I.—The comparative increase of population.
II.—The published records of still-births.
III.—The number of arrests, or trials for abortion.
IV.—The published number of immediate maternal deaths.
V.—The pecuniary success of abortionists, and
abortion-producing nostrums.
VI.—The comparative size of families in present and past times.
VII.—The experience of physicians—direct from applications for
abortion and actual cases, and indirect from their results.
Several of these points are as yet almost wholly uninvestigated. They are
stated, therefore, with care, as bearing decidedly on the question at
issue, and as tending to provoke still further research.
To go into an elaborate comparison of our national and state censuses
with themselves, past and present, with each other, and with those
of similar communities abroad, involving, as it would do, intricate
calculations regarding the effect of emigration from state to state, and
from nation to nation, the increase of urban population, and the frequent
decrease of rural, is not our present intention, nor is it necessary. By
considering this point in connection with that immediately succeeding it,
with which it is intimately related, its bearing and importance will at
once be seen.
Statistics in this country are as yet so imperfect, that we are
necessitated to a process of deduction. If it can be shown that a state
of things prevails elsewhere to a certain extent, explainable only on
one supposition, and that the same state of things prevails in this
country to a greater extent, all other causes, save the one referred to,
being in great measure absent, little doubt can be entertained of the
part this plays; but if it can, in addition, be proved that this cause
must necessarily be stronger with us than elsewhere, then its existence
becomes morally certain. Accordingly, if we find that in another
country living births are steadily lessening in proportion alike to the
population and to its increase, that natural or preventive causes are
insufficient to account for this, while the proportion of still-births
and of known abortions is constantly increasing, and these last bear an
evident yet increasing ratio to the still-births; that in this country
the decrease of living births, and the increase of still-births, are in
much greater ratio to the population, and the proportion of premature
births is also increasing; that these relations are constant and yearly
more marked, we are justified in supposing that abortions are at least as
frequent with us, and probably more so.
In many countries of Europe, it has been ascertained that the “fecundity”
of the population, or the rate of its annual increase, is rapidly
diminishing.[9]
In Sweden, it has lessened by one-ninth in 61 years. In Prussia, by a
third in 132 years. In Denmark, by a quarter in 82 years. In England,
by two-sevenths in a century. In Russia, by an eighth in 28 years. In
Spain, by a sixth in 30 years. In Germany, by a thirteenth in 17 years.
In France, by a third in 71 years.[10]
Or, in other words:
In Sweden it has lessened by a fifth; in Prussia, by a fourth; in Denmark
and England, by a third; and in Russia, Spain, Germany, and France by a
half, in a single century.
For the sake of convenience, larger bodies of statistics existing
concerning it, and from the fact that it represents the extreme of the
alleged decrease, we take France for our comparisons.
In France at large, according to the official returns as analyzed by
Legoyt, the increase of the population which, from 1801 to 1806, was at
the rate of 1.28 per cent. annually, from 1806 to 1846 had fallen to
about .5 per cent.[11] The exact ratio of decrease after this point is
better shown by the figures themselves. The increase from 1841 to 1846
was 1,200,000; from 1846 to 1851, 380,000; from 1851 to 1856, 256,000.
In England, during this latter period, with a population of but one-half
the size, the returns of the Registrar-General show a relative increase
nine times greater.[12] In thirty-seven years, from 1817 to 1854, the
mean annual increase in France was not more than 155,929, yet in five
years, from 1846 to 1851, it had fallen to 76,000 yearly, and from 1851
to 1856, to 51,200, and this with a population ranging from twenty-nine
to thirty-four millions.
A comparison of these facts, with those obtaining in other European
States, will make the above still more evident. We now quote from Rau.[13]
Rate of Increase.
Per Cent.
Hungary, according to Rohrer 2.40
England, from 1811 to 1821 1.78
” from 1821 to 1831 1.60
Prussia, from 1816 to 1827 1.54
” from 1820 to 1830 1.37
” from 1821 to 1831 1.27
Austria, (Rohrer) 1.30
Scotland, from 1821 to 1831 1.30
Netherlands, from 1821 to 1828 1.28
Saxony, from 1815 to 1830 1.15
Baden (Heunisch,) from 1820 to 1830 1.13
Bavaria, from 1814 to 1828 1.08
Naples, from 1814 to 1824 0.83
France (Mathieu,) from 1817 to 1827 0.63
France, more recently, (De Jonnés) 0.55
A similar and corroborative table, containing additional matter, is given
by Quetelet;[14] its differences from the preceding are owing to its
representing a series of different years.
Rate of Increase.
Per Cent.
Ireland 2.45
Hungary 2.40
Spain 1.66
England 1.65
Rhenish Prussia 1.33
Austria 1.30
Bavaria 1.08
Netherlands 0.94
Naples 0.83
France 0.63
And more recently, Legoyt brings up these results to the close of
1846.[15] As shown by the census, the rate of increase was, in
Per Cent.
Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland 1.95
Prussia 1.84
Saxony 1.45
Norway 1.36
Sardinia 1.08
Holland 0.90
Austria 0.85
Sweden 0.83
France 0.68
Or, as shown by the annual excess of births over deaths, and therefore
more reliable—
Per Cent.
Norway 1.30
Prussia 1.18
Sweden 1.14
Holland 1.03
Wurtemberg 1.00
Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland 1.00
Denmark 0.95
Austria 0.90
Saxony 0.90
Hanover 0.85
Belgium 0.76
Bavaria 0.71
Russia 0.61
France 0.50
In four departments of France, among which are two of the most thriving
of Normandy, the deaths actually exceed the births.[16]
From the above facts, it would naturally be supposed that the percentage
of births to the whole population must be smaller than in other European
countries, and from the lessened annual rate of increase of the
population, that the proportionate number of births must be decreasing in
similar ratio. This is found, indeed, to be the case.
