CHAPTER VII.

PREGNANCY_DELIVERY—ABORTION.

32. Signs of pregnancy.-Whether or not pregnancy has occurred is of importance for the reason that it is sometimes feigned for the purpose of blackmail, gain, inheritance, or to avoid punishment. It may also be denied, although present. For the same reasons, and to prove maternity or criminal abortion, the fact and time of delivery of a woman may become important to ascertain.

There are no positive, absolute signs of pregnancy prior to quickening, which occurs about the fourth or fifth month; but the suppression of the menstrual flow, the presence of "morning sickness," nausea and vomiting, and change in the color of the skin around the nipples, especially if the woman was never before pregnant, are each suggestive; and if they are all present it is very probable that the woman has conceived. Their absence, however, while not usual, is not inconsistent with pregnancy.

After quickening, a positive diagnosis can generally be made. The breasts begin to enlarge, the abdomen becomes noticeably larger, and the movements of the child in the womb may be felt by the physician; and the trained ear may detect the heart-beats of the fœtus. At this stage, the physician's task is easy. A child may be born at seven months after concep

tion, and live; and, on the other hand, the pregnancy may be lengthened two or three weeks beyond the usual period, which is about two hundred and eighty days, or ten lunar months.

After death of the woman, if the question of her pregnancy arises, and decomposition has not proceeded far, the same external appearances will be found as in the living; and an examination of the uterus will of course show enlargement and change of shape, if pregnant.

33. Signs of delivery.-If delivery be at full term, the woman shows more or less weakness; the pulse is somewhat quickened and soft; skin soft and moist; eyes sunken, and countenance pallid. The breasts will usually be full, and milk may be pressed from them. The abdomen appears to have been recently stretched tightly and then relaxed, and lies in folds with little lines, or clefts, running across it in all directions. The vagina will be soft and dilated, with more or less mucus, and the uterus will also be very much dilated, and soft. A few hours after delivery, the "lochial discharge" from the vagina commences, consisting at first of pure blood, but gradually becoming watery and pale, and usually disappearing after three or four days. These are positive evidence that the woman has been delivered recently.

At the end of three or four weeks, usually, the only signs of delivery which remain are: the darkened color around the nipples, the white lines on the abdomen, the loose or relaxed skin of the abdomen, and such tears of the neck of the womb as delivery may

have caused. These are permanent, and their presence will indicate delivery at some time in the past; but how recently it would be impossible to say from these permanent signs alone.

When delivery occurs before full term, or if the child is very small, the signs of delivery will be much less apparent, the size and the development of the child having a direct bearing upon their prominence. Therefore, if the contents of the uterus be expelled during the first two or three months after conception, the signs of delivery will be slight and indistinct, especially if the woman had previously been pregnant.

34. Abortion.-Abortion, or miscarriage, in legal contemplation, is any expulsion of the contents of the uterus before the period of pregnancy is complete. It may be classified as: (1) Natural abortion, not brought on by outside interference; (2) artificial abortion, which should again be divided into: (a) justifiable, for the purpose of saving the life of the mother, and the child, too, if possible; and (b) criminal abortion.

In most, if not all, of the states of this country, artificial abortion is made a crime unless it was necessary, or considered by two or more physicians to be necessary, to save the mother's life. Where it was not justifiable, the woman herself is probably liable to prosecution for the crime, even though the abortion was produced by another.

If the abortion took place near the end of the period of gestation, the signs of recent delivery as set forth above will be important in settling the ques

tion. But if, as is most frequent, the abortion be induced in the early stages of pregnancy, it will be almost impossible of detection, unless it were unskillfully done, in which case blood poisoning or puncture of the walls of the uterus may occur, which would be evidence of the criminal act. Of course, if death result, an autopsy would show whether the uterus had been pregnant, and it would also reveal evidences of any poisons which might have been administered as abortives.

CHAPTER VIII.

INFANTICIDE.

35. Definition.-By the term "infanticide" is meant the destruction of a new-born child. This means that the child must have been born alive; that is, must have been completely expelled from the mother's body, and have set up an independent existence by breathing. Infanticide is murder, just as is any other form of taking life unjustifiably; but owing to the fact that a large percentage of children are still-born, the usual presumption is that an infant whose dead body has been found was dead at the time of birth. Of course, this presumption is rebuttable by proof of live birth.

Investigation of suspected infanticide will usually require answers to the following questions: (1) Was the child mature, and capable of separate existence? (2) Was it the child of the prisoner, and has the prisoner been recently delivered? (3) Was the child born alive? (4) If so, what was the cause of its death?

(1) The maturity of the child can be readily determined by examination and measurements. The growth of the foetus in the womb is marked by fairly defined stages, beginning with a length of the embryo of one and a half to two and a half inches at the second or third week after conception, and gradually increasing up to the fortieth week, when it should be fully