VOLUNTARY ABORTION, 
OK 
FASHIONABLE PROSTITUTION, 
WITH SOME REMAKES 
UPON THE OPERATION OF CRANIOTOMY. 
By ED. PH. LePROHON, M. D., 
» - 
Etudiant de 1'Ecole de M^decine de Paris, Member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, of the Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, and Maine Medical Societies. 
Opposez vous au mal avant qu'il s'enracine 
S'll s^journe, il rend vain l'art de lam^decine- Ovide, 
PORTLAND: 
PRESS OF B. THURSTON & CO. 
1867. A B O B TIO N. 
A large proportion of the increase of abortion among married 
women in our own times can be traced to the dissemination of 
immoral and criminal advertisements in daily journals, and also 
of obscene and ungodly publications, informing any woman who 
can read, how to prevent conception, and how to dispose of her 
own offspring, with a promise that the mother is scarcely ever 
injured by committing the act. 
When the imagination of a woman is once polluted and the 
impression made of her own safety, the act of Feticide or vol- 
untary abortion follows with little fear of its consequences. • 
I define Feticide, or voluntary abortion, to be the act of 
interfering with well known laws of nature, after conception, 
with the intention of provoking the expulsion of the child before 
the time marked out by the Creator. 
This act constitutes the crime of Feticide or voluntary abor- 
tion, which differs from Infanticide in consequence of the child 
being destroyed before birth. 
How truly it can be said of woman, in our days, that she is 
the only animal that makes such a wide departure from the laws 
of nature which control and preserve life; she takes unnatural 
and health-destroying agents, carrying her to the verge of the 
grave, and she clings to them with a tenacity which yields not 
even to her better judgment; the lower order of animals never 
do this, instinct is their only guide, and the duration of life with 
them is a proof of the folly of a wordly woman. 4 
I have no intention to examine the numerous and dangerous 
means or agents employed to produce abortion, my intention 
being simply to dwell upon the common and fatal error among 
a number of married women, that it is no crime to commit the 
act, neither is it injurious to their health. 
From the days of Hippocrates down to our times, the use of 
remedies capable of inducing abortion, has been regarded as 
criminal by moral and civilized communities; their effects being 
no less than the destruction of a human being, in its earliest 
stages of growth, with the certainty that the mother inflicts a 
very severe blow upon her own health; nevertheless, although 
abortion has been, and is, condemned by morals, philosophy, and 
true religion, yet it is found to have been practised very exten- 
sively at the decline of the Roman Empire, when Christianity 
had scarcely made its appearance, and it is to be regretted, that 
it is becoming a common practice here among married women, 
for it is found in all classes of society, more particularly among 
the wealthy, the intellectual, those from whom good society 
expects the reverse of the present state of things. 
Whilst most women have a most decided horror of the crime 
of infanticide, it is a notorious fact, that it is very common to 
find among them less repugnance to Feticide, which is the 
destruction of their own offspring before birth. 
This delusive and erroneous impression among them arises 
from the popular notion, that, at a very early stage of existence, 
the child being inanimate or apparently lifeless, it is of very little 
consequence how it is got rid of. 
This belief is the prevailing error among these women, and 
seems to be the true cause of the destruction of millions of 
children; it is consequently of the utmost importance on the 
part of every enlightened and moral physician, to correct an 
error so fatal both to women themselves and to the good of 
society at large. 
The object of this short essay is to show that there is no 
difference between destroying the child which is not born and 
the child which is already born; consequently, Feticide, or 5 
voluntary abortion, is a crime of the most odious character, 
impeaching the wisdom of the Creator, and degrading the 
nature of man. 
Many theories have been advanced, more or less ingenious, 
by both ancient and modern writers, to mark out the moment 
when animation takes place in the child, after conception; some 
have taught that the body and soul are the effect of a simulta- 
neous creation in the first man, and according to some of these 
writers, the ovaries of the first woman contained ova inclosing 
not only all the children to whom she was to give birth, but also 
the whole human race to the extinction of mankind. 
