CHAPTER XIV.Of aDead Child.
A
DEADChild is often born with abundantly more Difficulty than alivingone, for the last by its Struggles considerably promotes its own Birth; whereas, the first liesimmoveablyin thesamePosture, without changing Situation by its own Activity.
When the Death of the Child proceeds from anyaccidentalInjury, thebreedingWoman commonly knows it, by the Perception of aWeightwithin her, in the Part where it lies, instead of itsusualMotions, which from that Time cease, and occasion, not without Reason, a Solicitude for the best Assistance.
One of my Neighbours, whom I lately deliver’d, had the Misfortune to fall flat on her Face, between the 7th and 8th Month of her Pregnancy; from which Time to that of her Labour, above three Weeks after, she had a continual Sensation of a Weight within her, withoutanyof the Child’s Motions, as before this Accident, although it was not succeeded by aFlooding, as is common upon apartialortotal Separationof thePlacenta: She had frequently been attacked with Pains resembling Travil, for above two Weeks before it came on effectually; in this Case after I had brought the Child byturning, I found the Secundines extremely offensive, by Reason of their Putrefaction.
From Causes less manifest, ’tis a Thing more precarious to judge of the Infant’s Death; the Woman in Travil has not perceived theMotionof the Child for some Days, while it was yet living; acadacerousSmell is not infallible; the coming away of the Child’sExcrement, may proceed from theCompressionof its Abdomen in theBirth, especially when theButtockspresent; these Appearances therefore can only be a Foundation at best forprobableConjecture; nothing short of the Peeling of the Cuticle or Scarf-Skin of the Child uponTouchingit, can be acertainToken of its Death.