Scott's encyclopaedia of sex : a practical encyclopaedia arranged in alphabetical order, explanatory of everything pertaining to sexual physiology, psychology and pathology.

  • Scott, George Ryley, 1886-
Date:
[1939]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Scott's encyclopaedia of sex : a practical encyclopaedia arranged in alphabetical order, explanatory of everything pertaining to sexual physiology, psychology and pathology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    presents wellnigh insuperable obstacles. Proof of the termination of pregnancy, in itself, is not enough. In addition, there must be proof of intention to terminate the pregnancy. Because of these difficulties and ob- stacles, criminal abortion is perhaps the commonest of all crimes. Abortion has always been common in all countries and at all times, except where and when infanticide has been practised. But it has not always been looked upon as a crime. It is not a crime in Soviet Russia to-day. Most of the methods adopted by primitive races and in early civilization were mainly magical methods, and were usually ineffective. Dangerous drugs, manipulations and crude mechanical methods were also employed, often with injurious or fatal results. To-day, in all civilized countries, with the exception of Russia, criminal abortion is prevalent. While it is quite impossible to secure any reliable figures, it is certain there are at least as many abortions as births, though not by any means are all such abortions criminally induced. There are, too, indications that abortion, both pathological and self-induced, is increas- ing rapidly in its incidence. Since contra- ception was prohibited in France in 1920, it is computed that the number of abor- tions has increased enormously. In America, the position is almost as bad. Child, writing in 1922, says: Twenty years ago, on my service at the City Hospital, the admissions to which come from a large area populated by the middle and lower class of manual workers, it was a rare occasion to admit a woman suffering from a criminally induced abor- tion. To-day my wards are often crowded by this class of patients, on many of whom the abortion was self-induced.1 This probably gives only a faint idea of the extent of abortion in New York City, as the American law differs from ours very considerably. It is not until after the commencement of quickening, usually during the fifth month of pregnancy, that, by common law, any interference with the object of causing a miscarriage is deemed to come under the heading of criminal abortion.2 As, in the main, abortions are induced before quickening commences, it is obvious that there must be a huge number of cases which never so much as come under medical observation. Some indication of its prevalence in England was given by Dr. James Clark, medical superintendent of the Sheffield City General Hospital, who, in giving evidence in the course of an abortion case at Leeds Assizes in March 1937, stated that there were 461 patients in his hos- pital in 1936 for miscarriages, and, in his opinion, the condition was artificially pro- duced in more than 400 cases.3 Where the woman is known to be preg- nant and abortion results, the miscarriage is obvious, and unless brought about by skilled hands, it is easy for a medical man to tell whether it is the result of criminal interference with Nature or of physio- logical or pathological conditions. But for every one such case there are a thousand other cases where abortion occurs immediately after conception or at a comparatively early stage of pregnancy. In such cases it is quite impossible, as regards the huge majority, to discover, even were an examination made, that such abortion has been criminally induced. Indeed, rarely is any such examination entertained. For obviously where there is no suspicion there is no examination. Storer and Heard have pointed out the obstacles in the way of differentiating abortion, whether naturally or criminally- induced, from pathological states produc- ing symptoms similar to those which attend early abortion. Soon after the commencement of pregnancy it is, they say, impossible to distinguish an abor- tion from an attack of severe haemorrhage or from menorrhagia, unless by detecting the impregnated ovum. Even in cases where it would seem that there could be no doubt, the worst error might yet occur, for in what is called membranous dysmen- orrhcea, the mucous membrane lining of 1C. G. Child, Sterility and Conception, p. 8. New York, 1922. 2 The law varies considerably in different States, for a State statute takes the place of common law. Thus, in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, any interference after the commencement of gestation which causes the death of the embryo, constitutes a crime. 3 News of the World, March 28, 1937.