Some writers have contended that the soul exists prior to the 
body, and others again have contended that the body exists prior 
to the soul, and among the many partizans of the latter doctrine 
was Aristotle, who taught it first, thinking that animation being 
the more precious, fixed the period of it at the fortieth day after 
conception, for the male, and a period somewhat later, for the 
female child; this opinion was the most in vogue in the different 
schools, and was believed in until the end of the seventeenth 
century, and is called the vegetative life of Aristotle. 
All these theories and doctrines have proved to be equally 
false, it therefore behooves some one to fix a guiding principle 
for those who are ignorant of the crime of Feticide, or voluntary 
abortion. 
Even to this day it is asserted by respectable physicians and 
some credulous married women, that the unborn child enjoys 
only a vegetative life; and some go so far as to compare the 
unborn child to a parasitic being! Who can count the number- 
less children which have been destroyed by this misapplied term 
of vegetative life ? 
The late distinguished Dr. Dewees, of Philadelphia, uses the 
following sensible language on the subject: "Now we would" 
" ask, does the comparison prove other than that the child has " 
" life ? Is it not a dispute about terms to call the life of a child " 
" while in its mother's womb a vegetable life ? Has any one " 
" demonstrated that there is any difference in the quality of" 6 
" the vital power in the two conditions of the animal body ? " 
" Does not the difference consist mainly in the manner in which " 
" the principle is maintained ? In a moral point of view the " 
" turpitude of destroying the fetus, call it vegetable or animal, " 
"as you please, will remain the same; nor must we permit" 
" ourselves to undervalue it, by employing terms which have no " 
" definite meaning, for the destruction of the principle called " 
" life, must, in a moral light, be called a crime." 
It is well known that the parasitic plant whence the compar- 
ison is derived, is never of the same species or germ as that 
upon which it vegetates, or from which it derives its nourish- 
ment ; indeed it is a waste of words to say that the contrary is 
the case with the child and its mother, therefore the comparison 
must be dismissed. 
The question which now rises is, what is the principle of 
human life ? 
Two entirely opposite opinions have been held by physiolo- 
gists upon the principle of life; one class maintaining that 
organization precedes life; the other, that life is a simple prin- 
ciple, and that it precedes organization. 
The principle of life in man, the soul, is the being which 
animates us, and yet this soul is not governed by the natural 
laws which organize man. 
It is seen everywhere that living and organized bodies repro- 
duce bodies similar to themselves; now, man being the only 
created being which is endowed with reason and understanding, 
it follows that man is alone capable of transmitting those excep- 
tional qualities which the Creator bestowed upon him. 
Life is an harmonious agency permeating the whole organ- 
ization of man; it does not exist more in one organ than in 
another; it is alike in all, from the beginning to the end of man's 
existence. 
Our organization, with its symmetrical and harmonious dis- 
position of parts, as well as the transmission of likenesses, can- 
not take plaee without life; neither can life be conceived to exist 
without organization; it may, therefore, be justly concluded, 7 
that life and organization are simultaneous, at the moment of 
Conception, because living and organized bodies reproduce bodies 
similar to themselves. 
It is not repugnant to our understanding to admit, that, at the 
moment of conception, the liquid body, destined to form the new 
being, does aggregate in such a manner as to constitute some 
form which does not become sensible to the mother, until, by 
nutrition, the new being has acquired some human appearance. 
The Creator of Adam and Eve does not find it more difficult 
to create the body and soul now, than to create anything else in 
the universe. 
Although traces of organization cannot be distinctly seen by 
the human eye, for a little while after conception, nevertheless,, 
the human egg is formed, the new being actually exists, and it 
is impossible to suppose human existence without a soul. 
The pagan philosophers would give a soul to the human egg 
only when some appearance of a human form is visible to man, 
Consequently Aristotle would give a soul only about the fortieth 
day after conception, and why ? because the new being assumes 
a human form about this stage of development. 
In the third and fourth centuries of Christianity, some of the 
most illustrious doctors of the church, amongst whom I will cite 
the venerable and holy Basil, made no distinction between the 
moment of conception and the time fixed by Aristotle, the pagan 
philosopher, to give a soul to man; they believed that the soul 
was created at the moment of conception. 
Modern physicians are fast arriving at the same opinion, 
amongst whom, Percival, in his medical ethics, says: "To" 
"extinguish the first spark of life is a crime of the same nature" 
"both against our Maker and society as to destroy an infant, a" 
" child, or a man." 
