Anomalies And Curiosities Of Medicine Part 5

Graham describes a woman of thirty-five, the mother of seven children, who while pregnant was feeding some rabbits, when one of the animals jumped at her with its eyes "glaring" upon her, causing a sudden fright. Her child was born hydrocephalic. Its mouth and face were small and rabbit-shaped. Instead of a nose, it had a fleshy growth 3/4 inch long by 1/4 inch broad, directed upward at an angle of 45 degrees. The s.p.a.ce between this and the mouth was occupied by a body resembling an adult eye. Within this were two small, imperfect eyes which moved freely while life lasted (ten minutes). The child's integument was covered with dark, downy, short hair. The woman recovered and afterward bore two normal children.

Parvin mentions an instance of the influence of maternal impression in the causation of a large, vivid, red mark or splotch on the face: "When the mother was in Ireland she was badly frightened by a fire in which some cattle were burned. Again, during the early months of her pregnancy she was frightened by seeing another woman suddenly light the fire with kerosene, and at that time became firmly impressed with the idea that her child would be marked." Parvin also pictures the "turtle-man," an individual with deformed extremities, who might be cla.s.sed as an ectromelus, perhaps as a phocomelus, or seal-like monster. According to the story, when the mother was a few weeks pregnant her husband, a coa.r.s.e, rough fisherman, fond of rude jokes, put a large live turtle in the cupboard. In the twilight the wife went to the cupboard and the huge turtle fell out, greatly startling her by its hideous appearance as it fell suddenly to the floor and began to move vigorously.

Copeland mentions a curious case in which a woman was attacked by a rattlesnake when in her sixth month of pregnancy, and gave birth to a child whose arm exhibited the shape and action of a snake, and involuntarily went through snake-like movements. The face and mouth also markedly resembled the head of a snake.

The teeth were situated like a serpent's fangs. The mere mention of a snake filled the child (a man of twenty-nine) with great horror and rage, "particularly in the snake season." Beale gives the history of a case of a child born with its left eye blackened as by a blow, whose mother was struck in a corresponding portion of the face eight hours before confinement. There is on record an account of a young man of twenty-one suffering from congenital deformities attributed to the fact that his mother was frightened by a guinea-pig having been thrust into her face during pregnancy. He also had congenital deformity of the right auricle. At the autopsy, all the skin, tissues, muscles, and bones were found involved. Owen speaks of a woman who was greatly excited ten months previously by a prurient curiosity to see what appearance the genitals of her brother presented after he had submitted to amputation of the p.e.n.i.s on account of carcinoma. The whole p.e.n.i.s had been removed. The woman stated that from the time she had thus satisfied herself, her mind was unceasingly engaged in reflecting and sympathizing on the forlorn condition of her brother. While in this mental state she gave birth to a son whose p.e.n.i.s was entirely absent, but who was otherwise well and likely to live. The other portions of the genitals were perfect and well developed. The appearance of the nephew and the uncle was identical. A most peculiar case is stated by Clerc as occurring in the experience of Kuss of Strasburg. A woman had a negro paramour in America with whom she had had s.e.xual intercourse several times. She was put in a convent on the Continent, where she stayed two years. On leaving the convent she married a white man, and nine months after she gave birth to a dark-skinned child. The supposition was that during her abode in the convent and the nine months subsequently she had the image of her black paramour constantly before her. Loin speaks of a woman who was greatly impressed by the actions of a clown at a circus, and who brought into the world a child that resembled the fantastic features of the clown in a most striking manner.

Mackay describes five cases in which fright produced distinct marks on the fetus. There is a case mentioned in which a pregnant woman was informed that an intimate friend had been thrown from his horse; the immediate cause of death was fracture of the skull, produced by the corner of a dray against which the rider was thrown. The mother was profoundly impressed by the circ.u.mstance, which was minutely described to her by an eye-witness. Her child at birth presented a red and sensitive area upon the scalp corresponding in location with the fatal injury in the rider. The child is now an adult woman, and this area upon the scalp remains red and sensitive to pressure, and is almost devoid of hair. Mastin of Mobile, Alabama, reports a curious instance of maternal impression. During the sixth month of the pregnancy of the mother her husband was shot, the ball pa.s.sing out through the left breast. The woman was naturally much shocked, and remarked to Dr.

