If the Hippocratic writers knew that this coiling is sometimes quite innocuous, they did not in any place state the fact.
The accompanying illustrations show the different ways in which the funis may be coiled, the coils sometimes being as many as 8.
Bizzen mentions an instance in which from strangulation the head of a fetus was in a state of putrefaction, the funis being twice tightly bound around the neck.

Cleveland, Cuthbert, and Germain report analogous instances.

Matthyssens observed the twisting of the funis about the arm and neck of a fetus the body of which was markedly wasted.

There was complete absence of amniotic fluid during labor.
Blumenthal presented to the New York Pathological Society an ovum within which the fetus was under going intrauterine decapitation.
Buchanan describes a case illustrative of the etiology of spontaneous amputation of limbs in utero Nebinger reports a case of abortion, showing commencing amputation of the left thigh from being encircled by the funis.

The death of the fetus was probably due to compression of the cord.