An experimental inquiry into the effect upon the mother of poisoning the foetus / by W.S. Savory.

  • Savory, William Scovell, 1826-1895.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the effect upon the mother of poisoning the foetus / by W.S. Savory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    inoculating the Mnternal with the peculiarities of the Paternal Orfrnnism,* In these well-known essays, he advances some excellent observations, and cites many cases to siiow that an expla- nation offered by Mr. M'Gillivray, of Huntly, is the true one, viz. : that while, as all allow, a portion of the mothers blood is continually passing by absorption (and assimilation) into the body of the foetus, in order to its nutrition and development, a portion of the blood of tlie foetus is as constantly passing, in like manner, into the body of the mother; that as this commingles there with the general mass of the mother's own blood, it inoculates her system with the constitutional qualities of the foetus ; and that, as these qua- lities arc in part derived to the foetus from its male ])rogenitor, the peculiarities of the latter are thereby so engrafted on the system of the female, as to be communica- ble by her to any offspring she may subsequently have by other males. Now although we arc in possession of absolute facts which furnish clear and convincing evidence of the dii'ect transmission of what may be termed accidental matter from the mother to the foetus, not only of certain diseases, but also of foreign substances,—as camphor and oil, in tlic experiments of Majendic and D. AVilliams,—yet we have no such conclusive facts in support of the converse proposition. However strong the argument from analogy may be, sup- ported as it is by the record of cases of extreme interest, yet demonstrative evidence is wanting of the direct absorption of foreign matter fi-om the foetus by the mother. Indeed, the only experiments in reference to tliis point with which I am acquainted were attended by a negative result. In his Compendium of Physiology, Majendie briefly says, I have often injected very active poisons into the vessels of the cord, directing them towards the placenta; but I have never seen the mother suffer from the effects of them. • Monthly Journnl of Medicnl Science for October, 1849, and Scptcml)cr, 1850.