OF TRUE PREGNANCY. » 143 



ARTICLE II. 

 Of False Pregnancy. 



368. Numberless cases prove that various diseases may give rise 

 to a belief in the existence of pregnancy in women who are not 

 gravid, and vice versa. A woman of the Fauxbourg Saint Marceau 

 was with child, says M. Desormeaux; certain impudent quacks 

 plunged a trocar into her abdomen, and she died in a few hours af- 

 terwards. I was called, in consultation, to a lady, in order to de- 

 cide whether it was necessary to perform the csesarian operation; 

 the patient was affected with peritonitis of which she recovered, and 

 a scirrhous ovarium of which she died! It is useless to invoke the 

 rules of art against errors so gross; but there are cases so obscure 

 that the most skilful practitioner may easily mistake their true na- 

 ture. M. Lefebvre, in his thesis, has shown that even animals pretty 

 frequently exhibit similar anomalies. 



369. Retention of the menses, ascites, or encysted dropsy tym- 

 panitis, polypi, scirrhus, cancers of the womb, tumors in the ovaria, 

 the tubes or the pelvis and other lesions besides, often produce a 

 major part of the rational signs, and even some of the sensible signs 

 of pregnancy. However, one must be very inattentive or inexpe- 

 rienced, not to avoid mistakes in almost all these cases. 



370. Who can confound the symptoms of scirrhus of the cervix, 

 and ulcers of the uterus with the phenomena of gestation, after hav- 

 ing touched the woman? Is not the presence of a polypus most 

 commonly accompanied with hemorrhage. Does it ever admit of 

 ballottement, or make us believe we feel the spontaneous motions of 

 a fo3tus? Do the progress of the affections, the state of the cer- 

 vix, &c. in any case resemble those of natural pregnancy? 



371. The accumulation of blood, serum, or gas in the womb 

 might indeed impose upon us in this matter. On this subject we 



tinue to live for ten, twenty, and even fifty years, without great suffering or dis- 

 comfort, and as she enjoys the further prospect of getting rid of the difficulty by 

 suppuration, and the other modes pointed out by M. Velpeau. A csesarian opera- 

 tion would be far less dangerous than a gastrotomy for extra uterine pregnancy, 

 because the contraction of the womb after delivery, by the ceesarian section, obvi- 

 ates the great danger of internal hemorrhage; a circumstance which cannot be pre- 

 dicated of the incisions into an accidental sac containing the extra uterine foetus. 

 For a very excellent paper on uterine pregnancy, see Dr. James's article in North 

 Amer. Med. and Surg. Journal, Vol. IV. p. 275.— M. 



