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STUDIES ON PATHOLOGIC OVA. 



to Diihrssen, even 59 per cent of abortions occur in the third month alone. Nichols 

 tabulated the relative frequency of abortions and still-births at different periods 

 of pregnancy from extensive statistics of Paris, Brussels, and the District of Colum- 

 bia. Table G is based on this table by Nichols, the figures representing the per- 

 centages of the total number of abortions and still-births. These statistics are 

 quoted for the sake of completeness and not because the writer believes that they 

 represent the actual conditions; all that they show is that the farther back we go 

 into fetal development the less regularly are abortions reported. There can be no 

 question, for instance, that the abortions occurring in the third to the fifth month 

 inclusive amount to very much more than 11.6 per cent of all the intrauterine 

 deaths, and yet this percentage is given for the whites of the District of Columbia. 



TABLE G. Percentage distribution of abortions in differ- 

 ent months of pregnancy. (Adapted from Nichols.) 



TABLE H. Sex-ratio of still-born. (From Morgan.) 



Scattered through the literature are reports on the sex-ratio of abortions. 

 Those concerning the numerical proportion of still-births are more numerous and 

 more reliable than those relating to younger fetuses and embryos that have been 

 aborted. The sex-ratio of the still-born is much higher than that of the living-born. 

 Table H, taken from Morgan (1913), gives the sex-ratios of still-born for some of 

 the European countries. According to Nichols, the sex-ratio in over 11,000,000 

 still-births in Europe was 134.2, being highest in Spain (152.3). In Japan ample 

 statistics of still-births yielded the unusually low sex-ratio of 107, a proportion 

 which is only a little higher than that for living-born. It should be mentioned 

 that in the statistics used by Nichols still-births comprise "in the main fetuses of 

 more than six months' gestation." Such high sex-ratios of still-born as that of 

 Walter (260) or that of Tschuprow (400) are probably based upon relatively 

 limited material and do not represent true ratios. 



Auerbach gives detailed information concerning the sex-ratio of abortions. 

 His material is distributed among the different months of pregnancy as shown 

 in table I. The sex-ratio of abortions during the first three months he assumes 

 to be at least equal to that of abortions in the fourth month, i. e., 229. It seemed 

 to him more probable, however, that it increases in constant proportion, and he 

 therefore estimates 322 for the third month and 452 for the second month. Nichols 

 tabulated, by sex and period of gestation, large statistics of "still-births" com- 

 prising almost 60,000 cases from Paris (1891-1902), and 4,400 whites and 7,500 

 negroes from the District of Columbia (1874-1902). In these statistics neither 



