ABORTION. 241 



occasionally met with during menstruation; for this end, reference 

 should be made to the signs indicated in regard to the pains of 

 labor. 



621. The discharge of a certain quantity of brownish matter, or 

 of serosity, the softening of the cervix, the rupture of the men- 

 branes, the formation of the bag of ivaters Avith pains extending 

 from the navel towards the excavation, constitute the most conclusive 

 signs of miscarriage; nevertheless, M. Desormeaux has known all 

 these signs to be present after a fall, and yet abortion did not ensue. 

 M. Morlanne relates the case of a woman who was not delivered 

 until six weeks after the discharge of the waters; there has also 

 been recently mentioned the case of a woman six months gone, in 

 which the bag of waters was formed, and then ruptured, so that the 

 arm of the child engaged in the vagina; after which the labor was 

 arrested, the foetus returned to its proper position, and the preg- 

 nancy proceeded in its natural course! The author of it saw and 

 felt: we must believe him. 



622. The fluid that escapes from the cervix may besides come 

 from an hydatic cyst, or from between the membranes; in such a 

 case, it is very evident that the pregnancy might not be necessarily 

 disturbed; it may also proceed, in double pregnancy, from the rup- 

 ture of one ovum, while the other may not sufl'er the least alteration; 

 but with the exception of these anomalies, it appears evident that 

 the rupture of the membranes, followed by the discharge of the 

 •waters, positively indicates miscarriage, or at least the death of the 

 fostus, if it is not soon expelled. 



623. The child having ceased to live, is generally soon thrown 

 out by the uterus; but in some cases, its expulsion does not take 

 place for a pretty considerable period. I have seen it not take place 

 until the twenty-eighth day in a woman who was seven months with 

 child. In another woman, the pregnancy, which was ascertained by 

 hallottement, and active motion of the fostus, suddenly stopped at six 

 months; all the signs of the death of the child supervened; the belly 

 gradually lost one half of its size; from this period eight months 

 elapsed; the cervix remains closed, and nothing indicates that mis- 

 carriage is about to take place soon. M. Prout gave me an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a fostus of from three to four months, which was not 

 discharged for five months after the first symptoms of abortion, and 

 numerous authors have mentioned similar instances. 



If the membranes are not broken, and the air does not get access 

 to their interior, the foetus may be preserved without change for 

 several months, or even several years, which has given rise, I -pre- 

 sume to the supposed pregnancies of fifteen, twenty, or thirty months 



