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

We may, therefore, reckon four species of erratic gestation, namely:—

1. Gestatio Ovarica. 2. Gestatio Tubica. 3. Gestatio Interstitialis. 4. Gestatio Abdominalis.

The design of the parts, the statement of facts, and all the particulars connected with such cases of gestatio interstitialis, I give on the authority of the respective authors whose names I have mentioned. It has never fallen to my lot to witness a single instance of such anomaly in the mode of propagation of our species. Of the six cases reported by Breschet, the last only fell immediately under his care, at the Hôtel Dieu, in July 1825.

It is to be remarked, that in all these cases the uterus was found enlarged, its cavity filled with some adventitious production of variable texture and not always membranaceous, and the Fallopian tube on the side next to the seat of the embryoferous tumour invariably impervious. The mother dies from internal hemorrhage, in consequence of the laceration of the coats of the cyst containing the embryo. During life menstruation has ceased in some and not in other cases of this description.

The reader will not fail farther to notice the very great difference which appears manifest in the drawing of the present plate, and that of the rest of the plates, from the hand of our artist. Mr. Perry had, in this instance, a very inferior lithographic delineation of the facts only to copy,—instead of having to imitate nature, as he has done in every other instance. The consequence has been, that we see but a feeble, and not always an intelligible, representation of the several interesting points connected with these two cases, the nature of which has been attempted to be explained by Breschet himself, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in his report to the Institute of France—but with indifferent success.

Plate 10 (A)
(BEING PLATE VI. OF THE PHIL. TRANS. FOR 1820.)

PLATE X. (A).
(BEING PLATE VI. OF THE PHIL. TRANS. FOR 1820.)
FOURTH SPECIMEN OF ABERRANT FŒTAL GESTATION.
(ADVANCED PERIOD).

Fig. Duplex. Ovum fœtiferum in receptaculo ovarico.

Uterus considerably enlarged, so as nearly to have reached the size which it is known to attain when bearing the produce of conception between three and four months. Its parietes thickened in proportion. The cavity free from either fluid or membrane, or indeed from any adventitious production.