A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets, Perform'd by Mr. John Howard Surgeon at Guilford — Context and Discussion

Mr. _Howard_’s House, we found her dress’d in her Stays, sitting on the Bed-side with several Women near her. I immediately examined her, and not finding the Parts prepared for her Labour, I waited for the coming on of fresh Pains, which hapned in three or four minutes, at which time I deliver’d her of the entire Trunk, strip’d of its Skin, of a Rabbet of about four Months growth, in which the Heart and Lungs were contained with the Diaphragm entire. I instantly cut off a piece of them, and tried them in Water; they seemed but just specifically lighter than it, and Mr. _Molyneux_ pressing them to the Bottom they rose again very slowly; the Heart was very large, and its _Foramen Ovale_ entirely open; the Lungs were remarkably small, and of a much darker Colour than commonly the Lungs are of such Rabbets, who have breathed for some time. No Person but my self touch’d her, from the first time that I had examined her, to the time of her being deliver’d by me: Her Pains were pretty smart, and lasted for some Minutes; they went off the Moment she was deliver’d, and she seem’d chearful and easy; walked by herself from the Bed-side to the Fire, and sat on a Chair, where I examined her; and found, that in the Course of the _Fallopian Tubes_, there were some Inequalities, but more sensibly on the right side of her Belly; which made me conjecture that the Rabbets were bred in those Tubes, and only came into the _Uterus_, when they gave her those Agitations, which, according to the account of Mr. _Howard_ and of several other Persons, were sensibly felt many Hours before their Exclusion.

As there was no Blood nor Water that issued from the _Vagina_, after I had delivered her, I again examined that Part, and found it not in the least inflamed or lacerated.

Upon examining her Breasts, I found Milk in one of them, but only a little yellowish _Serum_ in the other.

Her Pulse was regular, but somewhat low, her Tongue florid; and upon asking for her Water, those about her answered, she made very little, and that they had not saved any.

She informed us, that in the Intervals of her Labour-Pains she was tolerably easy, and had no inclination for any sort of Food but Beef.

About two Hours after we had left her, they came again to call Mr. _Howard_, she being at that Time in violent Labour-Pains; but he and my self were gone to see the Mayor, who was then ill. The Nurse that attended her had delivered her, before our return, of the lower Part of a Male Rabbet, which we found totally with the Trunk, which I had before extracted: This was also strip’d of its Skin, and compleatly perfect in all its Parts, but more manifestly so in those of Generation.

In the _Rectum_ of this Animal, which remain’d affix’d to the Body, we found five or six Pellets, much of the same Colour and Consistence as the common Dung of a Rabbet, little Bodies, like dried Fragments, being matted together with a mucous Matter. The like was observed in some other Parts of those Rabbets, which had come away before. In the other Bowels there was a dirty colour’d _Mucus_, of the Nature of that which is constantly found in the Bowels of all _fœtus_ Animals, and which in those that void their Excrements in Pellets, is commonly hard and dry; but the Matter in the Guts of the first Animal was of an entire different Kind, Colour and Substance from any of the rest, this being like little Filaments of an Animal Substance. In the Middle of the Gut _Ilium_ of this Creature, I found a very slender, brittle, white Body, of the Length of half an Inch, which in Shape was like a very small Fish-bones.