Every one believes that the soul of man remains united to its 
body, even when all the organs of life are struck with paralysis 
and death, and can any one refuse to believe the same soul can 
dwell in the rudiments of that same body, at or after concep- 
tion? 8 
The life of man ceases immediately on the separation of the 
soul from the body, and why should one refuse to believe that 
the same soul becomes united to the germ, whatever may be its 
smallness or rudimentary form ? 
Man, with a very limited reason, must not be surprised at the 
unformed and imperfect state in which a human being appears 
to his eyes after conception; man is but a poor and feeble crea- 
ture, God is his creator, and God would cease to be God, were 
it possible for our limited understanding to fathom his impen- 
etrable wisdom. 
The Creator is always great and infinite in small as well as 
large things, there is nothing small, nothing great to his omni- 
scient eye; these relative qualities of greatness and smallness 
are the creation of the weakness of the human mind, necessary 
here, to establish a connection between us and the material 
world, so as to appreciate its order and its beauty. 
There is evidently no proof to support the opinion that the 
germ "of our existence, at the moment of conception, is of a 
vegetable character; it is proved, on the contrary, that the 
human germ is endowed with a living and immortal soul, for 
the soul is the life of our body, as God is the life of the soul. 
If we now look over the past, we cannot help being struck 
with horror at the numberless crimes which have been commit- 
ted under the pretext that a fetus, or human being, has no soul 
at the moment of conception I 
I cannot omit to mention the abominations committed by 
married people, who defile their own bed, in order to prevent 
conception, and satisfy their own ease and comfort. Most 
assuredly it never was the intention of the Creator to unite 
man and woman in one body in order to return him insults, and 
put his own immutable laws at defiance. It were better for 
such that they had never been born. 
Again, let us look into the press of the United States, and 
do we not find the greatest number of newspapers teeming 
with immoral and criminal advertisements, intelligible not only 
to fathers and mothers, but also to boys and girls! 9 
Who will doubt the incalculable evil which arises from the 
publication of such advertisements? 
The publication of such advertisements, pamphlets, &c., 
creates an impression upon the minds of young girls, that no 
harm is done in remedying female suppressions, from whatever 
cause; and thus not only are married women taught how 
to prevent conception, but school girls are initiated into the 
knowledge of immorality and crime. As a drop of water, con- 
stantly falling will wear away even the solid rock, so the habit- 
ual reading of such advertisements must make a fatal impression 
upon the minds of females who read them. 
When the evil impression is once made upon the growing 
imagination of a girl, it is much more difficult to eradicate it 
than it is in a boy, for it is well known to physicians that every 
thing strikes the imagination of a woman more forcibly and 
indelibly than in man, hence the greater difficulty in reforming 
women. 
I assert, without hesitation, that the licetniousness found in 
the press, is the immediate cause of the increase of voluntary 
abortion in America. 
Wherever the customs and manners of women are found to 
be based upon popular morals and discipline, without the light 
of true religion, the heart must soon follow the crowd into the 
halls of fashion, wealth and corruption; it is also equally true, 
that when religion is found to be less severe than morals, it is 
always easier to find a goddess than a virtuous woman. 
I will endeavor to illustrate my idea by bringing before the 
mind, the last days of the Roman empire. 
We find then as we do now, inequality of social rank amongst 
the Roman ladies, immense wealth in the upper circles with 
ridicule and contempt for the virtuous of their own sex; the 
high cultivation of intellect among the Roman ladies made 
them capable of the greatest degree of evil as well as the 
highest good; having an imperfect code of morals which could 
not reach the heart, everything around them led them to corrup- 
tion ; it can be truly said, that vice had no bounds in those days. 10 
We read that an unbridled desire for public amusements 
carried with it the vilest and deepest license; women lavished 
all their gold for the mere pleasure of beholding a popular 
actor; their eyes and hearts yearned after all kinds of amuse- 
ments, and it is stated on the authority of a Roman writer, 
Valerius Maximus,' that a flute-player swallowed up whole 
patrimonies, besides giving heirs to the illustrious houses of 
Scipio and Emilius. 
