Mr. Pennington; 37 weeks; some, 40 weeks—259–280 days.
Dr. Gooch; a day or two before or after nine calendar months—271, 274, 275, or 278 days.
Dr. D. Davis; a day or two under nine calendar months.
The question as to the length of time it is necessary for a child to remain in the mother’s womb, in order to enable it to live, or to render it viable, as the term is, has been a very puzzling one to writers on medical jurisprudence. On this subject, I do not know that I can interest you in any better way than to give you some of the remarkable examples on record which go to establish the point.
“I have seen,” says Belloc, “a girl who, at birth, was only twelve and three quarters inches in length, whose skin was of a marbled redness, whose head was covered with down, whose nails were imperfectly formed, and who altogether bore a close resemblance to a young flayed rabbit. She was fed with the spoon for eight days, because she was unable to suck. Nevertheless, she is not only at the present moment alive, in her seventeenth year, but is likewise an extremely clever, amiable girl, above the middle stature, graceful in figure, and gay in her disposition. The mother could not fix with precision the date of her conception, but was convinced she was not at the term even of seven months. I considered her at six months, at the utmost.”
Dr. Guy, of London, mentions a case given by Dr. Rodman, in which he describes the mother as “more cautious in her decisions, accurate in her observations, and steady in her deportment than what is usually met with in society.” She had borne five children previously, and in this instance “was confident that the period of her gestation was less than nineteen weeks.” Premature labor came on in consequence of fatiguing exertions, and she was delivered of a living male infant.
“Not daring to allow the washing of the infant’s body, he was speedily wiped, and wrapped in flannel, with only an opening in the dress around his mouth for the admission of air; and by the time the dressing was over, the mother was ready to take him into the warm bed with herself. It is common, if there be much apparent weakness, to feed a child the first twelve hours after birth very frequently, yet, in this instance, although the child was weak, no feeding was attempted until beyond that time; the nourishing heat with the mother in bed was relied on. On the following day, the head, body, and extremities of the child were surrounded with fine cotton wool, pressed to appear like cloth, to the thickness of two or three folds, and over that the flannel, as before; and again the child was given to the mother in bed. His vital energy was so deficient, that even with this dress, of himself, he was unable to support the degree of warmth which was necessary to his existence. The heat of a fire was evidently injurious, as he soon became weaker when exposed to it; while the warmth of the mother in bed enlivened and strengthened him. Too much heat induced a sickly paleness of his face, with an obvious expression of uneasiness in his countenance; and the abstraction of heat, even by tardily undressing his head, brought on a nervous affection, or starting of the muscles all over his body. From seeing how these morbid affections were induced, the child was kept regularly and comfortably warm, by the mother and two other females alternately lying in bed with him, for more than two months. After this, he could be left alone from time to time, but was still undressed very cautiously, and only partially at any one time. It was not till the child was three weeks old that the length or weight of the body could be ascertained. The length was found to be thirteen inches, and the weight 1 lb. 13 oz. avoirdupois. It was extremely difficult to get the child to swallow nourishment the first week; the yellow gum soon came on, and the thrush seized him severely on the eighth day, and was not cured till the end of the third week. During the first week, he was fed with toasted loaf bread, boiled with water, sweetened, and strained through fine linen; in the second week, twenty drops of beef tea were added to the two or three tea-spoonsful of his mother’s milk, and in two days afterward he made exertions to suck. His mother’s milk was gradually substituted, at least in part, for the panada, though this was still continued occasionally, with a few drops of port wine. Under this careful management he attained the age of four months, at which time his health and excretory functions were peculiarly regular.”
Dr. Guy has arranged a table showing the lengths and weights of children reported to be born during the fifth and sixth months of gestation, with the assumed age and the probable age, according to estimates and observations which he had made and collected from various authors on the subject. It is as follows:
| Author. | Length. | Weight. | Survived its Birth. | Asserted Age. | Age according to Estimates and Observations. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inches. | lb. | oz. | Days | |||
| Rodman | 11–13 at 3 w’ks. | 1 | 13 | 1 yr. 9 m. | 133 | 5 months possibly. |
| Outrepont | 13½ | 1½ | 0 | 8 years | 175 or 189 | 6 months. |
| Belloc | 12¾ | 17 years | 6 months | possibly 5 months. | ||
| Bucholtz | 14 | 1½ | 0 | 2 days | 189 days | 6 months. |
| Kopp | 12¼ | 2 | 0 | 4½ days | 182 | 6 months. |
| Fleischmann | 11½ | 1 | 5 | 8 days | 168 | possibly 5 months. |
| Christison | 13 | 1 | 7 | 8½ hours | 167 | possibly 5 months. |
| Mr. Thomson | 12½ | 1 | 8¾ | 3½ hours | 5 months | 5 months. |
Thus, it would appear, that it is possible for a child to live when born at about the end of the sixth month of fetal life, and, perhaps, somewhat earlier. But these cases must, I think, be rare, and not according to the general rule.