134 OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 



I performed the next day. We satisfied ourselves that three of these 

 tumors were outside of the germiferous gland; we experienced 

 greater difficulty in regard to the fourth, which did not exceed an 

 inch in size; but at length, after having completely isolated the Fal- 

 lopian tube, we found that the debris of the conception was con- 

 tained in a special sac between the peritoneal coat and the proper 

 covering of the ovary which was wholly distinct from it. Certainly, 

 none of the facts that have been cited as proofs of the existence of 

 ovarian pregnancy have been more carefully examined; and certes, 

 if it had not been for the objections and the presence of an able de- 

 fender of the opposite opinion, we should have remained convinced 

 that the seat of the tumor was in the very parenchyma of the ovary. 



§. 11. AbdoiniJia] Pregnancy {peritoneal, ventose, ex- 

 ternal, 4'C.) 



350. Admitting that fecundation is effected in the ovary, it is very 

 natural that the vivified ovule should sometimes fall into the belly 

 instead of being engaged in the Fallopian tube; in reflecting upon 

 the anatomical arrangement of the parts, one is disposed to believe 

 that such accidents are not uncommon; if, says Bianchi, it does not 

 occur more frequently, it is doubtless because a very great majority 

 of the germs that escape in this way die before they become attached 

 to the serous membrane that receives them. However, some mo- 

 dern accoucheurs have asserted that it could not occur; that the pe- 

 ritoneum is not sufficiently vascular to supply to the germ the requi- 

 site means of development; that in the instances in which dissection 

 had shown the foetus and its secundines to be in the abdomen, there 

 had been previously a tubal or uterine pregnancy. It is true that the 

 tube and the ovary are commonly, and sometimes a part of the uterus 

 itself is, lost as it were in the mass of the tumor, and that it would 

 be imprudent in that case to affirm that the ovum was not originally 

 located in another place; but it is at the same time an incontro- 

 vertible fact that in many of the published cases, both the ovary and 

 the tube retained their natural condition, and were completely foreign 

 to the sac which contained the fcBtus. On the other hand the vete- 

 rinary physicians, more competent even than accoucheurs to solve 

 this problem, have completely embraced the affirmative, relying on 

 numerous and authentic facts that have been noted for thirty years 

 past; besides, the difference between the structure of the peritoneum 

 and that of the womb cannot in fact serve as a basis for any good 

 argument; the ovum, which may be compared to the bud of a plant 

 endowed with life that is still very obscure, is so constituted as to 

 unite with the first living parts whereon nature places it. The in- 



