Fahnestock speaks of the case of a woman who was
delivered of a son while in a state of artificial somnambulism,
without pain to herself or injury to the child. Among others
mentioning painless or unconscious labor are Behrens (during
profound sleep), Eger, Tempel, Panis, Agnoia, Blanckmeister,
Whitehill, Gillette, Mattei, Murray, Lemoine, and Moglichkeit.
Rapid Parturition Without Usual Symptoms.--Births unattended by
symptoms that are the usual precursors of labor often lead to
speedy deliveries in awkward places. According to Willoughby, in
Darby, February 9, 1667, a poor fool, Mary Baker, while wandering
in an open, windy, and cold place, was delivered by the sole
assistance of Nature, Eve's midwife, and freed of her afterbirth.
The poor idiot had leaned against a wall, and dropped the child
on the cold boards, where it lay for more than a quarter of an
hour with its funis separated from the placenta. She was only
discovered by the cries of the infant. In "Carpenter's
Physiology" is described a remarkable case of instinct in an
idiotic girl in Paris, who had been seduced by some miscreant;
the girl had gnawed the funis in two, in the same manner as is
practised by the lower animals.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231