DEAD FCETUS. 501 



subsequent shrinking away may occur, although the child continues 

 to live; but this sign will, notwithstanding, be very important, if it 

 coincide with a majority of the other rational signs, because, says M. 

 Dubois, when the child dies, its deliverj^ regarded as the completion 

 of the great act of reproduction, is, in some sort, effected for the sake 

 of the economy, and the secretion of milk tends to take place just as 

 if the ovum were expelled. The same may be said as to the disa- 

 greeable load felt by the woman in all her movements, and the sense 

 of weight which she experiences in the bottom of the pelvis. 



The waters may have been evacuated for three, four, ten, fifteen, 

 thirty, and even fifty-seven days, according to Bauhin, Boer, and M. 

 Morlanne, without being necessarily followed by the death of the 

 foetus; but the contrary will, however, much more commonly be met 

 with. If the meconium escapes, and the pelvis is not the presenting 

 part, there is great reason to fear that it is dead, although more than one 

 case has been seen where, under such circumstances, the foetus has 

 been born after several hours, strong and healthy: when the breech 

 comes down first, there is nothing unnatural in the discharge ^f the 

 meconium which is occasioned by the pressure experienced by the 

 belly as it passes through the os uteri, or the straits; it is altogether 

 a mechanical effect. But when the head is the presenting part, 

 the same cause no longer exists, and, in general, the bowels are not 

 evacuated, unless the sphincters, by being weakened, like the other 

 muscles, relax so as to oppose no resistance to the action of the 

 womb, which will scarcely take place unless the child is near ex- 

 piring. Lastly, the practitioner ought not on this subject to let him- 

 self be imposed on by the muddy appearance or greenish color of 

 the waters; for this is an appearance often assumed by them without 

 the meconium having any thing to do with it. 



1116. A living foetus sometimes suddenly ceases to move alto- 

 gether, and may remain several days or weeks, or indeed until its 

 birth, without moving, and yet may not have incurred any danger; 

 on the other hand, the woman often supposes she feels it move after 

 it has really been dead for a long time, and I could relate many 

 cases of the kind, one of which I very lately saw with Dr. Leseble, 

 in a young woman who gave birth to a child that had been dead at 

 least four or five days, although she told us an hour before the de- 

 livery that she felt it move. But this does not prevent the sign from 

 being a very important one to the practitioner who knows how to 

 estimate it, and when, in the course of a long and diflScult labor, the 

 motions of the child are found suddenly to cease after having been 

 agitated with more or less violence, and, as it were, convulsively, 

 there is good reason to fear for its safety. 