Fecundity .was now overruled by debauchery; this was soon 
followed by the most atrocious acts of provoking the natural 
laws of generation, and we find that the crime of voluntary 
abortion was practised by ladies in the higher walks of life 
with as great a degree of perfection as it is in our own days. 
This frightful state of things continued until at last, the 
Roman ladies found themselves satiated with all these excesses, 
and disgusted with everything which surrounded them; they 
multiplied monsters in Rome to govern Asia; they even caused 
their own slaves to be mutillated so as to satisfy the caprices 
of their imagination which was now overpowered by its own 
pleasures. 
Crimes had everywhere increased to such an alarming extent, 
that nowhere, in the Roman Empire, could the laws check their 
onward tendencies. It was easy enough to punish vice and im- 
morality, but it was impossible to check either. The nature of 
the crimes as W'ell as their fearful increase, so terrified the ad- 
ministrators of justice, that it became necessary to place a veil 
ovex' law itself, as it was becoming dangerous and shameful to 
reveal the crimes of the guilty parties. It is said, by the same 
Roman writer, that three thousand accusations for the crime of 
adultery alone were inscribed upon the dockets of the courts of 
justice, and when Septimus Severus ascended the throne, he 
was obliged to renounce his intended measures of reform. 
During this age, we see that rank, talent, and wealth received 
due praise and honor in the upper circles of society, whilst 
beneath, the moral, virtuous, and simple women were scarcely 
noticed; hence this terrible chaos of vice. 11 
At this period of the crumbling Empire which was brought 
on by the moral degradation of its women, a new religion 
appeared from the Catacombs of Rome which was soon to stern 
all this torrent of iniquity. 
Like the Saviour of the world, rising from the tomb, this 
new religion, prepared for the Romans, was bright and pure. 
Its first law was to make the bonds of matrimony indissolu- 
ble, and instead of a political or civil contract, it was constituted 
a sacred pledge before the altar of the living God, and thus, 
from a simple human contract, between husband and wife, it 
became a sacrament of the new law, which nothing on earth 
could unbind. 
This new religion was not satisfied with watching and regu- 
lating the conduct of women, but it gained their hearts; even 
inanimate objects which could in any manner captivate the 
senses, or create an evil desire, were removed from sight. 
It reached crime everywhere, and having taught the guilty to 
become their own accusers, even an impure thought was refused 
an entrance into the heart. 
The Roman and Greek laws were based upon the political 
welfare of society. This new and sacred law inspired its fol- 
lowers with contempt for the goods and pleasures of this world; 
it raised the heart and soul above everything terrestrial, it 
created an idea amongst the Roman ladies of an unknown 
perfection. 
Then followed the reign of the soul, the contempt of this 
world, and these worldly women were soon raised into a sphere 
of sublime and supernatural purity, where the peace of God 
which surpasseth all understanding, dwelt in their hearts. 
From a life of corruption and crime, the Roman ladies were 
now capable of governing their passions, and whilst distrusting 
their own strength, they found a sure refuge in peace and holy 
religion. 
In searching a parallel in history to compare with the morals 
of our fashionable ladies, I have found nothing better calcula- 
ted to impress fear in the hearts of those who commit the crime 12 
of abortion, than the inevitable national disasters which must 
fall, sooner or later, upon the race whose women will not listen 
to a timely warning. 
Able papers have been written upon abortion by some of the 
most distinguished members of the American Medical Associa- 
tion, whohave devoted their most serious attention to this subject, 
since 1859; yet, so far, very little good, if any, has been effected 
by their united efforts, and I fear that something more than 
their good advice will be required to check the increase of 
abortion in the United States. 
It is well known that women can now render each other assist- 
ance, in the practise of voluntary abortion, as they only need, 
to apply for some sure advertised remedy, with directions, to 
accomplish their nefarious designs. 
In portraying the extent of this criminal habit amongst 
American ladies, Dr. Storer, of Boston, remarks: "Ladies" 
"boast to , each other of the impunity with which they have" 
"aborted, as they do of their expenditures of their dress, of" 
"their successes in society. There is a fashion in this as in all" 
"other female customs, good and bad. The wretch whose" 
" account with the Almighty is heaviest with guilt, too often " 
"becomes a heroine." And the Doctor continues, "It is a" 
"subject that demands the best efforts of the whole medical" 
"profession, both as a body and as men, wrhose every relation " 
"its members are alike best able to appreciate, to understand," 
" and to advise concerning." 
