It has occurred to me during the past year to be consulted in five cases of doubtful pregnancy. In two of them, circumstances forbade the probability of its occurrence; but in both the true areola was distinctly and fully developed. It decided my opinion; and the result proved its correctness: both became mothers. Two others had made themselves patients of the Lying-in-Institution, having obtained letters for attendance from governors of the charity, and upon which was marked, by their own calculation, the month of their expected confinement. But I was led to believe, from observing two or three symptoms, that pregnancy did not exist.
Their cases were examined, and at last the breast; in both the true areola was wanting: the review of symptoms decided all doubts. Had, however, the true areola been present in either, it would at once have reversed, instead of confirming my first suspicions.
The fifth was pregnant, but the true areola was wanting; and I was obliged to refer to those signs which can alone be recognised by a medical man.
The absence, then, of this sign, except in combination with other circumstances, proves nothing, but, if present, I believe it conclusive.
The Presence of Milk.—With regard to the presence of milk in the breasts, as this is a symptom which may arise, and does very generally, in the latter months of gestation alone, when the existence of pregnancy has been long determined, it is only mentioned here to refute the popular error, that “the presence of milk in the breasts is an infallible proof of pregnancy.” It is no such thing; and many well-recorded instances could be brought forward to prove the possibility of its formation under circumstances totally independent of pregnancy.
Belloc speaks of a servant girl, who being obliged to have sleeping with her an infant who was being weaned, and which by its crying disturbed her rest, bethought her of giving it her breast to appease its clamour; and the result was, that in a short time she had milk enough to satisfy the child.[[15]]
The following case is related by Mr. George Semple: Mrs. B——, wife of John Breward, Simpson Green, near Idle, aged forty-nine, the mother of nine children, the youngest of whom is twelve years old, lost a daughter-in-law about a year ago, who died in about a fortnight after giving birth to her first child. On her death, Mrs. B. took charge of the infant, a little puny sickly baby. The child was so fretful and uneasy, that Mrs. B. after many sleepless nights, was induced to permit the child to take her nipple into its mouth. In the course of from thirty to thirty-six hours she felt very unwell; her breasts became extremely painful, considerably increased in size, and soon after, to her utter astonishment, milk was secreted, and poured forth in the same abundance as on former occasions, after the birth of her own children. The child, now a year old, is a fine, thriving, healthy girl, and only a few days ago I saw her eagerly engaged in obtaining an apparently abundant supply of healthy nourishment, from the same fountain which, nearly twenty years ago, poured forth its resources for the support of her father.”[[16]]
Quickening.
There is only one other symptom which I think it useful to notice, that is quickening; by which is meant, the first sensation experienced by the mother of the life of the child within her womb.
The first time this motion of the child occurs, the sensation is like that of the fluttering of a bird within her, and so sudden that she frequently faints, or falls into an hysterical paroxysm. A day or two passes by when it recurs. It afterwards increases both in frequency and degree, until the movements of the child are fully recognised.