274 
OBSTETRIC AUSCULTATION. 
year 1828, and in the fourth No. of the first vol. of The Vete¬ 
rinarian, the writer of this article earnestly recommended the 
use of the stethescope to his professional brethren. He had not then 
had recourse to immediate auscultation: but he was enabled to say, 
“ the stethescope applied to the thorax of the horse will give the 
murmur of the healthy lung during each act of inspiration and 
expiration. 1 am persuaded that 1 have more than once heard 
this noise, becoming more sonorous with the morbidly increased 
action of respiration, and again returning to the natural murmur 
when inflammation had subsided, and absolutely ceasing when con¬ 
gestion had begun ; and ceasing in some spots and strengthening in 
others when congestion had partially taken place, and the labour 
of other portions of the lung was increased to supply the defi¬ 
ciency ; and likewise ceasing, but an obscure undulatory pulsation 
remaining, when effusion had commenced.” 
He acknowledges, how^ever, that he had not then dreamed of 
applying it to the detection of pregnancy, although many years 
did not happen before he began to avail himself of this useful 
auxiliary. Mr. Baker is certainly the first person who has pub¬ 
licly recommended this important improvement in our art. We 
cordially thank him for it, and to him the honour must be awarded. 
At no great distance of time, if it were only for the greater con¬ 
venience and safety of the examination, as well as the more 
determined sound which he will obtain, he will abandon the 
stethescope, and trust to the unassisted ear. 
It very singularly happened, that while the Veterinary Associa¬ 
tion discussed this question on the 13th of March, the same 
subject engaged the attention of the Westminster Medical Society 
on the 24th of the same month. It will be interesting to contrast 
the two discussions. 
Dr. Williams commenced by speaking of the neglect of 
obstetric auscultation in this country; a subject deeply to be 
regretted, considering the extreme importance, in some cases, of 
ascertaining the existence of pregnancy, both as regarded the 
safety and character of the patient, and the reputation of the 
medical attendant. The general signs of pregnancy were mani¬ 
festly uncertain, and auscultation offered better and more decided 
means of arriving at the truth. 
The sounds to be detected by the application of the stethescope 
in a case of pregnancy were two-fold, and depended on .the cir¬ 
culation of the blood. The first was the uterine murmur con¬ 
nected with the circulation of the mother; the second was the 
pulsation of the foetal heart. 
The first of these sounds was the earliest to be detected, and 
was to be heard in one of the iliac regions a little above the pubis. 
The pulsation was at first simple, no murmur being present. In 
