Graphic illustrations of abortion and the diseases of menstruation / Consisting of Twelve Plates from Drawings Engraved on Stone, and Coloured by Mr. J. Perry, and Two Copper-plates from the Philosophical Transactions, Coloured by the Same Artist. the Whole Representing Forty-five Specimens of Aborted Ova and Adventitious Productions of the Uterus, With Preliminary Observations, Explanations of the Figures and Remarks, Anatomical and Physiological.

by A. B. Granville

Figura unica. Ovum fœtiferum optimè conditum, subitò ab amnio-chorionitide interfectum.

I had an opportunity of satisfying myself most completely as to the state and condition of this Ovum, it having been aborted at more than four months and three weeks, according to the lady’s reckoning, while I was in attendance upon her in consequence of considerable flooding, which had been going on for some days, and had preceded its expulsion. The Ovum came away entire; and through that part of its envelopes which were transparent, the fœtus and the liquor amnii appeared of a deep bluish red. The hemorrhage ceased almost immediately after the ejection of the Ovum. The case occurred in the spring of 1828. The lady had been ill from inflammation in the chest, with cough and other symptoms of pleurisy.

I carefully dissected and examined the Ovum, taking down the various appearances as they presented themselves to view; and having requested the immediate attendance of Mr. Perry, it was sketched and coloured without loss of time, in order to avoid any misrepresentation of parts or colouring.

The Ovum is perfect in all its parts, and has evidently progressed through its successive changes and developments during the first four months of gestation in the most satisfactory manner. The fœtus is of the proper size for its age, and, judging from the state of the cutaneous covering, appeared to have lived up to the very latest hours antecedent to its expulsion.

The remarkable facts in this Ovum, in a physiological point of view, are the number and arrangement of its envelopes; the morbid state of some of them; and the effusion of bloody serum within the cavity of the amnion.

Externally we find the placenta covering three-fourths of the Ovum, pulpy, vascular, almost cotyledonous, and covered with the membrana proper. It was gorged with blood. That portion of the outer envelope of the Ovum which is not covered by the placenta, seems to originate from the thinning edges of the latter, and to be denser than usual. On being carefully divided and laid open, it appeared bifoliated,—the laminæ are connected by cross filaments. Within this, another membrane is seen, separated however by a slight space which was occupied by effusion of bloody serum, and is itself tinged with red. Next came two less dense and transparent membranes, within which the fœtus lay coiled up, immersed in a bloody fluid.