approaching labour. 

 Within about three weeks of the period of actual partu- 

 rition, the woman begins to perceive a subsidence in 

 the epigastric and hypochondriac regions. This subsi- 

 dence is not a mere chimerical deception of the sense of 

 the woman ; it is an actual change, and becomes more 

 and more the "subject of regard, until the period of con- 

 finement. This subsidence has been a source of seri- 

 ous contemplation to the woman ; she has mistaken it 

 as indicative of the death and waste of her infant. With 

 some accoucheurs it has been a subject of idle animad- 

 version, being construed into the collection and disper- 

 sion of wind in the stomach and bowels ; whilst with 

 others, better trained in the school of observation and 

 experience, it has constituted a part of the uniform de- 

 sign of nature. 



To those who are acquainted with the regular evolu- 

 tion of the gravid uterus, I need scarcely remark, that 

 this evolution is in divisions ; that of these, the fundus 

 mav be considered the first division, and is the first in 

 evolving ; the corpus the second, and has the second 

 place in suiting itself to the increased dimensions of the 

 child ; and the cervix as the third, and the last in yield- 

 ing to the growth of the contained foetus. This last di- 

 vision does not lend its aid until towards the eighth 

 month, from which time it in regular progression evolves 

 to meet the expanding dimensions of the foetus. 



