344 STUDIES ON PATHOLOGIC OVA. 



The above 78 cases also represent the women in this series of 697 cases who 

 may not have aborted previously. However, all of them had aborted once, or 

 they would not be represented in the Carnegie Collection. The only exceptions 

 to this statement may be a few instances of spurious pregnancy in which hemor- 

 rhage or membranous dysmenorrhea may have been taken for genuine evidence of 

 pregnancy because of an irregularity in the menstrual history. 



A single previous abortion had occurred in 56.6 per cent of 608 cases, and 

 two previous abortions in 22.9 per cent. About 79 per cent of these women, as 

 contrasted to the 66 per cent of Stumpf's series of 446 cases, had aborted once or 

 twice previously, and 69.1 per cent once or twice only. Hence the great majority 

 of the specimens in the present series came from cases of first and second abor- 

 tions, as indicated in table 13. However, one should, I presume, recall in this con- 

 nection that it always is easy for a woman to say that she has aborted onjy once 

 or not at all. Yet the records probably are not very defective in this regard, for, 

 as will appear later, most of the women were relatively young. 



As shown in table 14, 394 out of 692 women, or 56.9 per cent, aborted before 

 the beginning of the fourth month of gestation. Hence it is evident that most 

 of the conceptuses from this series are small. Only 3 cases aborted during the last 

 2 months and 78.6 per cent before the beginning of the fifth month. The marked 

 increase in the frequency of abortion from the first to the second month, as well 

 as the marked decrease from the sixth to the seventh month, is not without signifi- 

 cance. The same factor probably is at least partially responsible for both. 

 Knowledge confirmatory of the fact that she is pregnant would come to a woman 

 with the advent of the second month, while the viability of the fetus would act 

 as a deterrent to interference with the gestation especially after the fifth month. 



Only 33.4 per cent of the women of this series aborted in the third month, as 

 compared to 59 per cent in the series of Diihrssen (1887), and to 42.7 per cent of 

 Franz's (1898) cases, taken only, however, from the first 7 months of gestation. 

 However, since only 3 of the present series of 692 cases aborted during the last 2 

 months, and only 14 during the last 3 months, it is quite immaterial whether or 

 not the cases in this series from the last 3 months are included, for 98.2 per cent 

 aborted before the seventh month. Although Franz stated that only 15.45 per 

 cent of the cases collected by him had aborted before the twenty-eighth week, 

 the summary given at the end of his paper would seem to make this percentage 

 76.9, which compares fairly well with the 98.2 per cent found in this series. 



That no existing collection of specimens or of histories correctly represents 

 the actual facts in the world at large would seem to be indicated by a comparison 

 of the results obtained by different investigators, as given in table 15. With the 

 exception of the results of Stumpf and myself, and some of those of Lechler for the 

 third, fifth, sixth, and seventh months, the divergencies are striking probably 

 irreconcilable and suggest that a far larger series of cases than that dealt with 

 at present is necessary before any results closely approximating the truth can be 

 obtained. The only regard in which the findings of Franz, Hellier, Stumpf, and 

 myself are in surprising agreement is the average number of pregnancies to abor- 



