The detection of criminal abortion, and a study of foeticidal drugs / by Ely van de Warker.
- Warker, Ely van de.
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The detection of criminal abortion, and a study of foeticidal drugs / by Ely van de Warker. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![2* must be given their due value, the viability of the foetil^ after delivery must be explained as the result of a sud-, denly determining cause, either accidental or criminal. If the weight of proof is in favor of criminality, it is strong evidence of instrumental interference, as the use of abortient drugs is in itself a slow-acting cause. If this sign is taken, in connection with the symptoms already given, as corroborative, it becomes of great value. It will be rarely met Avith, however, as in the married it is unusnal to allow gestation to progress so far as to render the occurrence of this sign possible. On the evidence furnished hy shreds of memhrane in the discharge considerable embarrassment may arise. I was called in May, 1871, to see a young married woman, but at that time a kept mistress. She had passed over one catamenia. When I saw her there were expulsive pains, hemorrhage, the formation of small clots, and right ovarian ])ain. During the night of the third day of the attack, she expelled a substance the nature of which she was unable to determine, and saved it for my inspection. I found what appeared to be shreds of membrane, of a pinkish color, mixed with firm coagulum. The membrane preserved its integrity after repeated washings. The question arose, was it a dysmenorrhceal membrane, or a remnant of a foetal envelope ? My friend. Dr. Van Duyn, examined it under the microscope, and found it consisted of a network of fibrin e, interlacing red blood globules. It was simply an anomalous clot. It was of uterine formation, which accounted for its decolorized, membraneous character. When suspicion is aroused of a pending criminal abortion, a slight incident may appear important. We must be careful how we give way to evidence that we do not use all our knowledge to test.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21083344_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
