698 PARTUE 
favourable iiTue to the mother, is related in the Annali 
Univerfali di Medicina of Dr. Omodei, (April 1820.) by 
Dr. Genfana of Saluzzo. The fubjeft was a labouring 
peafant, thirty-two years of age : (lie had been five days 
in labour of a mature child, (it is not ftated whether or 
not it was her firft,) when the advice of a furgeon was 
required. 
The foetus, according to the account of this furgeon, 
Mr. AUiprandi, was wedged-in between the ofl'a-ilia; 
and the mouth of the uterus was nearly clofed, from 
being, as well as the vagina, extremely tumefied and 
inflamed, in confequence of the repeated and improper 
manual efforts of an inexpert country midwife. The 
furgeon immediately employed blood-letting, tepid fo¬ 
mentations, and emollient clyfters. No good arofe from 
thefe means; and, the patient becoming aftefted with 
convulfions, the furgeon foon determined to refort to 
the caefarian operation, although he could not obtain 
the advice of any other furgeon, nor the aid of any af- 
fiftant. He made an incifion along the fide of the linea 
alba through the integuments, parted afide the mufcles, 
and, opening into the uterus, extracted a foetus nearly 
in a flate of putrefaftion. He remarked, that the uterus 
was inflamed in an extraordinary degree, as well as the 
whole of the abdominal vifcera. After this operation the 
lochiaj appeared, to which, in the progrefs of time, was 
joined fome purulent matter. The wound cicatrized 
perfectly in a fliort fpace of time ; and a tumor which 
prefented in the left groin, which was opportunely 
opened, gave vent to pus collected in it, and was re¬ 
duced and firmly cicatrized in twenty days. The patient 
in the mean time was re-eftablifhed, became again preg¬ 
nant, and had a mod fortunate parturition. 
It need hardly be obferved, that, in the event of a 
woman, near the full time of pregnancy, dying unde¬ 
livered, the caefarian operation ought always to be per¬ 
formed, with as little lofs of time as pofiible; fince by 
this meafure a chance of preferving the child will be 
afforded; and feveral cafes of fueh an operation, after 
the death of the mother, have been recorded, with the 
defired eft'eft of faving the infant. “ Wednesday, July 
15, at Eddefcaftle, Staffordfhire, the wife of Mr. Prefcott, 
an excifeman, being killed by a fialh of lightning, was 
opened, and a living male child taken out, which was 
immediately chriftened Jonah, and is like to live.” Gent. 
Mag. 1747. See alfo Spence’s Midwifery 1784, p. 495. 
How long, after the death of the mother, the child 
may furyive in utero, it is perhaps impofiible to fay ; 
fome authors mention twenty-four or forty-eight hours ! 
In the late Dr. S. H. Jackfon’s Cautions to Women 
(1798), mention is made of a child ext rafted by the for¬ 
ceps, which, by the very praife-worthy and perfevering 
exertions of Dr. Jackfon, was reftored to life, though 
the mother had been dead full half an hour before it was 
born. 
The fubjeft of the caefarian feftion is treated in an 
ample and ingenious manner by Dr. Denman in his I11- 
troduftion to Midwifery, fo often quoted; and by Dr. 
Hull of Manchefter, in his Defence of the Caefarian 
Operation, 8vo. 1798. See alfo the Memoirs of the Me¬ 
dical Society of London, vol. v. for the curious cafe of 
Elizabeth Thompfon, which is connefted with the dif- 
pute between Ofborne, Hull, and Simmons. 
Of Extra-uterine Gestation.— Geftation carried 
on in fome other parts than the uterus, as in the abdomen, 
Fallopian tube, or ovarium, is fcarcely lefs curious and 
myfterious than the fubjeft of fuperfcetation. 
In thefe matters, theory mull be a mod uncertain 
guide ; and it is only from a well-arranged accumulation 
of cbfervations that we can expeft light to be thrown on 
thefe occafional deviations from the ordinary progrefs of 
nature in the fituation and evolution of parts. 
