REMARKS ON PARTURITION IN ANIMALS. 655 
and also that delay in delivering was not contra-indicated. 
The supposed bag of membranes was a sort of spurious caput 
succedaneum formed on the side of the chest of the second 
child. The mother recovered. 
I am indebted to Dr. Wilson for the following note of a 
case of long interval between births of successive kittens : 
“ I send you a few short notes upon a case of kitten-birth 
which occurred lately in my house in Tweedmouth. They 
may, perhaps, be useful to you. The cat was in her second 
pregnancy. One morning I was informed by the servant 
that a dead kitten and the head of a second had been found 
in a basket filled with soiled clothes. Upon examination, I 
found such to be the state of matters, and had them removed ; 
but the appearance of puss led me to suspect that another 
kitten was still in utero , and accordingly I gave strict orders 
that the cat should be carefully watched, and allowed free 
access to the lying-in chamber and basket. At the same 
time I was informed by the servant, that the day before the 
birth she had accidentally put her foot upon the animal, thus 
probably causing premature labour. Twelve days afterwards 
the birth of the third kitten was announced to me. It was 
perfectly strong and healthy, and was brought up in the 
house. I mentioned that one kitten and the head of a second 
was found—was the body eaten in place of the placenta?” 
It is not certain, in this place, whether the first birth was 
a miscarriage, but it appears probable that it was so, and the 
result of injury. 
The following note of a case has been given me by another 
medical friend. It is very like that of Dr. Wilson : 
“On 16 th March, at 7 a.m., a great noise of cats fighting 
was heard in the wash-house, and our cat fell into a tub of 
water. That night she gave birth to two kittens, one of 
them dead and the other small and feeble. It died next 
day. 
“ On 24th March she had another kitten of nearly the 
usual size. It was either born dead or died very soon. 
During the intervening days the cat seemed uncomfortable.” 
Dr. Bell considered it a new doctrine to describe twins as 
the result of disease, and could not agree with it at all. 
With regard to the time that a second child is retained after 
the first is expelled, he thought that three days is less than is 
often seen. He mentioned two cases of retarded birth of the 
second twin. 
Dr. Keiller said that the views expounded by Dr. Duncan 
in regard to plural births occurring in the human subject 
might probably, in the main, be correct; but it seemed out 
