VOL. XXVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 45 



The Case of a pregnant Woman, who, recovering of the Small-Pox, was after- 

 wards delivered of a dead Child full of the Pustules of that Distemper, By 

 the Rev. Mr. W. Derham, F.R.S. N^ 337, art. 17, p. l65. 



In my neighbouring parish was a pregnant woman, who was pretty well re- 

 covered from the small-pox, so that she was able to take something to purge 

 her after it : and on August 30, she took a purge, which did not work ; and 

 on September the 1 st, another purge, which gave her only a stool or two. On 

 which, September the 3d, she took another stronger purge, that worked so 

 violently upwards and downwards, that she fell into faintings and convulsions : 

 about which time I suppose her child died, but of which she was not delivered 

 till September the 8th. The child was a female, and in appearance well made, 

 lusty and strong. At its delivery, the midwife judged it had been dead 5 or 6 

 days ; so that its belly was burst, and the bowels came out, and the whole body 

 tending to putrefaction. But what seemed most remarkable, the child was so 

 full of the small-pox, that hardly a pin's head could be put between the blisters, 

 which were very plump, and full of matter, like the pustules of an adult, when 

 the small-pox is at the height, only a little depressed in the middle. But as 

 full as the child was, the mother had but few, and very favourably ; the child, 

 I suppose, undergoing that which would have been more severe on the mother. 



Hence I would inquire, 1. When a woman in pregnancy has the small-pox, 

 whether it be likely that the child should be in danger of taking and having 

 that distemper after its birth ? 2. Whether the above-mentioned child had the 

 small-pox at the very same time with the mother, and not rather afterwards, 

 by reason the child was full of it, after the mother was well recovered ? 



For my part, I am apt to think, that the great flux and tendency of the 

 blood to the child, in the womb, might draw in the humour, and prevent the 

 greater eruption of the small-pox in the mother; and that for want of a due 

 expence of it, the remainder afterwards broke out in the child, and that the 

 child really had it after the mother ; nature making the discharges on the child, 

 which were not completed on the mother.* 



Several Observations in Natural History, made at North-Bierley in Yorkshire. 

 By Dr, Richard Richardson. N° 337, art. 18, p. 167. 



One John Worsnape, of North Bierley, a poor boy, lived till he was 17 

 years of age, and never made water, and yet was very healthy, vigorous, and 

 active. He had constantly a diarrhoea on him, but without much uneasiness. 



* Other instances of small pox communicated from the mother to the foetus in utero are related by 

 Dr. Watson, Mr. J. Hunter, and Dr. Wright, in vols. 46, 70, and 71, of the Phil. Trans. 



