EARLY VIABILITY OF THE FETUS—AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE (1845)

[摘要] Mid-nineteenth century medical journals frequently published single case reports of premature births. Precise physical measurements, or even gestational age, of the infant were rarely cited. Dr. William Kennedy of New Orleans who reported the following case was said to have been an outstanding and completely reliable physician. He was referring to the Civil War when he wrote, "my library and every vestige of household material passed from my possession under the ruthless hand of destructive war."In 1845, Mrs. A.B., primipara, suffered, as she thought, during one whole night with colic. I saw her next morning, when I recognized that she was in labor, which had progressed so far that I made no attempt to arrest it. Within a half hour after my arrival she gave birth to a foetus. It was not more than eight inches long, and was as red as a piece of raw beef. True dermoid tissue could not be said to be organized, its general investiture being so delicate a membrane, as it were, that the eye could look through it on the tissues beneath. The eyes were still closed; there was no trace of cilia or supercilia; its chest was about two inches broad; the arms and legs were very slender, and the toes and fingers devoid of any traces of nails. The head was about the size of a small orange. The respiration was so feeble as scarcely to be perceptible, and not a sound was uttered after birth. I was almost afraid to handle it, as I could not divest myself of the idea that the slightest pressure of the fingers would thrust them into the soft, red, jelly-like mass before me.

[学科分类] 儿科学