394 F(ETAL DY ST OKI A. 



Tumours. 



Tumours of various kinds, situated either externally or internally, 

 may prove an obstacle to birth ; though the cases recorded are very 

 few. Some of the former are cj'sts which, in some instances, may be 

 looked upon as due to a second undeveloped ovum which has grafted 

 itself on the foetus (Fig. 121). Hygromata are not very uncommon, and 

 some of these are often ruptured during birth. Sometimes the tumours 

 are fibro-adipose ; in other instances they have been distended cavities — 

 as the guttural pouches ; and even scrofulous tumours have been 

 described. 



Indications. 



The indications will depend upon circumstances. Puncturing the 

 tumour if it contains fluid, removing it if it be accessible and solid, and 

 embryotomy if neither of these operations is likely to be successful, are 

 the only measures which can be recommended. 



Death. 



Many practitioners are of opinion that the death of the foetus renders 

 parturition difficult. In certain circumstances it may do so, but, as a 

 rule, provided the creature is in a proper position and perfectly developed, 

 its death has but little influence on this act. We have already alluded 

 to the death of the foetus at p. 259. 



CHAPTEE III. 

 Monstrosities. 



The designation " Monster," " Monstrosity," or Lusus Natures (French, 

 Monstre, Monstruosite ; German, Missgeburt ; Italian, Mostro ; Spanish, 

 MonstriLo), is generally applied to a creatui'e which exhibits some vice 

 in conformation — some remarkable anomaly or organic deviation in form 

 or structure, or both, in one or more parts of its body. 



Monstrosities have been conveniently divided into two kinds — those 

 which are anatomically so, and those which are so by reason of their 

 vicious conformation. The first present no modifications externally, and 

 there is no disturbance of function, but merely a change in the number 

 or position of certain organs — a change only discoverable by post- 

 viortem examination. The second includes those defects or deformities 

 which more or less seriously impair the value of the young creature, 

 either by destroying the symmetry of its shape, or rendering it more or 

 less useless by the absence or incompleteness of certain organs. 



The term " monstrosity," however, is usually reserved for a creature 

 which presents the most serious kind of organic alterations, and which 

 involve one or more organs — external or internal — these being modified 

 in form, structure, and relations. In this class we may have a de- 

 ficiency in one or more limbs, head, part of the head or trunk, or fusion 

 more or less incomplete of two or more individuals, etc. 



It must be admitted, however, that the limits between these groups 

 of anomalies or organic deviations are not well defined, and that they 

 merge into each other imperceptibly ; so that it is not always possible 

 to say where the one class ends and the other begins, and we can only 

 fix upon the types of each of these artificial groups. 



