often far more alarming in appearance than in reality, and we are rarely
justified in interfering with the natural progress of gestation."

To return to our subject. Abortion, or miscarriage, is often, as you
know, gentlemen, the result of natural causes beyond human control; at
other times it is brought on by unintentional imprudence on the part of
the mother or her attendants. It is the duty of the family physician,
when occasions offer, to instruct his pregnant patients and other
persons concerned on the dangers to be avoided. A good Doctor should be
to his patients what a father is to his children; very important matters
are confided to him, and therefore grave responsibilities rest on his
conscience.

III. We are now ready to consider the chief question of this lecture,
namely, whether there can be any cases in which a physician is justified
in bringing about an abortion, or in prescribing a treatment from which
he knows an abortion is likely to result.

1. It is evident that, if he acts with due prudence, and yet, from some
cause which he did not foresee and could not have been foreseen, his
treatment brings about a miscarriage, he cannot justly be held
accountable for what he could not help.

2. But what if he foresees that a drug or treatment, which, he thinks,
is needed for the mother's health, may perhaps bring on a miscarriage?
Can he still administer that drug or prescribe that treatment? Notice
the question carefully. It is not supposed that he wants to bring on the
miscarriage. He does not; he will do all he can to prevent it. Nor will
his treatment or drug directly destroy the life or the organism of the
embryo; but it is intended to affect favorably the system of the mother,