The medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, as given in the Gardner peerage cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of lords in 1825-26 / With introductory remarks and notes by Robert Lyall.

  • Robert Lyall
Date:
1826
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Credit: The medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, as given in the Gardner peerage cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of lords in 1825-26 / With introductory remarks and notes by Robert Lyall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    To these subjects we shall allude in the order in which they are enumerated. 1. Certain Peculiar Sensations. It has been asserted, that women are conscious of a peculiar sensation at the moment of conception. Whether conception be the work of a moment or not, we shall not deny that there may be a sensible impulse conveyed by the excite- ment into which the uterine system appears to be thrown : at the same time women are very apt to imagine that they have conceived, after sexual intercourse, particularly if that consequence be either a very desirable object, or one to be dreaded*. The evidence of a number of the medical witnesses feems to prove, that, in some few cases, the peculiar sensations alluded to afford a pretty sure criterion of the time of conception. But, com- paratively speaking-, there are only, a few individuals who have the symptoms so well marked as to indicate early pregnancy: and as we have no means of ascertaining whether the assigned date be completely accurate, so we can only arrive at a presumptive con- clusion by remarking, that labour comes on in from 270 to 280 days after the first time that these sensations were experienced.' Some women pretend that these peculiar sensations almost imme- diately follow the impregnating coitus — others feel them two or three hours afterwards, and some not till after as many days. It is impossible to prove that any excitement, into which the uterine system may be thrown at the time of coition, arises from impregnation, as we cannot readily discriminate between conception and the mere effect of the venereal orgasm, citra impregnationan. Women themselves very seldom calculate from this datum, and when they do, they are frequently mistaken. That they are sometimes right, only shows that the natural or the probable result of sexual intercourse has taken place. Wore we hypothetically to look back to primary causes and effects, we would infer, that the first symp- tom occasioned by the male influence on the female ovum, in as far as respects the sensations of the mother, must depend upon the irritation excited in consequence, in the ])roducing and enveloping organ, the ovarium. Whether the stimulus thus applied is suflS- ciently pungent, or is of such a nature as to occasion immediate effect, like the sting of a wasp, or like the bite of some other insects, only after an indefinite period has elapsed, we cannot pretend to say; but as most women do not experience the peculiar sen- sations only until after some hours or days have passed, we are inclined to think the latter occurrence the more probable ; and if it really be so, any symptoms which may arise at the time of coition cannot be considered as a criterion of the point in question: of its stage upon any individual sjonptofn, but upon a combination of several signs—peculiar feelings, sickness, depraved appetite, suppression of the menses, swelling of the mamma;, dark coloured areola, &c.; to which may be added, in the more advanced periods, the abdominal tumour, quickening, &c. &c. Hut since there is not one single invarhtbht sign of pregnancy—and as all of them, both separately and coiy^ntly, have proved equivocal and even fallacious, it is needless to add that tTO greatest caution is required before decision. * Smith's Forensic Medicine, p. 483,