第27章

Ruttel speaks of a child of five months who lived twenty-four hours; and he saw male twins born at the sixth month weighing 3pounds each who were alive and healthy a year after. Barker cites the case of a female child born on the one hundred and fifty-eighth day that weighed 1 pound and was 11 inches long. It had rudimentary nails, very little hair on the head, its eyelids were closed, and the skin much shriveled; it did not suckle properly, and did not walk until nineteen months old. Three and a half years after, the child was healthy and thriving, but weighed only 29 1/2 pounds. At the time of birth it was wrapped up in a box and placed before the fire. Brouzet speaks of living births of from five to six months' pregnancy, and Kopp speaks of a six months' child which lived four days. The Ephemerides contains accounts of living premature births.

Newinton describes a pregnancy of five months terminating with the birth of twins, one of whom lived twenty minutes and the other fifteen. The first was 11 1/2 inches long, and weighed 1pound 3 1/2 ounces, and the other was 11 inches long, and weighed 1 pound. There is a recent instance of premature birth following a pregnancy of between five and a half and six months, the infant weighing 955 grams. One month after birth, through the good offices of the wet-nurse and M. Villemin, who attended the child and who invented a "couveuse" for the occasion, it measured 38cm. long.

Moore is accredited with the trustworthy report of the case of a woman who bore a child at the end of the fifth month weighing 11/2 pounds and measuring 9 inches. It was first nourished by dropping liquid food into its mouth; and at the age of fifteen months it was healthy and weighed 18 pounds. Eikam saw a case of abortion at the fifth month in which the fetus was 6 inches in length and weighed about 8 ounces. The head was sufficiently developed and the cranial bones considerably advanced in ossification. He tied the cord and placed the fetus in warm water. It drew up its feet and arms and turned its head from one side to the other, opening its mouth and trying to breathe. It continued in this wise for an hour, the action of the heart being visible ten minutes after the movements ceased. From its imperfectly developed genitals it was supposed to have been a female. Professor J. Muller, to whom it was shown, said that it was not more than four months old, and this coincided with the mother's calculation.

Villemin before the Societe Obstetricale et Gynecologique reported the case of a two-year-old child, born in the sixth month of pregnancy. That the child had not had six months of intrauterine life he could vouch, the statement being borne out by the last menstrual period of the mother, the date of the first fetal movements, the child's weight, which was 30 1/2 ounces, and its appearance. Budin had had this infant under observation from the beginning and corroborated Villemin's statements. He had examined infants of six or seven months that had cried and lived a few days, and had found the alveolar cavities filled with epithelial cells, the lung sinking when placed in a vessel of water. Charpentier reported a case of premature birth in his practice, the child being not more than six and a half months and weighing 33 1/2 ounces. So sure was he that it would not live that he placed it in a basin while he attended to the mother.

After this had been done, the child being still alive, he wrapped it in cotton and was surprised next day to find it alive. It was then placed in a small, well-heated room and fed with a spoon on human milk; on the twelfth day it could take the breast, since which time it thrived and grew.

There is a case on record of a child viable at six months and twenty days. The mother had a miscarriage at the beginning of 1877, after which menstruation became regular, appearing last from July 3 to 9, 1877. On January 28, 1878, she gave birth to a male infant, which was wrapped in wadding and kept at an artificial temperature. Being unable to suckle, it was fed first on diluted cow's milk. It was so small at birth that the father passed his ring over the foot almost to the knee. On the thirteenth day it weighed 1250 grams, and at the end of a week it was taking the breast. In December, 1879, it had 16 teeth, weighed 10 kilograms, walked with agility, could pronounce some words, and was especially intelligent. Capuron relates an instance of a child born after a pregnancy of six and a half months and in excellent health at two years, and another living at ten years of the same age at birth. Tait speaks of a living female child, born on the one hundred and seventy-ninth day, with no nails on its fingers or toes, no hair, the extremities imperfectly developed, and the skin florid and thin. It was too feeble to grasp its mother's nipple, and was fed for three weeks by milk from the breast through a quill. At forty days it weighed 3 pounds and measured 13 inches. Before the expiration of three months it died of measles. Dodd describes a case in which the catamenia were on the 24th of June, 1838, and continued a week;the woman bore twins on January 11, 1839, one of which survived, the other dying a few minutes after birth. She was never irregular, prompt to the hour, and this fact, coupled with the diminutive size of the children, seemed to verify the duration of the pregnancy. In 1825, Baber of Buxur, India, spoke of a child born at six and a half months, who at the age of fifty days weighed 1 pound and 13 ounces and was 14 inches long. The longest circumference of the head was 10 inches and the shortest 9.1inches. The child suckled freely and readily. In Spaeth's clinic there was a viable infant at six and a half months weighing 900grams. Spaeth says that he has known a child of six months to surpass in eventual development its brothers born at full term.

In some cases there seems to be a peculiarity in women which manifests itself by regular premature births. La Motte, van Swieten, and Fordere mention females who always brought forth their conceptions at the seventh month.