Her
last pregnancy lasted about twenty-eight or twenty-nine weeks,
and terminated, after a short labor, by the expulsion of the ovum
entire. The membranes had not been ruptured, and still enclosed
the fetus and the liquor amnii. On breaking them, the fetus was
seen floating on the waters, alive, and, though very diminutive,
was perfectly formed. It continued to live, and a day afterward
took the breast and began to cry feebly. At six weeks it weighed
2 pounds 2 ounces, and at ten months, 12 pounds, but was still
very weak and ill-nourished. Evans has an instance of a fetus
expelled enveloped in its membranes entire and unruptured. The
membranes were opaque and preternaturally thickened, and were
opened with a pair of scissors; strenuous efforts were made to
save the child, but to no purpose. The mother, after a short
convalescence, made a good recovery. Forman reports an instance
of unruptured membranes at birth, the delivery following a single
pain, in a woman of twenty-two, pregnant for a second time.
Woodson speaks of a case of twins, one of which was born
enveloped in its secundines.
Van Bibber was called in great haste to see a patient in labor.
He reached the house in about fifteen minutes, and was told by
the midwife, a woman of experience, that she had summoned him
because of the expulsion from the womb of something the like of
which she had never seen before.
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