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 FIRST CORINTHIANS

VOLUME 32
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

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 The Anchor Yale Bible is a fresh approach to the world’s greatest classic. Its ob-
ject is to make the Bible accessible to the modern reader; its method is to arrive
at the meaning of biblical literature through exact translation and extended ex-
position, and to reconstruct the ancient setting of the biblical story, as well as the
circumstances of its transcription and the characteristics of its transcribers.

The Anchor Yale Bible is a project of international and interfaith scope:

Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from many countries contribute indi-
vidual volumes. The project is not sponsored by any ecclesiastical organization
and is not intended to reflect any particular theological doctrine. Prepared
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able all the significant historical and linguistic knowledge which bears on the
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This project marks the beginning of a new era of cooperation among scholars in
biblical research, thus forming a common body of knowledge to be shared by all.

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general editors
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 T H E A N C H O R YA L E B I B L E

FIRST
CORINTHIANS
◆

A New Translation with

Introduction and Commentary
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

JOSEPH A. FITZMYER, S.J.

T H E A N C H O R YA L E B I B L E
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Yale University Press,
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 Copyright © 2008 by Yale University.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including

illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without written permission from
the publishers.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939224

ISBN 978-0-300-14044-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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 To My Confrères of the Jesuit Community
at Georgetown University
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Yale University Press,
2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=3420456.
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 This page intentionally left blank
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Yale University Press,
2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=3420456.
Created from nottingham on 2021-11-27 02:57:52.
 CONTENTS
◆

Preface xi
Abbreviations xv
Principal Abbreviations xv
Grammatical Abbreviations xxiv
Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts xxiv
Other Abbreviations xxv

FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS: TRANSLATION

Translation 3

INTRODUCTION
I. Corinth: The City and Its History 21
II. The People of Corinth 30
III. Paul’s Relation to Corinth and Its Church 37
IV. The First Letter to the Corinthians 48
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

V. The Form of First Corinthians 54

VI. The Greek Text of First Corinthians 60
VII. Language and Style 64
VIII. Pauline Teaching in First Corinthians 69
A. Christology, Teaching about Christ Jesus 71
B. Theology Proper, Teaching about God 78
C. Pneumatology, Teaching about God’s Spirit 79
D. Ecclesiology, Teaching about the Church 81
E. Anthropology, Teaching about Human Beings 85
F. Eschatology 91

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography 97

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 viii Contents

COMMENTARY AND NOTES

I. Introduction (1:1–9) 121
1 Address and Greeting (1:1–3) 121
2 Thanksgiving (1:4–9) 129

II. Scandals Reported Orally to Paul about the Corinthian

Church (1:10–6:20) 136
A. Scandal of Preacher-Factions: Its Fact and Roots
(1:10–4:21) 136
3 a. Dissensions in the Corinthian Church (1:10–17) 136
4 b. False and Correct Ideas of Wisdom (1:18–31) 151
5 c. Paul Preaches God’s Wisdom Revealed through
the Spirit (2:1–3:4) 168
6 d. False Idea of the Role of Preachers
Corrected (3:5–17) 191
7 e. Admonition about Preachers and Wisdom
(3:18–23) 205
8 f. Think of Paul and Apollos as Lowly Servants
of Christ (4:1–21) 209
9 B. Scandal of Incest and Association with Immoral
People (5:1–13) 228
10 C. Scandal of Christians Haling One Another into
Pagan Courts (6:1–11) 247
11 D. Scandal of Prostitution (6:12–20) 260

III. Answers to Queries about Moral and Liturgical

Problems (7:1–14:40) 273
A. Marriage and Celibacy in the Passing World (7:1–40) 273
12 a. Marriage Is Good, Celibacy Is Good:
Their Obligations and Place (7:1–9) 273
13 b. The Lord’s Command: No Divorce (7:10–11) 287
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

14 c. Paul’s Advice: Peaceful Mixed Marriage,

but Pauline Concession (7:12–16) 296
15 d. Basic Principle: Remain in the Status in
Which You Were Called (7:17–24) 305
16 e. Advantage of Virginity (7:25–35) 312
17 f. Marriage of a Virgin in Certain Conditions
(7:36–38) 322
18 g. Marriage of a Widow (7:39–40) 328
B. Freedom and the Eating of Meat Sacrificed to
Idols (8:1–11:1) 330
19 a. Idol Meat and the Role of Knowledge and
Love in Christian Fellowship (8:1–13) 330
20 b. Freedom and Restraint of an Apostle (9:1–27) 352

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 Contents ix

21 c. Israel’s Example Warns Christians Not to

Partake of Pagan Temple Meals (10:1–22) 376
22 d. Dictates of Conscience about Market and
Idol Meat (10:23–11:1) 397
C. Problems about Sacred Assemblies (11:2–34) 404
23 a. Women Worshipping with Uncovered Heads
(11:2–16) 404
24 b. Abuses at the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper
and Its Meaning (11:17–34) 425
D. Problems Caused by Charismatics in the Body of
Christ (12:1–14:40) 453
25 a. Discernment of Spirits (12:1–3) 453
26 b. The Variety of Gifts and the One Spirit (12:4–11) 462
27 c. The Many Members of the One Body (12:12–31) 473
28 d. The More Excellent Way: Hymn to Love
(13:1–13) 487
29 e. The Value of Certain Spiritual Gifts:
Prophecy and Tongues (14:1–25) 507
30 f. Order in the Use of Gifts (14:26–33) 524
31 g. Women Speaking in Cultic Assemblies
(14:34–36) 528
32 h. Due Order in All Things (14:37–40) 536

