# Ulisse Aldrovandi

In the fifteenth place, we provide an illustration of an unnatural birth of twins. This occurs when the feet of both infants approach the opening of the womb at the very same time—a situation that is usually quite dangerous unless corrected by the diligent work of a skilled midwife. After lubricating the opening of the womb to smooth the way for the fetus, she must strive with all her might to insert her hand, grasp the arms of one infant, and, holding them firmly, bring them down to the thighs while guiding the head toward the opening. Once that infant is born, she must immediately exert every effort to perform the same task for the birth of the second. However, if there is no immediate hope for a successful delivery, the laboring woman should be taken to her bed to see whether, after some rest, the birth might take a more favorable position, as the following figure demonstrates.

Unnatural birth of twins.

Thus far, we have briefly described the nature of mature and timely birth. Now, at the conclusion of this chapter, it seems appropriate to discuss untimely birth—that is, abortion. We must define an abortion as the premature expulsion of a fetus that is already formed and living. If it should happen that a woman discharges coagulated matter or portions of clotted blood that have sat in the womb for some days, these should be called effluxions rather than abortions.

Generally, an abortion occurs due to conditions affecting either the infant or the womb (speaking here of internal causes). Regarding the infant, the cotyledons are sometimes weak, causing the placental attachments to break prematurely and leading to a miscarriage. In other cases, the membranes enveloping the fetus are so thin and frail that they tear easily before their time; the fluids then flow away, and the fetus perishes. As for the womb, abortion occurs if the woman is of a weak constitution or if the womb itself is subject to certain ailments. Physicians recount the remaining causes in detail in their own writings. To make all of this clear to our readers, we provide several figures of abortions. The first figure shows the true form of an abortion in which the fetus is seen attached to the parenchyma. The second shows an abortion along with its membranes and umbilical vessels. Finally, the third is a three-month-old abortion, the length of a thumb, which the celebrated anatomist Costanzo Varolio gave as a gift to the most noble and learned Ulisse Aldrovandi.