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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    Dr. Hunter’s opinion was, that “ A cliild may be born alive at any time from three months ; hut we see none born with powers of coming to manhood, or of being reared, before seven calendar months, or near that time. At six months it cannot be*.” “ All accounts of children,” said Professor Hamilton, in his lectures, “ living to maturity, who were brought forth at the fifth or sixth month, are fabulous ; at least I consider them so. 1 lately brought a child into the world a few days after the comple- tion of the sixth month, which, to my surprise, was alive, and which lived nearly three days : this is the longest period ever I knew so early a foetus livef- At the completion of, or a few days after the seventh month, a child may, and certainly often does, live to matu- rity. When I first began ])ractice, I supposed that no child could live to maturity which weighed less than five pounds avoirdupoise, but experience has convinced me to the contrary ; and now I am confident, that a child of four and a quarter pounds weight at birth may live to maturity. No child at the full period of pregnancy weighs less than five pounds avoirdupoise, and the common weight of children is seven pounds at the full period. Dr. Clarke had not seen a new-born child weigh more than ten pounds ; now, 1 have seen a number which weighed twelve pounds, and I once saw one which weighed thirteen pounds twelve ounces avoirdupoise. Dr. Clarke had seen no case of twins weigh more than twelve pounds ; now every year 1 see twins weigh fourteen pounds Before concluding, we would remark, that if the important point, as to the abbreviation, and more especially the protraction of human utero-gestatlon, were to be decided by the analogy of the irregularities or the deviations from the usual periods of gestation in the lower animals, the task would be easy. The sceptic on this head would only require to read the facts — the incontrovertible facts — con- tjiined in the various works referred to in the notes, to become a convert to the doctrine of the frequent protraction of human preg- nancy beyon'd the natural period of nine calendar months. Indeed, the mass of facts respecting deviations in the period of gestation .among the lower animals, is so satisfactory as to require no new experiments or observations In the formation of laws, however, which might involve the character, the property, nay, the life of man, we admit that analogy, *Vide Note, p. 18 of Evidence. •f- “ Irregularities, or apparent irregularities, in menstruation, will also explain some supposed curtailments of the term of pregnancy. I have already hinted that a discharge of blood may take place from the vagina, even after conception—nay, in cases of imperfect closure of the os uteri, it may even come from the uterus itself; whicli is, indeed, a well known cause of abortion. Care and other circumstances, however, may preserve the embryo ; and, pregnancy going on, the female is suq)rised long before her reckoning is out.”—Smith’s Principles of Forensic Medicine, p. 493. + Notes from Hamilton’s Lectures.—Vide also Heck’s Elements of Medi- cal.I urispnulence, p. IK). § Every Newmarket jockey could adduce instances of mai'os which had exceeded the usual time of gestation.