128 OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 



cate, nervous and irritable women feel them sooner and plainer 

 than those whose sensibility is less exquisite, who are not in the 

 habit of carefully analysing their sensations, and who, in consequence 

 of their temperament or disposition being naturally more quiet, pos- 

 sess a calmer imagination and less impressible organs: the former 

 sometimes assert that they have felt the child move at the end of the 

 third month, (which seems almost impossible, since the muscles are 

 still mostly gelatinous,) while the latter do not commonly speak of it 

 until towards the end of the fourth. 



If the motions of the child are very decided, quick, and frequent, 

 it is not necessary for them to move the abdominal parietes in an 

 evident manner, as is sometimes seen, to guard the woman against 

 confounding them in any way with motions of another kind; but when 

 they are weak and return but rarely, nothing is more common than 

 for other sensations wholly independent of them to be mistaken for 

 them; so that the prudent accoucheur should never pronounce upon 

 them without having made himself perfecdy sure. 



335. For this purpose it often suffices to apply the hand, which 

 must be cold and naked, to the abdomen; it may be previously rub- 

 bed with brandy, Cologne water, &c., or dipped in cold water, with 

 vinegar and ammoniac in it. This application produces a sudden 

 transition in the temperature of the hypogastrium, which re-acts upon 

 the child and causes it to move in a convulsive manner. If this 

 simple means does not succeed, the palm of the hand is to be placed 

 on one side of the abdomen, which should then be properly struck 

 with the other, as in examining into the existence of ascites. The 

 fostus thus disturbed scarcely ever fails to move with some force: and 

 this is a sort of ballottement, which possesses the advantage over the 

 common method of not requiring the finger to be introduced into the 

 sexual organs, but which has also the disadvantage that it cannot be 

 usefully employed until after the fifth month. 



Auscultation. After having properly performed the touch, having 

 attempted to effect the ballottement, and to feel the motions, whether 

 active or passive, of the fcetus in vain, we have no method of solving 

 the problem left except auscultation. 



336. After Laennee had shown that it is possible to see with the 

 ear what is passing inside of the chest, it was natural to suppose 

 that auscultation would soon be applied to the investigation of the 

 diseases or functional changes of other parts of the body. MM. 

 Major and Fodere had already given some hints on the subject 

 when Mr. Kergaradec, in an interesting memoir, maintained, that 

 gestation may be ascertained with great certainty by means of the 

 stethoscope. According to that physician, two kinds of sounds may 



