destroys. "Premature labor is frequently induced in legitimate medical
practice, for the purpose of avoiding the risks which in some cases
attend parturition at term.... The average number of children saved by
this means is rather more than one-half of the cases operated upon," say
Wharton and Stillé ("Parturition," p. 96). But they caution the
physician against too ready recourse to this treatment; for, they add
very truly, "The sympathetic phenomena of pregnancy are often more
alarming in appearance than in reality, and will rarely justify any
interference with the natural progress of gestation. In all cases the
physician should consult with one or more of his colleagues before
inducing premature labor; in this manner his humane intentions will not
expose him, in case of failure, to reproach, suspicion, or prosecution."

The first time my attention was practically called to the case of a
child in danger of dying before the time of delivery occurred over
twenty years ago, when the mother of a highly respected family, then in
my spiritual charge, was wasting away with consumption during her state
of pregnancy. You know that we Catholics are very solicitous that
infants shall not die without Baptism, because we believe that heaven
is not promised to the unbaptized. I therefore directed the lady's
husband to consult their family physician on the prospects of the case,
and take timely precautions, so that, if death should come on the mother
before her delivery, the infant might be reached at once and be baptized
before it expired. The physician, a learned and conscientious
practitioner, answered that we should not be solicitous; for that Nature
had so provided that mothers in such cases rarely die before the child
is born. He was right. The child was born and baptized; the mother died
a few hours later; the little one lived several weeks before it went to
join the angels in heaven. I learned from that occurrence the lesson
which Wharton and Stillé inculcate that "the phenomena of pregnancy are