UTERINE PREGNANCY may be simple when the uterus contains but a single ovum; double, triple quadruple or compound, according as there are two, three, four or more foetuses; and complicated where, in addition to the foetus, there is also found a tumor, polypus, dropsy or other pathological formation in the abdomen.
EXTRA-UTERINE PREGNANCY may consist of one or the other of the four following varieties, according to the location of the fecundated ovum; 1. Ovarian, where the ovum continues its growth in the ovary itself; 2. Peritoneal, where the ovum fails to be received by the fimbria of the Fallopian tube, and thus becomes lodged in the folds of the surrounding peritoneum; 3. Tubal, where the ovum is arrested in its passage through the Fallopian tube, and is there developed; 4. Interstitial, where the ovum penetrates the parietes of the uterus instead of attaching itself to its interior surface. In either of these varieties, extra- uterine pregnancy must sooner or later terminate disastrously, unless relieved by the Caesarean section, since normal parturition is impossible, except perhaps in the last.
What, by some authors, is termed false pregnancy, consists in an enlargement of the abdomen from the presence of hydatids or other tumors, when in reality not living foetus is present.
SIMPLE, UTERINE PREGNANCY. Upon the occurrence of pregnancy we have to do with two different living beings, which although still united, the one within the other, present two different subjects for our consideration and two different classes of phenomena for our study. The female, the prospective mother, represents one of these;and the embryo, the future child, represents the other. We will first study the influence of pregnancy upon the female; and observe the various changes which it introduces into the entire economy. The manner in which the anatomical structure, the physiological functions, and the intellectual and normal states and sensibilities are affected by this new condition of pregnancy, must be carefully explained. This account of the Natural History of Pregnancy will be succeeded, in subsequent chapter, by a description of the disorders incident to pregnancy and a detail of the principal remedies requires for their successful treatment.
