Her
abdomen progressively increased in size, and between the tenth
and eleventh months she suffered what she thought to be
labor-pains. These false pains ceased upon taking a bath, and
with the disappearance of the other signs was dissipated the
fallacious idea of pregnancy.
There is mentioned an instance of medicolegal interest of a young
girl who showed all the signs of pregnancy and confessed to her
parents that she had had commerce with a man. The parents
immediately prosecuted the seducer by strenuous legal methods,
but when her ninth month came, and after the use of six baths,
all the signs of pregnancy vanished. Harvey cites several
instances of pseudocyesis, and says we must not rashly determine
of the the inordinate birth before the seventh or after the
eleventh month. In 1646 a woman, after having laughed heartily at
the jests of an ill-bred, covetous clown, was seized with various
movements and motions in her belly like those of a child, and
these continued for over a month, when the courses appeared again
and the movements ceased. The woman was certain that she was
pregnant.
The most noteworthy historic case of pseudocyesis is that of
Queen Mary of England, or "Bloody Mary," as she was called.
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