It is far from being my wish, by any of these letters, to fill your minds with unpleasant thoughts or ideas of horror. But it occurred to me that you were, perhaps, many of you not aware that there are vile persons in our great cities who make it a regular business to procure abortions. Now I need not repeat to you, that a practice so wicked and unnatural as this must necessarily be fraught with great danger.
I thought I would present you with the account of a case of this kind, given us by a celebrated professor of this city, Dr. G. S. Bedford. It is as follows:
“Mrs. M—— was the mother of two children, and had been suffering extremely, for the last fourteen hours, from strong expulsive pains, which, however, had not caused the slightest progress in the delivery. I was likewise informed, that about four hours before I saw the case, Dr. Miner, an experienced physician, had been sent for, and, after instituting a vaginal examination, remarked to the attending physicians, that, in all his practice, he had never met with a similar case. Dr. Miner suggested the administration of an anodyne, and having other professional engagements, left the house. Mrs. M—— was taken in labor Monday, December 18th, at 7 o’clock, P. M., and on Sunday, at 7 o’clock, P. M., I first saw her. Her pains were then almost constant, and such had been the severity of her suffering, that her cries for relief, as her medical attendants informed me, had attracted crowds of people about the door. As soon as I entered her room, she exclaimed, ‘For God’s sake, doctor, cut me open, or I shall die; I never can be delivered without you cut me open!’ I was struck with her language, especially as I had already been informed that she had previously borne two children.
“On assuring her that she was in a most perilous situation, and at the same time promising that we would do all in our power to rescue her, she voluntarily made the following confession:
“About six weeks after becoming pregnant, she called on one of these infamous female physicians, who, hearing her situation, gave her some powders, with directions for use. These powders, it appears, did not produce the desired effect. She returned again to this woman, and asked her if there were no other way to make her miscarry. ‘Yes,’ says this physician, ‘I can probe you; but I must have my price for this operation!’ ‘What do you probe with?’ ‘A piece of whalebone.’ ‘Well,’ observed the patient, ‘I cannot afford to pay your price, and I will probe myself.’ She returned home, and used the whalebone several times; it produced considerable pain, followed by a discharge of blood. The whole secret was now disclosed. Injuries inflicted on the mouth of the womb, by other violent attempts, had resulted in the circumstance as detailed above. It was evident, from the nature of this poor woman’s sufferings, and the expulsive character of her pains, that prompt, artificial delivery was indicated. As the result of the case was doubtful, and it was important to have the concurrent testimony of other medical gentlemen, and as it embodied great professional interest, I requested my friends, Drs. Detmold, Washington, and Doane, to see it. They reached the house without delay, and, after examining minutely into all the facts, it was agreed that a bi-lateral section of the mouth of the womb should be made.
“Accordingly, without loss of time, I performed the operation in the following manner: The patient was brought to the edge of the bed and placed upon her back. The index finger of my left hand was introduced into the vagina as far as the roughness, which I supposed to be the seat of the os tincae. Then a probe-pointed bistoury, the blade of which had been previously covered with a band of linen to within about four lines of its extremity, was carried along my finger, until the point reached the rough surface. I succeeded in introducing the point of the instrument into a very slight opening which I found in the center of this surface, and then made an incision on the right side. I then withdrew the instrument, and in about five minutes it was evident that the head of the child made progress. The mouth of the womb dilated almost immediately, and the contractions were of the most expulsive character. There seemed, however, to be some ground for apprehension, that the mouth of the uterus would not yield with sufficient readiness, and I made an incision of the posterior lip, through its center, extending the incision to within a line of the peritoneal cavity. In ten minutes from this time, Mrs. M—— was delivered of a strong, full-grown child, whose boisterous cries were heard with astonishment by the mother, and with sincere gratification by her medical friends. The expression of that woman’s gratitude, in thus being preserved from what she and her friends supposed to be inevitable death, was an ample compensation for the anxiety experienced by those who were the humble instruments of affording her relief. This patient recovered rapidly, and did not, during the whole of her convalescence, present one unpleasant symptom. It is now ten weeks since the operation, and she and her infant are in the enjoyment of excellent health.
“At my last visit to this patient, with Dr. Forry, she made some additional revelations, which I think should be given, not only to the profession but to the public, in order that it may be known, that in our very midst there is a monster who speculates with human life, with as much coolness as if she were engaged in a game of chance.
“This patient, with unaffected sincerity, and apparently ignorant of the moral turpitude of the act, stated most unequivocally to both Dr. Forry and myself, that this physician, on previous occasions, had caused her to miscarry five times, and that these miscarriages had, in every instance, been brought about by drugs administered by this trafficker in human life. The only case in which the medicines failed was the last pregnancy, when, at the suggestion of this physician, she probed herself, and induced the condition of things described, and which most seriously involved her own safety, as well as that of her child. In the course of conversation, this woman mentioned that she knew a great number of persons who were in the habit of applying to this physician for the purpose of miscarrying, and that she scarcely ever failed in affording the desired relief; and among others, she cited the case of a female residing in Houston Street, who was five months pregnant; this physician probed her, and she was delivered of a child, to use her own expression, ‘THAT KICKED SEVERAL TIMES AFTER IT WAS PUT INTO THE BOWL.’”
Thus you have an exemplification of the danger of the wicked and fearful practice which I have spoken against. If any of you are ever tempted under such circumstanes, beware!