hundred and thirty-six, three hundred and thirty-two, three
hundred and twenty-four, and three hundred and nineteen days. In the
Dublin _Quarterly Journal of Medical Science_ a case of protracted
pregnancy is related by Dr. Joynt. The evidence is positive that the
minimum duration must have been three hundred and seventeen days, or
about six weeks more than the average. Dr. Elsaesser found, in one
hundred and sixty cases of pregnancy, eleven protracted to periods
varying from three hundred to three hundred and eighteen days.

In treating of the subject of miscarriage, we mentioned instances,
recorded by physicians of skill and probity, proving beyond a shade of
doubt that a woman may give birth to a living child long before the
expiration of the forty weeks. The Presbytery of Edinburgh, Scotland,
some time since decided in favor of the legitimacy of an infant born
alive, within twenty-five weeks after marriage, to the Rev. Fergus
Jardine.

One of the most enlightened countries in Europe has, in view of the
facts in reference to the extreme limits of pregnancy, enacted, in the
Code Napoleon, that a child born within three hundred days after the
departure or death of the husband, or one hundred and eighty days after
marriage, shall be considered legitimate. The law further states that a
child born after more than three hundred days shall not be necessarily
declared a bastard, but its legitimacy may be contested. The Scotch
legislation on this subject is very similar to the French.

CAUSES OF PROTRACTED PREGNANCY.

It has been asserted by some that an infant is born at ten or eleven
months because at nine months it has not acquired the growth which
is necessary in order to induce the womb to dislodge it. The popular
notion is, that a child carried beyond the usual term must necessarily
be a large one. Rabelais has reflected this common opinion in his
celebrated romance entitled 'Gargantua,' in which he represents the
royal giant of that name as having been carried by his mother,
Gargamelle, eleven months. When born, the child was so vigorous that he
sucked the milk from ten nurses. He lived for several centuries, and at
last begot a son, Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. Such reasoning
cannot, however, be seriously maintained, as many children carried
longer than nine months have not been more fully developed than some
born a few weeks prematurely; and the size of the child has nothing to
do with the bringing on