170 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
profession. Up to a few years ago there still remained some 
rivalry on the part of the lodge doctor, the advertising specialist, 
the foreign midwife, the massage dens, and the manicurist, but 
even these had to go before the more dignified, less dangerous, and 
lawful abortions performed at the dispensaries, clinics, and in- 
firmaries which seemingly for this purpose have multiplied in 
every section of the city. 
“With the advent of this benevolent abortion not alone has 
the regular medical procurer been shorn of the patronage, but 
with him has also gone that cautious old tinkerer, the family 
physician and abortionist, both being superseded by those 
brilliant specialists of the art, the gynecologists, whose philan- 
thropic and unfailing tomahawks are whetted for every embryo 
daring to stray within the confines of a woman’s clinic.” 
It is a well-known fact that at present many women whenever 
they perceive the first signs of pregnancy rush to their physician 
for relief. The number of such early abortions is naturally not 
subject to statistical investigation. But it is a common opinion 
among medical men that they are exceedingly common, and are 
becoming increasingly prevalent. The special committee on 
criminal abortion appointed by the Michigan State Board of 
Health stated in their report, ‘‘To so great an extent is this now 
practiced by American Protestant women that by the calculation 
of one of the committee, based upon correspondence with nearly 
one hundred physicians, there comes to the knowledge of the 
profession seventeen abortions to every one hundred pregnancies; 
to these the committee believe may be added as many more that 
never come to the physician’s knowledge, making 34 per cent or 
one-third of all cases ending in miscarriage; that in the United 
States the number is not less than 100,000, and the number of 
women who die from its immediate effects not less than 6,000 per 
annum.” (Rep. State Bd. Health Mich., 1881, 104-6.) This 
estimate was made over 36 years ago. More recently a prominent 
student of the subject, Dr. W. J. Robinson, estimates that 
probably from one to three million abortions are practiced an- 
nually in the United States. 
