ABORTION. STILL BIRTH. PREMATURE BIRTH 



The term abortion admits of a variable interpretation and is 

 used with a different meaning by various writers and by the 

 same writers in different cases. Generally speaking, we un- 

 derstand abortion to mean the expulsion of the fetus from the 

 uterus at such a stage of its existence that, if still living, it is 

 not sufficiently developed to live. 



When a living fetus is expelled prematurely and in a state of 

 development which renders survival possible, the accident is desig- 

 nated premature birth. In human obstetrics it has been attempted 

 to fix a given date or period in gestation which should constitute 

 a dividing line between abortion and premature birth. This 

 point cannot be definitely fixed and has in fact been changed 

 somewhat recentl}^ b}' the introduction of incubators in human 

 obstetrics for the preservation of the lives of prematurely born 

 infants. It has been thereby rendered possible to save the lives 

 of infants born at a stage of development which, in previous years, 

 would have led to their death. 



The designation of still-birth is applied to those young which 

 are expelled at an age when they are sufficientlj^ developed that 

 they might live, but have in fact perished prior to their expul- 

 sion. 



Another element has entered into veterinary obstetrics which 

 serves to complicate our definition of abortion. We have an in- 

 fectious disease which exerts its fundamental and marked influ- 

 ence upon the life of the fetus, and which we know as infectious 

 abortion. In speaking of this disease, we are consequently deal- 

 ing with an infection and it matters but little to us at what stage 

 the fetus becomes affected with the malady or what its results 

 may be. If the fetus dies in the uterus and is thereafter ex- 

 pelled at any stage of gestation, the occurrence is designated 

 infectious abortion, even though the expulsion of the dead fetus 

 does not occur until the close of the normal period of gestation. 

 If the fetus is expelled alive, even though it has reached such a 

 period of development that, under normal conditions, it might 

 live, but, under the influence of the infection acquired within the 

 uterus, succumbs early to the malady, we designate it infectious 

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