Mastin: "Doctor, my baby will be ruined, for when I saw the wound I put my hands over my face, and got it covered with blood, and I know my baby will have a b.l.o.o.d.y face." The child came to term without a b.l.o.o.d.y face. It had, however, a well-defined spot on the left breast just below the site of exit of the ball from its father's chest. The spot was about the size of a silver half-dollar, and had elevated edges of a bright red color, and was quite visible at the distance of one hundred feet. The authors have had personal communication with Dr. Mastin in regard to this case, which he considers the most positive evidence of a case of maternal impression that he has ever met.

Paternal Impressions.--Strange as are the foregoing cases, those of paternal impression eclipse them. Several are on record, but none are of sufficient authenticity to warrant much discussion on the subject.

Those below are given to ill.u.s.trate the method of report. Stahl, quoted by Steinan, 1843, speaks of the case of a child, the father being a soldier who lost an eye in the war. The child was born with one of its eyes dried up in the orbit, in this respect presenting an appearance like that of the father. Schneider says a man whose wife was expecting confinement dreamt that his oldest son stood beside his bedside with his genitals much mutilated and bleeding. He awoke in a great state of agitation, and a few days later the wife was delivered of a child with exstrophy of the bladder. h.o.a.re recites the curious story of a man who vowed that if his next child was a daughter he would never speak to it.

The child proved to be a son, and during the whole of the father's life nothing could induce the son to speak to his father, nor, in fact, to any other male person, but after the father's death he talked fluently to both men and women. Clark reports the birth of a child whose father had a stiff knee-joint, and the child's knee was stiff and bent in exactly the same position as that of its father.

Telegony.--The influence of the paternal seed on the physical and mental const.i.tution of the child is well known. To designate this condition, Telegony is the word that was coined by Weismann in his "Das Keimplasma," and he defines it as "Infection of the Germ," and, at another time, as "Those doubtful instances in which the offspring is said to resemble, not the father, but an early mate of the mother,"--or, in other words, the alleged influence of a previous sire on the progeny produced by a subsequent one from the same mother. In a systematic discussion of telegony before the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh, on March 1, 1895, Brunton Blaikie, as a means of making the definition of telegony plainer by practical example, prefaced his remarks by citing the cla.s.sic example which first drew the attention of the modern scientific world to this phenomenon. The facts of this case were communicated in a letter from the Earl of Morton to the President of the Royal Society in 1821, and were as follows: In the year 1816 Lord Morton put a male quagga to a young chestnut mare of 7/8 Arabian blood, which had never before been bred from. The result was a female hybrid which resembled both parents. He now sold the mare to Sir Gore Ousley, who two years after she bore the hybrid put her to a black Arabian horse. During the two following years she had two foals which Lord Morton thus describes: "They have the character of the Arabian breed as decidedly as can be expected when 15/16 of the blood are Arabian, and they are fine specimens of the breed; but both in their color and in the hair of their manes they have a striking resemblance to the quagga. Their color is bay, marked more or less like the quagga in a darker tint. Both are distinguished by the dark line along the ridge of the back, the dark stripes across the forehand, and the dark bars across the back part of the legs." The President of the Royal Society saw the foals and verified Lord Morton's statement.

"Herbert Spencer, in the Contemporary Review for May, 1893, gives several cases communicated to him by his friend Mr. f.o.o.kes, whom Spencer says is often appointed judge of animals at agricultural shows.

After giving various examples he goes on to say: 'A friend of mine near this had a valuable Dachshund b.i.t.c.h, which most unfortunately had a litter by a stray sheep-dog. The next year the owner sent her on a visit to a pure Dachshund dog, but the produce took quite as much of the first father as the second, and the next year he sent her to another Dachshund, with the same result. Another case: A friend of mine in Devizes had a litter of puppies unsought for, by a setter from a favorite pointer b.i.t.c.h, and after this she never bred any true pointers, no matter what the paternity was.'

