OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 12T 



that, in order to obtain this result, the foetus must have attained to a 

 certain size, that there must be a sufficient quantity of liquor amnii, 

 that the uterus and parietes of the abdomen must not be too thick, 

 and that the operation must be done with a dexterity and skill that 

 can only be acquired by practice on the natural subject. 



332. Whenever a solid and moveable body has struck one or both 

 hands during the operation for ballottement, there can be no further 

 doubt as to the woman's being pregnant; but care should be taken not 

 to be imposed upon by the jar of a fluid, or any other kind of motion. 

 It is only from the fourth to the sixth month that the ballottement 

 presents a resource of any importance; for it is rarely that the jar 

 of the foetus can be perceived before the end of the third; and in 

 the next three months of gestation it is in general too easy to deter- 

 mine the state of the woman to make such a recourse needful. 



333. Motions of the child. J9a//o^/emennm presses on the ovum 

 only a passive motion, which is the same whether the fostus is dead 

 or alive, and which would be the same were it possible for a poly- 

 pus or any other solid and large body to be free and moveable in a 

 uterus filled with any kind of fluid. Ballottement makes us know 

 that pregnancy exists; but active or spontaneous motions alone give 

 us the certainty that the foetus is living. 



334. The child does not move in an active liiaiiner until after it8 

 muscular system has acquired a certain degree of development; and 

 still its motions must be so weak, that the woman can hardly per- 

 ceive them until in the course of the fourth month. At the begin- 

 ning she has a feeling oi formication; after which they acquire a force 

 that varies according to the vigor of the child, the stage of preg- 

 nancy and the good or bad health of the mother. Their strength 

 most commonly increases until the birth; sometimes they increase 

 for one or two months, become less marked in the sixth and seventh, 

 and resume their activity towards the end of pregnancy. M. De- 

 sormeaux has seen them cease entirely from the end of the fifth 

 month, and the child nevertheless be born strong and healthy at full 

 term; in other instances they are never perceived at all: some able 

 practitioners, such as Mauriceau, De la Motte, Baudelocque, &c. 

 mention women in whom attempts had in vain been made to excite 

 them, and who were nevertheless delivered of robust and w-ell grown 

 children. It may be supposed that plethora, some constraint, some 

 difficulty in the circulation of the fluids of the ovum, or even those of 

 the woman herself may render them duller, slower, more obscure and 

 vague; and that the free exercise of all the functions, cheerfulness 

 and contentment of the mother, and a proper degree of strength on 

 the part of the child, give them more energy and vivacity. Deli- 



