Case of Extensive Ovarian Disease, Complicated with Pregnancy

ON the morning of the 25th of August I received a hasty message to see Mrs. , who was said to be taken with premature labour.On arriving at her house, I found the lady (who was in her thirty-fifth year, and had borne six children) bad just entered the seventh month of pregnancy, and was suffering considerable uterine pain, frequent in its return, the intervals of ease being about two or three hours.An examination per vaginam discovered what I at first thought was the head of a foetus, low down in the pelvis, occupying the hollow of the sacrum behind, and allowing little more than a finger to pass between it and the pubis before; the presenting part appearing to be the vertex.I could not how- ever feel the os uteri, and the finger was withdrawn, unmarked by discharge of any kind.The pulse was