The American Medical Association, as a body, holds a very 
high rank in the world; it is composed of men gifted with the 
highest order of intellect and virtue, they are worthy of the 
admiration of the good and of the wise; but it cannot be de- 
nied that some doctors have amassed fortunes by destroying 
numberless beings, and it is a great misfortune that these men 
are confounded with the medical faculty, through the ignorance 
of the community. 
Some more definite action is required on the part of the 
medical faculty to shield the reputation of honorable men, and 13 
prevent their being mixed up with unscrupulous and unprinci- 
pled doctors. 
The unlimited freedom of the press in the United States, and 
the facilities accorded by publishers of newspapers, &c., for the 
dissemination of immoral advertisements, are evils which require 
the serious attention of legislators, who could soon put a stop 
to the scandalous advertisements of quack doctors. 
Could there have been laws enacted, punishing with as much 
severity, the publication of immoral advertisements, as the laws 
which have been enacted for the prohibition of selling liquors, 
the State of Massachusetts would have compared very differ- 
ently from what it did in the last statistical report of compara- 
tive births, between the foreign and native races. 
It were better to abandon the search for liquors and look out 
for the morals of wives and daughters! 
I do not hesitate to declare, that immoral advertisements 
alone, have been the cause of the destruction of thousands of 
innocent beings, and the publication of remedies capable of in- 
ducing premature births, still continues! 
To physicians who have lived in communities where both 
Catholics and Protestants are mixed up, it is not difficult to 
ascertain amongst whom the crime of voluntary abortion is 
mostly found, and it is not surprising that eminent Protestant 
physicians have used all their influence to check the growing 
evil in their own community. 
During my residence in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and 
Maine, I have met with women who meditated the destruction 
of the fruit of their womb simply to escape merited dishonor; 
the chastisement of a father or the wrath and vengeance of an 
injured husband; in some cases I succeeded in impressing upon 
the mind of the guilty, the importance of saving the innocent 
being's life, assuring my patient, that her own reputation and 
honor would remain intact in the eyes of the world; the few 
who followed my advice were sent to a hospital for foundlings 
in the neighboring province. 
After due time, they returned home perfectly well, leaving 14 
their children in the care of the good religious ladies who 
devote their whole lives to the care of abandoned children; 
thus both mother and child were saved and have enjoyed unin- 
terrupted health. 
Other patients who would not listen to the same advice, con- 
sulted unscrupulous doctors, and in one or two cases, the lives 
of both mother and child were destroyed. 
I have briefly expressed my views upon the increase of abor- 
tion, in our times, having limited myself to the observations 
made in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine, where I have 
practiced my profession for the last twenty-four years. 
After having carefully examined into the causes of the increase 
of this terrible crime, in the community, I have arrived at the 
following conclusions: 
1st. Not unlike the Romans, the ladies are too fond of intel- 
lectual pursuits, and too solicitous about their own ease and 
comfort, without the religion capable of restraining and limiting 
their conduct in society. 
2d. Protestantism has no power within itself to check the 
increase of abortion in its own community, and the united efforts 
of the whole medical profession, so far, have been utterly una- 
vailing. 
3d. Catholicity alone can reach the evil, because it has proved 
itself equal to the task, from the time it first made its appearance 
amongst the Roman ladies, down to the present day. 
Additional proof may be here cited by comparing the number 
of births in Massachusetts, where the greater number of mar- 
riages are amongst Protestants, by very near four-fifths of its 
population; and out of that number, scarcely one-half of the 
births in the State is obtained; whilst out of the small number 
of marriages, the one-fifth of which are among the Catholics, 
nearly the one-half of births is obtained,-a strong proof in 
favor of Catholic morality. 15 
A few words upon the evil consequences of abortion, and I 
will conclude the subject. 
It can easily be perceived, not only by physicians, but even 
by the casual observer, that a very striking difference is made 
apparent between the mother whose whole care is to avoid the 
birth of her own offspring, and the mother whose whole soul is 
devoted to the care of her little ones; the former suffers various 
forms of painful maladies which take their origin in the irritated 
womb, whilst in the latter, there is scarcely one word of ailments 
arising from the same cause. 
