The Curious Case of a Child Who Looked Like a Spotted Dog
Ronald M. Cyr, MD
Ronald M. Cyr, MD
Case Report
In the early part of August 1841, I was requested to attend the wife of an innkeeper, in labour with her eighth child. She was a strong, healthy woman, aged about forty-seven. The os uteri was dilated to the size of half a crown [the Crown was a silver coin measuring 39 mm in diameter and worth 5 Shilling (1 £ = 20 Shilling)]; membranes unruptured; vertex presentation. The labor being tedious, it was necessary to rupture the membranes, which, from their toughness, and not yielding to the fingernail, was effected by a quill. There was much mental excitement during the greater part of the labor.
Fearing cerebral congestion, and from the rigid state of the os uteri and the perineum, it was almost decided that venesection [phlebotomy] should be had recourse to. Though repeatedly told all was right, she persisted in a contrary opinion. As her pains increased, so did her ideas, that her child was like the spotted dog by which she had been frightened in the kitchen; as it was always before her eyes, night and day. (These were the words of the patient.) She had scarcely uttered those words, when, by a powerful contraction of the uterus, a fine full-grown female child was expelled.
Before the child was taken from under the bedclothes, the patient distinctly said these words in the presence of the nurse and a second attendant "My child is marked like Troughton's dog (the spotted), and at the back of the neck where the black one held it." On bringing the child to the light, such was the fact; only three or four spots about the size of a sixpence on the face, the rest of the body beautifully marked with black spots varying from the size of a pea to that of a sixpence, with the exception of the back of the neck, which had a brown black appearance covered with hairs, extending about two inches and a half across the neck and shoulders, and one inch and a half down the back. It appears from the patient's statement, that about the period of her third month of pregnancy, she was crossing the kitchen with a pint of beer, when a black dog and a spotted terrier, then lying under the table, began to fight close to her feet; and in the fright turning round, she saw the black dog seize the other by the back of the neck: a chillness came over her, and she felt ill all the day.
What is singular, her last two children were born marked from mental impressions made (as she believed) about the third month of each pregnancy; therefore, she was more convinced that she was to have a spotted child this time. The child is living, and very much admired. The spotted dog frequently passes my house; many persons call at the inn for a pint of beer as an excuse to see the rare spotted lass.
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In the early part of August 1841, I was requested to attend the wife of an innkeeper, in labour with her eighth child. She was a strong, healthy woman, aged about forty-seven. The os uteri was dilated to the size of half a crown [the Crown was a silver coin measuring 39 mm in diameter and worth 5 Shilling (1 £ = 20 Shilling)]; membranes unruptured; vertex presentation. The labor being tedious, it was necessary to rupture the membranes, which, from their toughness, and not yielding to the fingernail, was effected by a quill. There was much mental excitement during the greater part of the labor.
Fearing cerebral congestion, and from the rigid state of the os uteri and the perineum, it was almost decided that venesection [phlebotomy] should be had recourse to. Though repeatedly told all was right, she persisted in a contrary opinion. As her pains increased, so did her ideas, that her child was like the spotted dog by which she had been frightened in the kitchen; as it was always before her eyes, night and day. (These were the words of the patient.) She had scarcely uttered those words, when, by a powerful contraction of the uterus, a fine full-grown female child was expelled.
Before the child was taken from under the bedclothes, the patient distinctly said these words in the presence of the nurse and a second attendant "My child is marked like Troughton's dog (the spotted), and at the back of the neck where the black one held it." On bringing the child to the light, such was the fact; only three or four spots about the size of a sixpence on the face, the rest of the body beautifully marked with black spots varying from the size of a pea to that of a sixpence, with the exception of the back of the neck, which had a brown black appearance covered with hairs, extending about two inches and a half across the neck and shoulders, and one inch and a half down the back. It appears from the patient's statement, that about the period of her third month of pregnancy, she was crossing the kitchen with a pint of beer, when a black dog and a spotted terrier, then lying under the table, began to fight close to her feet; and in the fright turning round, she saw the black dog seize the other by the back of the neck: a chillness came over her, and she felt ill all the day.
What is singular, her last two children were born marked from mental impressions made (as she believed) about the third month of each pregnancy; therefore, she was more convinced that she was to have a spotted child this time. The child is living, and very much admired. The spotted dog frequently passes my house; many persons call at the inn for a pint of beer as an excuse to see the rare spotted lass.
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PDF HERE.
amazing, i never heard of something like this, that's unique. Great work
yes, superb, i never imagine it would be like that, great work