Sf ■l'h:nF(KT. I Tins. 1 »J0 



BOOK ill. 



PATHOLOGY OF PHEGNAXC'Y. 



The patholo(i!/ of prej,'nancy may be said to include those diseases and 

 accidents which constitute deviations from the regular or normal scries 

 of physiological phenomena ctiaractcristic of this condition. Tliese 

 deviations are somewhat numerous and various, and we will follow 

 Saint-C'yr in classing them under three distinct heads : anomalies, 

 diseases, and acvidents. They will be studied in this order. 



CHAPTER I. 

 Anomalies in Pregnancy. 



The anomalies occurring in gestation are super fietation, extra-uterine 

 jjregnanci/, and spurious pregnancy. 



SECTION I.-SUPKRr«ETATIOX. 



The term supcr/a'tation {fa'tus super firtuni — one fci'tus on another) 

 has been employed to designate these cases of conception in wliich an 

 animal, already pregnant, has been supposed to conceive a second time 

 before the termination of the primary gestation. In ordinary double or 

 triple gestation, the same copulation has produced the young at once ; 

 but in superfu'tation they are supposed to be formed at a more or less 

 wide interval of time, and of course by different copulations. 



The belief in the possibility of such an occurrence in woman was 

 common among the old writers, and cases are adduced in support of 

 this view ; but its correctness has been nmch disputed by some recent 

 authorities. 



Aristotle admitted the likelihood of superfcrtation taking place in 

 woman, because during pregnancy she was always with her imsband ; 

 but he denied its possibility in the Mare, although he was aware that 

 it might receive the male several times. In all probability, he imagined 

 that the instinct of the Mare would repel tlie Stallion after impregna- 

 tion. The naturalists and hippiatrists who succeeded him, have also 

 denied that such an abnormal occurrence could take place in the Mare ; 

 because, they declared, after conception the orifice of the uterus is 

 closed, so that the semen of the male cannot be introduced ; every 

 double birth, they also maintained, was due to two ova being impreg- 

 nated at the one copulation. 



But numerous facts recorded by competent authorities would go to 

 prove that superfoetation is not only probable, but possible ; and that if, 

 generally, there is only one successful copulation possible, on the other 

 hand there are instances well vouched for, in which two successive 

 copulations have been followed by two independent impregnations. In 

 uniparous animals such cases have been frequently observed, the most 

 convincing of which is the production of a Mule-foal and a Horse-foal 

 by the same Mare at one birth. 



An occurrence of this kind is mentionefJ in thi- Memoirf* dr VArnilfmif Boi/alr fjUn 

 i><-ifurf.f for 17o3 ; a Mare «t Ch;«tillon-«nr-.S«vr. >)ronght forth a H<>r^e and a Mule-foal. 



