It is proper that a female should be informed that the period when quickening takes place is very uncertain; for an impression is popularly prevalent that it always occurs exactly at the end of four calendar months and a half. This is not the case; it varies in different women, and in the same women during different pregnancies, as the following one or two instances will prove:—

Mrs. F——. Quickened with her first child at four months: quickened with the second at fourteen weeks: and is now in her third pregnancy, and reckons from the fourteenth week again.

Mrs. B——. Has had seven children, and with all felt the motion of the child for the first time at the third month.

Mrs. Mc M——. Has been several times pregnant; seldom feels movements of the child at all until the sixth month, and not strongly till the eighth.

The annexed table of the periods of quickening of seventy cases taken in the order in which they have been entered in the author’s note-book, will forcibly stamp the truth of these opinions:

9Quickened atthe3d month.
11Quickened at 3½ months.
21Quickened atthe4th month.
16Quickened at 4½ months
8Quickened atthe5th month.
1Quickened at 5½ months.
4Quickened atthe6th month.
70

In a few of these cases, for the sake of convenience I have used round numbers, when two or three days before or after was the exact time; and for the sake of correctness, have omitted several cases, in which there was the slightest doubt in the patient’s mind of the exact time.

It appears from this table, that this symptom takes place more frequently between the twelfth and sixteenth week, than before or after these periods; and that subsequent to the 4½ and the expiration of the sixth month, it may occur in the proportion of more than one case out of every five.—Before the third month, quickening seldom arises.

This symptom may not be felt by the mother at all, and yet pregnancy exist. This is rare, but the fact is confirmed by many writers; and I have met during the last seven years with two instances, and in both the mothers gave birth to living and healthy children.

Now comes the question, how far this symptom is of value, as a sign of the pregnant state?