of Dr. Beck's Elements of Medical Jurispru dence, the subject is fully treated of. The author when speaking of protracted delivery, says, "It is astonishing, and I will add ridiculous, to view the ardour with which writers have advocated this doctrine. I shall devote this section principally to the statement of some cases which have occurred at various times, and been made the subject of legal investigation." After referring to a variety of cases, he mentions one, "that enlisted all the medical talent of France in its discussion."

"The opinion of Louis was asked, and he declared that the offspring was illegitimate: among the arguments which he adduces, are the following: That the laws of nature on the subject are immutable;-that the fœtus at a fixed period has received all the nourishment of which it is susceptible from the mother, and becomes, as it were, a foreign body;-that married females are very liable to error in their calculation;—that the decision of tribunals in favour of protracted gestation, cannot overturn a physical law;—and finally, that the virtue of females is a very uncertain guide for legal decisions. If we admit,' says he, all the facts reported by ancient and modern authors, of delivery from eleven to twenty-three months, it will be very commodious for females, and if so great a latitude is allowed for the production of posthumous heirs, the collateral ones may in all

cases abandon their hopes, unless sterility be actually present.'

.

This reasoning appears to me," says Dr. Beck, "to carry great weight; and Mahon in his chap. ter on the subject, adds several sensible remarks in confirmation of it. He observes that if the doctrine be true, that the children of old people are longer in coming to maturity, it would have been confirmed by experience, which it is not. Grief, also, and the depressing passions are much relied on as possessing a delaying power, but certainly, these are more apt to produce abortion than protracted gestation. He accounts for the mistakes of married women by suggesting that the menses may be suppressed, not only from dis ease, but from affections of the mind, or accidental causes which do not immediately impair the health while the increase of volume in the abdomen may originate from this or from numerous other causes. Towards the conclusion of his remarks, he states a difficulty which I believe cannot be readily overcome. If the doctrine be allowed, how shall we distinguish a delayed child from one that is born at nine months; and by what means are we to detect fraud in such cases? Certainly, as far as we can judge from the narratives given, the infants born after protracted gestation were not distinguished for size, or other appearances of maturity.

J

"A calm and deliberate examination of these histories must certainly, I think, lead to a total disbelief of the doctrine of protracted gestation.

"There are many that evidently bear the impress of vice, while the most favourable are so liable to have arisen in error, that scepticism must appear unavoidable. That a limited variation may from extraordinary circumstances sometimes occur, I shall allow so far as to believe it proper that legislation should make allowances for it. The best and most accurate observers have sometimes met with cases where the period seemed to be somewhat prolonged, but I will venture to add, that the more closely they are investigated, the less will the number appear. Dr. Smellie mentions two instances in which the females, exceeded their reckoning by eight weeks, and Dr. Bartley confirms them by a similar case in his own practice. All these, however, were calculated from the cessation of the menses, and is it not possible the same peculiar circumstances might have caused this, particularly as it was the first pregnancy in two of them?

"Dr. Hunter, in answer to a question on this subject, observed that he had known a woman bear a living child in a perfectly natural way, fourteen days later than nine calendar months; and believed two women to have been delivered of children alive, in a natural way, above ten calendar months from the hour of conception.

"I will add, that in England, and certainly in America, cases of protracted gestation, are rarely heard of, They appear to have occurred in countries where the administration of justice was arbitrary, or at least fickle and unsteady."

Some of the most celebrated and experienced physicians are of opinion that these supposed prolonged pregnancies are more rationally and probably explained in other ways. Indeed what Dr. Jemmat said in giving evidence in the great Annesley cause, may fairly be applied on the present occasion. On being asked, "On your oath, sir, are there any rules in your profession, by which a pregnancy can be discerned from a tympany, or any other like disorder?" He answered, "By virtue of my oath, that question would puz→ zle not only the Colleges of Physicians of England and Ireland, but the Royal Society into the bargain."

CONCLUSION.

It has been declared in the Introduction that the preceding pages were intended for the consideration of those who, from being thought ineligible for life assurance, have ceased to enquire as to the means of securing the advantages it presents. The direct and immediate object of the writer is to lead public attention to the merits of an Institution, in which the lives of persons suffering under chronic diseases, or travelling beyond the limits of Europe, may be insured at rates of premium according with the mortality by those diseases and climates. There are many thousand persons of delicate constitutions, irregularity of form, of declining health, suffering from hereditary predispositions and from the effects of tropical climates, who would be anxious to insure their lives, provided they could be certain of obtaining their object on proper terms, and without being subjected to the humiliating reflection that they were admitted as partners with men of robust health who fancied their accession an incumbrance, on any terms. As there is nothing a man is so justly proud of as health, so there is no point on which he feels so justly sensitive. The idea of a bare possibility of being rejected as unsound by a board of directors, is repugnant to the minds of many; but when to this is added