OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 121 



sion of the menses. Nevertheless, its ordinary rate of progress is 

 such as to yield a very important sign, and one which, alone, is, in 

 a good many cases, sufficient to render it certain that there is preg- 

 nancy. 



313. The belly often tumifies or swells by insensible degrees from 

 the first week after conception has taken place; it afterwards dimi- 

 nishes or is even flattened about the beginning of the second month; 

 vjrhence the common proverb, a ventre plat, enfant il y a. It soon 

 afterwards grows again in a regular manner, and never stops until the 

 term of parturition. At first it projects along the median line and 

 lower part of the hypogastrium; while the navel seems to sink be- 

 neath its natural level. Until the fourth month, the iliac regions ap- 

 pear to grow hollow instead of projecting in proportion with the hy- 

 pogastrium. About the end of the third month, the navel approaches 

 towards the level of the skin, which it soon sarpasses, so as in some 

 women to form a protuberance of an inch or two, in the course of the 

 fifth, sixth or seventh month. Upon the whole, the special character 

 of a pregnant woman's abdomen is that it grows from below upwards, 

 and remains a long time flattened on its sides, although its middle 

 portion already projects considerably. I shall have further occasion 

 to advert to this point when I point out the means of distinguishing 

 true pregnancy from the affections with which we are liable to con- 

 found it. 



§. III. iSeiisible iSig-ns. 



314. The sensible signs of pregnancy are obtained by means of 

 the touch, or of auscultation, and from the material changes efliected 

 in the womb. 



315. The touch. The introduction of one or two fingers into 

 the vagina, while the other hand is applied to the front of the abdo- 

 men, is called, in tokology, the touch. Recourse is had to it for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the disease of the vulva, of the vagina, the 

 womb, the bladder, the rectum, and all the organs contained within 

 the pelvic cavity; to learn the good or bad conformation of the pel- 

 vis, the nature, species, and degree of its contraction; but especially 

 for appreciating the modifications of the cervix uteri, either in re- 

 gard to its size, its consistence, position, length or temperature; 

 and the weight, form, extent, situation, and dimensions of the womb 

 itself during the course of pregnancy. 



316. The touch has always been looked upon as the compass of 

 the accoucheur, but this has not hindered some persons, Puzos 

 among others (122), from vigorously objecting to its employment. 

 Roussel says that " accoucheurs ought to expunge from their books 



