the ovum by the more direct and certain method of introducing a stillet, or some sharp-pointed instrument into the uterus; an allusion to an instrument of this kind was made on the trial of _Charles Angus_ (_vol._ ii, _p._ 177) and was described as a _silver tube with a slide, at the end of which was a dart with three points_. _Ovid_[63] appears to allude to this operation in the following passage. ——“sine crescere nata. Est pretium parvæ non leve vita moræ. Vestra quid effoditis subjectis viscera telis; Et nondum natis dira venena datis.”? The practice is also reprobated by _Tertullian_,[64] who has described the instrument with which the operation of penetrating the ovular membranes was performed, “_est etiam æeneum spiculum quo jugulatio ipsa dirigitur, cæco latrocinio_ εμβρυοσφακτην _appellant, utique viventis infantis peremptorium_.” It is hardly necessary to remark that such an operation, unless performed by a skilful surgeon, will be very liable to endanger the life of the female. _Guy Patin_ relates the case of a midwife who was hanged at Paris for occasioning the death of a lady in that city, by an attempt to procure abortion by this method. On her trial she said she had frequently practised it with success; but, in this case it seems, the instrument had pierced the body of the uterus, instead of passing through the os internum. We have already noticed a parallel case which occurred at Durham, see _page_ 72. In cases of criminal abortion the medical practitioner may be called upon to deliver an opinion upon the circumstances of the case. The data from which he is to draw his conclusions have been already fully investigated in different parts of this work. We must therefore refer the reader to the Physiological Illustrations of Conception and Parturition, _vol._ i, _p._ 230, and to our directions for conducting the dissection of the uterus, _vol._ iii, _p._ 67, for the solution of the different problems to which the consideration of the subject may give origin. INFANTICIDE.