If all these phenomena appeared in infancy, it is highly probable that the pelvis is deformed; and, moreover, it may be affirmed that the symptoms arose from rickets, a disease peculiar to infancy. It commences rarely before eighteen or twenty months, and very seldom after thirteen of fourteen years of age. If there should be curvatures of the spinal column and extremities, it will be almost certain that the pelvis is deformed; and if the curvature commenced in the inferior extremities, we may conclude that it is owing to rachitis, for this disease exerts its influence first on the tibias, then on the bones of the thighs, pelvis, and vertebral column. On the contrary, if the first ten years have been passed without disturbance of the general health, then curvatures must be attributed to malacosteon, especially if the curvature of the spine has preceded that of the lower limbs. Deformity of the spine may exist alone; then we may legitimately hope that the pelvis is not contracted. Experience, indeed, proves that the vertebral column may be considerably curved without the pelvis participating in the deformity, when the inferior extremities are straight; and that, in general, curvatures of the extremities alone accompany pelvic malformations. Indeed, it is not on simple probabilities that the accoucheur is to interdict the marriage[47] of a young girl, or determine, during pregnancy, to perform an operation, with the view of protecting the mother against the dangers of delivery at full term. _Premature Artificial Delivery._ Thanks to the efforts of MM. Stoltz, Dezeimeris, P. Dubois, and Velpeau, delivery brought on before the full term is an operation hereafter recognised in French midwifery. For a long time it proved useful to our neighbors in England and Germany, while a foolish prejudice caused it to be rejected by French practitioners, who did not hesitate even to have recourse to the Cæsarean section and symphyscotomy. We have not within the walls of Paris one solitary example of a woman who had survived the Cæsarean section. She who lived the longest was one of those on whom I assisted M. P. Dubois to operate. She died on the seventeenth day of a tetanic affection, when everything promised a most successful result.—(_Bull. of the Acad. of Med._, t. iii., p. 694; t. v., p. 25.) When the contraction is such that a living fœtus cannot be brought forth, the accoucheur has then to choose between the Cæsarean section or miscarriage. During pregnancy, abortion will present an extreme and last resource. And it would seem more humane to sacrifice, before the period of viability, an embryo whose existence is so uncertain, in order to protect the mother from the perilous chances of symphyscotomy and the Cæsarean section. I must confess that, if such an alternative were presented to me, the diameter of the pelvis being only two inches, I should not hesitate to propose this means.