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XXIII.—On some Laws of the Sterility of Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

J. Matthews Duncan
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Extract

Before commencing the discussion of the subject, it is necessary to make some definitions, with a view to avoiding the confusion which extensively prevails, from the neglect of the all-important definition of terms. I might be even more exact than I shall be, and excuse myself from adopting such a seeming improvement, on the ground that further refinement of definition would itself cause confusion in the present stage of advancement of our knowledge.

Absolute sterility, I shall hold to mean the condition of a woman who, under ordinary favourable cirumstances for breeding, produces no living or dead child, nor any kind of abortion.

Sterility, I shall hold to mean the condition of a woman who, under ordinary favourable circumstances for breeding, adds not even one to the population, or produces no living and viable child.

Relative sterility, I shall hold to mean the condition of a woman who, while she may or may not be absolutely sterile, while she may or may not be sterile, is, under ordinary favourable circumstances for breeding, sterile in relation to the circumstance of time; or, in other words, in relation to her age, and the duration of her married life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 1866 , pp. 315 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1866

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References

page 315 note * Census of Scotland, 1861. Population Tables and Report, vol. ii. p. xxxvi.Google Scholar

page 317 note * Lever's statement I here quote, but I cannot ascribe much value to it, because no evidence is adduced, and because there is an evident numerical error in some part of the passage. He says, “It is found that th, or 5 per cent, of married women are wholly unprolific.”—Organic Diseases of Uterus, p. 5.

page 317 note † Obstetric Works, vol. i. p. 323.Google Scholar

page 318 note * Diseases of Women, 3d edition, p. 3.Google Scholar

page 318 note † A statement of the sterility of Esquimaux women is given by Roberton, Essays and Notes on the Physiology and Diseases of Women, p. 53.

page 319 note * The following extract from the work of DrWest, , on Diseases of Women (3d edit., p. 367)Google Scholar, may be of some value. It refers to the histories of a set of poor women labouring under uterine cancer. “There were but two out of the whole 150 women, whose pregnancy had issued merely in abortion.”