From large statistics furnished by De Jonnés, we have compiled the
following table of the comparative ratios of births to the population in
the principal countries of Europe:—
Ratio.
Venice and Dependencies, 1827 1 to 23
Tuscany, 1834 ”
Lombardy, 1828 1 to 24
Russia, 1835 1 to 25
Wurtemberg, 1821 to 1827 ”
Prussia, 1836 ”
Mecklenburg, 1826 1 to 26
Sardinia, 1820 ”
Naples and Dependencies, 1830 ”
Greece, 1828 ”
Poland, 1830 1 to 27
Ireland, 1821 to 1831 ”
Germany, 1828 ”
Switzerland, 1828 ”
Spain, 1826 ”
Portugal, 1815 to 1819 1 to 27.5
Sweden, 1825 1 to 28
Holland, 1832 ”
Austria, 1829 ”
Belgium, 1836 ”
Bavaria, 1825 ”
Two Sicilies, 1831 ”
Sweden and Norway, 1828 1 to 30
Denmark, 1833 ”
Roman States, 1836 ”
Turkey, 1835 ”
Hanover, 1835 1 to 31
Sicily, 1832 ”
Austria, 1828 to 1830 1 to 32
Great Britain, 1821 to 1831 ”
Scotland, 1821 to 1831 1 to 34
England, 1821 to 1831 1 to 35
Norway, 1832 ”
France, 1771 to 1851 1 to 25
to 1 to 37
In a total population, at different periods, of 232,673,000, there were
8,733,000 births; whence an average on the grand scale of one birth to
every 26.6 individuals.
In France, however, the ratio has been steadily lessening, as seen by the
following table:—
Ratio of births.
1771 to 1775 1 to 25
1801 to 1810 1 to 30
1811 to 1825 1 to 32
1826 to 1836 1 to 33
1836 to 1840 1 to 34
1841 to 1845 1 to 35
1846 to 1850 1 to 37
The position of France, as compared with the rest of Europe, in respect
to the ratio of births to the population at different periods, is made
still more manifest by another table:—
Annual ratio of births.
1 to 23 Venetian Provinces, 1827; Tuscany, 1834.
1 to 23.5 Kingdom of Naples, 1822 to 1824.
1 to 24 Tuscany, 1818; Sicily, 1824; Lombardy, 1827 to 1828;
Russia, 1831.
1 to 24.5 Prussia, 1825 to 1826.
1 to 25 France, 1781; Austria, 1827; Russia, 1835; Prussia, 1836.
1 to 26 Sardinia, 1820; Hanover, Wurtemberg and Mecklenburg, 1826;
Greece, 1828; Naples, 1830.
1 to 27 Spain, 1826; Germany and Switzerland, 1828; Poland, 1830;
Ireland, 1831.
1 to 27.5 Portugal, 1815 to 1819.
1 to 28 Holland, 1813 to 1824; Bavaria and Sweden, 1825; Austria,
1829; Belgium, 1836.
1 to 29 Canton Lucerne, 1810; Holland, 1832.
1 to 29.8 France, 1801.
1 to 30 Sweden and Norway, 1828; Belgium, 1832; Denmark, 1833;
Turkey, 1835; States of the Church, 1836.
1 to 31 Sicily, 1832; Hanover, 1835.
1 to 31.4 France, 1811.
1 to 31.6 France, 1821.
1 to 32 Austria, 1830; Great Britain and Switzerland, 1831.
1 to 33 France, 1828 to 1831.
1 to 34 Norway and Holstein, 1826; Scotland, 1831; France, 1834
to 1841.
1 to 35 Denmark, 1810; England, 1831; Norway, 1832.
1 to 37 France, 1851.
In Paris, strange to say, the decrease in the ratio of births to the
population, though decided and steady, has not, in actual proportion,
been as great as in the empire at large, showing that the cause, whatever
we find it to be, is not one depending on the influence of a metropolis
alone for its existence.
From 1817 to 1831 there averaged, in Paris, one birth to 26.87
inhabitants; but from 1846 to 1851, one to 31.98.[17]
Again, as might have been expected, we find that the proportion of
still-births, in which we must include abortions, as has hitherto been
done, however improperly, in all extensive statistics, is enormous, and
is steadily increasing. To show this the more plainly, we first present
a table of the ratio of still-births to the living births in the various
countries of Europe.[18]
Geneva,[19] 1824 to 1833 1 to 17
Berlin Hospitals, 1758 to 1774 1 to 18
Paris Maternité,[20] 1816 to 1835 1 to 20
Sweden, 1821 to 1825 1 to 23.5
Denmark, 1825 to 1834 1 to 24
Belgium,[21] 1841 to 1843 1 to 24.2
Prussia,[22] 1820 to 1834 1 to 29
Iceland, 1817 to 1828 1 to 30
Prague, 1820 1 to 30
London Hospitals, 1749 to 1781 1 to 31
Vienna, 1823 1 to 32
Austria, 1828 1 to 49
France at large, 1853 1 to 24
Department of Seine 1 to 15
Paris,[23] 1836 to 1844 1 to 14.3
” 1845 to 1853[24] 1 to 13.8
The proportion of still-births in the rural districts of France is
governed by the same laws as in the metropolis.