"Lord Polwarth, whose very fine breed of Border Leicesters is famed throughout Britain, and whose knowledge on the subject of breeding is great, says that 'In sheep we always consider that if a ewe breeds to a Shrop ram, she is never safe to breed pure Leicesters from, as dun or colored legs are apt to come even when the sire is a pure Leicester.

This has been proved in various instances, but is not invariable.'"

Hon. Henry Scott says: "Dog-breeders know this theory well; and if a pure-bred b.i.t.c.h happens to breed to a dog of another breed, she is of little use for breeding pure-bred puppies afterward. Animals which produce large litters and go a short time pregnant show this throwing back to previous sires far more distinctly than others--I fancy dogs and pigs most of all, and probably horses least. The influence of previous sires may be carried into the second generation or further, as I have a cat now which appears to be half Persian (long hair). His dam has very long hair and every appearance of being a half Persian, whereas neither have really any Persian blood, as far as I know, but the grand-dam (a very smooth-haired cat) had several litters by a half-Persian tom-cat, and all her produce since have showed the influence retained. The Persian tom-cat died many years ago, and was the only one in the district, so, although I cannot be absolutely positive, still I think this case is really as stated."

Breeders of Bedlington terriers wish to breed dogs with as powerful jaws as possible. In order to accomplish this they put the Bedlington terrier b.i.t.c.h first to a bull-terrier dog, and get a mongrel litter which they destroy. They now put the b.i.t.c.h to a Bedlington terrier dog and get a litter of puppies which are practically pure, but have much stronger jaws than they would otherwise have had, and also show much of the gameness of the bull-terrier, thus proving that physiologic as well as anatomic characters may be transmitted in this way.

After citing the foregoing examples, Blaikie directs his attention to man, and makes the following interesting remarks:--

"We might expect from the foregoing account of telegony amongst animals that whenever a black woman had a child to a white man, and then married a black man, her subsequent children would not be entirely black. Dr. Robert Balfour of Surinam in 1851 wrote to Harvey that he was continually noticing amongst the colored population of Surinam 'that if a negress had a child or children by a white, and afterward fruitful intercourse with a negro, the latter offspring had generally a lighter color than the parents.' But, as far as I know, this is the only instance of this observation on record. Herbert Spencer has shown that when a pure-bred animal breeds with an animal of a mixed breed, the offspring resembles much more closely the parent of pure blood, and this may explain why the circ.u.mstance recorded by Balfour has been so seldom noted. For a negro, who is of very pure blood, will naturally have a stronger influence on the subsequent progeny than an Anglo-Saxon, who comes of a mixed stock. If this be the correct explanation, we should expect that when a white woman married first a black man, and then a white, the children by the white husband would be dark colored. Unfortunately for the proof of telegony, it is very rare that a white woman does marry a black man, and then have a white as second husband; nevertheless, we have a fair number of recorded instances of dark-colored children being born in the above way of white parents.

"Dr. Harvey mentions a case in which 'a young woman, residing in Edinburgh, and born of white (Scottish) parents, but whose mother, some time previous to her marriage, had a natural (mulatto) child by a negro man-servant in Edinburgh, exhibits distinct traces of the negro. Dr.

Simpson--afterward Sir James Simpson--whose patient the young woman at one time was, has had no recent opportunities of satisfying himself as to the precise extent to which the negro character prevails in her features; but he recollects being struck with the resemblance, and noticed particularly that the hair had the qualities characteristic of the negro.' Herbert Spencer got a letter from a 'distinguished correspondent' in the United States, who said that children by white parents had been 'repeatedly' observed to show traces of black blood when the women had had previous connection with (i.e., a child by) a negro. Dr. Youmans of New York interviewed several medical professors, who said the above was 'generally accepted as a fact.' Prof. Austin Flint, in 'A Text-book of Human Physiology,' mentioned this fact, and when asked about it said: 'He had never heard the statement questioned.'

