s of crying before delivery, some in the vagina, some just before
the complete expulsion of the head from the os uteri, are very numerous
in the older writers; and it is quite possible that on auscultation of
the pregnant abdomen fetal sounds may have been exaggerated into cries.
Bartholinus, Borellus, Boyle, Buchner, Paullini, Mezger, Riolanus,
Lentillus, Marcellus Donatus, and Wolff all speak of children crying
before delivery; and Mazinus relates the instance of a puppy whose
feeble cries could be heard before expulsion from the bitch. Osiander
fully discusses the subject of infants crying during parturition.

McLean describes a case in which he positively states that a child
cried lustily in utero during application of the forceps. He compared
the sound as though from a voice in the cellar. This child was in the
uterus, not in the vagina, and continued the crying during the whole of
the five minutes occupied by delivery.

Cesarean Section.--Although the legendary history of Cesarean section
is quite copious, it is very seldom that we find authentic records in
the writings of the older medical observers. The works of Hippocrates,
Aretxeus, Galen, Celsus, and Aetius contain nothing relative to records
of successful Cesarean sections. However, Pliny says that Scipio
Africanus was the first and Manlius the second of the Romans who owed
their lives to the operation of Cesarean section; in his seventh book
he says that Julius Caesar was born in this way, the fact giving origin
to his name. Others deny this and say that his name came from the thick
head of hair which he possessed. It is a frequent subject in old Roman
sculpture, and there are many delineations of the birth of Bacchus by
Cesarean section from the corpse of Semele. Greek mythology tells us of
the birth of Bacchus in the following manner: After Zeus burnt the
house of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, he sent Hermes in great haste with
directions to take from the burnt body of the mother the fruit of seven
months. This child, as we know, was Bacchus. Aesculapius, according to
the legend of the Romans, had been excised from the belly of his dead
mother, Corinis, who was already on the funeral pile, by his
benefactor, Apollo; and from this legend all products of Cesarean
sections were regarded as sacred to Apollo, and were thought to have
been endowed with sagacity and bravery.

Old records tell us that one of the kings of Navarre was delivered in
this way, and w