PARTURITION. 25 



undergo rapid fatty degeneration and are aosorbed, and 

 in a few weeks the organ returns almost to its original 

 size. The parturient woman is especially apt to take infec- 

 tious diseases; and these, should they attack her, are fatal 

 in a very large percentage of cases. Very special care 

 should therefore be taken to keep all contagion from 

 her. 



There is a current impression that a pregnancy, once 

 commenced, can be brought to a premature end, especially 

 in its early stages, without any serious risk to the woman. 

 It ought to be widely made known that such a belief is 

 erroneous. Premature delivery, early or late in pregnancy, 

 is always more dangerous than natural labor at the proper 

 term; the physician has sometimes to induce it, as when a 

 formed pelvis makes normal parturition impossible, or 

 the general derangement of health accompanying the preg- 

 nancy is such as to threaten the mother's life; but the occa- 

 sional necessity of deciding whether it is his duty to pro- 

 cure an abortion is one of the most serious responsibilities 

 he meets with in the course of his professional work. 



Dr. Storer, an eminent gynaecologist, states emphatically, 

 from extended observation, that " despite apparent and 

 isolated instances to the contrary 



1. A larger proportion of women die during or in con- 

 sequence of an abortion, than during or in consequence of 

 child-bed at the full term of pregnancy. 



3. A very much larger number of women become con- 

 firmed invalids, perhaps for life; and 



3. The tendency to serious and often fatal organic disease, 

 as cancer, is rendered very much greater at the so-called 

 "turn of life," by previous artificially induced premature 

 delivery. 



Daring pregnancy there is a close connection between 

 the placenta and uterus;- nature makes preparation for the 

 safe dissolutior. of this at the end of the normal period, 

 but "its premature rupture is usually attended by pro- 

 fuse haemorrhage, often fatal, often persistent to a greater or 

 less degree for many months after the act is completed, and 

 always attended with more or less shock to the maternal 

 system, even though the full effect of this is not noted for 