IV. Instruction about the Kerygma, Gospel, and Resurrection

of the Dead (15:1–58) 539
33 A. The Preached Gospel and Kerygma about the
Risen Christ (15:1–11) 539
B. Belief in the Resurrection of the Dead Rooted in
Christ’s Resurrection (15:12–34) 557
34 a. If Christ Has Not Been Raised (15:12–19) 557
35 b. Christ Has Been Raised as the Firstfruits!
(15:20–28) 567
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

36 c. Ad hominem Arguments for the Resurrection

of the Dead (15:29–34) 577
C. How Will the Resurrection of the Dead Take Place?
(15:35–49) 585
37 a. Analogies of Seeds, Bodies, and Splendor
(15:35–41) 585
38 b. Application of the Analogies (15:42–49) 591
39 D. The Resurrection as Victory over Death through
Christ (15:50–58) 601

V. Conclusion (16:1–24) 611

40 A. Collection for God’s Dedicated People (16:1–4) 611
41 B. Paul’s Travel Plans (16:5–9) 616

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 x Contents

42 C. Commendation of Timothy and Apollos (16:10–12) 621

43 D. Concluding Exhortation (16:13–18) 623
44 E. Greetings and Final Farewell (16:19–24) 626

Index of Commentators and Modern Authors 635

Index of Subjects 654
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Yale University Press,
2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=3420456.
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 PREFACE
◆

The First Letter to the Corinthians is not Paul’s most important writing. That de-
scription belongs to his letter to the Romans, on which I have already commented
in this series of the Anchor Bible. First Corinthians, however, is the letter in the
Pauline corpus that reveals the Apostle at his best, for it shows him coping realisti-
cally with problems that have arisen in the Christian community that he founded
in that important city in the eastern Mediterranean world of his time. It is only
part of his correspondence with Corinthian Christians, because he also wrote
Second Corinthians, which likewise reveals aspects of his ministry. That letter,
however, is much more personal, and it may even be a composite of missives that
he sent to the church of Corinth. First Corinthians is less personal and more topi-
cally oriented, as Paul comments on scandals that have been reported to him in
that Christian community, answers queries sent to him by Corinthian Christians
or reacts to problems that he has heard about in moral and liturgical matters, and
instructs them about the resurrection of the dead and its relation to the Christian
kerygma and gospel.
The multiple topics that Paul addresses in this letter that he sends to Corin-
thian Christians have produced in recent decades a cascade of commentaries,
monographs, and articles dealing with all their details. The excellent commen-
tary on First Corinthians by the German New Testament scholar, Wolfgang
Schrage, is a tour de force, but its four stout volumes, published in the course of a
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

decade (1991–2001), are an accomplishment that few scholars will ever emulate.
By contrast, the aim of this modest commentary on First Corinthians is to discuss
the topics with which Paul deals in a less comprehensive way in imitation of many
other recent commentators of varying language and background.
My intention has been to write a commentary of classic proportions like that on
the Letter to the Romans for the modern reader of the twenty-first century. It is
hoped that it will explain Paul’s thoughts in a not-too-technical form for general
readers. I have at times introduced into the discussion Greek words in transcrip-
tion, where necessary, in order to clarify the issue at hand, but an English transla-
tion is always provided, so that the reader may understand how I understand the
Greek terms. When the translation given in the lemma of the Notes may be a bit
free, I have invariably included a literal rendition of Paul’s Greek words so that the
reader will know just what is at issue, for neither an overly literal translation nor
one based on dynamic equivalence passes muster.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. First Corinthians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Yale University Press,
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 xii Preface

Earlier commentators on First Corinthians are mentioned by their last names,

but I have simplified the mode of giving the titles of their commentaries: 1 Cor,
with a page number (following the commentator’s name). That refers to any com-
mentary in any modern language no matter how it is entitled. The exact title of
such commentaries is given in the General Bibliography. In that bibliography,
commentators are broken down into groups according to time: patristic period
(Greek and Latin writers, listed chronologically); medieval period (Greek and
Latin writers, listed chronologically); fifteenth—to eighteenth-century commen-
tators (listed chronologically according to the year of their death); nineteenth—to
twenty-first-century commentators (ordered alphabetically). In the specific bibli-
ographies at the end of pericopes authors are listed in alphabetical order. When a
new or unfamiliar name appears in Comments or Notes, the reader should con-
sult first the specific bibliography at the end of the pericope; if the information is
not found there, then the General Bibliography should be consulted, where
not only commentaries are listed, but also monographs on First Corinthians as
well as some periodical articles on general topics treated in more than one peri-
cope. The index of modern authors offers guidance to the needed information.
References to OT books cite the chapter and verse numbers according to the He-
brew or Aramaic text of the MT, not that of some English Bibles. This is to be
noted especially in the case of the Psalter, where psalms are always referred to ac-
cording to the numbering of the Hebrew text, even when the discussion may in-
volve the Greek translation of the LXX. In case of doubt, one can usually consult
the NAB, which uses the Hebrew-text numbering.
In the Introduction to the commentary the reader will find discussion of the
usual questions about the letter’s addressees, the authorship of the letter, its occa-
sion and purpose, unity and integrity, structure and outline, text and language. In
addition, there is a synthetic sketch of Paul’s teaching in this letter, along with a
bibliography. During the course of the commentary, reference will be made at
times to this synthesis in order to avoid repetitious treatment of topics that appear
at different places in the letter.
As in my other commentaries in this series, I present a fresh translation of the
Greek text of each pericope, followed by a Comment on it as a whole, and then by
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

Notes on lemmata derived from its individual verses. Comment is the term used
throughout for the introductory discussion of the pericope, and the Notes are re-
served for the detailed treatment of problematic words and phrases in the lemma.
At times the discussion of problems in the Notes may become technical, and the
general reader will have to bear with this aspect of the discussion or learn to pass
over them. The overall thrust of the letter and its parts will be treated in the Com-
ments. The division of the Pauline text into pericopes follows the outline of the
letter given in Section V of the Introduction. References, sometimes in paren-
theses, without the mention of a biblical book’s title mean a chapter and verse in
First Corinthians; “1 Cor” will be added only to avoid ambiguity in a particular
context. Translations of biblical passages other than First Corinthians are usually
my own, except on occasion when another standard version is needed in the dis-
cussion.

