The New York herald., 1871-09-17

pre-emnent Christian civilization of this age
In it's peculiar care for the two extremes Of
human life-infancy aud old age but what
shall we now say in regard to the evident laps
ing of the people Of this most reputed Chris
tian nation into heather barbarism? The love
OF children has always been deemed a sign of
superior intelligence-of noble manhood. AZ
lection for its offspring is quality possessed
alike by all animals, with scarcely an excep-
tion, and few indeed of the millions of the
animal creation seek to destroy their own Off
spring after birth, or to so neglect them as to
leave them liable to destruction by other bodies
or forces. 1t was left for human intelligences
to encompass the death of their children, both
before birth and after, and it was left to the
Christian civilization of this nineteenth century
also to discover and adopt the most revolving
| and barbarous means to accomplish this end.
The crime Of feticide, or infanticide, is not Of
recent growth. Like every other crime, it has
had venerable existence, but its beastly de-
velopment among us has been mainly the work
of few years. Thirteen years ago its preva-
lence attracted the attention of medical jurists
in all parts Of our country, and essays, tracts
But the crime grew apace, and its deadly and
dastardly fruits appear before us to-day, sick
ening to the moral conscience and religious
sentiments of the nation.
In 1865 DR.. Morse Stewart, of Detroit, Michi-
gan, declared that few of either sex entered
H. ;<o1 FILL inf %;o
as to the ways and means of destroying the
legitimate results of matrimony. And among
married persons 80 extensive has this practice
become that people of high repute not only
commit this crime, but do not even shun to
speak boastingly among their intimates of the
deed aud the means of accomplishing it. DR..
II. R. Storer, of Massachusetts, in 1859, de-
clared that forced abortions in America were
of frequent occurrence, and that this freq uency
was increasing so that from l In ,633 of the
population in 1905 it had risen to l in $40 in
lS49; and DR.. Kyle, of Xenis, Ohio, asserted
that abortions occurred most frequently among
those who are known as the better class
among church members and those generally
who pretend to be the most polite, virtuous,
moral and religious. And, without mincing
matters at all, this eminent physician boldly
declares that sta venal press, a demoralized
clergy and the prevalence of medical charla-
tanism are the principal causes of the fearful
increase of this abominable crime" The
paucity of children in the families of wealthy
and well-to-do Americans has been publicly
noticed and commented upon time and again,
but the true cause thereof, if known, was
carefully concealed And can we wonder that
the crime has descended from the highest to
the lowest, and now pervades all classes of
society? Statistics have been frequently pub
lished to show that in certain States of the
Union, and in certain districts Of those States,
the births did not, and do not, equal the
deaths, and were it not for the foreign popu-
lation among us many of those districts, and
not a few of those States, would be depopu-
lated in few years Massachusetts and New
York lead the van in this criminal record. DR..
T. A. Reamy, of GAINESVILLE, Ohio, in 1867 wrote
that after careful survey of the field he was
ready to say that ''to-day no sin approaches
with such stealth and dangerous power the
affairs of the Church as fGticide; and, unless
it can be stayed, not only will it work its legi
innate moral depravity and social ruin, but
Che beleved) God will visit dreadful judgment
upon us no less severe, perhaps, than He did
upon the Cities of the Plain"
The great inducement to fGticide is the de-
sire to avoid the sufferings, dangers and tolls
of maternity; and yet DR.. Storer remarks that
more lives are lost during or in consequence of
abortion than in the full course Of natural par
turition, and very much larger proportion of
women become confirmed invalids, perhaps for
life, and the tendency 10 organic disease at
the turn of life is rendered much greater.
The characteristic physical deicacy of Ameri-
can women is not owing principally to climate
or necessary difference in mode of life but
rather to the violence done nature by this
crime of which we speak and write. Nature
does her work wisely and systematically, and
we disturb her at our peril. How great this
disturbance and this danger is may be inferred,
though it can hardly be ascertained by the num-
Der of quacks and medical practitioners who ad-
vertise to treat specially diseases of women"
In our mluSt. Anu soue Vi ouf CoIrespon-
dence, provoked within few days by the Ro-
senzweig Burns-Van Buskirk horrors, indicate
very plainly the culpability in this matter of
many so-called reputable and respectable ply
siciaus. The greatest criminals manfestly
are not those parties now confined in the City
Prison. They are, to be sure, the most bum
Cling quacks, but had they not bungled 80
fearfully they might have still continued their
nefarious and God-sbborred business. The
respectable" and educated physician who
can destroy fetal or infant life, and do it so
cleyerly as to leave no immediate trace behind,
is infinitely more worthy Of State Prison than
the other; for he who knoweth his Masters
will and doeth it not shall be adjudged worthy
and be beaten with many stripes. How can