Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 2 of 2).djvu/20

 538 ON PARTURITION;

it could not any longer be retained. By using some applications she was enabled to accomplish the reduction ; but the cure was only temporary, for as soon as she stood up, and followed her ordinary occupations, the uterus immediately gave her much in- convenience by its weight, and at length entirely prolapsed. And now it hung down to the middle of the thigh, like the scrotum of a bull, to such an extent that I suspected not only the vagina but also the uterus to be inverted, or that there was some kind of uterine hernia. At length the tumour exceeded in magnitude a man's head, acquired a resisting character, and hung down as low as the knees ; it also gave her much pain, and prevented her walking except in the prone position ; added to which it dis- charged a sanious fluid from its inferior part, as if some portion had ulcerated. On ocular inspection (for I did not employ the touch) I feared that cancer or carcinoma might result, and so thought of the ligature or excision ; in the mean time I advised the employment of soothing fomentations to ease the pain. The following night, however, a foetus of a span long, perfectly ' formed, but dead, was expelled from, the tumour, and was brought to me the next day. I took out the intestines, and kept it in cold water without decomposition for many months, showing it to my friends as an extraordinary object of curiosity. The proper skin in this foetus was not yet formed, but in its place there was a pellicle, which could be stripped off entire, like that on a baked apple ; underneath all the muscles of the body could be distinctly seen, the foetus being very lean. I shall de- scribe at another opportunity what I discovered in this foetus on dissection. I have mentioned the case on this occasion to show that it was the uterus alone which excited the abortion, and expelled the foetus by its own efforts.

Fabricius 1 suggests two circumstances as especially worthy of admiration in and after birth : first, the dilatation of the uterus at the time of birth; secondly, the way in which -after birth it is restored to its usual small size. He wonders how the uterus can be so distended as to allow the foetus to escape, and afterwards in so short a period return to its pristine state.

He says, "that with Galen 2 we can only wonder, but not understand," how the neck of the uterus, a part so thick, hard,

1 De Form. Feet. p. 142. ' 2 De Ubu Part. lib. xv, cap. 7.

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