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OF PREGNANCY. 189
largemetrt of the abdomen, becoming rapid and evi
dent at the third or fourth month.
7. If she feel the motions of the child at and after
this period.
Not one of these signs is certain ; yet, where they
all exist, there is a pretty strong probability. Thus, a
woman may have sexual intercourse for years without
conception ; the menstrual function may cease fi-om
numerous derangements of the system ; hysteria, or
any ovarian irritation, may occasion strange mental
peculiarities, antipathies, or longings; pains in the breast
and areola may arise from similar causes ; there may be
irritation of the neck of the bladder, from mere prolap
sus, or other displacements of the uterus; the abdomen
may enlarge from any cause of tumor, or dropsy, even
obstructed menstruation; and the motions of a child are
often strongly simulated by wind in the bowels and
spasmodic affections.
There are signs, however, which are more certain,
with a careful professional
examination. After the
third month it is possible to hear the beating of the
fcetal heart, by placing the ear, or a stethescope, upon
the mother's abdomen ; to hear the sovfle of the blood
in the placenta: and to feel the weight of the foetus
at its
upon the point of the finger, properly applied
The first
most depending portion, within the vagina.
is a certain sound ; the second may be confounded with
other vascular action ; and in the third a tumor in the
uterus may not be distinguishable from a foetus. An
old writer, in speaking of the caution to be used in
doubtful cases, says you must never give a decided
opinion, until you have the child's head in your hand.