606 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 693-4. 



uterus: this pedicle serving to form the placenta (if it be not the placenta itself 

 already formed in the ovarium) by attaching itself to the body of the uterus.* 



Remarks, taken on dissecting the Body of A.M. a Maid of about 30 Years of 

 Age, who died of an Ascites, the \st of August, J68Q. By Mr. Daniel 

 Turner. N° 207, P- 15. 



We made a perforation of the abdomen, in the most prominent part, as the 

 body lay along, by a paracentesis, extracting through a small canula about 3 

 gallons. Afterwards we made an incision between the umbilicus and the carti- 

 lago ensiformis, dilating still as we emptied, till we had made room for a quart- 

 pot, with which we drew out to the number of 76 quarts, including the 3 

 gallons which were extracted before, of a subsaline and somewhat austere serum, 

 which amounts to the quantity of 1 9 gallons, besides what was imbibed with 

 our sponges, probably about 1 quarts more. 



While we were emptying this liquor we could perceive none of the viscera 

 fluctuating in the same, which is common with most hydropic bodies. I 

 remember it was the fear of this that once retarded an eminent physician from 

 a paracentesis upon his patient, lest the surgeon in making perforation should 

 puncture the intestines. After drying up the residue of this humour, which in 

 colour and consistence somewhat resembled water, wherein flesh newly killed 

 had been washed, saving that it was ef a somewhat deeper red, and had a more 

 crass hypostasis, we plainly perceived that this whole bulk of water was sus- 

 tained between the cutis and peritonaeum, by which there was so great a com- 

 pression of the intestines and other viscera to the vertebrae of the loins and 

 OS sacrum, that it is surprising how there could be any protrusion of the excre- 

 ments; since of necessity, by the aforesaid compression, the peristaltic motion 

 must be very slow, if any at all; and 2dly, the musculi recti of the abdomen, 

 which are said to be subservient to that necessary excretion, were not only at a 

 very considerable distance, but even quite obliterated, or at best not to be dis- 

 tinguished from the carnous pannicle or common integument of the body; when 

 at the same time the outward covering or cutis itself, notwithstanding so extra- 

 ordinary a dilation, was full as thick as in a sound body, and in some places 

 much thicker; particularly in the hypogastric region, where the membrana 

 adiposa was observed to be above 2 inches thick, and seemed to be no other 



* The original communication it accompanied with engravings intended to represent the appear- 

 slnces above-described, both in the woman who was executed and in the sow; but they are here 

 omitted, not only because the engravings themselves are remarkaoly bad; but also because the de- 

 icription of the appearances is (to anatomists) sufficiently intelligible without them. 