"But it is not only in relation to color that we find telegony to have been noticed in the human subject. Dr. Middleton Michel gives a most interesting case in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for 1868: 'A black woman, mother of several negro children, none of whom were deformed in any particular, had illicit intercourse with a white man, by whom she became pregnant. During gestation she manifested great uneasiness of mind, lest the birth of a mulatto offspring should disclose her conduct.... It so happened that her negro husband possessed a sixth digit on each hand, but there was no peculiarity of any kind in the white man, yet when the mulatto child was born it actually presented the deformity of a supernumerary finger.' Taruffi, the celebrated Italian teratologist, in speaking of the subject, says: 'Our knowledge of this strange fact is by no means recent for Fienus, in 1608, said that most of the children born in adultery have a greater resemblance to the legal than to the real father'--an observation that was confirmed by the philosopher Vanini and by the naturalist Ambrosini. From these observations comes the proverb: 'Filium ex adultera excusare matrem a culpa.' Osiander has noted telegony in relation to moral qualities of children by a second marriage. Harvey said that it has long been known that the children by a second husband resemble the first husband in features mind, and disposition. He then gave a case in which this resemblance was very well marked. Orton, Burdach (Traite de Physiologie), and Dr. William Sedgwick have all remarked on this physical resemblance; and Dr. Metcalfe, in a dissertation delivered before this society in 1855, observed that in the cases of widows remarrying the children of the second marriage frequently resemble the first husband.

"An observation probably having some bearing on this subject was made by Count de Stuzeleci (Harvey, loc. cit.). He noticed that when an aboriginal female had had a child by a European, she lost the power of conception by a male of her own race, but could produce children by a white man. He believed this to be the case with many aboriginal races; but it has been disproved, or at all events proved to be by no means a universal law, in every case except that of the aborigines of Australia and New Zealand. Dr. William Sedgwick thought it probable that the unfruitfulness of prost.i.tutes might in some degree be due to the same cause as that of the Australian aborigines who have had children by white men.

"It would seem as though the Israelites had had some knowledge of telegony, for in Deuteronomy we find that when a man died leaving no issue, his wife was commanded to marry her husband's brother, in order that he might 'raise up seed to his brother.'"

We must omit the thorough inquiry into this subject that is offered by Mr. Blaikie. The explanations put forward have always been on one of three main lines:--

(1) The imagination-theory, or, to quote Harvey: "Due to mental causes so operating either on the mind of the female and so acting on her reproductive powers, or on the mind of the male parent, and so influencing the qualities of his s.e.m.e.n, as to modify the nutrition and development of the offspring."

(2) Due to a local influence on the reproductive organs of the mother.

(3) Due to a general influence through the fetus on the mother.

Antenatal Pathology.--We have next to deal with the diseases, accidents, and operations that affect the pregnant uterus and its contents; these are rich in anomalies and facts of curious interest, and have been recognized from the earliest times. In the various works usually grouped together under the general designation of "Hippocratic"

are to be found the earliest opinions upon the subject of antenatal pathology which the medical literature of Greece has handed down to modern times. That there were medical writers before the time of Hippocrates cannot be doubted, and that the works ascribed to the "Father of Medicine" were immediately followed by those of other physicians, is likewise not to be questioned; but whilst nearly all the writings prior to and after Hippocrates have been long lost to the world, most of those that were written by the Coan physician and his followers have been almost miraculously preserved. As Littre puts it, "Les ecrits hippocratiques demeurent isoles au milieu des debris de l'antique litterature medicale."--(Ballantyne.)

