528 ON PARTURITION. 



health restored. In December, however, the birth of another 

 child, conceived by superfoetation, proclaimed to the world the 

 fault she had committed. " It happened to another woman," 

 adds the philosopher, " to be delivered of a seven months' 

 child, and afterwards of twins at the full term, the single child 

 dying, the twins surviving. Other women also, having become 

 pregnant of twins, have miscarried of one, and borne the other 

 to the full term." It is very easy to understand how, if the 

 earlier or later product of superfoetation come away after three 

 or four months have elapsed, that mistakes may be made in 

 calculating the subsequent months, especially by credulous 

 and ignorant women. We have sometimes observed, both in 

 women and other animals, the product of conception perish, 

 and come away gradually in the form of a thin fluid, somewhat 

 resembling fluor albus. Not long since a woman in London, 

 after an abortion of this kind, conceived anew, and brought 

 forth a child at the proper period. Subsequently, however, after a 

 lapse of some months, as she was engaged in her ordinary du- 

 ties, without any pain or uneasiness, there came away piece- 

 meal some dark bones belonging to the foetus of which she had 

 formerly miscarried. I was able to recognize in some of the 

 fragments portions of the spine, femur, and other bones. 



I am acquainted with a young woman, the daughter of a 

 physician with. whom I am very intimate, who experienced in 

 her own person all the usual symptoms of pregnancy; after 

 the fourteenth week, being healthy and sprightly, she felt the 

 movements of the child within the uterus, calculated the time 

 at which she expected her delivery, and when she thought, from 

 further indications, that this was at hand, prepared the bed, 

 cradle, and all other matters ready for the event. But all was 

 in vain. Lucina refused to answer her prayers ; the motions 

 of the foetus ceased; and by degrees, without inconvenience, 

 as the abdomen had increased so it diminished ; she remained, 

 however, barren ever after. I am acquainted also with a noble 

 lady who had borne more than ten children, and in whom the 

 catamenia never disappeared except as the result of impregna- 

 tion. Afterwards, however, being married to a second hus- 

 band, she considered herself pregnant, forming her judgment 

 not only from the symptoms on which she usually relied, but 

 also from the movements of the child, which were frequently 



