184 ON THE CAESAREAN OPERATION. 
the operation had been performed in this country, only three 
cases have been successful, and one was by an ignorant mid- 
wife. In France they have been more successful, in con- 
sequence of the operation being performed more early, at a 
period before the patient became exhausted, and was better 
able to bear the shock. 
At a confirmation held in Manchester in 1841, two sisters 
were presented for that ordinance to the Bishop of Chester, of the 
names of Betty and Ellen Welcock, who were both brought into 
the world by the Caesarean operation. We believe a similar 
instance cannot be found on record. They were sixteen years 
old on the 1st July, 1841. 
Although the operation, as subject to disputation, ought not 
to be hastily or lightly thought of, yet I do think that there 
are times, under particular circumstances, when it ought more 
frequently to be performed than it is at the present age. Is 
there not, I would ask, far less danger (although I grant but 
few recover from it) in performing this operation than in ap- 
plying the protracted and monstrous force that is sometimes 
used, and which is disgraceful to human nature I As far as my 
own experience has gone, which has not been very limited, I 
most highly deprecate the force that is too frequently adopted. 
If by moderate force, or by embryotomy, the foetus cannot be 
removed, I think it by far more advisable, rather than produce 
inflammation and extravasation in the parts, and debility and 
exhaustion in the system, to perform this operation at once. 
With some, if they can but get sufficient attachment to affix 
ropes to pull at, they are satisfied, no matter what size or shape 
the foetus may be: they conclude that it will and must come 
away rather than be left behind. 
The author of the work on “ Cattle,” in the year 1834, has 
said “ that he has twice attempted the operation ; but in neither 
case did he save either the mother or the calf, nor is he aware of 
any English veterinarian who has succeeded and he mentions 
only one successful case out of foreign journals; but since that 
time many successful cases have been recorded by English 
veterinarians, and very much to their credit. To reason by 
analogy, we should be led to expect a tolerable proportion of 
fortunate cases, when we look at the number of those where the 
abdomen has either accidentally or purposely been laid open in 
various animals, especially in the cow, that have recovered, 
which ought to encourage us in the performance of such an 
operation. 
It would seem that nature, in many instances, has almost set 
us the example to operate, when we find her actually getting 
rid of the dead offending matter by a process of absorption of the 
