Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

ABSTRACTS 271
1
It should be so administered as not to interfere
with the digestion and not to cause sore
mouth.— La Presse Medicale.
were-born alive", and of 28 cases collected
by Dicke during the year 1875 to 1903, 28
children were delivered alive, of whom 19
„ . ., - ^ ^ . Post-Mortem Caesarcan Section.
survived. It must be remembered, how-
^ver, that these figures are probably unduly
This operation is undoubtedly one of favorable, since only successful cases are
great antiquity, although it is diffiult to likely to be published. The chance of the
state at what period of time in the world's
history it was first performed. The iex regia
of Numa Pompilius, by which it was enacted
that in the case of a pregnant woman
child surviving will necessarily depend a
good deal on the cause of the mother's
death.
The researches of Breslau aud Runge
near full term dying undelivered the body have demonstrated that the fetus is most
should be opened immediately after death likely to survive for some length of time
and the child extracted, shows that it was
known to, and practised by, the Romans,
after the death of the mother when this has
taken place suddenly. In cases of high
That post-mortem delivery was recognized fever or of acute septic poisoning the fetus
in ancient mythology is suggested by the
legends surrounding the birth of Bacchus
uot infrequently dies before the mother,
The accounts of cases in which children
and of .Esculapius, and renders it probable are said to have been extracted alive from
that its first origins are to be sought at a the uterus even after the burial of the mothvery
early date. Rosenbauui is, indeed, of er, belong to the realms fiction. Of this
opinion tliat the operation was practised
probably by the professional embalmers
among the ancient ICgyptians.
description is the story of Francois de Civile,
who on great occasions signed himself
trois fois enterre et trois fois par is grace
Subsequent to the date of Xh^ les regia, Dieu resuscite," and who is said to have
numerous ordinances were passed for the
sanie purpose, but it would seem that the
procedure fell into disrepute possibly on
been delivered by a Caesarean section per-
formed on the exhumed body of his mather.
The most recent observations point to the
account of the bad results obtained as re- likelihood of obtaining a living child after
gards the life of children. With the spread a longer interval of time than twenty to
of Christianity and of the rite of baptism, twenty-five minutes after the death of the
which gave to the life of the unborn child mother being extremely small. In two rean
increased worth, the operation again cent cases racorded by trustworthy authoricaine
into favor, and in tiie first Iialf pf the ties, living children were extracted nineteen
eighteenth century Pope Benedict issued a
precept in which the indications for, and the
and seventeen minutes after the sudden
death of the mothers. The suggestion that
the precautions to be observed in, its per- in order to minimize the risk to the child
formance were duly set forth. the operation should be performed on dying
As Hubert remarks, the Roman Catholic patients before a fatal issue actually results
Church reproduced the injuuclion of the has found favor recently amongst various
lex n-gia in the following decree of its rit- obstetric writers. This suggestion is one,
ual: "Si mater jiraegnans mortua sit, fruc- however, of considerable antiquity, and was
tus