It must not be forgotten that while nearly every still-birth at the full time is necessarily recorded, there must be but very few registrations of the premature births and abortions actually occurring; that though the contrary seems here the case, such occurrences are generally, as they would be supposed, far more frequent in crowded cities than in country districts, or in a State at large; and that however great may be the influence of the prevention of pregnancy in repressing a population, these constitute proofs of pregnancies actually occurring, and frequently criminally terminated. Few persons could have believed possible the existence of such frightful statistics, the result toward which they must be confessed inevitably to tend, or the dread cause from which they spring. Either these statistics must be thrown aside as utterly erroneous and worthless, or they must be accepted with their conclusions. We would gladly do the former, but they present too many constant quantities, in other respects,[78] for this to be allowed. Our own calculations have been made with care, and we have presented the elements on which they rest. In asserting the results, at once so awful and astounding, we desire to fix upon them the attention and scrutiny of the world. We have seen that the increase of the population of Massachusetts by living births, is almost exclusively among its resident foreigners, Catholics, the rules of whose church will hereafter be shown to exercise an important influence in preventing the destruction of fœtal life. The conclusion cannot therefore well be avoided, that in these facts there exists the evident relation here intimated, of effects to cause. With some certainty, then, even though statistics are as yet so imperfect, can we assert this conclusion, that frightful as is the extent to which the crime of abortion is perpetrated abroad, there is reason to believe that it prevails to an equal, if not even greater extent at home.