Moral and physical debility are the inevitable lot of mothers 
whithout children, whilst longevity and health are the blessings 
usually bestowed upon others. 
Such is abortion, as I understand it, and may be called "fash- 
ionable prostitution," because it is only found amongst women 
who are fashionable. CRANIOTOMY. 
I shall now pass to the subject of Craniotomy, which is the 
operation of perforating a child's head, dead or alive, in its 
mother's womb; first, because it is supposed that the head is 
too large to go through, as in spontaneous labor; and second, 
because the mother's life is in great peril. 
This operation is resorted to only by physicians, and is per- 
formed wherever it is supposed that the life of the mother is in 
danger. 
Now, to take away the life of a child upon the mere pretext 
that otherwise the mother would lose her own life, is indeed a 
very dangerous maxim to lay before medical students, because 
it throws aside the commandment, which says "thou shall not 
kill." 
If the medical profession lay down the principle that a physi- 
cian has the right to destroy a living child upon the presumption 
that the life of its mother is in danger, no one can foresee the 
deplorable results which must follow the practice of such a 
dangerous maxim. 
Daily experience teaches that this practice is frequently resort- 
ed to amongst the poor and lowly by unprincipled and ignorant 
practitioners. I will endeavor here to point out the criminal 
abuse which is fostered by the operation of craniotomy. 
So long as a physician will parade the opinion that he has the 
power of destroying a child because he thinks that the life of the 18 
mother is in danger, so long will premature labor be provoked by 
unscrupulous practitioners and quacks, and so-called midwives, 
and even mothers will not neglect to adopt this easy method, to 
suit their inclinations. 
There never will be an end to the destruction of poor babes 
until the commandment of God is enforced upon all: " Thou 
shalt not kill." 
I emphatically repeat what I have already declared, before 
the Maine Medical Association ; that no physician can assume 
the responsibility of taking human life, under any circumstances, 
because no evil should be done that good may come of it. Good 
was never born of evil. 
In discharging his duty toward God and his patients, the 
physician should take the highest and noblest stand ; and when 
his Creator will have called him to render an account of his 
acts in this world, the greater will be the veneration of his 
patients for his memory. 
Physicians who have had recourse to the operation of crani- 
otomy, have not designedly operated to 'commit murder; on the 
contrary,-! firmly believe that the mere thought 6T committing 
any crime would make them shudder; but I firmly believe that 
they have not given their most serious attention to this impor- 
tant subject, for it opens the way to the further destruction of 
offspring upon the vain pretext that a mother's life is in danger. 
In a community where abortion is admitted, by the most 
distinguished physicians, to be increasing at a fearful rate, will 
many unprincipled physicians resist the temptation of a high fee, 
whenever it is assumed that the mother's life is in danger ? 
It is arrogant presumption, to say the least about it, on the 
part of any physician, to say openly, that God prefers the life of 
a mother to the life of her child, when both lives are equally 
valuable before the all-wise Creator. 
If physicians lay aside the commandment, " Thou shalt not 
kill," there will be no end to the destruction of innocent beings 
in consequence of the almighty dollar! 
I wish to appeal to the reason, and not to the prevailing cus- 19 
tom amongst physicians, and ask them, has not the unborn 
child as good a right to live as the mother? 
In the law of any civilized country, it is written, it were bet- 
ter that ninety-nine guilty persons should go unpunished, than 
that one innocent person, should suffer; and will physicians be 
less merciful than law, whose professed object is rigorous justice. 
Had the child been born and lived but a few moments, the 
destroyer of its life would have been arraigned and punished 
for murder, but as the inexorable physician has decided that it 
must be destroyed to save the mother, the poor babe is sacri- 
ficed! 
Let us cure, if we can, but let us never take away life, under 
any circumstances, for the saving of one hundred mothers would 
not justify the atrocious act of destroying one single babe. 
It is often said that the child would perish with the mother if 
the operation for craniotomy were not performed. In answer 
to this, I would ask, in immolating the child are we certain of 
saving the mother? 
