It has been supposed that an experienced surgeon or midwife might be able to determine whether a newly born infant was the child of a particular woman, both being submitted to their examination; but this mode of proof, fallacious as it must always be, can be of no possible value, unless the investigation take place within a very few days of the supposed delivery; and even then it goes no further than to determine that the birth and delivery have been nearly cotemporaneous, a result not inconsistent with the supposition that the infant is the child of some other woman, and substituted for one dead, unhealthy, or of the sex incapable of succession. In ordinary cases this early inspection is not likely to take place, as in the lifetime of both parents the heir presumptive seldom has a summons to view proceedings; but in the case of a pregnant widow, and especially where there has been a question _de ventre inspiciendo_, it is otherwise, and it then becomes a point of duty in all parties, to obtain the most satisfactory evidence. A yet more important occasion occurs at the birth of princes; whose entrances and exits are equally subject to question, whenever a disputed succession or an impatient heir give rise to speculation. In England and elsewhere precautions are taken which are as offensive to female delicacy as they are ineffective to the demonstration of truth. The chamber of a pregnant princess, at the moment when quiet is most necessary, is crowded with officers of state and lords of the household; yet we need not remind the reader of all the questions which have, however foolishly, been raised on the supposititious births of princes; for the evidence on the birth of Prince _Charles Edward_, see 12 _Howel. St. Tri._ 123. We need only observe that imposition is best practised by skilful jugglers in a crowd, and without disrespect to those learned and reverend personages, we may doubt whether the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Lord High Chancellor, can be as effective at an _Accouchement_, as the President of the College of Physicians, or the Master of the College of Surgeons. TENANT TO THE COURTESEY. Whether a child, born under certain circumstances, was or was not born alive, is a frequent and important question on the right of the father to the tenant of the courtesey; and as it is naturally connected with the doctrine of gestation, will be partly considered here, though the external signs of incipient and independent vitality will be more fully treated of under the head of Infanticide.