CESAREAN OPERATION. 515 



having cited various experiments and numerous analogies, he men- 

 tions severi women who had been subjected to the cesarean operation 

 with complete success; but can we rely upon the authenticity of the 

 case of the woman named Godon, who was operated upon seven 

 times; upon that spoken of by the surgeons Lenoir and Lebrun, who 

 operated upon the same subject three times; the recital of Alibax, 

 of Sens, of Colot, or the story of the woman who had a long scar 

 upon the right side of the belly, and who said she had a child ex- 

 tracted through the part seven years before? Ought we to receive, 

 according to the very letter, what G. Bauhin says of the person 

 called Alipaschie of Siergershensen in Germany, who was operated 

 upon by J. Nufer, a spayer of cattle, after she was given over by 

 several midwives, and who recovered so happily, that several years 

 afterwards she was delivered, without danger, of two other children? 

 What are we to think of the other fact mentioned by Pare and 

 Schenk relative to Nicola Berenger? How happened it that this 

 woman was delivered two years afterwards of a girl, and subsequent- 

 ly of a boy, if there was any necessity for her to undergo the cesa- 

 rean operation? The same may be said of the case of Elizabeth 

 Turgois, who subsequently gave birth to four children, by the na- 

 tural passages, according to the report of the same Bauhin. Lastly, 

 it is certain that of the sixty-odd cases related by Rousset, Bauhin , 

 and Simon, only a very small number are quite conclusive, and that 

 Pare, Guillemeau, Marchant, Mauriceau, and all persons who were 

 unwilling to be convinced except by well established facts, were pos- 

 sessed of excellent reasons for combatting the assertions of Rousset. 

 1138. Be this as it may, according to Baudelocque himself, the 

 cesarean operation has been successfully performed twenty-four times 

 from 1750 up to the commencement of the present century, and 

 without counting the two cases of Lauverjat, which are unquestion- 

 able, it has been since performed at Nantes twice upon the same 

 woman, by Bacqua, once by M. Lemaistre of Aix, once by M. 

 Dariste at Martinique, once by Vonderfuhr, in 1823, at Dahlen, once 

 by the physicians of the hospital of Florence, on the 18th of May 

 1827, twice by Schenck, once by Bulk, once by Grcefe, once by 

 Leuch, once by Buren, another time, recently, in one of the colo- 

 nies; so that we cannot refuse to believe that at least some women 

 may possibly be saved by means of the cesarean operation.* 



* Let us add that it has been twice performed by Professor Gibson on M. R. 

 in Philadelphia, saving, in the first instance, a daughter, and, in the second, a son, 

 both of whom, as well as the mother, are still in good health. It has also been 

 recently performed in Germany, with perfect success, for the fourth time, on the 

 same woman, by Michaelis. For an account of Dr. Gibson's operations, vide the 

 Amer. Journal of the Med. and Phys. Sciences. — M. 