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 Preface xiii

Finally, I must express my thanks to many persons who have aided me in recent
years while I have been working on this commentary. In particular, the graduate
students at the Biblical Institute in Rome and at the Catholic University of Amer-
ica, with whom I discussed many of the problem of this Pauline text; J. Leon
Hooper, S.J., the director of the Woodstock Theological Center Library, housed
at Georgetown University, and his staff; Henry Bertels, S.J., who was then the li-
brarian at Pontificio Istituto Biblico, Rome—all of whom helped with many bib-
liographical items. Finally, my gratitude is owed to David Noel Freedman, the
editor of the Anchor Bible series, for his suggestive criticism and helpful advice; to
Andrew Corbin, the editor at Doubleday, and his staff for their cooperation in
bringing the manuscript to book form; and to Leslie Phillips for her careful copy-
editing.
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., Professor Emeritus, Biblical Studies
The Catholic University of America
Resident at the Jesuit Community, Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1200
(fitzmyja@georgetown.edu)
Copyright © 2008. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
Q. 9. Is Super-fœtation possible, and under what circumstances, and
at what period of Gestation can a second conception take place?

The term Super-fœtation implies that a second impregnation may

take place, whilst a child is in utero.
There are perhaps few questions relating to the subject of
conception, that have given origin to more rigorous controversy; and
indeed its important judicial bearings render it a subject of greater
interest than it could ever have become intrinsically as a mere object
of abstract speculation. Let us, for the sake of illustration, suppose
the following case:—A woman loses her husband suddenly, tenant in
tail male, a month after marriage, and at a little more than eight
months after his decease she is delivered of a perfect female child,
and at nine months, she declares that she is delivered of another
infant, which is a male. The heir at law, who has entered, contests
the fact of this latter birth; the question therefore to be determined
is, whether such an event is compatible with the known laws of
utero-gestation.
The ancient physicians and philosophers undoubtedly believed in
the possibility of super-fœtation; and the Mythology contains a well
characterised example in the instance of Iphicles and Hercules, who
were begat upon Alcmæna, the former by Jupiter, and the latter by
Amphitryon. Hippocrates,[411] Aristotle,[412] and Pliny,[413] entertained
no doubt respecting the fact, and in later times we find that the
most eminent physiologists have sanctioned the same belief, and
have been engaged in recording facts in its support. Gasper
Bauhuin[414] relates a case in which a woman at the end of nine
months brought forth a dead child, with a deformed head, and that
six weeks afterwards she was delivered of a well formed child which
lived. Buffon[415] presents us with a still more striking example; a
woman of Charles-town, in South Carolina, was delivered in 1714 of
twins, which came into the world one directly after the other, but to
the great surprise of the midwife, one was black and the other
white; the woman herself, considering this proof of her infidelity too
obvious to be denied, admitted the truth without hesitation,—that
shortly after having enjoyed the embraces of her husband, a black
servant entered her room, and by threats accomplished his purpose.
Aristotle[416] speaks of an adultress who produced at the same birth
two sons, the one of which resembled the husband, and the other
the lover; Pliny[417] also relates several cases of super-fœtation, some
of which are certainly no other than twin cases, and the others are
merely copied from Aristotle. Musa Brassavolus[418] has the following
remarkable observation upon the subject. “Nos vidimus super-
fœtationem quandoque fuisse epidemicam affectionem.” Zacchias[419]
also believes in the phenomenon; and in the case of one Laurette
Polymnie, his testimony secured for her child the rights of
inheritance; Harvey[420] likewise relates a case of super-fœtation, to
which we beg to refer the reader; Haller[421] expresses his opinion in
the following words: “Os uteri nunquam clausum est; ideoque potest
super-fœtari non solum a die sexto ad trigessimum, aut primis
duobus mensibus, sed omni omnino tempore.” Zacchias[422] however,
thinks that it can only take place in the first two months of
pregnancy, for that after this period, the developement of the fœtus
renders it impossible. Plouquet observes, that immediately after a
first conception, a second may easily take place, but that after a few
months it can only occur under the most extraordinary
circumstances. If time and space would allow we might adduce a
considerable mass of similar testimony, but we shall conclude this
part of the subject with the opinion of Kannegeiser, “De super-
fœtationis existentia rationis quippe principiis, atque infinitis
hominum et brutorum exemplis abunde comprobatu, Medicis atque
jurisconsultis mens vix amplius hæret in ambiguo.”[423] The best
authenticated case of super-fœtation that has occurred in our own
times is that communicated to the College of Physicians by Dr.
Maton:[424] Mrs. T—— an Italian lady, remarkable for her fecundity,
was delivered of a male child at Palermo, on the 12th of November,
1807, under very distressing circumstances, having been dropt on a
bundle of straw in an uninhabited room at midnight, and although
the infant at the time of his birth had every appearance of health, he
lived only nine days; on February the 2d, 1808, (not quite three
calendar months from the preceding accouchement) Mrs. T—— was
delivered of another male infant, completely formed, and apparently
in perfect health; the child however fell a victim to the measles at
the age of three months. Dr. Granville, in a paper entitled “On the
Mal-formation of the Uterine System,”[425] takes occasion to observe
with respect to the above case, that “it merely goes to prove the
occasional co-existence of separate ova in utero, and proves nothing
farther; the lady, whose prolific disposition is much descanted upon
in that paper, and with whom twin cases were a common
occurrence,” continues Dr. Granville, “was delivered of a male child
sometime in November, 1807, ‘under circumstances very distressing
to the parents, and on a bundle of straw,’ and again in February,
1808, of another male infant, ‘completely formed!’—mark the
expression, for it was not made use of in describing the first. The
former died ‘without any apparent cause’ when nine days old; the
other lived longer. Now can we consider this otherwise than as a
common case of twins, in which one of the fœtuses came into the
world at the sixth, and the other at the ninth month of pregnancy,
owing to the ova being quite distinct and separate? Had this not
been the case, the distressing circumstances, which brought on the
premature contraction of the womb, so as to expel part of its
contents in November, as in the simplest cases of premature labour,
would have caused the expulsion of the whole, or in other words, of
both ova, in that same month; and we should not have heard of the
second accouchement in the following February; which led the
author of the paper in question to bring the case forward as one of
superfœtation, in opposition to what he has called ‘the scepticism of
modern physiologists.’ Had it been proved that the child, of which
the body in question was delivered, had reached its full term of
utero-gestation in November, and that she had brought forth another
child one, two, or three months afterwards, of equally full growth,
