This Plate represents the mode of performing the Ballotment, to detect pregnancy. The outline of the figure is the same as in Plate I, and most of the organs are lettered the same.] When the right hand finger (1 Plate XVI,) is carried to the top of the Vagina, it meets with a round soft tumor, which is the head of the child felt through the walls of the womb. As soon as this is distinctly felt, the finger must be withdrawn a little, and then pushed suddenly against the tumor with a jerk; this will displace the fœtus, and cause it to rise in the liquor amnii towards the Fundus, so that the round tumor will have disappeared. In a few moments it will sink down and may be again felt, and again displaced in the same manner. This is called the _Ballotment_, or balancing it on the end of the finger. The sensation conveyed on touching the Fœtus, and when it rises after being pushed, are so peculiar that they are not likely to be overlooked, or mistaken for anything else, after being once experienced. The jerk is not required to be at all violent, and had better be made at first very slight, as it can easily be repeated a little more forcibly if the tumor does not rise at first. Some practitioners practice the Ballotment in this way, using the one hand only; but others place the left hand also on the Abdomen, (4 Plate XVI,) at the same time, and immediately after jerking _upwards_ with the right hand, they suddenly depress the Abdomen, just over the pubes, with the fingers of the left, so as to send the Fœtus down again more quickly and more forcibly. This is seldom needed, but if the first way does not succeed the two hands may be tried. A species of ballotment may even be practised externally, in the following way:--The fingers of the right hand are placed on the Abdomen, just over the fundus of the womb, like the left hand in Plate XVI, and a smart jerk is given downwards and backwards, several times in quick succession. This also displaces the Fœtus, which may be distinctly felt to float away, each time the percussion is made. No one can mistake this peculiar motion who has once felt it. Sometimes one of these manœuvres will succeed when the other fails, so that it is well to practise them all. They may be performed with the female either standing or lying down, and will sometimes succeed one way when they will not the other. It is requisite to remember that in presentations of the breech, or trunk, the ballotment may not succeed as well as when the head presents; or it may even fail altogether, so that when it is unsuccessful we must not immediately conclude there is no pregnancy. Tumors in the womb, stone in the bladder, and various uterine displacements, may also create uncertainty, or cause failure, but these accidents are rarely met with, and only interfere materially at an early stage; afterwards ballotment can be practised notwithstanding them, or auscultation may be resorted to.