CHAPTER XIV.

_Of a_ Dead Child.

A Dead Child is often born with abundantly more Difficulty than a _living_ one, for the last by its Struggles considerably promotes its own Birth; whereas, the first lies _immoveably_ in the _same_ Posture, without changing Situation by its own Activity.

When the Death of the Child proceeds from any _accidental_ Injury, the _breeding_ Woman commonly knows it, by the Perception of a _Weight_ within her, in the Part where it lies, instead of its _usual_ Motions, which from that Time cease, and occasion, not without Reason, a Solicitude for the best Assistance.

One of my Neighbours, whom I lately deliver’d, had the Misfortune to fall flat on her Face, between the 7th and 8th Month of her Pregnancy; from which Time to that of her Labour, above three Weeks after, she had a continual Sensation of a Weight within her, without _any_ of the Child’s Motions, as before this Accident, although it was not succeeded by a _Flooding_, as is common upon a _partial_ or _total Separation_ of the _Placenta_: She had frequently been attacked with Pains resembling Travil, for above two Weeks before it came on effectually; in this Case after I had brought the Child by _turning_, I found the Secundines extremely offensive, by Reason of their Putrefaction.

From Causes less manifest, ’tis a Thing more precarious to judge of the Infant’s Death; the Woman in Travil has not perceived the _Motion_ of the Child for some Days, while it was yet living; a _cadacerous_ Smell is not infallible; the coming away of the Child’s _Excrement_, may proceed from the _Compression_ of its Abdomen in the _Birth_, especially when the _Buttocks_ present; these Appearances therefore can only be a Foundation at best for _probable_ Conjecture; nothing short of the Peeling of the Cuticle or Scarf-Skin of the Child upon _Touching_ it, can be a _certain_ Token of its Death.