7. The premature expulsion of the produce of conception before the seventh month, has also received the name of ABORTION. This denomination has been generally adopted, and is used by the writers of every civilized nation, ancient or modern, according to their respective languages. It is that which has been employed in the following explanations of figures taken from nature, which are intended to exhibit several examples of abortion in the human species. 8. The study of abortion, in this point of view, (7) is an infinite source of interest, whether considered in reference to science and the important question of generation, or simply in reference to medical practice. On the continent of Europe, and even in the States of America, but more particularly in Germany, the subject, under its two-fold aspect, has engaged the serious attention of some of the most learned philosophers and most skilful practitioners. I know of no other professed writer on the same subject, besides Burns, in this country. His work on abortion is brief, and more valuable for the practical suggestions it contains, than for any luminous or accurate view of the various scientific points connected with that subject. But like every thing which proceeds from the hands of that able practitioner, the performance is respectable. 9. It is impossible, thoroughly and accurately, to comprehend the mode in which abortion takes place, without being previously acquainted with the origin, formation, progress, and metamorphoses of the fœtus, and its connection with the mother. On all these points, we have, until lately, been in the habit of professing the same articles of belief as our predecessors: we have repeated what we heard them say, or what we read in their writings; and many, both here and elsewhere, repeat still the antiquated theories respecting conception and the structure of the human ovum, which they have learned on the obstetrical benches. 10. The great advancement—the great and forward strides which physiology has made in France, as well as in Germany, have contributed to explode those antiquated theories. Acute and indefatigable anatomists have been busy watching Nature in all her movements, from the first moment of her calling the rudiments of a human embryo into existence, until her magnificent work has been completed by the production of a new, life-gifted, individual of the species. They have called to their aid the much improved art of microscopical observation, and have thereby succeeded in almost tracing the very earliest instant of embryonic existence. The register of their observations constitutes the biography of the human fœtus.