It occasionally happens that a woman in whom the course of pregnancy is nearly complete dies suddenly from disease, such as hæmoptysis, hæmatemesis, cardiac trouble, or uterine hæmorrhage in the preliminary stage of labour; or is killed by accident. In some such circumstance attempts are sometimes made to rescue the unborn child, by performing Cæsarean section. It is true that such efforts are rarely attended with success, but in cases where death is very sudden and the surroundings such as to enable the operation to be performed without delay, the child may be extracted from the uterus and survive. Successful cases of this kind are published from time to time. In order to show how necessary it is to act promptly the following case may be mentioned:-- A woman in the eighth month of pregnancy was found to be suffering from cancer of the neck of the uterus. The child was alive. I decided to perform hysterectomy. The uterus was exposed through a free incision in the abdominal wall and quickly detached from its cervix. The uterus with the fœtus inside was handed to an assistant, who quickly extracted the child. Although the time which elapsed from the complete etherization of the mother until the extraction of the child from the uterus was 2-1/2 minutes, it required the display of some energy to induce the child to breathe. This is the first record as far as I know of a child being delivered alive from a uterus detached from its mother. The woman died on the fourth day after the operation, and the child on the fourteenth. Möglich had a successful case. A patient aged forty-one years, with placenta prævia, died from hæmorrhage, and an asphyxiated fœtus was promptly extracted by cœliotomy. Prolonged efforts at artificial respiration were successful, and the child was well five weeks later (see also Sippel). REFERENCES HUGIER, M., and MONOD, M. Cæsarean Operation immediately after the death of the Mother. _Lancet_, 1829-30, i. 899. MÖGLICH. Ueber Kaiserschnitt an der Toten. _Münchener med. Wochensch._, 1908, lv. 202. SIPPEL. Sectio Cæsarea in mortua. _Monats. f. Geb. u. Gyn._, 1907, xxvi. 618. OVARIOTOMY AND HYSTERECTOMY DURING PREGNANCY AND IN LABOUR