of Simon Kreuter, of Weissembourg, who died during labour and was buried undelivered. After some hours a sound was heard about the tomb. It was immediately opened and the mother was found dead, but the child, a girl, was discovered almost rolled down to the feet of the corpse, alive and well.

CASE 14.-Henricus Stapedius writes to G. Fabricius of a pregnant woman who died suddenly of an acute disease and was placed in a coffin. The next day a foetus was found between the thighs of the mother dead, but whose life, the author thinks, might have been preserved.

CASE 15.-Schenkius 2 mentions a woman who died about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and 3 o'clock the next morning the bystanders heard a great crack, when a child was born dead, having two fore teeth.

3

CASE 16.-E. Hagendorn says a woman died in labour on January 12th, 1683, and some hours after a living child was born and was baptized.

4

CASE 17.-Veslingius reports the case of a woman who died on the 6th of January, 1630, of an epilepsy, and on the eighth day a child was born.

CASE 18.-Georgius Dethardingius 5 mentions a healthy Ichild which was born half an hour after the mother's decease.

CASE 19.-Ido Wolfins 6 says a woman died in labour in · July, 1667. Six hours after her death the husband perceiving a motion in the abdomen called others to see it, and would have had the Cæsarean operation performed, but was hindered by them. A child, however, was brought forth dead eighteen hours after the woman's decease.

1 'G. Nymmaus de vita fœtus,' &c., p. 30.

2 'Obs. Medic.,' Lib. IV, de Partu, Obs. 14.

3 Hist. Med. Physic.,' Cent. 3, Hist. 13.

4 Obs. Anatom.,' 7.

5 M. N. C.,' Dec. 3, An. 7 & 8, Append., p. 77.

6 Obs. Chirurg. Medic.,' Lib. I, Obs. 41.

CASE 20.-Dr. Hoyer,1 of Mulhausen, speaks of a woman who died in labour, and whilst being conveyed to the grave expelled, with noise and a great quantity of water, a child, having its mouth open and tongue protruding.

CASE 21.2-On Sunday, August 12th, 1759, the wife of one Edw. K-, of Warwick, was taken in labour about 5 o'clock in the morning; the midwife who attended her, after giving her all the assistance in her power, believed her to be dead, and then left her. About 5 in the afternoon the dead woman was put into a coffin, with a shroud over her. The next morning, the nurse going into the room where the corpse lay, she fancied she saw something move the shroud up and down in the coffin; she ran away much frightened to acquaint the people of the house below, who immediately went upstairs with her to examine what it could be; when, turning down the shroud, to their great astonishment, they saw a live child grovelling in the sawdust, which had delivered itself from the corpse as it lay in the coffin. As soon as their surprise was over they wrapped the child in flannel and took all possible care to preserve it, but it died before they could dress it.

CASE 22.-Valerius Maximus 3 tells us that Gorgia Epirota's mother, having died undelivered, was being carried to the grave, when a sound was heard which induced those present to open the coffin, when between the legs of the mother, who had been a long time (jam diu) dead, a live child was found, who was called Gorgia, whence arose the proverb, "Gorgiam prius ad funus elatum, quam natum fuisse."

4

CASE 23.-Burns says, "An instance is lately related by Dr. Ebel where the uterus expelled a child after the interment of the mother, and the fact was discovered by raising the body for examination owing to a suspicion of murder.

CASE 24.1-"The wife of a gamekeeper, near Reigate, a girl of fifteen years old, being with child and hourly in expectation of being brought to bed, was seized on Sunday morning last with convulsion fits, in which dreadful situation she remained till the Monday morning following, when she died; the fourth day after her decease the child was born perfect, but dead."