then a case something like superfœtation would have really
occurred, and scepticism would have been staggered.” In
consequence of the doubts thus expressed by Dr. Granville, the
author of the present work, actuated only by a desire after truth,
applied to Dr. Maton for a farther explanation of those particular
points upon which the merits of the case would seem to turn; and
he is thus enabled to clear up the doubts which might be supposed
to embarrass its history; the fact is, that both the children were born
perfect, the first therefore could not have been a six month’s child;
and with respect to the distressing circumstances which attended
the delivery, Dr. Granville appears to have fallen into an important
error; he speaks of them as having “brought on the premature
contraction of the womb, so as to expel part of its contents in
November,” whereas upon referring to the particular expressions
used by Dr. Maton in the paper alluded to, we shall soon perceive
that they by no means support the assumption of the labour having
been premature, nor that it was brought on by distressing
circumstances; on the contrary, we find upon farther inquiry that the
distressing circumstances to which the author alludes were the
natural consequence, not the active cause of the labour; indeed the
fact, as we learn from Dr. Maton, stood thus,—the lady could not
obtain better accommodation at the time; that the labour, although
quick, was not sudden, for the accoucheur was already in
attendance; and that it was not premature, for the natural period of
utero-gestation was supposed to have been completed. We must not
omit to state that all the particular circumstances of the case were
communicated to Dr. Maton by the husband of the lady, and as he
could not have had any particular theory to maintain, or any private
interest to serve, there cannot exist any good reason for questioning
the veracity of his testimony, or the justness of our conclusions.
Several physiologists who have attempted to explain the cause of
superfœtation have supposed that in such cases the uterus is
virtually double; Morgagni informs us, that Catti, the Neapolitan
anatomist, was the first to observe this phenomenon, and that it is
owing to a strong membrane which so divides the uterus, that the
mouth of a fallopian tube corresponds with each of its cavities; and
he farther states, that this strange structure was found combined
with a corresponding division of the vagina; Valisnieri[426] also met
with a double uterus, and a double vulva; the same malformation
has been noticed by Littre,[427] Bauhuin,[428] Eissenmann,[429] Haller,
[430]
and by Rhoederer; this latter physiologist in a letter, from
Strasburgh, preserved among the Sloane manuscripts, says, “We
have got here a great curiosity, viz. a woman body of eighteen years
of age, who has the natural parts externally well formed, but
internally two vaginæ, each with its hymen, to which responds also
an uterus duplex having two orificia, each of ’em hanging in its
proper vagina, that in such a manner there is quite a double system
of generation, and if she had been living a superfœtation could have
been formed.” Sabbatier says that he believes in the possibility of
superfœtation, and that the above formation will explain its
occurrence; an opinion which is sanctioned by Gravel[431] and
Teichmeyer;[432] Duffien also observes, “Cette double matrice sert
très bien a expliquer la superfœtation.”[433] In quadrupeds
superfœtation very commonly occurs, and it has been explained by
supposing that the uterus of these animals is divided into different
cells, and that their ova do not attach themselves to the uterus so
early as in the human subject, but are supposed to receive their
nourishment for some time by absorption; hence the os uteri does
not close immediately after conception; for a bitch will admit a
variety of dogs while she is in season, and will bring forth puppies of
these different species; thus, it is common for a greyhound to have
in the same litter, one of the greyhound kind, a pointer, and a third
or more, different from both.[434]
Those physiologists who deny the possibility of superfœtation,
among whom we find some of the most celebrated names, assert
that one conception can never supervene another in the same
woman, because the os uteri is closed by coaguable lymph, and the
entrance to the fallopian tubes is obstructed by the Decidua Uteri,
soon after conception, and therefore that the semen can never find
its way to the internal organs of generation, so as to impregnate a
second ovum; this opinion is fortified by the well known aphorism of
Hippocrates,[435] “οκοσαὶ εν γαστρὶ εχουσὶ; τουτεων δε στομα των
υστερων ξυμμεμυκεν.” Galen[436] also quoting Herophilus says, “Ne
specilli quidem mucronem admittere uteros antequam mulier pariat;
prœterea ne vel minimum quidem hiscere ubi conceperint.” Neither
Galen, however, nor Ætius, nor Paulus Ægineta, make any mention
of superfœtation, a circumstance upon which the opponents of the
doctrine lay considerable stress. Avicenna alludes to it, but for the
purpose of expressing his disbelief in its possibility. Hebenstreit[437]
and Ludwig,[438] have also expressed very strong opinions upon the
subject; the former of whom observes, “Nullæ fere observationes
extra omnem dubitationem positæ superfœtationem confirmant.”
Baudelocque[439] is equally hostile to such a belief. But it may be said
that the argument founded on the entire closure of the uterus is
quite gratuitous, many authorities might be cited who disavow the
fact, we have already adduced the opinion of Haller upon this point;
besides, are we sufficiently acquainted with the manner in which
impregnation is effected to authorise any deductions from our
hypothesis? We are completely ignorant in what way the male
semen arrives at the internal organs,[440] nay, we are not even
convinced that its direct transmission to the ovaria is essential to
fecundation; it is possible that these organs may be stimulated by
sympathy with the vagina. Parsons opposes another argument to the
doctrine of superfœtation; it is, says he, impossible, because the
fallopian tubes become after conception too short to embrace the
ovaria, but this opinion is successfully combated by Haller. The cases
which have been cited to illustrate the phenomenon of
superfœtation, are regarded by those who oppose the doctrine as
instances in which a plurality of children has existed, and in which
one of the following circumstances have occurred, viz.
1. The fœtus has prematurely died, but has remained in utero with
the living child, to the full period of utero-gestation.
2. The descent of the ova into the uterus from the ovarium, has not
observed the same order of time, one being more slowly evolved
than another, although both might have been fecundated by the
same coitus.
This latter was the favourite idea of Celoni:[441] “I am therefore
decidedly of opinion,” says he, “that this superfœtation is no other
than a later developement of a fœtus contemporaneously
generated.”
 We have thus presented the reader with a review of the different
arguments which have been adopted by the partisans and
opponents of this celebrated doctrine, and we have cited copious
authorities with a view to enable the student to pursue the
investigation to any extent which may be commensurate with his
notions of its importance. We shall now conclude by observing that
the following occurrences are essential to constitute a case of
superfœtation.[442]
1. The pregnant woman must bear two children, each of a distinct
age.
2. The delivery of these children must take place at different times,
with a considerable interval between each.
3. The woman must be pregnant and a nurse at the same time.

