care and hygiene which the
countrywoman with her more resistant nervous system can to some
extent dispense with, although even she, as we see, suffers in
the person of her child, and probably in her own person, from the
effects of work during pregnancy. The serious nature of this
civilized tendency to premature birth--of which lack of rest in
pregnancy is, however, only one of several important causes--is
shown by the fact that Seropian (_Frequence Comparee des Causes
de l'Accouchement Premature_, These de Paris, 1907) found that
about one-third of French births (32.28 per cent.) are to a
greater or less extent premature. Pregnancy is not a morbid
condition; on the contrary, a pregnant woman is at the climax of
her most normal physiological life, but owing to the tension thus
involved she is specially liable to suffer from any slight shock
or strain.

It must be remarked that the increased tendency to premature
birth, while in part it may be due to general tendencies of
civilization, is also in part due to very definite and
preventable causes. Syphilis, alcoholism, and attempts to produce
abortion are among the not uncommon causes of premature birth
(see, e.g., G.F. McCleary, "The Influence of Antenatal Conditions
on Infantile Mortality," _British Medical Journal_, Aug. 13,
1904).

Premature birth ought to be avoided, because the child born too
early is insufficiently equipped for the task before him.
Astengo, dealing with nearly 19,000 cases at the Lariboisiere
Hospital in Paris and the Maternite, found, that reckoning from
the date of the last menstruation, there is a direct relation
between the weight of the infant at birth and the length of the
pregnancy. The longer the pregnancy, the finer the child
(Astengo, _Rapport du Poids des Enfants a la Duree de la
Grossesse_, These de Paris, 1905).

The frequency of premature birth is probably as great in England
as in France. Ballantyne states (_Manual of Antenatal Pathology;
The Foetus_, p. 456) that for practical purposes the frequency
of premature labors in maternity hospitals may be put at 20 per
cent., but that if all infants weighing less than 3,000 grammes
are to be regarded as premature, it rises to 41.5 per cent. That
premature birth is increasing in England seems to be indicated by
the fact that during t