ine conceptions. He
gives 24 cases of twin conception, one of which was uterine, the other
extrauterine, and says that of 7 in the third month, with no operation,
the mother died in 5. Of 6 cases of from four and a half to seven
months' duration, 2 lived, and in 1 case at the fifth month there was
an intrauterine fetus delivered which lived. Of 11 such cases at nine
months, 6 mothers lived and 6 intrauterine fetuses lived. In 6 of these
cases no operation was performed. In one case the mother died, but both
the uterine and the extrauterine conceptions lived. In another the
mother and intrauterine fetus died, and the extrauterine fetus lived.
Wilson a gives an instance of a woman delivered of a healthy female
child at eight months which lived. The after-birth came away without
assistance, but the woman still presented every appearance of having
another child within her, although examination by the vagina revealed
none. Wilson called Chatard in consultation, and from the fetal
heart-sounds and other symptoms they decided that there was another
pregnancy wholly extrauterine. They allowed the case to go twenty-three
days, until pains similar to those of labor occurred, and then decided
on celiotomy. The operation was almost bloodless, and a living child
weighing eight pounds was extracted. Unfortunately, the mother
succumbed after ninety hours, and in a month the intrauterine child
died from inanition, but the child of extrauterine gestation thrived.
Sales gives the case of a negress of twenty-two, who said that she had
been "tricked by a negro," and had a large snake in the abdomen, and
could distinctly feel its movements. She stoutly denied any
intercourse. It was decided to open the abdominal cyst; the incision
was followed by a gush of blood and a placenta came into view, which
was extracted with a living child. To the astonishment of the operators
the uterus was distended, and it was decided to open it, when another
living child was seen and extracted. The cyst and the uterus were
cleansed of all clots and the wound closed. The mother died of
septicemia, but the children both lived and were doing well six weeks
after the operation. A curious case was seen in 1814 of a woman who at
her fifth gestation suffered abdominal uneasiness at the third month,
and this became intolerable at the ninth month. The head of the fetus
could be felt through the abdomen; an incision was made through the
parietes; a fully developed femal