Obesity Simulating Pregnancy—Caution in the Diagnosis of Preg-
nancy. By Dr. Leopold Schonburgh.—Mrs.-----------, whose husband
had been separated from her by imprisonment upwards of three months,
after exposure to cold, experienced all the symptoms of pregnancy.
She was a modest and virtuous woman, and believed herself to have
been three months pregnant. In about eight weeks more she believed
she felt the movements of the child; the abdomen continued to increase
in size proportionably. At the end of nine months her abdomen pre-
sented the appearance of the full period of gestation, but she had not
felt the supposed fcetal movements for several weeks. The catamenia
now returned regularly at each month, her health was good, and the
size of the abdomen again decreased to the size of about five months’
pregnancy.
The umbilicus was depressed, the parietes felt doughy, free from
fluctuation, the hands could be pressed below them four or five inches
downwards towards the spine, and could be made to meet together
beneath the fat integuments ; the uterus could be felt somewhat enlarged
in the hypogastric region. On examination per vaginam, the os uteri
could be readily reached ‘ it was soft and seemed swollen ; two lateral
cicatrices could be perceived on its surface. The cervix uteri was
rather more than half an inch in length. The posterior wall was soft
and rather tender; pressure on the abdomen could be felt to depress
this organ. The mucous membrane of the vagina did not present a
bluish, but the ordinary red colour.
It was agreed that no pregnancy existed in this case, but that the
suppression of the catemenia by cold had given rise to the rapid deve-
lopment of fat, and congestion of the pelvic viscera, with the consequent
enlargement of the abdomen.—Casper's Wochenschrift and Monthly
Jour.