The first to be considered is the transmission of contagious disease to the fetus in utero. The first disease to attract attention was small-pox. Devilliers, Blot, and Depaul all speak of congenital small-pox, the child born dead and showing evidences of the typical small-pox pustulation, with a history of the mother having been infected during pregnancy. Watson reports two cases in which a child in utero had small-pox. In the first case the mother was infected in pregnancy; the other was nursing a patient when seven months pregnant; she did not take the disease, although she had been infected many months before. Mauriceau delivered a woman of a healthy child at full term after she had recovered from a severe attack of this disease during the fifth month of gestation. Mauriceau supposed the child to be immune after the delivery. Vidal reported to the French Academy of Medicine, May, 1871, the case of a woman who gave birth to a living child of about six and one-half months' maturation, which died some hours after birth covered with the pustules of seven or eight days'

eruption. The pustules on the fetus were well umbilicated and typical, and could have been nothing but those of small-pox; besides, this disease was raging in the neighborhood at the time. The mother had never been infected before, and never was subsequently. Both parents were robust and neither of them had ever had syphilis. About the time of conception, the early part of December, 1870, the father had suffered from the semiconfluent type, but the mother, who had been vaccinated when a girl, had never been stricken either during or after her husband's sickness. Quirke relates a peculiar instance of a child born at midnight, whose mother was covered with the eruption eight hours after delivery. The child was healthy and showed no signs of the contagion, and was vaccinated at once. Although it remained with its mother all through the sickness, it continued well, with the exception of the ninth day, when a slight fever due to its vaccination appeared.

The mother made a good recovery, and the author remarks that had the child been born a short time later, it would most likely have been infected.

Ayer reports an instance of congenital variola in twins. Chantreuil speaks of a woman pregnant with twins who aborted at five and a half months. One of the fetuses showed distinct signs of congenital variola, although the mother and other fetus were free from any symptoms of the disease. In 1853 Charcot reported the birth of a premature fetus presenting numerous variolous pustules together with ulcerations of the derm and mucous membranes and stomach, although the mother had convalesced of the disease some time before. Mitch.e.l.l describes a case of small-pox occurring three days after birth, the mother not having had the disease since childhood. Shertzer relates an instance of confluent small-pox in the eighth month of pregnancy. The child was born with the disease, and both mother and babe recovered. Among many others offering evidence of variola in utero are Degner, Derham, John Hunter, Blot, Bulkley, Welch, Wright, Digk, Forbes, Marinus, and Bouteiller.

Varicella, Measles, Pneumonia, and even Malaria are reported as having been transmitted to the child in utero. Hubbard attended a woman on March 17, 1878, in her seventh accouchement. The child showed the rash of varicella twenty-four hours after birth, and pa.s.sed through the regular coa.r.s.e of chicken-pox of ten days' duration. The mother had no signs of the disease, but the children all about her were infected.

Ordinarily the period of incubation is from three to four days, with a premonitory fever of from twenty-four to seventy-two hours' duration, when the rash appears; this case must therefore have been infected in utero. Lomer of Hamburg tells of the case of a woman, twenty-two years, unmarried, pregnant, who had measles in the eighth month, and who gave birth to an infant with measles. The mother was attacked with pneumonia on the fifth day of her puerperium, but recovered; the child died in four weeks of intestinal catarrh. Gautier found measles transmitted from the mother to the fetus in 6 out of 11 cases, there being 2 maternal deaths in the 11 cases.

Netter has observed the case of transmission of pneumonia from a mother to a fetus, and has seen two cases in which the blood from the uterine vessels of patients with pneumonia contained the pneumococcus. Wallick collected a number of cases of pneumonia occurring during pregnancy, showing a fetal mortality of 80 per cent.

Felkin relates two instances of fetal malaria in which the infection was probably transmitted by the male parent. In one case the father near term suffered severely from malaria; the mother had never had a chill. The violent fetal movements induced labor, and the spleen was so large as to r.e.t.a.r.d it. After birth the child had seven malarial paroxysms but recovered, the splenic tumor disappearing.

The modes of infection of the fetus by syphilis, and the infection of the mother, have been well discussed, and need no mention here.

