It has also been said that a woman ought not to be convicted of “concealment of pregnancy,” if at the time of delivery the fœtus do not appear to have reached the seventh month of intra-uterine existence. The birth of a “child,” whether dead or alive, is essential; therefore, if the woman accused “can prove that that which she brought forth was not a ‘child,’ but an abortion, or a _fœtus_, which, from some accident, was in such a condition that, though there had been assistance, it could not have been in a condition to be called ‘a child,’ then the case is out of the Statute.” The Scotch Statute differs from the English on the “concealment of birth” in this, that so long as the woman makes known her pregnancy, the motive for doing so is not considered. Thus, if she make arrangements with anyone to conceal the birth, “the Statute is eluded by that very circumstance” (Alison). The Statute applies to married as well as to single women; but, in the former case, the penalty is seldom enforced unless foul play is suspected. DEFINITION OF THE TERM “LIVE BIRTH” IN CRIMINAL CASES “The entire delivery of a child.” There must be an independent circulation in the child before it can be accounted alive (R. _v._ Enoch, 5 C. & P. 539). The entire child must be actually born into the world in a living state (R. _v._ Poulton, 5 C. & P. 329). But the fact of the child being still connected with the mother by the umbilical cord will not prevent the killing from being murder (R. _v._ Reeves, 9 C. & P. 25). To kill a child in its mother‘s womb is no murder, because the person killed must be “a reasonable creature in being, and under the King‘s peace.” But if the child be injured in the womb, and yet be born alive, and then die as a result of such injuries, it may be murder in the person who inflicted them (R. _v._ Senior, 1 Mood. C. C. 346). A distinction must be drawn between _medical_ or _physiological life_ and _legal life_. A child may have breathed, as it not infrequently does, _before_ it is completely born into the world; and this might, in a medical point of view, be considered as a live child, but it is not one legally. The entire delivery of the child is necessary in law; and “it must also be proved that the entire child has actually been born into the world in a living state, and the fact of its having breathed is not a conclusive proof thereof.” The inference unfortunately follows from this ruling, that a mother may kill her child without fear of punishment, if she do so before the entire body has slipped from her. DEFINITION OF THE TERM “LIVE BIRTH” IN CIVIL CASES