OBSTETRICS.
Two cases of early viability, and an interesting case of premature birth
By M. McCulloch, M. D., M. R. C. S. L., Lecturer on Midwifery,
McGill College, Physician to the University Lying-in-Hospital, &c.—
Mrs. Henderson, aged 28, the wife of a grocer in this city, had been
married about a year, and was attended by me in her first labor on the
13th February, 1849. She was delivered of a son whose weight was as-
certained by his father and myself not to exceed thirty-six ounces, and
his length, likewise accurately taken, was fourteen inches. He had some
hair on his head, and cried as soon as he was born. He was wrapped
in cotton wool, and within twenty-four hours sucked his mother’s breasts
without difficulty. Her nipples were well formed and she had already
a sufficient supply of milk. On the 24th he weighed forty-seven ounces,
and on the 13th March, when a month old, his weight was 31bs. 11 ounces,
and length 16 inches. On 13th April, I put him again into his father’s
scales, and found his weight to be 5 lbs. 2 ounces, and length 17 J inches.
Up to this date his health had been so uniformly good that he never
needed any kind of medicine, and he was, in every respect, except size,
a fine thriving child. Soon after the commencement of the third month
he was unfortunately exposed to cold, and died of inflammation of the
lungs, after being ill about a week.
The mother of this child could not remember the date of the last ap-
pearance of the catamenia nor when she quickened, but thought she be-
came pregnant about the first of July, and if there was no error regarding
this date, her son had been in utero seven months and thirteen days, and
there must have been some check to his uterine progress, but if we take
nto consideration the favorable state of his health and daily increase in
bulk after birth, and his immature weight when two months old, I think
his mother may have been mistaken regarding the first of July, and that
it is more probable the duration of his previous existence did not exceed
the end of the sixth month.
Mrs. Galbraith miscarried on the 28th of January. She became
again pregnant before the catamenia returned, and was delivered by me
on the 23d of July—175 days, or twenty-five weeks after the miscar-
riage. The mother refused to allow the child to be weighed, but I as-
certained its length to be thirteen inches. It is probable that its weight
was less than two pounds, and that the duration of pregnancy did not
exceed twenty-two weeks. Notwithstanding, it survived three hours,
and its cries were so loud and frequent during the first forty minutes as ’
to astonish every one present.
Mrs.-----, the wife of a former steward of the Montreal General Hos-
pital, the mother of several children, had a child born within 6 months
and 14 days of the possible commencement of pregnancy. Previous to
this period, she had resided some months out of town and menstruated
regularly. She was the patient of a medical friend, and I had an oppor-
tunity of seeing the child about six weeks after its birth, when it was
still very small, and I had no doubt of its being a satisfactory case of
early viability. It survived, and is now upwards of 10 years of age : It
took the breast well at birth. The testes descended, two months after
birth, accompanied by a loop of intestine, producing scrotal hernia, which
was radically cured by the use of a truss at the age of 18 months.—
Montreal Monthly Journal of Medicine & Surgery.