There has been much discussion on the effects on the fetus in utero of medicine administered to the pregnant mother, and the opinions as to the reliability of this medication are so varied that we are in doubt as to a satisfactory conclusion. The effects of drugs administered and eliminated by the mammary glands and transmitted to the child at the breast are well known, and have been witnessed by nearly every physician, and, as in cases of strong metallic purges, etc., need no other than the actual test. However, scientific experiments as to the efficacy of fetal therapeutics have been made from time to time with varying results.

Gusserow of Strasbourg tested for iodin, chloroform, and salicylic acid in the blood and secretions of the fetus after maternal administration just before death. In 14 cases in which iodin had been administered, he examined the fetal urine of 11 cases; in 5, iodin was present, and in the others, absent. He made some similar experiments on the lower animals. Benicke reports having given salicylic acid just before birth in 25 cases, and in each case finding it in the urine of the child shortly after birth.

At a discussion held in New York some years ago as to the real effect on the fetus of giving narcotics to the mother, Dr. Gaillard Thomas was almost alone in advocating that the effect was quite visible. Fordyce Barker was strongly on the negative side. Henning and Ahlfeld, two German observers, vouch for the opinion of Thomas, and Thornburn states that he has witnessed the effect of nux vomica and strychnin on the fetus shortly after birth. Over fifty years ago, in a memoir on "Placental Phthisis," Sir James Y. Simpson advanced a new idea in the recommendation of pota.s.sium chlorate during the latter stages of pregnancy. The efficacy of this suggestion is known, and whether, as Simpson said, it acts by supplying extra oxygen to the blood, or whether the salt itself is conveyed to the fetus, has never been definitely settled.

McClintock, who has been a close observer on this subject, reports some interesting cases. In his first case he tried a mixture of iron perchlorid and pota.s.sium chlorate three times a day on a woman who had borne three dead children, with a most successful result. His second case failed, but in a third he was successful by the same medication with a woman who had before borne a dead child. In a fourth case of unsuccessful pregnancy for three consecutive births he was successful.

His fifth case was extraordinary: It was that of a woman in her tenth pregnancy, who, with one exception, had always borne a dead child at the seventh or eighth month. The one exception lived a few hours only.

Under this treatment he was successful in carrying the woman safely past her time for miscarriage, and had every indication for a normal birth at the time of report. Thornburn believes that the administration of a tonic like strychnin is of benefit to a fetus which, by its feeble heart-beats and movements, is thought to be unhealthy. Porak has recently investigated the pa.s.sage of substances foreign to the organism through the placenta, and offers an excellent paper on this subject, which is quoted in brief in a contemporary number of Teratologia.

In this important paper, Porak, after giving some historical notes, describes a long series of experiments performed on the guinea-pig in order to investigate the pa.s.sage of a.r.s.enic, copper, lead, mercury, phosphorus, alizarin, atropin, and eserin through the placenta. The placenta shows a real affinity for some toxic substances; in it acc.u.mulate copper and mercury, but not lead, and it is therefore through it that the poison reaches the fetus; in addition to its pulmonary, intestinal, and renal functions, it fixes glycogen and acts as an acc.u.mulator of poisons, and so resembles in its action the liver; therefore the organs of the fetus possess only a potential activity.

The storing up of poisons in the placenta is not so general as the acc.u.mulation of them in the liver of the mother. It may be asked if the placenta does not form a barrier to the pa.s.sage of poisons into the circulation of the fetus; this would seem to be demonstrated by mercury, which was always found in the placenta and never in the fetal organs. In poisoning by lead and copper the acc.u.mulation of the poison in the fetal tissues is greater than in the maternal, perhaps from differences in a.s.similation and disa.s.similation or from greater diffusion. Whilst it is not an impermeable barrier to the pa.s.sage of poisons, the placenta offers a varying degree of obstruction: it allows copper and lead to pa.s.s easily, a.r.s.enic with greater difficulty. The acc.u.mulation of toxic substances in the fetus does not follow the same law as in the adult. They diffuse more widely in the fetus. In the adult the liver is the chief acc.u.mulatory organ. a.r.s.enic, which in the mother elects to acc.u.mulate in the liver, is in the fetus stored up in the skin; copper acc.u.mulates in the fetal liver, central nervous system, and sometimes in the skin; lead which is found specially in the maternal liver, but also in the skin, has been observed in the skin, liver, nervous centers, and elsewhere in the fetus. The frequent presence of poisons in the fetal skin demonstrates its physiologic importance. It has probably not a very marked influence on its health.