Q. 10. What are the causes of Abortion?

A gratuitous assumption on the part of some writers respecting

the viability of the fœtus, has led them to adopt a division into
abortion and premature labour, according as the exclusion from the
uterus takes place before, or after, the sixth month of conception;
and the distinction is now generally adopted. Natural abortion may
be considered as arising either from accidental or constitutional
causes; we shall hereafter consider the different modes by which the
premature ejectment of a fœtus may be occasioned by art. The
exciting causes of accidental abortion may, in general, be easily
detected[443]; those giving rise to the constitutional kind are often
more obscure, and without great attention, the woman will go on to
miscarry until either sterility or some fatal disease be induced. In
many cases there can be no peculiar pre-disposing cause; as, for
instance, when it is produced by blows, rupture of the membranes,
or accidental separation of the decidua; but where it occurs without
any very perceptible exciting cause, it is allowable to infer that some
pre-disposing state exists, and this frequently consists in an
imperfect mode of uterine action, induced by age, former
miscarriages, and other causes. It is well known that women can
only bear children until a certain age, after which the uterus is no
longer capable of performing the action of gestation, or of
performing it properly; now it is observable, that this incapability or
imperfection takes place sooner in those who are advanced in life
before they marry, than in those who have married and begun to
bear children earlier; thus we find, that a woman who marries at
forty shall be very apt to miscarry; whereas, had she married at
thirty, she might have borne children when older than forty, from
which it may be inferred, that the organs of generation lose their
power of acting properly sooner, if not employed, than in the
connubial state.[444] We also find that one miscarriage renders the
woman liable to the accident at the same period of utero-gestation
in subsequent labours, and to such an extent is this susceptibility
carried, that it is often difficult with every precaution, for a woman
to go to the full time, after she has miscarried frequently. These are
circumstances which the juridical physician is, for obvious reasons,
to keep in mind; females of disreputable character have been
frequently known to miscarry repeatedly in succession; and in such
cases we ought not, without very cogent reasons, to draw an
inference that may subject them to accusation. We do not consider
that any farther observations are required upon this subject, as the
numerous works upon midwifery are ready to supply the practitioner
with a solution of any problem which may present itself.

Q. 11. Under what circumstances, and by what means, is it morally,

legally, and medically proper, to induce premature labour?

That premature labour may be induced by a mechanical operation,

is too well known to the practitioner in midwifery to require any
explanation in this place, while, in a work calculated for circulation
beyond the confines of the profession, it would be obviously
imprudent to enter into any minute details. It becomes our duty,
however, to state, that in those cases of distorted pelvis, through
which a full grown fœtus cannot pass without mutilation, the
operation may be performed with perfect safety, and with equal
advantage both to the child and to the mother. We are informed by
Dr. Denman[445] that there was in 1756 a consultation of the most
eminent men in London at that time, to consider of the moral
rectitude of, and advantages which might be expected from, this
practice, which met with their general approbation; the morality of
this mode of practice, however, says Dr. Merriman,[446] has been
doubted by many other persons, but probably for want of
considering the question in a proper point of view; for the proposal
was, that labour should be prematurely induced, in those cases only,
where it had been decidedly proved that the pelvis was so much
contracted in its dimensions, as to render it impossible for a full
sized fœtus to pass undiminished; and it is supposed, that this
proceeding, while it affords a chance of preserving the child, does
not much implicate the life of the mother. Mr. J. Barlow[447] has given
us the result of an extensive practice in inducing premature labour in
cases of distorted pelvis, from which it appears that he has had
recourse to this method of delivery eighteen times, in five women,
all of whom had been previously delivered once, or oftener, by the
crotchet, and that premature labour occurred spontaneously once in
two of this number. All the women recovered, a circumstance which
adds a further confirmation to the opinion, that the life of the parent
is exposed to very little hazard in this way; of the children thus
brought into the world, six were dead and twelve were born alive, of
which some died soon after birth, one lived ten months, and five
were living at the time the account was published. Mr. Barlow’s
method consists in exciting premature labour early in the seventh
month of pregnancy. Dr. Hull, well known for his controversial zeal
on these subjects, has offered some remarks so judicious and
important, that it would be an act of injustice to withhold them from
the reader. “The propriety of inducing premature labour,” says he, “in
any deformed woman, can rarely, if ever, be determined upon before
the crotchet has been found indispensably necessary, and actually
employed in a previous labour; indeed, unless the contraction of the
tube or canal of the pelvis be very considerable and pretty accurately
ascertained, it will scarcely be justifiable in any case to have
recourse to this practice in all the subsequent pregnancies, until the
woman has been delivered a second, or third time, by the crotchet;
for it has happened in a very great number of instances, that a
woman who has been delivered of her first child by the perforator
and crotchet, has been afterwards delivered of one or more living
children, at the full time; this observation is made not to
discountenance the inducing of premature labour, but to prevent the
abuse of it.” Dr. Merriman, whose extensive practice, and generally
acknowledged judgment, stamp a peculiar value upon his opinions,
has also pointed out the limitations and cautions which he deems
necessary to be observed, to render this operation safe and eligible,
[448]
and he concludes by observing that “a regard to his own
character should determine the accoucheur, not to perform this
operation, unless some other respectable practitioner has seen the
patient, and has acknowledged that the operation is advisable.”

