18 
RETENTION OF THE F(ETUS. 
operation through the abdominal parietes, and that none of those 
cases had occurred in Britain (here he mentions the cases); 
one case were twins, and both removed at the same time. In 
none of these cases was the foetus removed so early as Mr. 
Hutchinson's case ; eighteen, twenty-four, and twenty-eight 
months elapsing from the time of conception. Dr. R. observes, 
that the ‘‘child dies as soon as the natural term of gestation 
expires. When death of the foetus takes place, attempts are 
made by the uterus to get rid of the foetus, although the foetus 
is not contained within the uterus : during these pains or efforts 
of the uterus, membranes are discharged, and with them some 
fluid, but not the waters of the amnion." He continues : “ I 
have personally known ten cases of extra-uterine conception, 
besides the one under consideration ;—four of the patients died 
from rupture of the sac, as evinced by dissection : three of these 
were tubal, the most frequent form of all the varieties, and the 
other parietal, or as the French call it, ‘ interstitialin which 
the ovum is lodged within that portion of the fallopian tube 
which traverses the parietes of the uterus. Three women died 
during the process of ulceration, established for the purpose of 
getting rid of the putrid mass, and three have recovered ; 
two after the evacuation of the foetal body, piecemeal, per rectum, 
and the last* who had the foetus remaining within her when I 
last saw her (having conceived twenty years ago), and who has, 
to my knowledge, borne three children since she became the * 
subject of this irregular species of gestation." 
Dr. R. remarked, that “ out of 40 cases where the Caesarian ope¬ 
ration had been performed in this country, only three cases had 
been successful, and one was by an ignorant midwife. In 
France they have been more successful, in consequence of the 
operation being performed more early, and when the patients were 
not exhausted, but more able to bear the shock." 
* The reporter says, “ he quotes from ‘ Burn’s Midwifery,’ that in this 
example the sac remains entire, and the child may be retained many years, 
as cases are on record to bear testimony; from the parts becoming hard, 
and being retained within the abdomen for the space of twenty, thirty, and 
even fifty years ; and notwithstanding this, the menses may return, and the 
woman conceive again.” 