CASE 25. "An inquisition was taken on the body of Hannah H-, wife of Mr. H-, of 65, Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell. She was in the eighth month of her pregnancy, and was in good health and spirits on the Saturday night, when she went to bed without any complaint. On Sunday morning, between 6 and 7 o'clock, she awoke and complained of the cramp in her legs; but she got better in a few minutes by having them rubbed. At 7 o'clock she arose, and was in the act of getting out of bed, when she exclaimed, 'Oh! my stomach,' and fell on the bed and expired. Mr. Austin, surgeon, of Red Lion Street, came directly and bled her, and other means to recover her were used, but without success. About the middle of the day of Monday the body was seen, and was then undelivered, nor were there any signs of it. Between 6 and 7 o'clock on Monday night Ann Terry was walking on the side of the bed on which deceased lay, and observed the body move and the clothes lifted up. She was so terrified that she fell into a chair almost insensible; she was taken out of the room and told that what she said she saw was only her fancy. No one went to see the deceased until the next morning, when she and another person took the clothes off the deceased and found she was delivered of a child, which was lying on the right side of her quite dead and cold. On Tuesday the body of the deceased and child were quite black and so changed that the features of the face of the former were scarcely distinguishable.

"The late Dr. John Clarke in his lectures on the physiology of the uterus relates a somewhat similar circumstance;

1 'Bell's Weekly Messenger,' September 26, 1802, No. 337.

2 Medical Repository,' 1817, vol. viii, p. 353.

but we do not remember the particulars attending the case."

CASE 26.-Ryan quotes a case from a French medical journal in which "several witnesses attested that a woman who died at 7 o'clock a.m., and appeared so in the evening, was found to have given birth next day to an infant."

CASE 27.-Dr. Bedford,3 of Sydney, reports the following case: On the 3rd June, 1864, he examined the body of a woman, aged 37, who died on the 27th May, thirty-four miles from Sydney. She had died undelivered of her seventh child, and the body had been exhumed, a question of malpractice having been raised. The abdomen was found much distended and the body of a male child was discovered between the thighs of the deceased-the head towards the feet of the mother and the feet under the uterus, which was inverted, with the placenta attached. Transverse rupture of the uterus about six inches long had taken place above the cervix ; the uterus was not contracted.

4

CASE 28.-Mr. F. J. Dillon Lanigan has lately recorded the case of a woman who was in labour on the 23rd October, 1862. "The doctor was sent for, but on the road to see her he was informed the woman was dead and undelivered. Her husband solemnly and confidentially told me afterwards that she, as customary, was after death washed, laid out, and waked for two days, and when going to coffin her, on removing the covering the child was found in the bed."

CASE 29.-Mr. C. H. Roach 5 gives the following case :"On the 4th January, 1869, I was called to remove a child from Mrs. R—, who died at 3 a.m. undelivered; being inclined to take advantage of the dissection, I attended immediately, but some members of the family of the deceased

16 Principles of Midwifery,' 1828, p. 446.

2 Jour. Univ. Med. des Sc. Med.,' tom. 7, p. 249.

objected to the operation, consequently I did not interfere. From what I could learn, the woman, aged 35 years, primipara, was forty-eight hours in labour; the pains were severe and quick in the beginning; grew weaker and less frequent until they ceased altogether in the morning she died; she then fell into an apparent sleep or syncope from exhaustion, from which she never recovered. At 9 a.m. on the following day (thirty hours after death), when the body was being placed in the coffin, there was expelled a fully developed child with secundines."

CASE 30.-Dr. A. C. Swayne1 published in March of the present year the following case:-"On the evening of Thursday, the 14th of March instant, Eliza M-, the wife of a farmer residing near Kilronan, and the mother of seven children, was seized with the pains of labour. The midwife, who had attended her in all her previous confinements, was sent for, and was with her soon after. She continued in attendance during the night and until about twelve noon on the following day, when the sick woman called out for the priest and doctor. They were both sent for, and arrived in the course of two hours, and on their arrival they were informed that Eliza M- was dead, and that she died undelivered. It subsequently appeared that neither gentlemen saw the deceased. On the following Sunday, the 17th, the deceased was interred, contrary to the advice of the police, in Kilronan graveyard. In the meantime information was conveyed to J. P. Peyton, Esq., one of the coroners for Rosscommon, and he decided on holding an inquest. Accordingly, on Monday, the 18th inst., a jury assembled; the body was exhumed and duly inspected by them. The coroner directed me to make an examination. I proceeded to do so under the full impression that the woman was undelivered. On raising the shroud in which the body was enveloped, I was much surprised to find a well-developed male infant lying on and parallel to the lower limbs of the deceased, with the head towards the feet of the latter, and

1 The Medical Press and Circular,' April 3, 1872.