Guillemont cites the
instance of a woman who was killed by a stroke of lightning, but
whose fetus was saved; while Fabricius Hildanus describes a case
in which there was perforation of the head, fracture of the
skull, and a wound of the groin, due to sudden starting and agony
of terror of the mother. Here there was not the slightest history
of any external violence.
It is a well-known fact that injuries to the pregnant mother show
visible effects on the person of the fetus. The older writers
kept a careful record of the anomalous and extraordinary injuries
of this character and of their effects. Brendelius tells us of
hemorrhage from the mouth and nose of the fetus occasioned by the
fall of the mother; Buchner mentions a case of fracture of the
cranium from fright of the mother; Reuther describes a contusion
of the os sacrum and abdomen in the mother from a fall, with
fracture of the arm and leg of the fetus from the same cause;
Sachse speaks of a fractured tibia in a fetus, caused by a fall
of the mother; Slevogt relates an instance of rupture of the
abdomen of a fetus by a fall of the mother; the Ephemerides
contains accounts of injuries to the fetus of this nature, and
among others mentions a stake as having been thrust into a fetus
in utero; Verduc offers several examples, one a dislocation of
the fetal foot from a maternal fall; Plocquet gives an instance
of fractured femur; Walther describes a case of dislocation of
the vertebrae from a fall; and there is also a case of a
fractured fetal vertebra from a maternal fall.
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