Q. 12. What circumstances will justify the Cesarean Operation, and

of what value is the section of the Symphysis Pubis, or Sigaultian
operation?

Where the size of the pelvis[449] will not admit the passage of the
child, surgical aid is indispensably necessary; but, says Dr. Merriman,
[450]
it becomes every man to set out with a determination that he
will not hastily, nor without due cause, have recourse to instrumental
assistance;[451] for he may assure himself that if he were easily to
yield to his own apprehensions, or to the expressions of alarm by
the attendants in the lying-in chamber, and in consequence were to
try to expedite the delivery by his instruments, he would, on very
many occasions, do irreparable injury to the parent or her child.
Instrumental delivery resolves itself into three classes,—
1. Where neither the mother nor the child is of necessity injured, as
by the use of the Forceps[452] and Lever.[453]
2. Where the mutilation of the child is the principal object, as by the
Perforator and Crotchet.
3. Where the mother is wounded, as in the Cæsarean and Sigaultian
operations.
It is of the latter class we have now to speak.

Of the Cæsarean Operation:

By which a fœtus is extracted from the uterus of the mother
through a wound, made for that purpose, in the abdomen. The term
Cæsarean, according to some authors, is derived from the operation
“cæso matris utero,” while others have supposed that it owes its
origin to the fact, recorded by Suidas, of Julius Cæsar having been
cut from the womb of his dead mother in the ninth month. Although
Hippocrates, Celsus, Paulus, Ægineta, and Albucasis, all treat upon
the subject of instrumental labours, not the slightest allusion is made
to the cæsarean section. The Chirurgia Guidonis Cauliaci is the first
work in which any mention is made of the operation; and this was
published about the middle of the fourteenth century, but the author
only describes it as a resource to save the child after the death of
the mother, as, says he, happened at the birth of Julius Cæsar. Parè
also considered the operation as one that ought never to be
attempted on the living subject; Rousset, however, his cotemporary,
published a work[454] in its favour, which becoming popular, was,
through the medium of a latin translation by Caspar Bauhine in
1601, quickly circulated throughout Europe; from this period, the
cæsarean section acquired a certain degree of vogue, and began to
be performed in cases of extreme difficulty, particularly on the
continent, where it has not unfrequently proved successful. In this
country the operation has been generally fatal: a very extraordinary
case[455] is, however, stated to have occurred in Ireland, and
however incredible the story may appear, says Dr. Merriman,[456]
there seems no reason to doubt its truth; it is related by Mr. Duncan
Stewart, surgeon, in Dungannon, who saw the patient some days
after the operation; and the account is confirmed by Dr. Gabriel King
of Armagh, who says, that he drew out the needles, which the
midwife had left to keep the lips of the wound together. The
patient’s name was Alice O’Neil, and the operator was an illiterate
midwife, one Mary Dunally; the instrument used was a razor, with
which she first cut through the containing parts of the abdomen, and
then the uterus. “She held the lips of the wound together with her
hand, till some one went a mile and returned with silk and the
common needles which tailors use; with these she joined the lips in
the manner of the stitch employed ordinarily for the hare-lip, and
dressed the wound with whites of eggs.” The woman recovered in
twenty-seven days. It has often been an object of inquiry, why this
operation[457] should have been more successful upon the continent
than in this country? the answer to this question is obvious and
satisfactory. In this country we have only had recourse to it as an
operation of necessity, where we can neither accomplish the delivery
by diminishing the bulk of the child, nor by any of the other
resources already explained; whereas the practitioners of France,
and the other states on the continent of Europe, perform it not only
as an operation of necessity, but as one of election, in cases where
the mother may confessedly be delivered with safety, by sacrificing
the life of the fœtus; it would also appear that in general they have
recourse to the operation, before the patient has suffered very much
from the continuance of labour. How greatly this circumstance is
capable of influencing the success of a surgical operation, we have a
satisfactory demonstration in the history of that for Hernia, and in
which Mr. Bell[458] informs us, the French were formerly more
fortunate, because they proceeded more early to the operation than
the surgeons of almost any other nation. It deserves notice that the
religious tenets of different countries appear to have influenced the
popularity of the cæsarean section; it is easy to suppose that in
those catholic nations where, a belief exists of the necessity of
baptism to secure the eternal happiness of the infant, the mother
would become a willing sacrifice to make her offspring a christian.
[459]
.
In delivering our opinion upon the propriety of performing the
cæsarean section in this kingdom, we should say that there are
cases in which it is the bounden duty of the accoucheur to proceed
without delay, and such appears to have been that described by Dr.
Merriman, of which the pelvis in the museum of Mr. Charles Bell is a
sufficient proof; for so extreme is the distortion, that a marble
measuring less than one inch in diameter, cannot be made to pass
through it in any direction; in this case, and some others of a similar
nature, the Cæsarean section was the only means of preserving the
child. We are of opinion, however, that the operation ought never to
be performed where by Embryulcia the child can be extricated; and
although circumstances of inheritance should induce the husband to
entertain a feeling like that which animated Henry VIII, the
practitioner has but one broad line of duty to observe, to save if
possible the mother and child, but where this is impossible, to feel
no hesitation in sacrificing the life of the latter. In the event of a
woman, near the full time of pregnancy, dying undelivered, the
Cæsarean operation ought always to be performed with as little loss
of time as possible; since by this measure a chance of preserving the
child will be afforded, and Dr. Merriman states that several cases of
such an operation, after the death of the mother, have been
recorded, with the desired effect of saving the infant.[460] Numa
Pompilius prohibited the burial of a pregnant woman until the fœtus
shall have been extracted.[461] We have already stated, upon the
authority of Suidas, that to such an interposition Rome owed the life
of Julius Cæsar; and it has been maintained that Edward VI was
thus taken from his mother after death, while others have
endeavoured to render it probable, that the cæsarean operation was
performed while she was yet living. How long after the death of the
mother the child may survive in utero, is a question which cannot be
readily answered; some authors[462] mention twenty-four or even
forty-eight hours; and in relating this fact, Dr. Merriman adds an
accompaniment which we also feel a great inclination to adopt—a
note of admiration! In the late Dr. S. H. Jackson’s Cautions to
Women (1798) mention is made of a child extracted by the forceps,
which was restored to life, though the mother had been dead full
half an hour before it was taken from the womb.
 It must be admitted, that a child taken from the womb of its
mother by the cæsarean section, cannot in philological strictness be
said to have been born. The ingenious purpose to which Shakspeare
has applied this quibble has no doubt suggested itself to the reader.
App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
* * * * * * *
Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn
The power of man; for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.

