170 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



profession. Up to a few years ago there still remained some 

 rivalry on the part of the lodge doctor, the advertising specialist, 

 the foreign midwife, the massage dens, and the manicurist, but 

 even these had to go before the more dignified, less dangerous, and 

 lawful abortions performed at the dispensaries, clinics, and in- 

 firmaries which seemingly for this purpose have multiplied in 

 every section of the city. 



"With the advent of this benevolent abortion not alone has 

 the regular medical procurer been shorn of the patronage, but 

 with him has also gone that cautious old tinkerer, the family 

 physician and abortionist, both being superseded by those 

 brilliant specialists of the art, the gynaecologists, whose philan- 

 thropic and unfailing tomahawks are whetted for every embryo 

 daring to stray within the confines of a woman's clinic." 



It is a well-known fact that at present many women whenever 

 they perceive the first signs of pregnancy rush to their physician 

 for relief. The number of such early abortions is naturally not 

 subject to statistical investigation. But it is a common opinion 

 among medical men that they are exceedingly common, and are 

 becoming increasingly prevalent. The special committee on 

 criminal abortion appointed by the Michigan State Board of 

 Health stated in their report, "To so great an extent is this now 

 practiced by American Protestant women that by the calculation 

 of one of the committee, based upon correspondence with nearly 

 one hundred physicians, there comes to the knowledge of the 

 profession seventeen abortions to every one hundred pregnancies; 

 to these the committee believe may be added as many more that 

 never come to the physician's knowledge, making 34 per cent or 

 one- third of all cases ending in miscarriage; that in the United 

 States the number is not less than 100,000, and the number of 

 women who die from its immediate effects not less than 6,000 per 

 annum." (Rep. State Bd. Health Mich., 1881, 104-6.) This 

 estimate was made over 36 years ago. More recently a prominent 

 student of the subject, Dr. W. J. Robinson, estimates that 

 probably from one to three million abortions are practiced an- 

 nually in the United States. 



