In a trial which took place in this country, in the county of Lancaster, Pa., as reported in the _Medical Examiner_ for June, 1846, it was decided that Gestation may be prolonged to _three hundred and thirteen days_! The female swore that conception must have taken place on the twenty-third of March, 1845, and the child was not born till the thirtieth of January, 1846, or over _eleven months_. The judge directed the jury to return a verdict in her favor, and I suppose this case establishes a precedent for America. In a recent number of the _Medical Gazette_, I find a case reported wherein the period was said to be prolonged still farther. A man left his wife in New South Wales, he coming to England, and _twelve months_ after he left she was delivered of a child, which she claimed to be legitimate. He denied this however, and the judge in the Consistory Court decided, without hesitation, in his favor. Taking the medium between these two cases therefore, it appears to be decided that the _extreme limits_ is somewhere between _eleven_ and _twelve_ months! It must be recollected however, that both were perfectly arbitrary, and that, for anything known positively on the subject, both may be either right or wrong. Except when labor is brought on prematurely by violence, it always commences at what would have been one of the monthly periods; or in other words, after a certain number of _full months_, and never at any time between! If therefore a female passes over the _ninth_ month, she will probably go to the _tenth_. This has been proved by extensive observation, and is only another proof of the regular method in which nature conducts all her operations. The same law is also observed in abortions, which generally take place at one of the months, unless brought on suddenly by violence. CHAPTER VII. PERIOD WHEN THE CHILD CAN LIVE. The precise period when the child can live, if brought into the world, is not determined, any more than the time it may remain in the Womb. Some children may be able to live a considerable time before the full period of Gestation, and others may not till some time after, there being a great difference in regard to their development.