surgery. From a moral point of view it is not only now, but it was
always, unjustifiable to slay a child as a means to save the mother's
life; a good end cannot justify an evil means, is a truth that cannot be
too emphatically inculcated. This is one of the most important subjects
on which Medical Jurisprudence has been improved, and most of its
text-books are deficient. The improvement is explained with much
scientific detail in an address of the President, Samuel C. Busey, M.D.,
before the Washington Obstetrical and Gynecological Society ("Am.
Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children," vol. xvii.
n. 2).




LECTURE III.

ABORTION.


Abortion, gentlemen, is the theme of my present lecture.

I. An important point to be determined is the precise time when the
human embryo is first animated by its own specific principle of life,
its human soul. It is interesting to read what various conjectures have
been ventured on this subject by the learned of former ages. They were
totally at sea. Though gifted with keen minds, they had not the proper
data to reason from. And yet some of those sages made very shrewd
guesses. For instance, as early as the fourth century of our era,
St. Gregory of Nyssa taught the true doctrine, which modern science has
now universally accepted. He taught that the rational soul is created by