Act iv, sc. 1

Macd. * * Despair thy charm;
And let the angel, whom thou still has serv’d,
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.

Act v, sc. viii.

The circumstance merits our observation, in as much as it has
furnished a subtlety for disputation, as we have already noticed at
page 225.
 OF EXTRA-UTERINE CONCEPTION.

It sometimes happens, that instead of the impregnated ovum

passing into the womb, it is either retained in the ovarium,[463] or it
stops in the fallopian tube, or it misses the tube and falls amongst
the bowels. Of these, the tubal is by far more frequent than the
ventral conception. We learn from the numerous cases which are
recorded of extra-uterine pregnancy, that it may terminate in several
different ways; in some cases sudden death occurs from
hemorrhage;[464] in others, the unfortunate woman survives for a
long period; and it has occurred that the fœtus has been converted
into a substance somewhat analogous to the gras de cimetières,[465]
in which case very little inconvenience is felt beyond that which must
attend the tumour of the belly for so many years. Nature, however,
more generally institutes a process to get rid of the extraneous
body; the sac adheres to the peritoneum or intestines, and, after an
uncertain period, varying from a few weeks to several years, it either
opens externally, or communicates with the abdominal viscera, and
highly offensive matter, together with putrid flesh, bones, and
coaguli, are discharged through the abdominal integuments, or by
the rectum,[466] vagina, or bladder.[467]
The most extraordinary circumstance in the history of these
conceptions is the sympathetic enlargement of the uterus, and even
in some cases, the formation of the Membrana Decidua.[468]
Riolanus[469] was the first person who noticed these conceptions.
Vesalius observed a tubal conception at Paris in 1669; the fœtus was
four months old, and the tube was so enlarged, that he mistook it
for a second uterus, and actually published an account of it, under
the title of “Demonstration d’une double Matrice.” De Graaf, and
afterwards a learned German by the name of Elshotius commented
upon this case in a tract entitled “De Conceptione Tubaria, qua
humani fœtus extra uteri cavitatem in tubis quandoque
concipiuntur,” in which is given the figure of the two supposed uteri,
and the fœtus in the distended tube. In the Journal des Sçavans, A.
D. 1678, a case is recorded of a woman at Paris who carried an
extra-uterine fœtus in the omentum for twenty years; and in the
Philosophical Transactions there is an account of a fœtus of this
description, by Dr. Steigerthal, that remained in the body of the
mother for upwards of forty years. In the present state of our
physiological knowledge it is impossible to offer any explanation of
the cause of these anomalies in the law of Nature, but we
recommend to the attention of the student a paper by Dr. Blundell,
on the Physiology of Generation, to which we have before taken
occasion to allude[470] in terms of high commendation.
 OF HERMAPHRODITES.

