then, must drop off by the power of the imagination; there must be no blood lost to endanger the life of the child; and the wound must be healed before the birth. This would seem improbable enough; but, admitting that the limb could drop off by the force of the mother's fancy, and that some cause could put a stop to the bleeding from the stump after the separation of the hand from the body, still the limb must remain in the womb until the delivery, and the bones at least could not putrefy or waste away, although the flesh might. But is it stated in this case, or pretended in any other of a like kind, that any part of the deficient limb was found by the medical attendant, nurse, or by anybody else? Never. We hear nothing of the decayed hand, either in this or in any similar case we may be curious enough to investigate.

There can be no doubt that deformity existed at birth in the case just quoted; but then the infant was deformed from other causes (well understood by medical men) months before the mother's alarm, and altogether unconnected with it.

Again, with respect to marks, moles, and other blemishes in the skin, take the evidence of one who was the first physiologist, anatomist, and physician accoucheur of his day, the late Dr. William Hunter, who investigated the subject at the lying-in-hospital to which he was attached. In every one of 2,000 cases of labour, as soon as the woman was delivered, he inquired of her whether she had been disappointed in any object of her longing, and, if she replied in the affirmative, what it was; whether she had been surprised by any circumstance that had given her any unusual shock, and what that consisted of; whether she had been alarmed by any object of an unsightly

kind, and what that was. Then, after making a note of the declarations of each woman, either in the affirmative or negative, he carefully examined the child; and he affirms, that he never in a single instance of the 2,000 met with a coincidence. He met with blemishes when no cause was acknowledged, and found none when it had been insisted on.

The result shown by this patient and searching investigation of Dr. Hunter must surely satisfy any reasonable mind; and it must be unnecessary to add more. In conclusion, however, I would ask, why should we be surprised at some irregularities on the skin, and other parts of the human body, since we see the same thing occurring daily throughout the animal and vegetable world? They have their moles, their discolorations, their excrescences, their unnatural shapes, which it certainly would not be very philosophical to ascribe to any effort of the imagination! An eminent and clever man thus writes to his patient, a married lady :

"Those who have been attentive to their poultry will inform you that chickens are as liable to a preternatural structure of their organs as children. Now, the egg, in order to be hatched, is placed under the hen, the heat of whose body gives motion to the fluids which nourish the chick till it becomes sufficiently strong to break the shell, when it is produced with a claw extraordinary, or any other preternatural appearance to which chickens are liable. Now, in this case, the extraordinary claw, if we take this instance for our argument, must either have been formed in the moment of conception, or have been added at some

! Gentleman's Magazine for October 1764.

period afterwards, when we suppose the hen to have been under the influence of some powerful imagination. If you grant that the chick was originally formed in this shape, it follows, from the rules of analogy, that all preternatural births have the same cause. If not, the fancy of the hen must have operated through the shell to work the effect. I flatter myself that this is too marvellous and absurd a notion to gain much credit from a woman of good sense. If, however, you still have a secret persuasion that the hen may (in some wonderful manner, you know not how), while she is sitting, affect the chick or the egg, so as to alter its frame, know for a certainty that eggs hatched in dunghills, stoves, and ovens, produce as many monstrous births as those which are hatched by hens: which, I should imagine, proves irrefragably that the chick is produced in the very shape in which it was formed.'

This illustration at least seems to show how entirely unphilosophical and absurd are the views entertained on the subject before us.

Such are the errors, connected with pregnancy, which I have thought it might be useful thus briefly to notice. I have known them to be a source of much mental distress and physical suffering; and if these few observations expunge them from the list of evils always supposed by many as necessarily connected with the pregnant state, I shall exceedingly rejoice, convinced that it is a process which ought not to be regarded with fear or anxiety.

Such, too, are a few of the directions which I would offer to the young and inexperienced married woman for the management of her health at this important and interesting period of her life. I offer them

in the confident belief that their adoption will have a decided and most beneficial influence upon her own health, and with a strong conviction that hitherto, from an indifference to or total neglect of these means, much misery and suffering have arisen. I would press their observance, too, upon her, from the remembrance of the fact already so often referred to-that on her judicious conduct while pregnant a vigorous constitution on the part of the child much depends; and to her neglect a feeble frame may in a great measure be attributed.

I have only one more suggestion to make. Engage your future medical attendant early. You will then be able to seek his direction and guidance in every doubt that may arise, and, confiding your fears and anxieties to him, will derive from his experience and knowledge that rational and kindly explanation of your difficulties which may instantly dispel them.

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50

CHAPTER II.

OF THE MODE BY WHICH PREGNANCY MAY BE DETERMINED.

THERE are certain signs which a female is taught to regard as essential evidences of pregnancy; and it is supposed by most, if not by all women, that their presence is absolutely necessary to the existence of this state. In reference to one or two of these signs, this is far from the fact; for they are not unfrequently absent although pregnancy exist, and the remainder may be present although pregnancy be absent. Many a woman, I am confident, has from this very circumstance experienced much difficulty in attaining certainty as to her state, and suffered months of anxiety and doubt. This has arisen from a want of those clear notions, and that precise information, which a question so important demands.

The object of this chapter is to remove this difficulty, by presenting a short account of those symptoms of conception which the female may herself observe, and to point out to what extent they may be relied on. It will be necessary to notice only four of the signs or symptoms of pregnancy; and they may be considered in the order in which they usually arise: i.e. ceasing to be unwell; morning sickness; shooting pains through, enlargement of, and other changes in, the breasts; and, lastly, quickening.