On criminal abortion in AmericaStorer, Horatio Robinson
Philosophy
On criminal abortion in America
Storer, Horatio Robinson
Abortion -- United States
Again, as might have been expected, we find that the proportion of
still-births, in which we must include abortions, as has hitherto been
done, however improperly, in all extensive statistics, is enormous, and
is steadily increasing. To show this the more plainly, we first present
a table of the ratio of still-births to the living births in the various
countries of Europe.[18]
Geneva,[19] 1824 to 1833 1 to 17
Berlin Hospitals, 1758 to 1774 1 to 18
Paris Maternité,[20] 1816 to 1835 1 to 20
Sweden, 1821 to 1825 1 to 23.5
Denmark, 1825 to 1834 1 to 24
Belgium,[21] 1841 to 1843 1 to 24.2
Prussia,[22] 1820 to 1834 1 to 29
Iceland, 1817 to 1828 1 to 30
Prague, 1820 1 to 30
London Hospitals, 1749 to 1781 1 to 31
Vienna, 1823 1 to 32
Austria, 1828 1 to 49
France at large, 1853 1 to 24
Department of Seine 1 to 15
Paris,[23] 1836 to 1844 1 to 14.3
” 1845 to 1853[24] 1 to 13.8
The proportion of still-births in the rural districts of France is
governed by the same laws as in the metropolis.
In 363 provincial towns the ratio was, from
1836 to 1845 1 to 19.55
1846 to 1850 1 to 18.8
While districts more thinly populated gave, from
1841 to 1845 1 to 29
1846 to 1850 1 to 27[25]
In Belgium, during a similar period, the ratio was much the same.[26]
1841 to 1843, in towns 1 to 16.1
1841 to 1843, in country 1 to 29.4
The apparent discrepancy between city and country, noticed as equally
obtaining in Belgium and France, is chiefly owing to greater negligence
of the country officials in registering the still-births, and to
the fact, as we have seen in Paris, that the ratio of births to the
population is greater in the city than in the country at large.
Finally, while the proportion of still-births to the whole number is
greatly increasing in Paris, so is the number of known abortions.
We omit, for the present, the evidence afforded by arrests and trials,
which we might here have turned to account. At the Morgue, which
represents but a very small fraction of the fœtal mortality of Paris,
and in this matter almost only crime, there were deposited during the
eighteen years preceding 1855, a total of 1115 fœtuses,[27] of which 423
were at the full term, and 692 were less than nine months; and of these
last, 519, or five-sixths, were not over six months, a large proportion
of them showing decided marks of criminal abortion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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