A critical inquiry regarding superfætation : with cases / by George Lindsay Bonnar.

  • Bonnar, George Lindsay.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A critical inquiry regarding superfætation : with cases / by George Lindsay Bonnar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    uterine life is it possible for a child to be reared to such a period as to show that it had at least outlived the accidents and liabilities necessarily attendant on premature birth ? With regard to the first, there are, especially in medico-legal works, many cases detailed of the rapidity with which all signs of recent delivery disappear. So long, however, as the indications of such an occurrence are perceptible to sight and touch, we presume it will be conceded that impregnation, physiologically, cannot take place. We, of course, allude to such signs as affect the internal organs, the most important of which are these three: the tender and swollen vaginal canal; the enlarged uterus, with its open and relaxed os; and the lochial discharge; and they usually disappear in the above order. The state of the vagina is a sign on which little dependence can be placed, for the size of the child, the frequency of previous births, the constitution of the mother, and a variety of other considerations which will suggest themselves to every mind, may so influence a delivery, and cause so slight a disturbance of the natural conditions of this canal, that in the course of a few days it may have regained all its former size and firmness. The state of the uterus is of great importance in this inquiry. Within the first few days it may be felt enlarged above the pubis. In eight or ten days it generally disappears into the pelvis, the cervix retracts, and the os regains its usual size; so that, in so far as the dimensions of that organ are concerned, they would then indi¬ cate a return to its usual conditions, and fitness for being the cradle of a new foetus. But we consider that so long as the lochial discharge is secreted, this function of the womb cannot, in the nature of things, be exer¬ cised. Great variations are observed in regard to the time of its cessation, and from one to three or four weeks seems to be the period during which this discharge may in general be said to exist. It is usually observed that where nursing is dispensed with, it con¬ tinues longer and more abundant than in other cases, and in the in-* stances under our consideration, we may presume that the function of lactation was not encouraged; we therefore think we cannot be overstating the time when we say that the fourteenth day after delivery is the earliest period at which the functions of the uterus can be so restored as to render it again capable of performing its part in procreation. The second question is one not so readily settled. When Dr Wm. Hunter was interrogated on this point, he replied, aa child (Dr S.) had attended one woman in a second delivery exactly nine months after delivery of the previous child—both children being at the full time. Ten months, he believed, was very common. In the lower animals we had frequently cases of a female becoming pregnant immediately after delivery. Breeders of horses believe that a mare is most susceptible of impregnation nine days after foaling.”—Ex. Proceedings of the Ed. Obs. Soc., 23d Nov. 1864. (We have endeavoured to procure particulars of Dr Sidey’s case, as to the marks of development of the second child, but as yet unsuccessfully.)
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