How to Detect Pregnancy in 18th Century America

Dr. George DeBenneville
(From: U.S. National Library of Medicine)

"In describing the symptoms of pregnancy to his married daughter, Harriet, the eminent Dr. George DeBenneville [a respected American doctor] never mentioned the cessation of menstruation, listing instead 'coldness of the outward parts,' that 'the Belly waxeth very flat,' that 'the Veins of the eyes are clearly seen,' and, finally, the appearance of a 'small living creature' in urine that had been stored for thirteen days." (201) --Stephanie Grauman Wolf, As Various as their Land: The Everyday Lives of Eighteenth-Century Americans