FIIETUS (abnormal anatomy). Considering the peculiar circumstances of the foetus in utero, we would, at first sight, be inclined to suppose that, although of course exposed to the risk of injury from accidents or diseases occurring to the mother, it would not be liable to many or serious accidents of its own ; nevertheless, ob servation and experience soon reveal to us a very different state of facts, and force upon us the sad truth that the seeds of life are often sown adulterated with those of infirmity and decay, that disease may mutilate, and death destroy, even before our entrance into life ; for as far as investigation has enabled us to reach, we have reason to believe that the child before birth is not only liable to certain affections which may be considered peculiarly its own, but is also subject to almost all those which affect the adult.
Of these affections some appear to be, 1. strictly innate in the constitution of the foetus; 2. some communicated by infection from the mother's system ; 3. some from the father's sys or perhaps through that of the mother, she herself not being the subject of the affection entailed, as in certain forms of syphilis, scrofula, and small-pox ; 4. some, from strong mental impressions on the mother; 5. some, arising from morbid alterations in the envelopes of the ovum, the placenta, and cord, or in the uterus itself; 6. some, from the influence of external agents, as falls, blows, pressure, &c.
The investigation of these abnormal con ditions is invested with a deep interest, not only as an important pathological inquiry, but as conducive to the adoption of mea sures calculated to be beneficial to both mo ther and child; to the child, by suggesting the strong necessity for preventing the exposure of the mother to influences likely to affect the welfare of her unborn offspring, as well as for removing their effects by proper remedial means : and to the mother, by affording us occasionally information of the existence of diseased taints in her system, of which we might otherwise long remain ignorant ; or by guarding her against the ill effects of unhealthy states of the child ; for, although each indivi dual has a separate existence, there is at the same time a very close and intimate mutual dependence of the one on the other; and, con trary to what we would at first expect, the health of the mother is more apt to suffer from morbid conditions of the fcetus in utero than is the latter to be injured in its developement by the state of the mother's system. Thus we see
how great a disturbance is often caused in the maternal system by a blighted ovum, or a dead and putrid fcetus ; while, on the other hand, we frequently observe that women in states of the most infirm health,' both mental and bo dily, nay even when sinking under the ravages of some wasting disease, or depressed and worn out by mental suffering, by want of food or ex cessive fatigue, give birth to full-grown and well-thriven children.
The affections to which the foetus is liable vary not a little according to the period of its existence at which we consider it ; during the earlier periods, when the formative process is in most active operation, and the developement of the different organs is proceeding rapidly, many important and remarkable organic altera tions take place; some from arrest of develop ment caused by imperfection in or morbid alteration of the structures of the ovum ; some by destruction of parts already formed, by atrophy or inflammation, or both conjoined ; some by the effects of excessive secretion and the consequent unnatural distension, &c.; while those affections, to which more strictly belong the name of diseases, affect the more matured fcetus, whose organization approaches more closely that of the new-born child. • In order to give a full account of the morbid and abnormal conditions of the fetus, we should embrace also those of its appendages or surrounding structures of the ovum ; these, however, will be alluded to at present only so far as is absolutely unavoidable, as they will receive full consideration in the articles and PLACENTA : and in like manner several varieties of malformation will be with more propriety described under the head of Mors STROS1TY, while others will be found under the account of the different organs concerned.