On the contrary, acc.u.mulation in the placenta and nerve centers explains the pathogenesis of abortion and the birth of dead fetuses ("mortinatat.i.te") Copper and lead did not cause abortion, but mercury did so in two out of six cases. a.r.s.enic is a powerful abortive agent in the guinea-pig, probably on account of placental hemorrhages. An important deduction is that whilst the placenta is frequently and seriously affected in syphilis, it is also the special seat for the acc.u.mulation of mercury. May this not explain its therapeutic action in this disease? The marked acc.u.mulation of lead in the central nervous system of the fetus explains the frequency and serious character of saturnine encephalopathic lesions. The presence of a.r.s.enic in the fetal skin alone gives an explanation of the therapeutic results of the administration of this substance in skin diseases.

Intrauterine amputations are of interest to the medical man, particularly those cases in which the accident has happened in early pregnancy and the child is born with a very satisfactory and clean stump. Montgomery, in an excellent paper, advances the theory, which is very plausible, that intrauterine amputations are caused by contraction of bands or membranes of organized lymph encircling the limb and producing amputation by the same process of disjunctive atrophy that the surgeons induce by ligature. Weinlechner speaks of a case in which a man devoid of all four extremities was exhibited before the Vienna Medical Society. The amputations were congenital, and on the right side there was a very small stump of the upper arm remaining, admitting the attachment of an artificial apparatus. He was twenty-seven years old, and able to write, to thread a needle, pour water out of a bottle, etc.

Cook speaks of a female child born of Indian parents, the fourth birth of a mother twenty-six years old. The child weighed 5 1/2 pounds; the circ.u.mference of the head was 14 inches and that of the trunk 13 inches. The upper extremities consisted of perfect shoulder joints, but only 1/4 of each humerus was present. Both sides showed evidences of amputation, the cicatrix on the right side being 1 inch long and on the left 1/4 inch long. The right lower limb was merely a fleshy corpuscle 3/4 inch wide and 1/4 inch long; to the posterior edge was attached a body resembling the little toe of a newly-born infant. On the left side the limb was represented by a fleshy corpuscle 1 inch long and 1/4 inch in circ.u.mference, resembling the great toe of an infant. There was no history of shock or injury to the mother. The child presented by the breech, and by the absence of limbs caused much difficulty in diagnosis. The three stages of labor were one and one-half hours, forty-five minutes, and five minutes, respectively. The accompanying ill.u.s.tration shows the appearance of the limbs at the time of report.

Figure 10 represents a negro boy, the victim of intrauterine amputation, who learned to utilize his toes for many purposes. The ill.u.s.tration shows his mode of holding his pen.

There is an instance reported in which a child at full term was born with an amputated arm, and at the age of seventeen the stump was scarcely if at all smaller than the other. Blake speaks of a case of congenital amputation of both the upper extremities. Gillilam a mentions a case that shows the deleterious influence of even the weight of a fetal limb resting on a cord or band. His case was that of a fetus, the product of a miscarriage of traumatic origin; the soft tissues were almost cut through and the bone denuded by the limb resting on one of the two umbilical cords, not encircling it, but in a sling. The cord was deeply imbedded in the tissues.

