133 OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 



of the soft parts both of the pelvis and abdomen, have been enume- 

 rated among the symptoms of compound pregnancy. But all that 

 has been said on this subject throws but a vague light upon the ques- 

 tion; varices, infiltration, oedema, swellings, difficulty in moving the 

 lower limbs, engorgement of the labia pudendi, dyspepsia, difficulty 

 in making water, in walking, breathing, digesting; an elliptical or 

 flattened shape of the bag of waters; weakness of the uterine con- 

 tractions; lypothymia and syncope; the belly being larger, rounder, 

 rather depressed than salient along its median line; motions of the 

 foetus felt with more force and frequency, and on both sides of the 

 abdomen at once, &c., all fail, too frequently in twin pregnancies, 

 for us to place much confidence in them: besides, all these signs are 

 rarely met with together, and a majority of them may be met with 

 where there is only a single foetus in the womb; which, further, may 

 be easily imagined to be the case, inasmuch as the size of the gesta- 

 tive organ may be much larger in some cases of simple pregnancy 

 than in others where the gestation is evidently double or triple. 



345. Baudelocque teaches that the touch is able to conduct us to 

 more satisfactory results. He says, for example, that where the 

 belly is very large, if there be only one foetus, the ballottement will 

 be very easy; while if there be two of them, there will, on the con- 

 trary, be some difficulty in effecting it, and that their motions or their 

 most projecting portions can be distinctly felt through the parietes 

 of the abdomen, in several places at the same time. It may be added 

 that we ought to be able by means of auscultation to hear the sound 

 of the heart at two places, at some distance from each other, and 

 that if the pulsations denominated placental are of any use in obste- 

 trics, they will also be heard at two distinct points. 



346. The union of these signs would give us, without the least 

 doubt, a certainty of the woman's being pregnant with two or more 

 children; but the want of them is far from always constituting a 

 negative sign of compound pregnancy. M. Desormeaux cites a 

 case wherein the most manifest ballottement coincided with a very 

 great size of the abdomen, and in which that able accoucheur could 

 only detect a single foetus, while the ovum in fact contained two. 

 On the other hand, the ear cannot detect the cardiac pulsations of 

 two foetuses, when they are so situated that one is above or in front 

 of the other, so that it is most commonly impossible, previously to 

 delivery, to affirm whether the pregnancy is simple or double. 



