560 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



as well, and certainly not without incurring the risk 

 of lifelong suffering and disease. This could all be 

 avoided by the sacrifice of a child already born." 



"But that would be too horrible! To think of tak- 

 ing one of my little boys and cutting his throat, or 

 throwing him into the river! I could not do such a 

 wicked thing." 



''The act would be in no sense more wicked than 

 what you have come here to request me to do for you. 

 Certainly, you do not think that I advise you to take 

 the life of one of your little children. I only wish to 

 present the subject to you in such a light that you will 

 see the enormity of the crime which in your heart you 

 have proposed to commit. My most earnest advice to 

 you is that you put such thoughts far from your mind, 

 and endeavor to make the best of your present cir- 

 cumstances. Employ all such means as will build up 

 your health, fortify yourself for the ordeal through 

 which you must pass, and conduce in every way to 

 the development of a vigorous and healthy child." 



The woman left our office defeated, but not wholly 

 restored to moral sanity. She continued to bemoan 

 her condition, and allowed her heart to be filled with 

 enmity against the innocent being that was in no way 

 responsible for her afflictions. So far as we know, 

 however, no active measures were taken to produce 

 abortion. The mother dragged out a miserable exist- 

 ence for several months, and finally gave birth to a 

 puny infant, which barely survived the perils of par- 

 turition, and came into the world the most wretched 

 of all human beings, "an unwelcome child." In a few 

 weeks it became emaciated to an extent almost beyond 

 belief, with not one particle of fatty tissue remaining 

 to give to its body the plumpness and roundness natu- 



