abortifacient (abort if as hi ent)

and n. [ II. n. In med., whatever is or may be used to produce abortion. The almost universal keeping of abortifacients by drug gists, despite statutes to the contrary. N. Y. Independent , July 24, 1873. abortion (a-bor's hon), n . [ abortio ( n- ) , miscarriage, aboriri , miscarry: see abort, v .] 1. Miscarriage; the expulsion of the fetus before it is viable - that is, in women, before about the 28th week of gestation. Expulsion of the fetus occurring later than this, but before the normal time, is called (when not procured by art, as by a surgical operation) premature labor. A somewhat usele distinction has been sometimes drawn between abor tion and miscarriage , by which the former is made to refer to the first four months of pregnancy and the latter to the following three months. Criminal abortion is premeditated or intentional abortion procured, at any period of pregnancy, by artificial means, and solely for the purpose of preventing the birth of a living child; feticide. At common law the criminality depended on the abortion being caused after quickening. Some modern statutes provide otherwise. In the penitential discipline of the Church, abortion was placed in the same category as infanticide, and the stern sentences to which the guilty person was subject imprinted on the minds of Christians, more deeply than any mere exhortations, a sense of the enormity of the crime, Lecky , Europ. Morals, II. 24. 2. The product of untimely birth; hence, a mi hapen being; a monster.-3. Any fruit or product that does not come to maturity; hence, frequently, in a figurative sense, any 16 thing which fails in its progre before it is matured or perfected, as a design or project. 4. In bot. and zool., the arrested development of an organ at a more or le early stage. In the complete abortion of the rostellum [of Cephalan thera grandiflora ] we have evidence of degradation. Darwin, Fertil. of Orchids by Insects, p. 80. He [Mr. Bates] claims for that family [the Helicon ide ] the highest position, chiefly because of the imperfect structure of the fore legs, which is there carried to an extreme degree of abortion. A. R. Wallace , Nat. Selec., p. 133. abortional (a-bor's hon-al), a. Of the nature of an abortion; characterized by failure. The treaty proved abortional, and never came to fulfilment. Carlyle, Frederick the Great, VI. xv. 22. about abortus (a-bor'tus), n.; pl. abortus. [L., an abortion: see abort, n.] In med., the fruit of an abortion; a child born before the proper time; an abortion.