Physicians know well that many children have been born 
alive, when labor had been pronounced impracticable, and while 
instruments were being prepared to bring death, not only to the 
child, but also frequently to the mother. 
According to the account of Dr. Churchill, who favors the 
operation of Craniotomy, the mortality of mothers in two 
hundred and fifty-nine cases was fifty-two, or about one in 
four and three-fourths, whilst in the operation called Cesarean, 
the deaths of mothers has been in the rates of about one to 
to two and three-fourths, and the child not sacrificed; so it is 
stated by Dr. Hull. 
Dr. Joseph Clark lost sixteen mothers out of forty-nine cases 
of Craniotomy; Dr. Kluge, three out of eight, and Dr. Granville, 
three out of three. 
This dreadful operation is seldom undergone more than once 
by the same woman, while the records of obstetric medicine 
furnish many cases of women submitting to the Cesarean opera- 
ation as many as six, and even seven times, with living children. 20 
The observations made during twenty-four years practice, 
convince me that the celebrated maxim of taking away the life 
of a child to save the mother is a very dangerous one and 
has been the cause of the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thou- 
sands of children, which would have been born alive, had the 
accoucheurs left their instruments at home. 
The question which naturally presents itself to the mind of a 
conscientious physician is, what must be done under the neces- 
sity of saving two lives? 
When extreme measures must be had recourse to, let the 
accoucheur have recourse to the Cesarean operation, so called. 
We have proofs that this section has taken place often without 
the loss of life to either mother or child; and the satisfaction 
which is derived from the conviction that the best efforts have 
been done to save two lives, will afford a greater relief to the 
physician, than if he had plunged his perforator into the inno- 
cent being's head 1 
In the mean time let the mother offer up her own life for that 
of her child; this sacrifice on her part is no more than what has 
been done a thousand times, for a husband, for a lover, or for 
the rescue of a loving son and daughter; these deeds of heroism 
will never compare to the offering made to God, for the life of 
a child, whose mother is willing to suffer and die for th*e sake 
of her own little one. 
The record of such self-sacrifice would be infinitely purer and 
holier than the daily record of destroying thousands of children 
from the vain presumption that the mother's life is in danger. 
I believe that the mother who gives her consent to have her 
child sacrificed by the hands of an accoucheur, will have to 
render a fearful account to her Creator for the trust committed 
to her care. 
When instruments are required to be used in order to save 
the life of a child, and the accoucheur finds it difficult to act 
alone, he should notify his patient that the assistance of another 
physician is required, and the choice of one should invariably be 
left to the family; the custom of calling in a friend of the family 21 
physician, is often productive of no good to the suffering pa- 
tient. 
In medical schools, where there is no hospital to teach the art 
midwifery, a young physician will scarely be able to use instru- 
ments with skill, until after several years practice amongst the 
unfortunate; hence the importance of selecting an able and 
experienced accoucheur. 
Convinced as I am of the importance of saving the life of a 
child, before its birth, I hold it to be injurious to foetal life, when- 
ever ergot, or spurred rye, is used in protracted labors. 
I can say, without hesitation, that in the great majority of 
cases where instruments have been used, the accoucheur could 
have left them at home with comfort to both mother and child. 
Nevertheless, a mother is safer in the hands of a careful and 
experienced accoucheur, than in the care of a midwife, even if 
she had the reputation of Madame Lachapelle. 
The sooner the rank of a midwife is reduced to that of a 
skilful nurse, the better for the community. 
The rivalry which exists in some medical schools, where obsti- 
nate sectarians appoint their own professors, is an evil from which 
the whole community suffers. Professors should derive their 
appointment from the president, or other officers in fellowship 
with medical societies, and no vacant chair should be filled until 
a satisfactory examination had been passed before a medical 
board of examiners. A professor of the medical art should above 
all be considered competent by his brother physicians, and an 
appointment to a professor's chair made by the profession, is 
indeed a post of honor. 
Medical schools are in a great measure responsible for the 
deficiencies of their students, especially where clinical lectures 
are omitted; it is only in metropolitan cities, such as Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c., where vast hospitals 
are constantly receiving thousands of patients, from which med- 
ical schools can afford such advantages as are needed by med- 
ical students. 
