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Paufanias lli'mks (Gr:cc. Dcfcvipt. p. 603. cd. Kubnii,) 

 that It.ilv was colonized by Ociiotrius, an Arcadian ; and 

 licncc it may bo inferred that, as Arcadia abounded with 

 high mountains, tlie appdlation might have been derived, 

 aro o)Uf, from mounUiiu ; which opinion fecnis confirmed 

 by Virgil, who, fpeakinij of Saturn, the legillator of tliis 

 people, lays : 



// genut indocile, ac di/perfum montibiis cUis 

 Compjj'uit, Ugefqu< dclu. JEn. 1. viii. v. 32 1. 



The Alof-^tn.'s were cither tlie original inhabitants of the 

 fouiitiy, fettled there by Janus, as fome imagine, or by 

 t^alurn, or Cham, as others, not long after the difperfion ; 

 or even, as fomc think, before it ; or they were a colony 

 fent from fome other nation; who, expelling the SicuLi, 

 who (aceordinj; to Dion. I lal. hb. i. Ant. Rom. tom. i. p. 7. ) 

 were the original inhabitants, fettled in their place ; but 

 whether thefe Siculi were not, in their oriu;in, Arcadians, 

 firll brought into Italy by Oenotrius, fon of Lycaus, more 

 than 400 ycarj before the Trojan war, is not certain. Some 

 have maintained that this party, a fecond from Theflaly, a 

 third under Evander, 60 years before the Trojan war, and 

 another under Hercules, and another of Lacedxmonians, 

 who fled from the fevere difciplinc of Lycjrgus, uniting 

 together, conftituted the Abortgina ; others trace their ori- 

 gin in Scythia ; others again in Gaul ; and others will have 

 their, to be Canaanitcs expelled by Joihua. 

 Aborrel. See Abocro. 



ABORTION, Jborlio, Aiorfiis, {ormed oi ah, from, and 

 orior,to be born, in Midwifery, the premature exckifion of a 

 foetus. It has been ufual to alTign names to abortions, oc- 

 curring at different periods of utcro-gellation. Thofe hap- 

 pening within the firll feven or eight days, before the fcetus 

 or membranes have acquired fuch a confiftence as to retain 

 their diftincl form wlien excluded, are called effluxions ; 

 from that period to about the fixth or feventh month, they 

 arc called ahortions, or mifearriages ; from the fixth month, 

 to any time before the end of the ninth month, premature 

 labour. 



Abortion may be occafioned by too full, or too fparing a 

 diet, or by taking food that is too rich and fpiiituous ; by 

 blows or falls ; fudden frights, or any thing violently agitat- 

 ing the mind, whether joy or grief; frequmti coitu ; hinc 

 abortur frimij graviditalis menfibus non infrequens rcccns r,up- 

 tis, 'jcncris avidioribu! ; by difeafes, particularly fever ; by 

 profufe evacuations, as from large difcharges of blood, 

 whether happening fpontaneoudy, or procured by art, and 

 xifed in the cure of fome acute difeafe, as pleurify ; or by 

 long continued and violent purging. Vomiting, if occurring 

 fpontaneonfly, though extremely violent, and continuing 

 through the whole courfe of pregnancy, rarely occafions 

 ;ibortion ; tut when excited by the exhibition of fharp, 

 acrid, or poifcnous drugs, it ufually continues until the 

 foetus is excluded. 



There are other caufes of abortion, depending on the pe- 

 culiar conflitution of the uterus, or of the foetus. Thus 

 fome women, who are prone to breeding, are incapable of 

 retaining their offspring longer than the fourth, fifth, fixth, 

 feventh, or eighth month. In thefe cafes, the foetus ufually 

 dies three or four weeks before the periods here men- 

 tioncd ; at the end of that time the feparation of the blighted 

 ovvim from the uterus being completed, it is expelled 

 by the pains, and ordinarily with as little difliculty or dan- 

 cer as a living and healthy foetus. The caufe of this pecu- 

 liarity is not known, neither has any appropriate remedy 

 or means of preventing it been difcovered. Sir Richard 

 Maningham fuppofed it to arife from an incapacity in the 



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uterus to bear more than a certain degree of diftenCon. SI 