The coilings of the cord are not limited to compression about the extremities alone, but may even decapitate the head by being firmly wrapped several times about the neck. According to Ballantyne, there is in the treatise De Octimestri Partu, by Hippocrates, a reference to coiling of the umbilical cord round the neck of the fetus. This coiling was, indeed, regarded as one of the dangers of the eighth month, and even the mode of its production is described. It is said that if the cord he extended along one side of the uterus, and the fetus lie more to the other side, then when the culbute is performed the funis must necessarily form a loop round the neck or chest of the infant. If it remain in this position, it is further stated, the mother will suffer later and the fetus will either perish or be born with difficulty. If the Hippocratic writers knew that this coiling is sometimes quite innocuous, they did not in any place state the fact.

The accompanying ill.u.s.trations show the different ways in which the funis may be coiled, the coils sometimes being as many as 8.

Bizzen mentions an instance in which from strangulation the head of a fetus was in a state of putrefaction, the funis being twice tightly bound around the neck. Cleveland, Cuthbert, and Germain report a.n.a.logous instances. Matthyssens observed the twisting of the funis about the arm and neck of a fetus the body of which was markedly wasted. There was complete absence of amniotic fluid during labor.

Blumenthal presented to the New York Pathological Society an ovum within which the fetus was under going intrauterine decapitation.

Buchanan describes a case ill.u.s.trative of the etiology of spontaneous amputation of limbs in utero Nebinger reports a case of abortion, showing commencing amputation of the left thigh from being encircled by the funis. The death of the fetus was probably due to compression of the cord. Owen mentions an instance in which the left arm and hand of a fetus were found in a state of putrescence from strangulation, the funis being tightly bound around at the upper part. Simpson published an article on spontaneous amputation of the forearm and rudimentary regeneration of the hand in the fetus. Among other contributors to this subject are Avery, Boncour, Brown, Ware, Wrangell, Young, Nettekoven, Martin, Macan, Leopold, Hecker, Gunther, and Friedinger.

WyG.o.dzky finds that the greatest number of coils of the umbilical cord ever found to encircle a fetus are 7 (Baudelocque), 8 (Crede), and 9 (Muller and Gray). His own case was observed this year in Wilna. The patient was a primipara aged twenty. The last period was seen on May 10, 1894. On February 19th the fetal movements suddenly ceased. On the 20th pains set in about two weeks before term. At noon turbid liquor amnii escaped. At 2 P.M., on examination, WyG.o.dzky defined a dead fetus in left occipito-anterior presentation, very high in the inlet. The os was nearly completely dilated, the pains strong. By 4 P.M. the head was hardly engaged in the pelvic cavity. At 7 P.M. it neared the outlet at the height of each pain, but retracted immediately afterward. After 10 P.M. the pains grew weak. At midnight WyG.o.dzky delivered the dead child by expression. Not till then was the cause of delay clear. The funis was very tense and coiled 7 times round the neck and once round the left shoulder; there was also a distinct knot. It measured over 65 inches in length. The fetus was a male, slightly macerated. It weighed over 5 pounds, and was easily delivered entire after division and unwinding of the funis. No marks remained on the neck. The placenta followed ten minutes later and, so far as naked-eye experience indicated, seemed healthy.

Intrauterine fractures are occasionally seen, but are generally the results of traumatism or of some extraordinary muscular efforts on the part of the mother. A blow on the abdomen or a fall may cause them. The most interesting cases are those in which the fractures are multiple and the causes unknown. Spontaneous fetal fractures have been discussed thoroughly, and the reader is referred to any responsible text-book for the theories of causation. Atkinson, De Luna, and Keller report intrauterine fractures of the clavicle. Filippi contributes an extensive paper on the medicolegal aspect of a case of intrauterine fracture of the os cranium. Braun of Vienna reports a case of intrauterine fracture of the humerus and femur. Rodrigue describes a case of fracture and dislocation of the humerus of a fetus in utero.

Gaultier reports an instance of fracture of both femora intrauterine.

Stanley, Vanderveer, and Young cite instances of intrauterine fracture of the thigh; in the case of Stanley the fracture occurred during the last week of gestation, and there was rapid union of the fragments during lactation. Danyau, Proudfoot, and Smith mention intrauterine fracture of the tibia; in Proudfoot's case there was congenital talipes talus.