1 62 PA THOL OG Y OF GESTA TION. 



sels, M, Thiernesse, in the Bulletin de P Academic Royale de Medecine. A third year 

 veterinary student was at home with his parents in April, 1871, when a fat Pig was 

 killed for food. On its abdomen being opened, there were found, floating among the 

 convolutions of the intestines, two foetuses, which were detached from the lumbar region, 

 where they were each suspended by a vascular peduncle about three inches long, behind 

 the great mass of the intestines, and between the two cornua of the uterus. These 

 were sent to Professor Thiernesse immediately, with the information that the Pig had 

 been at least two years old, and in September, 1S70, had given birth to three well-formed 

 young ones ; after which, in con.sequence of being considered a bad breeder, through 

 having brought such a small litter, it was laid up for fattening. Until it was killed it 

 exhibited no signs of functional derangement, and manifested the usual indications of 

 rutting every three or four weeks ; being kept apart, however, it had no opportunity of 

 satisfying its desires. It was certain, then, that these two foetuses were of the same con- 

 ception as those born in September, and they must have lived until their parent was 

 sacrificed ; as they did not show the slightest alteration. They were closely contained 

 in a complete membranous envelope of an ovoid shape, provided at one point with a 

 vascular pedicle whose extremity, detached from the abdominal parietes of the mother, 

 resembled a red spongy cord not unlike the ovary in form, and which Thiernesse 

 believed it to be, fancying that the impregnated ovum had fixed itself there and grown. 

 This was not the case, however ; for dissection proved it to be a simple vascular paren- 

 chyma — a kind of cotyledon organized on the peritoneum of the young creature ; and 

 the student had seen the two ovaries in the Pig, after the removal of the foetuses. This 

 vascular body at the extremity of each foetal pedicle was therefore a new formation, 

 formed at the same time as the foetus, and by a hsematosic elaboration necessary to the 

 latter Consequently, there was here a case of primary abdominal extra-uterine gesta- 

 tion, concomitant with a normal uterine gestation. On examining the foetuses, they were 

 found to be females ; the least developed weighed about 23^ ounces, and measured, 

 from the snout to the base of the tail, about 12 inches ; and from the dorsal spine to 

 the distal extremity of the thoracic limb, 5 inches. The other was a little larger, 

 weighed 29^ ounces, and was 14 inches long and 7 inches high. Their conformation 

 was symmetrical, and development complete. Each had four teeth well grown up in each 

 jaw — the canine and lateral incisors ; and in the largest foetus the middle incisors of the 

 lower jaw were equally developed, while the two first hiolars were being cut in both 

 jaws. Those two foetuses were, then, even a little beyond the ordinary development 

 of those whose natural gestation is about to terminate. Each was attached by an 

 umbilical cord to the membranous sac containing it ; which sac, applied immediately to 

 the velvety skin, and even adhering to it at some points, was composed of a thin 

 chorion, provided, for a small extent of its external surface, with a very thick vascular 

 placenta, and responding by its inner face to a complete amnion, as well as a very small 

 allantois whose cavity was' like that of the latter, destitute of fluid, but communicated 

 with the bladder by a very distinct urachus. All the organs of these creatures were 

 fully formed, and there was nothing anomalous observed. On this case Thiernesse 

 rem'arks, that it would appear that the glandular arrangement of the uterus is not indis- 

 pensable to the formation of the embryo, and that absence of these glands may be effi- 

 ciently compensated for by an organ developed on or in any other in the abdominal 

 cavity whefe the impregnated ovum may graft itself ; that under the stimulating influ- 

 ence produced by tlie contact of the ova, this new organ constitutes a kind of extra- 

 uterine cotyledon analogous, up to a certain point, to the maternal placenta resulting 

 from the hypertrophy of the uterine mucous membrane, and which acts very well as such, 

 though with less functional energy. This is evidenced in the development of these two 

 foetuses, which required about ten months to bring them to their present growth — a 

 period more than double that of ordinary gestation in the Pig.* 



A few other instances of abdominal foetation will. complete what we have to offer in 

 the way of illustration of this abnormal pregnancy. 



The 'first case is reported by M. Simon, of Yonne, France. A celebrated sheep- 

 breeder in his canton had a Sheep which, though carrying a dead lamb for two years, 

 yet produced another at the end of this period, and which lived. It appears that the 

 Sheep was seven years old, and had been put to the ram with the others of the flock to 

 which it belonged. At the usual period of lambing, the animal made attempts at deliv- 

 ery, but was unsuccessful ; and an examination made by a veterinary surgeon proved 

 that the foetus could not be extracted ; it was therefore predicted that the Sheep would 

 for the future prove sterile. At this period the mammae were enlarged for five or six 

 days, and fever was present ; then all the general symptoms of this condition gradually 

 disappeared, the appetite returned, and the animal was well. The foetus could be felt 

 at the lower part of the belly. Two years afterwards, to the great astonishment of the 



* " Anuales de M^d. Vdt^rinaire de Bruxelles," 1871, p. 420. 



