The workes of that famous chirurgion Ambrose Parey translated out of Latin and compared with the French. by Tho: Johnson. Whereunto are added three tractates our of Adrianus Spigelius of the veines, arteries, & nerves, with large figures. Also a table of the bookes and chapters.

CHAP. XXXI. How to preserve the infant in the womb, when the mother is dead.

IF all the signes of death appear in the woman that lieth in travel, and cannot be delivered, there must then be a Surgeon ready and at hand, which may open her body so soon as she is dead, whereby the infant may be preserved in safety; neither can it be supposed sufficient if the mothers mouth and privie parts be held open; for the infant being inclosed in his mothers womb, and compassed with the membranes, cannot take his breath but by contractions and di∣latations of the artery of the navel. But when the mother is dead, the lungs do not execute their office & function: therefore they cannot gather in the air that compasseth the body by the mouth or aspera arteria into their own substance, or into the arteries that are dispersed throughout the body thereof, by reason whereof it cannot send it unto the heart by the veiny artery which is call∣ed arteria venalis: for if the heart want air, there cannot be any in the great artery which is called arteria aorta, whose function it is to draw it from the heart; as also by reason thereof it is wanting in the arteries of the womb, which are as it were the little conduits of the great artery, whereinto the air that is brought from the heart is derived, and floweth in unto these little ones of all the body, and likewise of the womb. Wherefore it must of necessity follow that the air is wanting to the cotyledons of the secundines, to the artery of the infants navel, the iliack arteries also, and therefore unto his heart, and so unto his body: for the air being drawn by the mothers lungs, is accustomed to come to the infant by this continuation of passages. Therefore because death ma∣keth all the motions of the mothers body to cease, it is far better to open her body so soon as she is dead, beginning the incision at the cartilage, Xiphoides, or blade, and making it in a form se∣micircular, cutting the skin, muscles and peritonaeum, not touching the guts: then the womb being lifted up, must first be cut, lest that otherwise he infant might perchance be touched or hurt with the knife.

You shall oftentimes finde the childe unmoveable, as though he were dead; but not because he is dead indeed, but by reason that he, being destitute of the accesse of the spirits by the death of the mother, hath contracted a great weakness: yet you may know whether he be dead indeed or not, by handling the artery of the navel; for it will beat and pant if he be alive, otherwise not; but if there be any life yet remaining in him, shortly after he hath taken in the air, and is recre∣ated with the access thereof he will move all his members, and also all his whole body. In so great a weakness or debility of the strength of the childe, by cutting the navel string, it must rather be laid close to the region of the belly thereof, that thereby the heat (if there be any jot remai∣ning) may be stirred up again. But I cannot sufficiently marvel at the insolency of those that affirm that they have seen women whose bellies and womb have been more then once cut, and the infant taken out, when it could no otherwise be gotten forth, and yet notwithstanding

alive; which thing there is no man can perswade me can be done without the death of the mo∣ther, by reason of the necessary greatness of the wound that must be made in the muscles of the belly, and substance of the womb; for the womb of a woman that is great with childe, by reason that it swelleth, and is distended with much blood, must needs yield a gread flux of blood, which of necessity must be mortal. And to conclude, when that the wound or incision of the womb is cicatrized, it will not pe••mit or suffer the womb to be dilated or extended to receive or bear a new birth. For these and such like other causes, this kinde of cure, as desperate and dangerous, is not (in mine opinion) to be used.

Notes

• Why it is not sufficient to preserve life in the childe to hold open the mouth and pri∣vie parts of the mother so soon as she is dead, and the childe alive in her body.
• How the bel∣lie of the wo∣man that dieth in travel must be cut open to save the childe.
• How it may be known whether the infant be a∣••ive or not.