This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1879. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. ACCIDENTS AND DISEASES INCIDENT TO LABOR AND THE PUERPERAL STATE. PROLAPSE OF THE CORD This is one of the most fatal accidents, so far as the safety of the child is concerned, that occurs during labor. I need hardly say that this fatality is owing to the compression of the cord, arresting the. circulation through its vessels, and thus causing asphyxia. The length of time necessary to produce this effect has been variously reckoned from two to ten minutes. The former is probably a shorter time than is generally required to cause the death of the infant, while the latter is, no doubt, considerably longer. I need not spend time in pointing out the diagnostic signs by which prolapse is detected. When the cord is felt prolapsed it is, or ought to be easily recognized--it is not easy to imagine how it can be mistaken for anything else that may occur, or anything else mistaken for it. There are, however, a few cases upon record in which a coil of intestine has been mistaken for the umbilical cord, and which mistake led to the most disastrous consequences. Dr. Tyler Smith, in his Annual Address to the Obstetrical Society of London, reports the following: "A midwife attended the patient, a very poor woman, during her labor, and she admitted having given Ergot before the birth of the child. Mr. Robinson was called at midnight to remove the placenta, going as a matter of charity. On examining he found what seemed to be a loop of funis in the vagina; passing his hand along it and through what he supposed to be the os uteri he felt a mass of about the size of the placenta which he drew down. Finding some difficulty, he divided the supposed funis in two places, and then found to his horror that he had been dealing with intestine. At the post-mortem and inquest it w...