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
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.
115/136 (page 83)
![the uterus is situate at the further extremity of that canal. The uterus may be resembled to a bottle, a wine bottle, when in an impregnated state. It consists of a body, a neck, and a mouth to it. There is a peculiar supply of nerves to the mouth of the womb ; it is more largely supplied with nerves than any other part of the uterine organs, and 1 infer there is a peculiar sensibility attached to this part of the uterus. As utero-gestation goes forward, particularly at the latter part of it, the neck of the womb gradually obliterates, so that at the end of utero-gestation, when the woman has gone her full time, the neck being obliterated, the uterus consists of a mere body with a mouth to it. The theoretical part is this—what I have before advanced are facts—the theoretical part is this, that labour is excited in consequence of the contents of the womb being brought into immediate contact with the mouth ; that the neck has been in- tended to keep off labour until it has been obliterated, until the child is perfected. At the end of utero-gestation labour takes place, in consequence of this stimulus applied to the mouth of the womb. Now there is another eause which excites labour; which is, that just before it takes place there is a subsidence of the uterine tumour ; the womb previously has been as it were only three-fourths full of its contents, but now it becomes comparatively as seven-eighths full of its contents; the consequence of which is, that the action, which is thus produced by a kind of insensible contraction of the womb, tends to bear the contents upon the orifice, so as to apply the necessary stimulus to it. It may be replied to [inferred according to ?] this theory, that any cause that could prevent the contents of the womb being pressed upon the orifice would postpone the commencement of labour. I shall endeavour to name some causes which may and do illustrate this by cases in point. Ifthere is an insensibility of themouth of the womb, it would necessarily have a tendency to postpone labour; a certain impression is necessary to excite it; if the insensible con- traction f have alluded to before were deficient, it would fail to excite at that time. In illustration of this point I should name a case in West- minster some time back, in which a woman had gone her full time, as she imagined ; when I say her full time, she had gone a month beyond her full time, as she imagined. Viewing the case as arising from this want of due stimulus, I applied a bandage round the belly, with a view of producing a pressure downwards, and in the course of the day labour came on. She had sent to me, not in consequence of having symptoms of labour, but from having uncomfortable, what we call spurious, pains. Again, my Lords, if we were to suppose the mouth of the womb situate at the side of the womb, instead of being exactly in the centre, it would be evident then, that the gravitation of the child down would not be directly upon the mouth, Imt upon the sides of the uterus, upon the anterior parts of the sides; this would defer the commencement of labour. In illustration of this I think I can give a case in point*. * Dr. Power, in order to illustrate hi.s opinions, has judged proper to publish a pamphlet on the subject, the. title of which will he found in the note r. 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22333368_0117.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
