A probationary essay on the viability of the fœtus : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / By Alexander D. Campbell.

  • Campbell, Alexander D. (Alexander Dewar), -1852.
Date:
1842
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on the viability of the fœtus : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / By Alexander D. Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sickness, or vomiting in the morning, heartburn dur¬ ing the day, or in the evening, and sleeplessness at night, together with cessation of the menses, she generally considers herself certain of being pregnant; nevertheless, we frequently observe cases, where all those symptoms are present, without the patient be¬ ing pregnant; and vice versa, the patient being preg¬ nant, and none of them present. Formerly prac¬ titioners agreed that the catamenia never appeared during pregnancy; it is now, however, allowed that they, or a discharge so similar as not to be distin¬ guishable from them, are occasionally seen for a period or two after conception, and some very rare cases are related, where menstruation was never regular except during pregnancy,1 and others again where women have borne families with¬ out ever having menstruated.2 Retension of the menses again may arise from various causes totally unconnected with pregnancy, and ame- norrhoea frequently induces the symptoms men¬ tioned above; hence comes the uncertainty of de¬ termining the length of gestation, and hence, I have no doubt, have originated many of those cases of supposed early viability, and of protracted gesta- 1 Daventer Nov. Lum. Obstet., cap. xv. Dewees’ Compend. Midwif. p. 97. Baudelocque, Art d’ Accouch., p. 197. 2 Fodere, Med. Leg., tom. i. p. 395. Capuron, Med. Leg., pp. 96, 97. Peter Frank, de Morb. Horn. Cur. art. Amenorrhcea.
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