From what I have been able to learn, I infer that with water-dressing this healing is effected from one fourth to one third less time than by the usual methods.
The period of the natural separation of the cord varies considerably in different cases. According to M. Gardien, it usually falls off on the fourth or fifth day. M. Orfila says the fourth, fifth, or sixth day. M. Dennis the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth day. M. Billard remarks, that the desiccation is complete toward the third day, and it is on the fourth or fifth day that the cord is separated from the abdomen.
Dr. Churchill, of Dublin, kept an account of the period of its decadence in 200 cases, and it occurred as follows:
| In | 1 | case | it fell on the | 2d | day. |
| „ | 4 | cases | „ | 3d | „ |
| „ | 20 | „ | „ | 4th | „ |
| „ | 52 | „ | „ | 5th | „ |
| „ | 81 | „ | „ | 6th | „ |
| „ | 24 | „ | „ | 7th | „ |
| „ | 10 | „ | „ | 8th | „ |
| „ | 7 | „ | „ | 9th | „ |
| „ | 1 | case | „ | 10th | „ |
According to Dr. Churchill, then, it would appear, that the fifth and sixth days are the ordinary periods of the detachment. The cord has been known to remain undetached as long as fifteen days; but such cases must be very rare.
Complete cicatrization is commonly effected by the end of the second week. The healing powers vary somewhat in different cases. In one case, where both the father and the mother were of scrofulous tendency, it was a number of weeks before the healing process was fully completed. The child, however, in the end did well.
OF STILL-BIRTH.
The child may be born still, from its not having passed to its full period, or from various causes it may not have vital stamina enough to enable it to live. In some cases the child is born without any manifestations of life whatever appearing. The face is swollen and livid, the body flaccid, and the navel-string does not pulsate.
In such cases we should not at once wholly despair of life, although there is not usually much to hope for; yet, inasmuch as cases of this kind are now and then recovered, they ought not to be immediately abandoned without making suitable efforts for the resuscitation of the vital powers.
A frequent cause of the absence of respiration in the new-born infant is, separating the umbilical cord too soon after birth. Such is the opinion of Denman, Burns, Baudeloque, Dewees, Elberle, etc., etc., and there can be no doubt that many a child has been destroyed by this inconsiderate practice. By all well-qualified and skillful practitioners it is laid down as a rule, “that the cord is not to be tied until the pulsations in its arteries have ceased;” and this any person of ordinary understanding, and without medical knowledge, can easily ascertain, by simply taking the cord between the thumb and forefinger.