The medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, given in the Gardner peerage cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords in 1825-6 : with introductory remarks and notes / by Robert Lyall.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Committee for Privileges
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, given in the Gardner peerage cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords in 1825-6 : with introductory remarks and notes / by Robert Lyall. 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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    sequently gestation sometimes, iiad you considerable ]>ractice, or not?—Yes, I had a great deal; some thousands in the course of my practice. Perhaps you have formed an opinion of the ordinary period of a woman’s gestation?—Yes. What is it?—Abozit forty weeks. Have you ever known an instance in wliich that period has been exceeded ?— I have, by what a woman informed me, on the death of her husband. I was called in to attend a woman, and she had a very fine hoy in a day or two. Upon going round afterwards, 1 said to her Where did this woman live ?—She lived at Oakhampton. In what year was it this happened ?—It must be nearly nineteen or twenty years ago. Do you know whether the woman is alive now ?—I do not know. A conversation took place with my father about it. You have no means of knowing of her prolonged gestation except from what she told you ?—No; I said it appears to me you went forty-one weeks. I asked her whether she had had any connection with any other man. Did you know her husband ?—Yes, I did. Do you know tbe date of his death ?—No, I do not; I cannot state that from the time. There was another case, when I attended a woman with twins. There she mentioned to me to attend her at a certain time, and I was sent for to her, and she appeared to have every indication of labour. She went a fortnight afterwards, and then she had two boys. And I think, from my general observation of animals as well as women, that they go longer with males than with females*. That is your judgment and opinion?—Yes; so much so, that I had two mares that went to the horse one day, and one foaled a fortnight sooner than the other; the female colt came first. Cross-examined by Mr. Solicitor General. Male gestation is in your opinion longer than female gestation ?— Yes. That is your theory ?—Yes. {Mr. Attorney General.) When you speak of 280 days as the ordinary time for gestation, is that the male or the female gesta- tion ?—TAe female. {Mr. Solicitor General.) What is the ordinary scale of nature; what is the difference?—A week or ten days. {Mr. Attorney General.) Do you mean to state that the ordinary * “ Many a flower is born to blush unseen.” We therefore rejoice when an occasion like the present brings talents into view. The greatest ac- coucheurs may receive ancient information, new modelled, from the commu- nications of the witness now behind the bar. We are quite concerned that Mr. Solicitor General treated so serious a subject in such an ironical style : had he been more cautious, the world might have learned all the mysteries of generation, and perhaps the true method of procuring a male or a female child at pleasure.