er of
the alleged illegitimate child, parted from her husband on the 30th of
January, 1802, he going to the West Indies, and not again seeing his
wife until the 11th of July following. The child whose legitimacy was
called in question was born on the 8th of December of that year. The
plain medical query therefore arose, Whether this child born either
three hundred and eleven days after intercourse (from January 30th to
December 8th), or one hundred and fifty days (from July 11th to December
8th), could be the son of Lord Gardner. As there was no pretence that
there was a premature birth, the child having been well developed when
born, the conception must have dated from January 30th. The medical
question was therefore narrowed down to this: Was the alleged protracted
pregnancy (three hundred and eleven days) consistent with experience?
Sixteen of the principal obstetric practitioners of Great Britain were
examined on this point. Eleven concurred in the opinion that natural
pregnancy might be protracted to a period which would cover the birth of
the alleged illegitimate child. Because, however, of the moral evidence
alone, which proved the adulterous intercourse of Lady Gardner with a
Mr. Iadis, the House decided that the title should descend to the son of
the second Lady Gardner.

There is on record one fact, well observed, which establishes beyond
cavil the possibility of the protraction of pregnancy beyond two hundred
and eighty days, or forty weeks. The case is reported by the learned Dr.
Desormeaux of Paris, and occurred under his own notice in the Hopital de
Maternite of that city. A woman, the mother of three children, became
insane. Her physician thought that a new pregnancy might re-establish
her intellectual faculties. Her husband consented to enter on the
register of the hospital each visit he was allowed to make her, which
took place only every three months. So soon as evidence of pregnancy
showed itself, the visits were discontinued. The woman was confined two
hundred and ninety days after conception.

The late distinguished Professor Charles D. Meigs of Philadelphia
published a case, which he deems entirely trustworthy, of the
prolongation of pregnancy to four hundred and twenty days, or sixty
weeks. Dr. Atlee reports two cases, which nearly equaled three hundred
and fifty-six days each. Professor Simpson of Edinburgh records, as
having occurred in his own practice, cases in which the period reached
three