he two terms is a technical one and need not concern us here)
can occur any time after conception up to approximately the seventh
month, when, if labor takes place, the child may be born alive. The
condition would then be termed a premature labor. A miscarriage or
abortion is an immature labor and implies an immature or dead child.

The condition is a serious one no matter whether it is attended with
grave symptoms or apparently no symptoms. If it occurs shortly after
conception, during the first few months of married life it is serious,
if not in its physical consequences, it is in its significance, because
it establishes the tendency to miscarry,--a tendency that may result in
great mental distress because of the worry and fear it engenders, and of
sorrow and heartache because it may blast the hope of parentage. Such a
miscarriage may take place at once after conception. If so, the
following menstruation may be delayed for a week or so and is then a
little more profuse than is customary. This will be the only indication
that a life has been sacrificed that the young wife may have, and
frequently the significance of such an occurrence is never understood,
yet the tendency to miscarry is nevertheless established, and a seeming
sterility is apparently the fate of the woman. It is, therefore, of the
greatest importance that extreme care should be taken to bring the first
pregnancy to a successful consummation. A young wife should realize that
she is apt to become pregnant at any time. Her conduct therefore should
be such at least as not to harm the life principle with which she has
been entrusted. To this end any excessive sexual activity should be
strictly avoided.

CAUSES OF MISCARRIAGE.--Any strenuous physical effort must be guarded
against. Included in such efforts may be the following: dancing,
running, jumping, surf-bathing, sewing on a machine, sweeping, washing,
house-cleaning, moving furniture, etc. Sometimes the primary cause of a
miscarriage is to be found in some hygienic act, such as a hot bath, too
prolonged or too many hot douches near the menstrual periods. A blow or
a fall, even a fright or shock may cause a miscarriage. Anything that
violently shakes or agitates the womb, which may at this time be
irritable because of its condition, will be sufficient to excite it to
contract and miscarry. Hence violent coughing or vomiting should be
avoided if possible; horseback riding, jolting in a carriage,
convulsi