He who has acquired his professional knowledge solely from 22 
treatises and lectures, will make a poor appearance at the bed- 
side, when he enters upon his medical career. 
In commenting upon "medical teaching," "The Nation," a 
weekly paper published in New York, makes the following ob- 
servation: "Many students come to the colleges with minds" 
" wholly untrained to habits of thought and application, and " 
" no preliminary examination being required, they enter upon " 
"the study of an abstruse science without even a proper" 
" knowledge of their own language." 
When such an observation of the imperfect preparation on 
the part of medical students is publicly made by literary men, 
it behooves the members of the profession to regulate the 
education of aspirants to the medical sciences. 
Few professions require so many preliminary studies, so much 
intelligence, so much science, and at the same time so high a 
standard of morality, as the medical art; and yet very few in- 
deed commence to study it after having gone through a com- 
mon high school education, and still fewer after an A. B. 
The community should have a guarantee of the capacity of 
physicians, and this guarantee is found in a good organization of 
medical schools, the only means of assuring a thorough medical 
instruction, as well as the execution of a well regulated system 
of trials, to which all those should be submitted who claim the 
right of practising medicine. 
The medical profession will be at its height in the United 
States, only when society accords it a rank and consideration 
proportioned to the attainments, to the enlightenment, to all the 
qualities which the medical man should unite; when society 
does not hold him inferior, in position, to others, in liberal 
professions; when a career to all legitimate ambition is opened 
to him, when disinterestedness, devotedness, and continual sac- 
rifices, are not demanded without compensation. 
When a quack obtains a license for ten dollars, and then palms 
himself off as a physician, it is easily seen how the community 
at large may be duped, and how the rank of an educated phy- 
sician can be lowered. 23 
Congress alone can remedy this state of medical confusion, 
by empowering the American Medical Association to regulate 
everything connected with this noble profession, and it will 
soon compare with that of France, or that of any other nation 
in the world. 
It should be known to every man, woman, and child in the 
land, that the Medical Faculty does not, and will never coun- 
tenance the acts committed by unprincipled men, whose chief 
aim is to impose upon the credulity of a portion of the commu- 
nity and rob them of the contents of their purse. 
The character of the medical man should be above censure, 
and the conduct of any of the profession that tends to tarnish 
its lustre, should be frowned upon, and the community should 
know it. 
I have felt it a duty, on my part, to express my convictions, 
upon the subject of Cranotomy, in consequence of the opposi- 
tion which I have alone made against a resolution passed by the 
Maine Medical Society, which justifies the conduct of a physi- 
cian when he induces premature labor whenever he considers it 
necessary to save a mother's life. 
I have briefly exposed my reasons for opposing such a dan- 
gerous doctrine, and I trust my objections will be taken, as they 
are given, without any desire of notoriety on my part, as it if? 
the first time I have spoken since fourteen years residence in 
Portland. 
I do not pretend to have unfolded new truths, but on the 
contrary, they are old truths, which will be familiar to many of 
my readers. 
I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to I. Barry, M. D., 
for valuable information taken from a work published by him, 
twenty years ago, and with him will conclude, in repeat- 
ing:- 
"That the responsibility of a physician is great indeed,'* 
"his conduct in society, for good or evil, gives him a powerful" 
"influence, and if he do not correspond with the high expec-" 
" t ations which are entertained of him; if he becomes faithless," 24 
" not only to his God, but also to himself, he becomes its curse," 
" and the instrument of the moral degradation of his fellow " 
"beings; but followed in the true and Christian spirit of grati-" 
" tude toward God, and love toward man, his noble profession " 
"is second only in usefulness to that of the servants of the" 
" church." VOLUNTARY ABORTION, 
OK 
FASHIONABLE PROSTITUTION, 
* 
WITH SOME REMARKS 
UPON THE OPERATION OF CRANIOTOMY. 
By ED. PIT. LePROHON, M. D., 
Etudiant de 1'Ecole de M^decine de Paris, Member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, of the Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, and Maine Medical Societies. 
Opposez vous an mal avant qn'il s'enracine 
S'il sAjourne, il rend vain l'art de la m^decine.-Ovide. 
PORTLAND: 
PRESS OF B. THURSTON & CO. 
1867.