ECTOPIC PREGNANCY TERMINATING BY SKELETONIZATION OF FETUS AND EXTRUSION INTO RECTUM

When fetal death occurs in extra-uterine pregnancy owing to undue pressure plus faulty placentation, among the changes taking place in the body of the child are suppuration and skeletonization. Suppuration takes place in many retained extra-uterine fetuses, the process originating most frequently in the sac wall and thence spreading to the fetus, the infecting organism being in all probability the colon bacillus, which, according to Schumann,1gains access to the sac wall by penetration of the intestinal wall along adhesion lines. The inflammatory process is often of a low grade type and may end in the formation of a pelvic abscess, which points into the vagina or rectum, and portions of the fetal skeleton may be discharged into these parts. The case here reported is of especial interest because of the fact that most of the fetal skeleton was found in the rectum. REPORT OF CASE M. R., a