In the previous remarks, the French have been compared with our own people, not merely because of their published statistics, but because from their loose morals and habits of life they might be thought to represent the extreme to which the crime would be likely to obtain among civilized nations. We have shown reason to suppose that we equal them in guilt, if we do not exceed them. Now it must be borne in mind that the French are Catholic; that the rules of that church do not, as has been generally supposed, permit abortion in the earlier months,[99] but that they rigidly exercise over fœtal life throughout pregnancy the most absolute guard and supervision;[100] instances of this in cases where craniotomy is supposed to be indicated, are familiar to every practitioner. The church, here omnipotent against the physician, and desiring that every created human being should receive the benefit of baptism, demands that fœtal death must have taken place previously to the operation proposed. It does not seek for the signs of fœtal life, but takes this for granted, and requires that its absence must be proved before allowing the removal of the child, even though this is necessary to save the mother’s life. The rule runs thus: “Sedulam operam dent sacerdotes, ut quantum poterunt, impediant nefandum illud scelus quo adhibitis chirurgicis instrumentis infans in utero interficitur. Omnis fœtus quocumque tempore gestationis editus baptizetur, vel absolute, si constet de vitâ; vel sub conditione, nisi evidenter pateat eum vitâ carere.”[101]