VOL. LXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. d'iQ 



after her arrival in town she was seized with the small-pox, and had been under 

 the care of Messrs. Hawkins and Grant, who have favoured me with the [.par- 

 ticulars here annexed. I called on her in the afternoon ; she complained of vio- 

 lent griping pains in her bowels, darting down to the pubes. On examining I 

 found the os tincae a little dilated, with other symptoms of approaching labour. 

 I sent her an anodyne spermaceti emulsion, and desired to be called if her pains 

 increased. I was sent for. The labour advanced very slowly ; her pains were 

 long and severe ; she was delivered of a dead child, with some difficulty. Ob- 

 serving an eruption all over the body of the child, and several of the pustules 

 filled with matter, I examined them more particularly ; and recollecting that Dr. 

 Leake, in his Introductory Lecture to the Practice of Midwifery, had observed, 

 that it might be necessary to inquire, whether those adults who are said totally 

 to escape the small-pox have not been previously affected with it in the womb, I 

 sent a note to Dr. Leake, and likewise to Dr. Hunter, in hopes of ascertaining 

 a fact hitherto much doubted. Dr. Leake came the same evening, and saw the 

 child. Dr. Hunter came afterwards, with Mr. Cruickshanks, and examined it ; 

 also Mr. John Hunter and Mr. Falconer ; who all concurred with me, that the 

 eruption on the child was the small-pox. Dr. Hunter thought the eruption so 

 like the small-pox that he could hardly doubt ; but said, that in all other cases 

 of the same kind, that he had met with, the child in utero had escaped the 

 contagion. 



From Mr. Grant's Notes. — The eruption appeared on Mrs. Ford in the even- 

 ing of the 8th of Dec. and she was delivered the 3Jst, that is, 23 days after the 

 appearance of the eruptions. 



Reflections by Mr. John Hunter. — ^The singularity of the above case, with all 

 its circumstances, has inclined me to consider it with some attention. 



1 . There can be no doubt but that the mother had the small-pox, and that the 

 eruption began to appear on the 8th of Dec. also, that it went through its regu- 

 lar stages, and that on the 31st, viz. 23 days after the first appearance of the 

 eruption, the woman was delivered of the child, who is the subject of this 

 paper. . 



2dly. The distance of time when she had the small-pox before delivery, joined' 

 with the stage of the disease in the child when born, which probably was about 

 the 6th or 7th day of the eruption, viz. about 15 or l6 days after the beginning 

 of the eruption on the mother, perfectly agrees with the possibility of the infec- 

 tion being caught from the mother. 



Sdly. The external appearance of the pustules in the child was perfectly that 

 of the small-pox, as must have appeared from the relation given in Mr. Wastall's 

 letter. Most of the pustules were distinct, but some were blended or united at 