As yet, no fafts have been advanced which are con- 
dufive on the reality of extra-uterine abdominal preg¬ 
nancy; and it is more than probable that thofe cafes 
I T I O N. 
which are termed abdominal or ventral, did not exift in 
the belly from the commencement of utero-geftation ; 
but are the confequence of ova having efcaped into the 
cavity of the abdomen, either by ulceration or laceration 
of the uterus. 
Dr. Merriman has publifhed two cafes, which feem to 
eftablifh the faft, that a retroverfwn of the uterus may ex¬ 
ift at the full term of utero-geftation, and which go far 
to prove, that many cafes on record, of fuppofed extra- 
uterine geftation of the ventral hind, were in reality cafes 
of retroverted uterus. “ There is fomething fo repug¬ 
nant (fays the doftor) to all that we know of the pro- 
ceffes of conception and generation, in fuppofing that an 
ovum, accidentally conveyed into the cavity of the ab¬ 
domen, can there be lodged and nouriflied, and brought 
to perfeftion, altogether unconnefted with the uterine 
fyftem ; that, unlefs the faft be clearly and unequivocally 
proved, it will hardly be believed.” 
In the majority of fuch cafes, if the woman has not 
funk under the firft (hock, fuch has been the conftitu- 
tional difturbance that flie has foon died ; whilft, in fe¬ 
veral well-authenticated inftances, a fecretion of coagu- 
lable lymph has formed a new receptacle, in which the 
fcetus has quietly repofed for many years, until, by the 
reftum, or by an abfcefs pointing externally at fome 
part of the abdomen, the different bones of the child 
have been expelled. 
The three following cafes are from the xixth, xxiid, 
and xlift, volumes of the Philofophical Tranfaftions: 
We do not attach any great importance to them, efpe- 
cially to the fecond ; yet we think them worthy of being 
prefented to the notice of the ftudent. 
In the ifland of Nevis, in the Weft Indies, there was a 
negro-woman belonging to one Capt. Mead, who after 
being with child a year and a half, was at the laft relieved 
by the navel, in this manner: about the 17th month, 
the woman being thought hydropical, her navel began 
to fwelland impofthumate. It fwelled and grew livid of 
itfelf, and then broke and voided fome quantity of icho¬ 
rous matter, by which the woman had fome eafe. In 
about a month more it impofthuinated again, to a far 
greater degree than before ; on which the furgeon opened 
it, where it feemed moft jetting out, which was the navel 
itfelf; and then, after voiding a great deal of thin ichor 
and matter, there appeared fome bones, which ftartled- 
him, not having feen the like before. It proved to be a 
child, the flelh of which was decayed. After the extract 
tion of the bones, the woman was eafy, and in a little 
time began to recover, ftie being very low, by reafon of 
the great burden the had carried for a long time. She 
recovered; and had a child afterwards in the natural way* 
Phil. Tranf. for 1697. p. 580. 
The wile of Mr. Roper, at Coxwold, twelve miles 
from York, falling in labour, the midwife extrafted the 
fecundines, which offered firft, but could not perceive 
any thing remaining. The woman’s body falling, and 
being pretty eafy for fome days, and the uterus being 
contrafted, the midwife took the fecundines for a mold, 
or falfe conception ; but in about a week more the pa¬ 
tient began to diicharge plenty of foetid matter by the 
vagina, which continued, and, in procefs of time, the 
felt a troublefome hardnefs on the hypogaftrium, which 
increafed daily for above fix weeks ; and fo reduced her, 
that they defpaired of her life. This lump and forenefs 
wrought upwards to the umbilical region, and continued 
fixed there for about a month. At length, being very 
painful, the neighbouring women took it for a great 
boil, or impofthume, and applied what they ufually do 
in fuch cafes, to aflift its iuppuration and breaking ; 
which had its efteft, and it broke rather under the navel, 
difcharging then, and afterwards, a great quantity of a 
thin foetid difcoloured liquor. The part about it mor¬ 
tified, and the ulcer enlarged fo that a man’s hand might 
be introduced in it. It continued exceedingly painful, 
and emitted fuch a ftench, that neither lierfelf nor any 
one 
