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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    of divorce was obtained by Lord Alan Hyde Gardner, against Maria Elizabeth Gardner his wife, which was dated the 29th of June, 1804, and received the Royal assent on the 10th of July, 1805:— that Henry Jadis, Esq. married Maria Elizabeth Adderley, formerly Mrs. Gardner, in the year 1805:—that the child already alluded to, as the fruit of previous criminal conversation, and the opponent of the claimant, was acknowledged from birth as their offspring by Mr. and Mrs. Jadis, whose name he took, viz. Henry Fenton Jadis, till the guardians of Alan Legge Gardner claimed the Barony of Gardner for their ward, a minor, when he assumed the name of Henry Fenton Gardner:—that the second marriage of Lord Alan Hyde Gardner, with the Honourable Charlotte Elizabeth Smith, one of the daughters of the Right Honourable Robert Lord Carrington, was celebrated on the 10th of April, 1809:—that Alan Legge Gardner, son of the above parties, and the successful claimant of the Barony, was born on the 29th of January, 1810:—and that Lord Alan Hyde Gardner died, and was buried in the parish of St. James’s, Westminster, on the 5th of January, 1816. In 1802, Lord Alan Hyde Gardner, who then was Captain of H. M. ship the Resolution, arrived off Portsmouth, and was joined by his first wife, Mrs. Gardner, who remained with him on board about three weeks, and then took her departure for London on the 30th of January;—hence the frequently repeated question, during the ex¬ amination, respecting sexual intercourse anterior to, or on that day. It appears, however, that the Resolution did not sail till the 7th. of February, and that some communications took place between the ship and the shore, by means of boats;—hence the second, and as often reiterated question, as to sexual intercourse anterior to, or on that day. Lord Alan Hyde Gardner sailed for the West Indies, and returned home on the 11th of July of the same year;—hence the reason of the third important question being put to many of the witnesses, relative to the capability of a child born about the 5th month being able to reach manhood. To bring the grand points at issue, in so far as respects the dura¬ tion of utero-gestation at once into view, we shall here cite the questions to which we have just made allusion. 1. Is it your opinion, that a child born on the 8th of December, could have been the result of sexual intercourse either on the 30th of January, or anterior to it, being 311 days? 2. Is it your opinion, that a child born on the 8th of December could have been the result of sexual intercourse on the 7th of February, or anterior to it, being 304 days ? 3. Do you think that a child born on the 8th of December, that has lived to manhood, could be the result of sexual intercourse on or after the 11th of July: a period short, at least by two or three days, of five calendar months ? The two extremes of time alluded to in these questions are 311 (or at least 304 days) and 150 days: and, as is hereafter remarked, if it be admitted that Henry Fenton Jadis, alias Gardner, is the son of Lord Alan Hyde Gardner, he must either have been a five