500 NARROW PELVIS. 



However it may be, the signs of death may be divided into rational 

 and sensible, like those of gestation. The rational signs are observed 

 before or during labor. 



1114. Previously to reaching the full term the woman has had a 

 fall, or has made some violent movement or strong effort; she has 

 struck her abdomen against some solid body; she has used too much 

 ardor in coition; she has abandoned herself without reserve to vivid 

 impressions of a moral kind; she has had a severe attack of disease, 

 lias taken very active medicines; in fine, she has exposed herself to 

 some one of the causes that are capable of producing abortion; in 

 which case there is some reason to presume that the child is dead; 

 provided she should, shortly after the accident, have had rigors, nau- 

 sea, a sense of weight above the middle of the pelvis, disgust, horri- 

 pilations, or a sense of coldness in the belly; if the breasts are en- 

 larged, full of milk, or shrunk; if the womb tends towards the lowest 

 part of the body, and moves to the right, left, or in front, like an 

 inert mass; if the fcetus has ceased to exert any active power; if the 

 abdomen cease to enlarge; if the mouth exhale a putrescent odor; if 

 there be a general uneasiness, or a constant febrile state, it becomes 

 extremely probable that the foetus is dead. 



1115. During labor the death of the fcstus- is announced by the 

 escape of the meconium; by the entire absence of motion; by a pu- 

 trid odor that escapes from the vagina, or rather from the uterus, 

 along with the waters; by the diminution of the labor pains, and by 

 most of the phenomena which I mentioned just now. There is 

 reason to fear it, especially, where the amniotic fluid has escaped 

 prematurely, or at least where it has been long evacuated, and where 

 the position is bad; or where the contractions of the womb have in 

 any way borne directly upon the fcetus itself. The sensible signs are 

 not appreciable until some portion of the ovum itself can be touched 

 with the finger. Among them is classed the premature descent of 

 the cord, and the absence of its pulsation; inability to excite motion 

 in the foetus, although it be raised up in the womb; the escape of 

 shreds of the cuticle; the want of a soft elastic tumor on the head; 

 mobility of the cranial bones; the slight resistance offered to pressure 

 by the thorax or any other part; the absence of pulsation in the 

 heart, Slg. 



But it must be confessed that, perhaps, not one of these signs, 

 taken singly, would be to a prudent man, a sufficient warrant to 

 pronounce unhesitatingly on the death of the foetus; indeed very few 

 of them deserve much consideration. It is only when united, when 

 constituting a whole, that we are sometimes warranted in drawing 

 pretty rigorous conclusions: the swelling of the breasts and their 



