Q. 6. _Can we determine by any signs whether a woman has ever borne a child, although at a period remote from that of the examination?_ The following are the principal indications of a woman having been delivered at a distant period, but in offering them to the attention of the practitioner, it is necessary to observe, that _singly_ they can furnish but very slender evidence, and should they even all occur, they must be regarded as affording only a strong presumption of the fact. 1. The orifice of the womb has not its conic figure; its lips are unequal; and it is more open than in those who have never borne children. 2. There is a roughness of the abdomen, the parietes of which are also more expanded and pensile. 3. There are small white and shining lines running on the surface of the abdomen. 4. The breasts are more flaccid, and pendulous, and the lines on their surface are white and splendid. 5. The nipples are prominent, and the colour of their disks brown. Q. 7. _What are the earliest and latest periods of life, at which women are capable of child-bearing?_ _Zacchias_ and other authors have considered the commencement and cessation of menstruation as the two extreme points, beyond which the female is incapable of conception; they have very justly considered the menstrual flux as indispensably necessary for the healthy action of the uterine system. It must be also admitted that no female can conceive until her system has undergone that revolution which we have already described under the head of _Puberty_, although we then stated, that the period of life at which it takes place is liable to be controlled by several physical as well as moral circumstances, we have accordingly many instances upon record of very young females having borne children: during the year 1816 some girls were admitted into the _Maternité_ at Paris as young as _thirteen years_; and during the revolution one or two instances occurred of females at _eleven_, and even below that age, being received in a pregnant state into that hospital. _Schurigius_[402] states the case of a Flemish girl, who was delivered of a son at the age of _nine_ years; and in the notes to _Metzger_ several instances are related where conception had occurred under the age of _ten_. It has been attempted to ascertain what age, and what season was most prolific: from an accurate register kept by _Dr. Bland_, it would appear, that more women, between the age of twenty-six and thirty years, bear children, than at any other period; of 2102 women, who bore children, 85 were from fifteen to twenty years of age, 578 from twenty-one to twenty-five, 699 from twenty-six to thirty, 407 from thirty-one to thirty-five, 291 from thirty-six to forty, 36 from forty-one to forty-five, and 6 from forty-six to forty-nine.