XXVIII.—CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE FŒTUS
The death of the fœtus may be due to—(1) Immaturity or intra-uterine malnutrition, or simply from deficient vitality; (2) complications occurring during or immediately after birth, which may either be unavoidable or inherent in the process of parturition, or may be induced with criminal intent.
In the latter category come such accidents as the pressure of tumours in the pelvic passages, or disease of the bones in the mother, or pressure on the cord from malposition of the child during labour, asphyxiation from the funis being twisted tightly round the neck or limbs, or from injuries due to falls on the floor in sudden labours. Where the death of the fœtus has been induced with criminal intent, it may be due to punctured wounds of the fontanelles, orbits, heart, or spinal marrow; dislocation of the neck; separation of the head from the body; fracture of the bones of the head and face; strangulation; suffocation; drowning in the closet pan or privy, or from being thrown into water.
Under the head of infanticide by commission, we have injuries of all kinds; under infanticide by omission, neglecting to tie the cord, allowing it to be suffocated by discharges in the bed, neglect to provide food, clothes, and warmth, for the new-born child.
XXIX.—DURATION OF PREGNANCY
The natural period of gestation is considered as forty weeks, ten lunar months, or 280 days. A medical witness would have to admit the possibility of gestation being prolonged to 300 days, and if this time were not very materially exceeded it would be well to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. It may be mentioned that 300 days is the extreme limit fixed by the French and Scottish law. No fixed period is assigned in English or American law to the duration of pregnancy, though it is allowed that utero-gestation may be greatly prolonged. In a recent case decided, the Lord Chancellor accepted a case where it was alleged pregnancy had extended to 331 days. A child only five months old may live, for a short time at all events. There is considerable difficulty in many cases in fixing the date of conception. The data from which it is calculated are the following: (1) Peculiar sensations attending conception, which are not sufficiently defined to be recognized by those conceiving for the first time. (2) Cessation of the catamenia. Other causes may, however, cause this; and, on the other hand, a woman may menstruate during the whole period of her pregnancy. This datum also gives a variable period, and may involve an error of several days or a month, for the menses may be arrested by cold, etc., at one monthly period, and the woman become pregnant before the next. (3) The period of quickening. This, when perceived (which is not always the case), also occurs at variable periods from the tenth to the twenty-sixth week. (4) A single coitus. This does not, however, correspond to the time of fertilization. Several days may elapse before the spermatozoa meet with an ovum and fertilize it.
In Scotland a child born six months after marriage is legitimate, which is allowing an ample margin.