was yet living. How long after the death of the mother the child may survive _in utero_, is a question which cannot be readily answered; some authors[462] mention twenty-four or even forty-eight hours; and in relating this fact, _Dr. Merriman_ adds an accompaniment which we also feel a great inclination to adopt—_a note of admiration_! In the late _Dr. S. H. Jackson’s Cautions to Women_ (1798) mention is made of a child extracted by the _forceps_, which was restored to life, though the mother had been dead full half an hour before it was taken from the womb. It must be admitted, that a child taken from the womb of its mother by the cæsarean section, cannot in philological strictness be said to have been _born_. The ingenious purpose to which _Shakspeare_ has applied this quibble has no doubt suggested itself to the reader. _App._ Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! * * * * * * * Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man; for _none of woman born_ Shall harm Macbeth. _Act_ iv, _sc._ 1 _Macd._ * * Despair thy charm; And let the angel, whom thou still has serv’d, Tell thee, _Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d_. _Act_ v, _sc._ viii. The circumstance merits our observation, in as much as it has furnished a subtlety for disputation, as we have already noticed at page 225. OF EXTRA-UTERINE CONCEPTION. It sometimes happens, that instead of the impregnated ovum passing into the womb, it is either retained in the ovarium,[463] or it stops in the fallopian tube, or it misses the tube and falls amongst the bowels. Of these, the _tubal_ is by far more frequent than the _ventral_ conception. We learn from the numerous cases which are recorded of extra-uterine pregnancy, that it may terminate in several different ways; in some cases sudden death occurs from hemorrhage;[464] in others, the unfortunate woman survives for a long period; and it has occurred that the fœtus has been converted into a substance somewhat analogous to the _gras de cimetières_,[465] in which case very little inconvenience is felt beyond that which must attend the tumour of the belly for so many years. Nature, however, more generally institutes a process to get rid of the extraneous body; the sac adheres to the peritoneum or intestines, and, after an uncertain period, varying from a few weeks to several years, it either opens externally, or communicates with the abdominal viscera, and highly offensive matter, together with putrid flesh, bones, and coaguli, are discharged through the abdominal integuments, or by the rectum,[466] vagina, or bladder.[467]