284 BA.G OF WATERS. 



thin and fragile; the os uteri itself, which is sometimes very hard, 

 rigid and difficult to distend, is, on the contrary, in other cases ex- 

 tremely soft. In the most natural and regular state of things, the 

 sac gives Avay about the end of the first, or commencement of the 

 second stage; but it may open at the beginning, or not till the end 

 of the labor. It happens also, sometimes, that the membranes burst 

 either one or several days before the appearance of the first pains, 

 or that they do not rupture, at all, the ovum being forced to pass 

 whole through the straits of the pelvis. 



The perforation commonly takes place in the centre, and in that 

 case the sac becomes instandy empty; if it happen near the edge 

 of the orifice or high up, it collapses only imperfectly, or appears 

 again with each return of the pains, and the fluid escapes in small 

 quantities only. When the tumor does not open until it nearly 

 reaches the vulva, and the rupture does not take place in the centre, 

 the head carries a segment of the membrane along before it, and the 

 foetus escapes covered with a sort of hood, and is born with a caul. 



712. It was formerly predicted that a child born in this way 

 would be lucky or unlucky according to the color of the caul; that 

 if it swallowed its caul previously reduced to powder, or always 

 carried it about its person carefully enclosed in a box, it would be 

 fortunate and always happy; that if it lost it, it would be unhappy 

 in every thing, perhaps epileptic, constantly tormented by phantoms 

 or infernal spirits; whence it follows, says Diemerbroeck, that the 

 midwives seize upon this portion of membrane as a matter of right, 

 in order to frighten the parents, and get more money from them by 

 selling it to them at a dear rate. How many good women in the 

 country are still imbued with this absurd prejudice! Should the 

 caul extend over the mouth and nose, it might, strictly speaking, 

 hinder respiration from taking place, and perhaps cause the death of 

 the child, as some authors have supposed; but to justify such fears 

 as these, the lying-in woman herself must be supposed to be insen- 

 sible, and to have no body with her: this, therefore, is one of those 

 possible misfortunes of which we are as yet in possession of no ex- 

 amples. 