The term Hermaphrodite[471] signifies an animal in which there

exists a mixture of the male and female organs, and which is
therefore capable of begetting or conceiving. There can be no doubt
but that some of the lower orders of animals[472] are, in the strict
sense of the term, Hermaphrodites; but it is now universally
admitted that, in the human species, no such phenomenon ever
existed; indeed, if we only consider the osteology of the pelvis, to
the bones of which the organs of generation are connected, it is
impossible to imagine how the complete parts of the male and
female could be placed distinct from each other; nor is there upon
record a single case which can be considered authentic;[473]
numerous are the instances of preternatural structure, which gives
the appearance of a double sex, and it is on the nature of such
monstrous productions, that the medical man is frequently called
upon to decide. Baron Haller has industriously collected in one point
of view, the histories of reputed hermaphrodites, from almost every
author that has preceded him; and from this memoir,[474] and the
interesting paper by Sir E. Home, entitled “An account of the
Dissection of an Hermaphrodite Dog, to which are prefixed some
observations on Hermaphrodites in general,”[475] we acknowledge
ourselves principally indebted for the following remarks.
Sir E. Home considers that all the monstrous productions, hitherto
noticed and described as Hermaphrodites, may be reduced to one of
the four following classes, viz:
1. Malformations of the Male. 2. Malformations of the Female. 3.
Males with such a deficiency in their organs, that they have not
the character and general properties of the male, and may be
 called Neuters. 4. Where there exists a real mixture of the organs
of both sexes, although not sufficiently complete to constitute
double organs.
To illustrate the first case, we may refer to that of a negro
described by Cheselden,[476] who would appear to have possessed
the organs of the male exclusively, only in a state of great distortion,
owing to the imperfection of the scrotum, which was divided into
two separate bags with a deep slit between them, resembling very
much the labia pudendi, and the opening into the vagina; over these
hung down the penis; the imperfection of the septum of the scrotum
extended to the canal of the urethra; this is not unlike the fissure of
the hare-lip being continued through the bony palate, a
circumstance often met with. The under surface of the penis was
attached, through its whole length, to the two bags containing the
testicles, looking like a preternatural clitoris; to which it bore a more
perfect resemblance from the absence of the urethra. The urine
passed through a preternatural termination of the urethra in the
perineum, and came out externally in the space between the
testicles, which formed an enlarged aperture that had been mistaken
for a narrow vagina, in consequence of its allowing an instrument to
pass to some distance, by conducting it to the bladder. Such mal-
formation of the male organs[477] is particularly worthy attention, for
it is that, more than any other, which has given origin[478] to mistakes
respecting the mixture of the sexes. The lusus often occurs in
different degrees of imperfection, and may in some instances be
materially diminished by art. In the second case, it may be observed
that there are two mal-formations of the female organs of
generation, which may give to the external parts a doubtful
character; one is an enlargement of the clitoris; the other, a
protrusion of the internal parts. It has been already stated that
enlargements of the clitoris are not of rare occurrence, especially in
hot climates; and that at birth it is often larger than the penis, and
has frequently given rise to mistakes; so that females have been
baptised as males.[479] The following remarks may serve to lead to a
correct decision upon these occasions:—If the subject be a female,
the labia are well formed, and when handled no round bodies are
felt in them like testicles; the fissure at the extremity of the glans
does not communicate with any canal of the urethra; but under the
glans, and at the posterior extremity of the fissure, there is an
opening which leads immediately to the bladder.[480]
The other mal-formation of the female genital organs consists in a
protrusion of the internal parts, of which we have already given an
example (see page 28); the womb when thus displaced, has
assumed so close a resemblance to the penis, that it has been
actually mistaken for one by medical men of the highest character,
as in the instance related by Sir. E. Home in his paper upon
Hermaphrodites; another case is also published in the fifteenth
volume of the Philosophical Transactions, in which the menses
periodically flowed through the orifice of the supposed penis. With
respect to the third order of imagined hermaphrodites, which Sir E.
Home has called neuters, and where the subject, although a male,
has not, in consequence of organic defects, the characters of his
sex, has been said to be more common than is generally supposed,
especially in early life, and that by farther developement the
anomalies have sometimes disappeared; it is, probably, as Sir E.
Home very justly observes, only those whose form is very like
females, that have attracted the notice of common observers, so as
to have their defects discovered. Ambrose Paré mentions a case,
where by violent exertion, the male organs of generation became
suddenly developed, and the person who had before been
considered as a female, was admitted to the rights of manhood; and
a similar case is recorded by M. Veay, as having happened at
Thoulouse, (see also Montaigne’s Essay, chap. xx.) The examples
which fall under the fourth order are very uncommon in occurrence,
—where there is a real mixture of the organs of both sexes, although
not sufficiently complete to constitute double organs; indeed we are
very much inclined to question whether a real participation of the
nature of both sexes ever takes place; in almost every case where
due examination has been made, such persons have been found to
belong decidedly to the one sex or to the other. Petit[481] has
reported the dissection of a soldier, aged twenty-two, who had not
only the testes in the abdomen, but also a womb, and nearly the
whole apparatus of the female genitals; in this, as well as similar
stories, we are disposed to think with Dr. Gordon Smith,[482] that
things have been called by wrong names.[483]
 OF IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.

Although the right of a child to succession and property be

established by proving its legitimacy, such right may be suspended
or controlled by various incapacities. Idiotism and Lunacy alone
require our immediate notice; for though non-age be another
impediment to the exercise of a child’s rights, and the fact may
sometimes admit of medical elucidation, yet the instances must be
rare, and the question will more properly belong to the head of
Criminal responsibility; “Idiocy or not is a question triable by
jury”[484]; “and sometimes by inspection;” it is distinguished in law
from madness[485] & lunacy, being dementia naturalis vel a
nativitate[486], depending generally on a defective organization,
whereas madness and lunacy are dementia accidentalis, the former
continual, the latter intermittent,[487] both varying in degree, danger,
and resistance to cure, yet both capable of cure or palliation by
medical treatment, and pre-eminently subjects of medical
jurisprudence.[488].
An idiot[489] or natural fool is one that hath had no understanding
from his nativity, and is therefore by law, presumed never likely to
attain any;[490] 1st. Blackstone’s Commentaries, c. 1, p. 302. It has
been held that an inquisition finding that a person has not had any
lucid intervals per spatium octo annorum, was a good finding of
idiocy; Prodgers and Phrazier, 3 Mod. Rep. 43, Skinner’s Reports, p.
177, and Lord Donegall’s Case, 2 Vesey’s Reports, p. 408,[491] contra
Prodgers and Phrazier, 1st Vernon’s Reports, p. 12. see 1st
Fonblanque’s Treatise of Equity, p. 63; but as a person may not have
been mentally incapable a nativitate, and therefore not an idiot, and
yet be affected with madness without lucid intervals, and therefore
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