On the other hand, a grocer’s wife in Edinburgh, having swallowed by mistake a handful of nitre, suffered abortion in less than half an hour; and in the case of _Mrs. Atwood_, of Mitcham, who with the rest of her family was poisoned by mushrooms, as already related, (_vol._ ii, _p._ 431) although rescued from death, miscarried in consequence of the violence which her general system had sustained. The medicines more particularly employed for procuring abortion are _savine_,[61] and other irritating drugs, especially those which tend to excite a considerable degree of vascular action; such medicines, likewise, as exert a violent action on the stomach, or bowels, will be likely to produce miscarriage, and are often taken for such purpose in quantities sufficient to produce fatal results. _Mr. Burns_ observes that it is an old remark that those purgatives which occasion much tenesmus, will be more likely to excite the expulsion of the ovum. The strong cathartics, however, which are sometimes taken to promote such an effect, not only act by exciting tenesmus, but likewise by inflaming the stomach and bowels, and thus affect the uterus in two ways. It cannot be too generally known, adds the last mentioned author, that when these medicines do produce abortion the mother will seldom survive their effect. It is a mistaken notion that abortion can be more readily excited by drastic purges, immediately after the woman discovers herself pregnant; on the contrary, the action of the uterus is then more independent of that of the other organs, and is therefore not so easily injured by changes in their condition. Upon the same principle that violent cathartics or emetics operate upon the pregnant uterus, any other sudden shock upon the body will occasion a similar effect on that organ; the extraction of a tooth, for example, has been known to produce abortion. A thunder-storm, or violent cannonade, has been supposed to occasion the same result by the concussion of the air; but _Mr. Burns_ considers it more probable that such an effect is owing to mental trepidation. The influence of the passions upon these occasions, such as fear and joy, especially if suddenly produced, is too well known to require a comment, and it has been too often artfully excited for criminal purposes. The same observation will apply to other violent impressions upon the body, such as that occasioned by rapid and uneasy travelling, dancing,[62] walking, &c. Blood-letting also, if carried to any extent, will be liable to occasion miscarriage. _Belloc_ relates a case in which these means were criminally used for such a purpose; the woman was bled by a medical practitioner, when, after his departure, the bandage was removed, and a farther quantity of blood taken. But all the modes above related were soon discovered not only to be highly dangerous to the woman, but extremely precarious in their results; and hence a practice appears to have early originated of ensuring the exclusion of