OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 109 



the womb, might occasion lateral obliquities to take place. In the 

 first place, it is not true that the portion of the womb in contact with 

 the placenta enlarges less than the other parts of the organ; and 

 further, even if we could admit the fact, it would be necessary for 

 the placenta to be attached almost always to the right, which is con- 

 trary to what is found to be the case. Madame Boivin attributes 

 right lateral obliquity to the excessive strength of the right round 

 ligament of the womb; but in that case the right angle of the womb 

 ought not to be so distant as it is found to be from the right abdomi- 

 nal canal. I could more willingly admit, that being unable to rest 

 upon the front of the spine, the womb generally inclines to the right, 

 in consequence of the individual's habit of sleeping upon that side, 

 and of using the right arm rather than the left; but it would be fur- 

 ther necessary to prove that in women who have the opposite habits, 

 the right obliquity is never met with. 



276. While the fundus and body of the womb incline forwards 

 and to the right, the cervix generally tends backwards and to the 

 left; however, it would be wrong to suppose it must be always so: 

 the orifice may remain in the centre of the excavation, although the 

 anterior or lateral obliquities may be very great, or it may even be 

 directed further backwards than is indicated by the position of the 

 fundus. I have frequently found its plane parallel to the anterior 

 surface of the sacrum in the last stages of pregnancy, although there 

 was not any anterior inclination; it may also be turned to the right, 

 though the fundus is inclined to that side, which is a much rarer case. 



277. Thickness of the walls. Galen, Paul iEginette, and Mau- 

 riceau also have advanced that the uterus grows or distends only at 

 the expense of the thickness of its walls; Riolan, Deventer, De La 

 Motte, and Roederer, on the other hand have maintained that this 

 thickness increases during pregnancy, while the moderns admit that 

 it remains as it was previously to fecundation. Such discrepancy 

 of opinion upon a fact easy to be ascertained, looks, at a first view, 

 very strange; but let it, nevertheless, be explained with reference to 

 the situation in which the observers were placed. The ancients, 

 as they could not open dead bodies, were compelled to reason from 

 analogy; seeing that the coats of the bladder grow thin in propor- 

 tion as they become more and more expanded, and that the same 

 thing, in a large number of animals, holds good as to the uterus and 

 its horns, they did not suppose it could happen otherwise in the 

 human species. Besides, they might found their opinions upon the 

 fact, that in women dying with uterine hemorrhage during labor, 

 or in the last three months of gestation, in those affected with hy- 

 drometry, or in whom the ovum contains too large a quantity of 