 viulicr ftpius ahortumfacit, he fays, {^Jphor. med.) eteodem tem- 

 pore, ul ^tio, 4/0. vel ^lo. menfc, ob uteri angujlia accidit, 

 quit au7/feiitem fatiim amplius contincre non prAtJl. The 

 fame eifeft, however, would follow imperfedlion in the 

 ftrufture of the fcetus, incapacitating it to live or inereafe 

 beyond a certain time. Wc know there are children who, 

 owing to a malconformation of fome of their organs, never 

 live beyond twelve, fifteen, eighteen, or foiMC definite 

 number of months. Whatever may be the caufe, it 

 not unfrequently happens that women who have parted 

 with five or fix fatnfes prematurely, fhal! afterwards go 

 to their full time, and bear living and he:uthy children. 

 Women who have mifcanied once or twice will be prone to 

 the fame accident, at wliatcver period it happened ; it bc« 

 comes ncceffai-y therefore, when approaching that time, that 

 they fiiould ufe the utmolt caution that nothing may oc« 

 cur to agitate or difturb them. 



lly fome writers, women have been fuppofed to be more 

 fnbjeft to abortions than brute animals, in confequence of the 

 creCf pofition of their bodies. That they more frequently 

 fuffer abortion than fuch animalsfeems well afcertained ; but as 

 this difpofition is more incident to women living in large 

 towns, and treating themfelves too delicately, to thofe fol- 

 lowing fedentary and enervating occupations, or to thofe who 

 are compelled to labour hard for their living, it feems likely 

 that the accident is occafioned by thole circumllances, rather 

 than from any vice in their conformation. 



From a very early period, attempts have been made to 

 devife means of procuring abortion, without injuring the 

 conflitutions of the women, by the exhibition of certain 

 drugs, as favin, colocynth, &c. but without fuccefs. It is 

 remarkable, that although Hippocrates prohibited phyfi* 

 cians from aflliting in procuring abortion, he relates the 

 cafe of a young woman whom he had recommended to 

 dance and ufe other violent exercife for that purpofe, in 

 whom it produced the effeft, and without materially injur- 

 ing the woman. The more ordinary confequences, how- 

 ever, to be expefted from fuch efforts, or from taking acrid 

 and draftic medicines, are pain and inflammation of the 

 womb, violent hemoirhage, which, though ultimately ter- 

 minating in abortion, not unfrequently dellroys the life of 

 the woman alfo. Thefe modes being found to be danger- 

 ous to the woman, and not certain in producing the pro 

 pofed effeft, endeavours have been ufed to deftroy the birth 

 by a more direft method, ij/z. by introducing a flillet, or fome 

 fharp inftrument, into the uterus, which piercing the mem- 

 branes, and thence giving vent to the liquor amnii, uterine 

 contraftions, or labour pains were produced, which con- 

 tinued until the fcetus with its involucra were ejeifted. At 

 what time this mode of procuring abortion was difcovered 

 is not known ; no traces of it appearing in any of our old 

 medical or chirurgical writers. Ovid, it is probable, 

 alludes to it, in the following Hues : 



fine crcfcsre nata. 



EJl pretium par-viz non hve vita more. 

 Vejlra quid ejfodilis fubjeais -vifcera telis ; 

 Et nondum nalis dim vencna datis ? 

 Amor. 1. 2. Eleg. 14. apudop. tom. i. p. 444. Ed. Bunnan, 



Tertullian reprobates the praftice, and mentions the kind of in- 

 ftrument with which the operation of breaking the membranes 

 and deftroying the foetus was performed, which fhews it wasnot 

 uncommon in his time. EJl etiam aneumfp'culum, (fays this fa- 

 ther, De Anima apud oper. p. 32S. ed. Rigak.) quo ptgulatio 

 tpfa dirigitur, caco latro.inio tf/^pi/oa- Jaxl^iy appellant, utique viiientis 

 iiifantis perempior'mm. Guy i?atin fays, a midwife was hanged at 



