Medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, as given in the Gardner Peerage Cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords in 1825-6 / With introductory remarks and notes by Robert Lyall.

Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical evidence relative to the duration of human pregnancy, as given in the Gardner Peerage Cause, before the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords in 1825-6 / With introductory remarks and notes by Robert Lyall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion, with respect to the duration of pregnancy, are so numerous, that even the most wary are liable to mistakes. In judging of this point, we must have a register of cases carefully kept by practi¬ tioners of veracity,—there must be no trusting to memory, or to second-hand details : facts must be ascertained from women them¬ selves, and only from such women as have a good moral character, or credence cannot be given to their statements. A series of observations properly conducted might be of great service, not only to medical practitioners, but also to the world in general. Insulated cases have their utility, but a mass of reports is still wanted, to enable us to arrive at general conclusions: and these reports should be kept with such fidelity that they will bear the most scrupulous examination ; nay, even the cross-examination of counsel in a court of justice *. Presuming that the reader will be curious to know the nature of the dispute which gave rise to the present investigation, we shall, before going farther, give an epitome of the subject. From the evi¬ dence of a number of witnesses, who were examined in the course of the proceedings, it appears, that the late Lord Alan Hyde Gardner f was married to Miss Maria Elizabeth Adderley, at Fort St. George, in the East Indies, in 1796:—that the said Maria Elizabeth Adderley bore a child on the 8th of December, 1802, which appeared to be the fruit of an illicit intercourse between her and Henry Jadis, Esq.:—that in the Court of King’s Bench, in an action by Lord Alan Hyde Gardner against the said Henry Jadis, Esq., “ for trespass, assault, and criminal conversation with Maria Elizabeth Gardner, the wife of the said Alan Hyde Gardner,” one thousand pounds damages, besides cost of suit, were awarded :— that, in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London, a sentence behind the bar of the House of Lords, and subjected themselves to the sifting examinations and cross-examinations of opposing counsel. The reader will not fail to discover, that some of the answers were by far too long, that many of them were deficient in precision, and that a few were contradictory. All ostentatious boasting—all attempts at a man’s showing himself olf—all unne¬ cessary details—all uncalled-for disclosures-—and all extraordinary or novel doctrines, unless well founded, should have been carefully avoided, as they only tend to make a man ridiculous. It might appear invidious to point out more particularly the individuals to whom we would read this lecture : we leave its application to the sagacious reader, assisted by our notes. * It will be remarked, that few—very few indeed—of the cases of pro¬ tracted gestation, adduced in evidence by the medical gentlemen, could bear that touchstone of fidelity—a cross-examination — and that many of them were cases of ordinary pregnancies. With respect to Dr. Granville’s vaunted registers (vide pages 25, 34, 80, 86), they are not so highly valued by the profession as he imagines, though said to be unique of their kind: his cases by no means proved his assertions : and he seems to be altogether un¬ aware of the fact, that some women who have received letters entitling them to attendance in their labour, have subsequently transferred them to others, in the same way as we have known travellers obtain the loan of passports. f In the Minutes we find the name of his Lordship, the father of the suc¬ cessful claimant, occurring as Captain Gardner—The Honourable Captain Gardner—Lord Gardner—The Right Honourable Lord Gardner—Lord Admi¬ ral Gardner—and Viscount Gardner, according to the rank he held at diffe¬ rent epochs. To avoid confusion we shall always call him simply Lord Alan Hyde Gardner.