SOME ASPECTS OF ABORTION. 343 



except in such conditions as contagious abortion. Aside from this affection, 

 abortion in some domestic animals seems to be a rather rare phenomenon, having 

 occurred, according to Malins, only 131 times in a series of pregnancies which 

 resulted in 3,710 living colts. This is a ratio of only 1 abortion in every 29.1 

 pregnancies, or less than one-seventeenth the frequency found in the women in 

 the present series. 



But it is very clear that we lack sufficient data upon which to base reliable 

 opinions regarding these matters. Social workers undoubtedly far overestimate the 

 prevalence of criminal abortion, though it should at once be admitted that profes- 

 sional obstetricians very likely underestimate its frequency, for their opinion is 

 based upon a rather different experience. However, that the estimate of the former 

 is entirely too high can be shown also by their estimate of the deaths due to abor- 

 tion. It has been stated publicly, for example, by enthusiasts for birth control 

 that there are 8,000 deaths due to abortions, annually, in New York alone, and 

 50,000 in the entire country. Since the total number of deaths from all causes 

 among all women between the ages of 15 and 40, regardless of whether they are 

 child-bearing women or not, as estimated on the basis of the registration area 

 according to the United States census for 1916, was only 139,642, one-third of all 

 deaths in women of these ages would, according to these advocates, be due to 

 criminal abortion! 



No mention was made of the occurrence of previous abortions in 11.4 per cent 

 of the 697 selected cases of abortion in which the clinical histories were quite 

 complete and apparently reliable. This small percentage stands in marked con- 

 trast to the findings of Malins (1903), who stated that 63.4 per cent of the women 

 in a selected series of 2,000 hospital and private cases had not aborted before, and 

 that of the childless 3.2 per cent had aborted. Only 3 cases among the 697 were 

 specifically stated to have suffered no previous abortions. In the rest of the 11.4 

 per cent the matter was not mentioned. Only 1 of these 3 women had borne 

 children, and the remaining 2 were recorded as having had neither previous abor- 

 tions nor children. 



Malins, who found 14.2 per cent sterile women in a series of 2,000 selected 

 private and hospital cases, stated that 3.1 per cent of these had aborted, but had 

 had no children. Although it is not recorded in 78 cases that the women had either 

 had children or abortions, one can not assume that they had neither, else the per- 

 centage of primiparae would be 11.4 as compared to 4.86 per cent in the series of 

 Franz (1898). Graefe (1896) found only 2 out of 38 cases in primipars, a per- 

 centage of 5.5 per cent, and stated that Litthauer found only one such case. How- 

 ever, such small groups as these really can not contribute anything of statistical 

 value, except when combined. Out of Hellier's series of 1,800 married women 

 belonging to the laboring classes, 184, or over 10 per cent, never had been pregnant 

 before, and 1,616, or 89.7 per cent, had one or more abortions. The latter was 

 true of 92.9 per cent of the cases in the Carnegie series, and although repeated 

 abortion occurred in a considerable percentage of these women, only 5.6 per cent 

 had aborted more than 5 times. 



