A case of extra uterine gestation, of the ventral kind : including the symptoms of the patient from the earliest period of pregnancy to the time of death (fifteen months) ; with the appearances upon dissection / by William Turnbull.

  • Turnbull William ca.1729-1796.
Date:
1791
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of extra uterine gestation, of the ventral kind : including the symptoms of the patient from the earliest period of pregnancy to the time of death (fifteen months) ; with the appearances upon dissection / by William Turnbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The veil of obfcurity which nature has fo wifely thrown over the myfteri- ous work of conception, has, at various periods, been productive of theories as complicated, fyftems as replete with intricacies, as the operations which they were intended to develop. However this deficiency of knowledge will appear, if not unimportant, at leaft not greatly to be regretted, when, on confideration, it is found, that, unlefs in the article of curiofity, man- kind would be but little benefited, and difeafes incident to them would receive, in all probability, no alleviation were we in pofleffion of the fecret; for which reafon this fubjedl has been regarded and treated more as an abftrufe exerclfe for the imagination, affording an ample field for fpeculative and con- troverfial difputations, than an ufeful or medical enquiry. Nothing can give a ftronger fpecimen of the extraordinary exertions, and wonderful refources of nature, in the produflion and prefervation of animals, than her operations in the occurrences of extra uterine impreg- nations. Thefe extra uterine cafes may be confidered as confining of two kinds—ift, where the foetus is found within fome part of the genital organs j adly, where the fituation of the foetus is unconneded with them, or external, with regard to the organs of generation. The former of thefe cafes, it is evident, may take place in the ovaria and fallopian tubes; the latter in the cavity of the abdomen. But thofe which happen in the former are not fo remarkable, on many accounts, as thofe in the latter fituation; becaufe the foetus is abundantly fupplied with the fame blood-vefi!els as the uterus, and therefore it probably only requires a greater enlargement of thefe veffels already exifling to effedl a communication; but, in the pure ventral concep- tion, parts intended for different purpofes are made to fupply this. Fallopian and ovarian cafes only fhew that parts intended for the purpofe can perform it, but ventral demonflrate, that parts formed for different ends, will alfo fucceed. Although it is generally underftood that the uterus is effentialiy neceffary for the purpofes of conception, yet thefe different foetations incline us to believe, that it is not abfolutely fo, and that the principal or only advantages, which that organ poifefies over other living parts, are derived from its fitu- ation and dilatable powers, and from its being poffeffed of a mufcular ftruc- ture