Observations on obstetric auscultation : with an analysis of the evidences of pregnancy, and an inquiry into the proofs of the life and death of the ftus in utero.

  • Kennedy, Evory, 1806?-1886. [from old catalog].
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on obstetric auscultation : with an analysis of the evidences of pregnancy, and an inquiry into the proofs of the life and death of the ftus in utero. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    only that the child had been born and had breathed, but also that it had supported an independent circulation.* Note [a]. In oiir last note Ave attempted to show, that, to render any offence against the foetus in utero indictable at com- mon law, it was not necessary for the female to have quickened ; and that the objections which had been raised against the law of England upon this score ap- plied only to the part of it created by statute. The evi- dence required by law, to prove the plea of pregnancy pleaded in stay of execution by a woman when capitally convicted, has also been supposed necessarily to include the proof of her being quick with child.f If? by this, it be meant, that to support the plea, there exists any ne- cessity of showing that the movement generally expe- rienced by females about the fifteenth or sixteenth week of gestation has occurred, it seems that the law does not call for such evidence. The words of Lord Coke on this subject, are,+ When a woman commits high trea- son, and is quick with child, she cannot upon her arraign- ment, plead it, but she must either plead not guilty or confess it; and if upon her plea she be found guilty, or confess it, she cannot allege it in arrest of judgment, but * This case appears completely to take away all efficacy, in a le- gal point of view, from the test of floating the lungs, f See 1 Paris & Fonb. Med. Jour. 939. X 3 Inst. 17. And see 1 Hale, P. C. 368 ; 2 Hale, P. C. 413.
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