One month after birth, through the good
offices of the wet-nurse and M. Villemin, who attended the child
and who invented a "couveuse" for the occasion, it measured 38
cm. long.
Moore is accredited with the trustworthy report of the case of a
woman who bore a child at the end of the fifth month weighing 1
1/2 pounds and measuring 9 inches. It was first nourished by
dropping liquid food into its mouth; and at the age of fifteen
months it was healthy and weighed 18 pounds. Eikam saw a case of
abortion at the fifth month in which the fetus was 6 inches in
length and weighed about 8 ounces. The head was sufficiently
developed and the cranial bones considerably advanced in
ossification. He tied the cord and placed the fetus in warm
water. It drew up its feet and arms and turned its head from one
side to the other, opening its mouth and trying to breathe. It
continued in this wise for an hour, the action of the heart being
visible ten minutes after the movements ceased. From its
imperfectly developed genitals it was supposed to have been a
female. Professor J. Muller, to whom it was shown, said that it
was not more than four months old, and this coincided with the
mother's calculation.
Villemin before the Societe Obstetricale et Gynecologique
reported the case of a two-year-old child, born in the sixth
month of pregnancy.
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