Anomalies and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day / abstracted, classified, annotated, and indexed, by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle ; with 295 illustrations in the text, and 12 half-tone and colored plates.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1898, ©1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anomalies and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day / abstracted, classified, annotated, and indexed, by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle ; with 295 illustrations in the text, and 12 half-tone and colored plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    54/1024 (page 46)
    instance of ovariotomy with a pregnancy of twins three months afterward, and accouchement at term of two well-developed boys. Polaillon a speaks of a pregnancy consecutive to ovariotomy, the accouchement being normal at term. Crouchb reports a case of successful parturition in a patient who had previously undergone ovariotomy by a large incision. Parsons0 mentions a case of twin pregnancy two years after ovariotomy attended with abnormal development of one of the children. Cutterd speaks of a case in which a woman bore a child one year after the performance of ovariotomy, and Pippingskold e of two cases of pregnancy after ovariotomy in which the stump as well as the remaining ovary were cauterized. Brownf relates a similar instance with successful delivery. Bixby,g Harding,h Walker (1878-9), and Mears1 all report cases, and others are not at all rare. In the cases following shortly after operation, it has been suggested that they may be explained by the long retention of the ova in the uterus, deposited there prior to operation. In the presence of such facts one can but wonder if artificial fecundation of an ovum derived from another woman may ever be brought about in the uterus of a sterile woman ! Conception Soon After a Preceding Pregnancy.—Conception some- times follows birth (or abortion) with astonishing rapidity, and some women seem for a period of their lives either always pregnant or with infants at their breasts. This prolificity is often alluded to, and is not confined to the lower classes, as often stated, but is common even among the nobility. Illustrative of this, we have examples in some of the reigning families in Europe to-day. A peculiar instance is given by SparkmanJ' in which a woman conceived just forty hours after abortion. Ricek mentions the case of a woman who was confined with her first child, a boy, on July 31, 1870, and was again delivered of another child on June 4, 1871. She had become pregnant twenty-eight days after delivery. He also mentions another case of a Mrs. C, who, at the age of twenty-three, gave birth to a child on September 13, 1880, and bore a second child on July 2, 1881. She must have become pregnant twenty-one days after the delivery of her first child. Superfetation has been known for many centuries ; the Romans had laws prescribing the laws of succession in such cases, and many medical writers have mentioned it. Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote of it, the former at some length. Pliny speaks of a slave who bore two infants, one resembling the master, the other a man with whom she had intercourse, and cites the case as one of super- fetation. Schenck] relates instances, and Zacchias, Yelchius, and Sinibaldus mention cases. Pare seemed to be well conversant with the possibility as well as the actuality of superfetation ; and Harvey m reports that a certain a 168, 1879, vi., 243. b 550, xxxv., 71. 9 476, 1866, i., 284. d 538, 1867-8. e 321, 1880. f 548, 1854, ix., 566. g 476, 1881. h476, 1880, i., 93. i 547, 1879. J 264, 1876. k 122, 1881, 206. 1 L. iv., De Superfetation, 617. ^404, fol. 479.