534 ON PARTURITION. 



tarding it and making it unnatural, by leaving behind portions 

 of the membranes, or even of the placenta itself, besides ex- 

 posing the wretched woman to the air, wearying her out on 

 the labour-stool, and making her, in fact, run great risks of 

 her life. In truth, it is far better with the poor, and those 

 who become pregnant by mischance, and are secretly delivered 

 without the aid of a midwife; for the longer the birth is re- 

 tarded the more safely and easily is the process completed. 



Of unnatural labours, therefore, there are chiefly two kinds : 

 either the foetus is born before the proper time (and this consti- 

 tutes an abortion), or else subsequently to it, when a difficult 

 or tedious labour is the result, either from the due time and 

 order not being preserved, or from the presence of dangerous 

 symptoms; these arise either from failure of the expelling 

 powers on the part of the mother, or from sluggishness on the 

 part of the foetus in making its way out ; it is when both per- 

 form their proper parts that a safe and genuine labour results. 



Fabricius ascribes the business of expelling the offspring to 

 the uterus; and he adds, "the abdominal muscles and the 

 diaphragm assist in the business." It seems to me, how- 

 ever, on deep investigation, that the throes of childbirth, just 

 as sneezing, proceed from the motion and agitation of the 

 whole body. I am acquainted with a young woman who 

 during labour fell into so profound a state of coma that no 

 remedies had power to rouse her, nor was she in fact able to 

 swallow. When called to her, finding that injections and other 

 ordinary remedies had been employed in vain, I dipped a fea- 

 ther in a powerful sternutatory, and passed it up the nostrils. 

 Although the stupor was so profound that she could not sneeze, 

 or be roused in any way, the effect was to excite convulsions 

 throughout the body, beginning at the shoulders, and gradu- 

 ally descending to the lower extremities. As often as I em- 

 ployed the stimulus the labour advanced, until at last a strong 

 and healthy child was born, without the consciousness of the 

 mother, who still remained in a state of coma. 



We can observe the manner of labour-pains in other ani- 

 mals, as the bitch, sheep, and larger cattle, and ascertain that 

 they do not depend on the action of the uterus and abdomen 

 only, but on the efforts of the whole body. 



The degree in which the offspring contributes to accelerate and 



