336 



FCETUS. 



Other instances of this condition of the 

 urinary apparatus are recorded by other writers,* 

 and in particular Meckel has related a case in 

 which it was conjoined with several other very 

 remarkable deviations.f 



Urinary deposits. It is no slight confirma- 

 tory proof of the secretion of urine by the foetus, 

 that urinary deposits have been discovered in 

 the kidneys, ureters, and bladder. Brendelius 

 mentions two cases, in one of which a child 

 only two days old, and in the other one of 

 eight days old, passed calculi before^leath; and 

 calculi were also found in their bladders. J 



Loeseke found a calculus in the kidney of a 

 new-born child. Hoffman relates the case 

 of a German princess who was afflicted with 

 renal calculus, and gave birth to a daughter, 

 who from the hour of birth suffered excru- 

 ciating pain when passing water; the child 

 died when three weeks old, and on examin- 

 ing the body a calculus as large as a peach 

 kernel was found in the bladder.j) Orfila 

 saw two cases in which there were calculi in 

 the bladder and in the kidneys at birth.^f 



Premature developement of teeth. It is 

 hardly necessary to remark that at an early 

 period of fatal existence the teeth begin to be 

 developed, and it is equally a matter of com- 

 mon observation that they do not in general 

 emerge from their alveoli and pass through the 

 gums until several months afterbirth. But many 

 instances have been observed in which some of 

 them have been found developed and projecting 

 above the gums at birth. 



I have before me at this moment four teeth 

 of this kind taken from the gums of the only 

 two children of a patient of mine; in each 

 child the two middle incisors of the lower jaw 

 were found projecting at birth, and in each 

 instance it was found necessary to extract them 

 after a few days, in consequence of their cut- 

 ting the child's tongue and preventing it from 

 sucking. 



Louis XIV. and Mirabeau are well-known 

 instances of this premature developement of 

 teeth, and many other cases are recorded by 

 different authors; for several references see 

 Graetzer.** 



This abnormal condition of the teeth has 

 been frequently found accompanying certain 

 deformities of the face, especially hare-lip and 

 cleft palate. 



Intestinal worms. However repugnant to 

 our ideas of probability the existence of worms 

 in the intestines of the foetus in utero may at 



* See Billard, Maladies des Enfans Nouveaux- 

 nes, &c. p. 431 et seq. ; Ollivier d' Angers. Archiv. 

 Gen. de Med. t. xv. p. 371 ; Mr. Wilson, Med. 

 Chir. Trans, vol. xix. p. 248. ; Ruysch, Sandifort, 

 Wrisberg, Chausster, and Vrolik have described 

 such cases. 



t Joum. Complem. des Sciences Med. t. xiii. 

 p. 335. 



t Program, de Calcul. Vesic. et ceteris Natal. : 

 also Obs. Anat. Dec. iii. ob. 1. 



$ Obs. Anat. Chir. Med. p. 39. 



|| Dissert, inaug. de morbis foetus in utero ma- 

 terno, Halae Magdeb. 1702. 



U Lemons de Med. Leg. Paris, 1828, t. i. p. 297. 

 * Die Krankheiten des Foetus, p. 141. 



first sight appear, too many instances of the 

 fact have been observed by authors of credit to 

 allow of any doubt remaining on the subject; 

 I must, however, add that no case of the kind 

 has come under my own observation. So far 

 back as the writings of Hippocrates, we have 

 an account of a tapeworm found in a fetus ; 

 and it seems very probable that in the instance 

 mentioned by Hufeland,* in which he found a 

 tapeworm thirty ells long in a child of six months 

 old, the animal must have existed in the child 

 before birth. Kerkringiusf found in a foetus of 

 six months and a half, whose abdomen was 

 much enlarged, worms of the kind usually met 

 with in children (ascaris lumbricoides or vermi- 

 cularis). DolaeusJ speaks of a dead-born 

 child in whose intestines he found a knot of 

 worms; and similar observations have been 

 made by Schroster and others. According to 

 Roederer and Wagner the whipworm (trichuris) 

 was found in a case in which the fetus partici- 

 pated in the disease (morbus mucosus), under 

 which the mother was labouring at the time. 

 Other instances are noticed by Brendel, 

 Bloch,|| lludolphi,1T and Graetzer.** 



ImpcrJ orate anus. Cases of imperforate 

 anus, of the ordinary kind, are too numerous 

 and too well known to require any particular 

 observation ; but this imperfection has been 

 occasionally accompanied by other peculiarities 

 deserving to be noticed ; one or two are, 

 therefore, subjoined in addition to the full 

 account of congenital malformations of this 

 part given in the article ANUS. 



Dr Steel has recently recorded the particu- 

 lars of a case of a new-born infant, who was 

 observed, one or two days after birth, to have 

 feculent matter, mingled with the urine, dis- 

 charged by the urethra. The parts behind the 

 scrotum were perfectly natural in every respect, 

 except the want of an anus, of which there 

 was not the slightest vestige ; the spot where it 

 should have been was smooth, and of a uni- 

 form colour with the adjacent parts; the 

 sphincter muscle was evidently wanting, and 

 there was nothing to indicate an accumulation 

 of faeces in the vicinity. 



For the first three or four weeks the child 

 continued fretful, and was evidently declining 

 in vigour and growth ; but from that period to 

 a short time before its decease it apparently 

 suffered but little, nor did its growth or 

 strength seem to be at all impeded. It was 

 born on the 13th of April, and in the latter 

 part of the ensuing March its bowels became 

 obstinately obstructed, the scrotum enlarged, 

 and became extremely tender; and on the 30th 

 of the same month it died. 



On dissection, two apple-seeds of a large 



* Journal Bd. 18, st. i. p. 3, quoted by Brem- 

 ser; Traite des Vers intestinaux, p. 181. 



t Specilegium Anatomicum, Amstel. 1670, obs. 

 79, p. 154. 



Encyclop. Med. lib. vi. cap. 10, p. 1011. 

 Pallas, dissert, de inf. viv. p. 59. 

 Preisschrift liber die Erzeugung Eingeweide- 

 wurmer, Berlin, 1782, p. 38. 



IT Entozoa i. p. 387 ; Pallas, p. 43. 

 ** Die Krankheiten des foetus, Breslau, 1837, 

 p. 10V. 



