"On April 24, 1885, late in the evening, I was called to attend Mrs. Hanna Thomas, who was suffering the pains of childbirth. Her age was 35, and she bore every outward sign of perfect physical development, and of being well nourished. I was told by the midwife that she had been in labor since the middle of the day preceding. The membranes had been ruptured early in the labor, and the patient was very much prostrated by her protracted and inefficient efforts to expel the fœtus. The unsatisfactory progress caused her attendant to request the calling in of a physician.
"Examination developed an entire absence of the vaginal orifice, and passing, my finger along the perineum, it sank into the distended anus, and encountered the fœtal head just within the opening. The anus was dilated to about the diameter of three inches. Never having met with such a singular