ABORTION

premature expulsion of the human fotus from the uterus or womb; the term is applied in medicine to such an expulsion before the sixth month of intra-uterine life, ‘premature labor’ being the term applied to later expulsion; popularly ‘miscarriage’ is the ‘name given to accidental premature expulsion, a. being confined to expulsion induced for medical reasons or performed criminally. With the advance of obstetrical science a. and inducement of premature labor are being abandoned to a great extent as medical procedures. Criminal a., or attempt to procure criminal a., is a felony punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment. small town, Egypt; Nelson destroyed Fr. fleet in A. Bay, 1798; Bonaparte defeated Turks, 1799; captured by Sir Ralph Abercromby, 1801.