614 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



out. In Oriental countries and among savages abortion is 

 practised more openly. The more usual means are drugs (ergot, 

 ethereal oil of juniper, yew, turpentine, camph r, cantharides, 

 aloes, &c.),' but none of these are infallible, and owing to their 

 toxic properties their use is often accompanied by danger. 

 Haddon - says that among the Eastern I landers of the Torres 

 Straits abortion is procured by the leaves of the shore convol- 

 vulus and certain other plants. Also the old women give the 

 younger women young leaves of the argerarger {Callicarpa sp.), 

 a large tree with inedible fruit, and bok, a large shrub. When 

 a woman's body is saturated with the j ice from the leaves, 

 she is beheved to be proof against fecundity, and can indulge in 

 sexual intercourse without fear of becoming pregnant. Pro- 

 bably the toxic substances introduced cause abortion at very 

 early stages of pregnancy, or even inhibit pregnancy at the ^ ery 

 outset. Abortion is sometimes procured by purely mechanical 

 means — e.g. blows, massage, hot injections,^ carrying heavy 

 loads,' &c. But although mechanical and psychological influ- 

 ences, both voluntary and involuntary, play a part in bringing 

 about abortion, they are probably less frequently concerned 

 in the process than pathological conditions existing either 

 in the embryo or in the maternal organism. 



Among the causes of abortion in women Kelly ^ mentions 

 haemorrhage of the chorion, imperfect vascularisation of the 

 amnion, hydatiform degeneration of the chorion, circulatory 

 disturbances caused by heart lesions in the mother, various 

 infections of the mother (notably syphilis), psychic disturbances, 

 and excessive cohabitation, acute poisoning (by alcohol, phos- 

 phorus, lead, &c.), and various diseases of the generative organs, 

 such as endometritis, decidual inflammation, polypoid thicken- 

 ing, &c. It is stated that the excitability of the nerve centres 

 which control the movements of the uterus and the tendency 

 to uterine congestion are greatest at the epochs which would 

 have been menstrual periods if pregnancy had not occurred, 

 and consequently that abortion is especially common at these 



1 Bloch, loc cit. ^ Haddon, loc. cit. 



' Bloch, loc. cit. ■* Haddon, loc. cit. 



^ Kelly, loc. cit See also Oliver, " The Determinants of Abortion," Brit. 

 Med. Jour., November 30, 1907. 



