ABO
A B R
office belongs to women) tramples on the patient's belly, till fhe bring forth. The author laft cited, who pretends to have lived long in that country, affirms he has known women lofe their births in this manner fifteen of fixteen times. Sit penes ipfum fides .
The practice of artificial Abortion is chiefly in the hands of women and nurfes, rarely in that of phyficians ; who, in fome countries, are not admitted to the profcflion without abjuring it. Hippocrates, in the oath he would have enjoined on all phyfi- cians, includes their not giving the pejfus Abortivus. Tho' elfewhere he gives the formal procefs, whereby he himfelf pro- cured a maid to mifcarry. The time for it is prcfently after impregnation : at leaft within the third or fourth month of
feftation m . The manner of effecting it is chiefly by me- icines of the purgative* and deobftruent kind : Roman au- thors fpeak of the poculum Abortionis, ox abortive draught, fre- quent among them. External violences are alfo fometimes had recourfe to; as leaping from a ftool, prefcribed by Hip- pocrates: obftinate fadings* and vehement evacuations, have been frequently practifed for the fame end. — Yet all the powers of medicine often fail to procure Abortion ; by reafon of the naturally clofe contraction of the orifice of the uterus n , which has been known to hold out againft the moft malig- nant fevers, dyfenteries, falivations % and the like ; againft the ftrongeft aperients and evacuants p ; againft diftilled oils of juniper, favin, fuccinum ; againft large quantities of cro- cus metallorum, arterhifia, myrrh, mercury, the farina of mufcus terreftris, &c. — [ m Erndl. deltin. Angl. p. 84. " Al~ brecht. ObC. i65.inEphem. Acad. N. C. dec. 2. an. 8. p. 384. Barthol Obf. 52. in Ephem. Acad. N. C. dec. 1. an 1. Albr. be. cit. Zacut. Luftt. Prax. Admir. Obf. 43. feq. p Zacut. Prax. Admir. Obf. 144.]
The moft fatal method is by punctures of the uterus, with a pointed inftrument for the purpofe ; too often ufed among us, and not unknown to the ancients. — Patin mentions a mid- wife hang'd at Paris, for killing a fcetus in the womb, by running a ftilletto, or kind of bodkin, up the vagina, thro' the orifice of the uterus ; by which a mifcarriage was proeur'd, but with fuch ill fuccefs, that the mother was feized with con- Vulfions, and died miferably 1. The criminal confefs'd fhe had treated many before in the fame manner, with good effect. Our own age and country afford a parallel inftance, a woman having been a few years ago executed among us for the like fact. Tertullian has a paflage which Ihews the fame was pradtifed in thofe days ; eji etiam aneum fpiculum, quo jugulatto iffa dirigitur ■:.?('/ latrocinio ip$fVQ<f<pxx.vv» appellanii utique viventis infantis feremptorium* . The operation, confidering the tendernefs of the partj mult be of the utmoft danger B : Brendelius gives an account of what he obferv'd in diffecting a girl at Noiimberg, in 1714, who died of the operation, which (he had rjeiform'd on herielf ; the neck of the uterus appear'd ex- ceedingly diftended, the veiTels lacerated and mortified, the uterus itfelf inflam'd and putrefy'd ', &c. — [ q Patin. T. 1. Lett. 191. An. 1660. r 7V;W/.deAnim.c. 35. IL&.Rigalt. p. 328. Erndl. lib. cit. p. 85. ■ V. Erndl. ubi fupra, p. 87.
- Ephem. Acad. N. C. Obf. 167. p. 377.]
To prevent Abortion. See Miscarriage.
We meet with many anomalous cafes of Abortions, not yet taken into the fyftem of phyfic ; as, of Abortions happening at new, and full moon; Abortions by the way of the navel, or anus ; Abortions caus'd by poifon, manna", bathing*, a box on the the ear, worms, ftone, juniper, fumes of ale, cofhvenefs, and the like ; Abortions caufed by epilcpfies, prevented by iflues, prognofticated by lice, &c. y . Abortions without lochia T , attended by moles % with a retention of the fecundines b , fwelling of the body, diabetes, and the like. — [ u Ephem. Acad.N. C. dec. i.an.6.p. 355. * Id. dec. 2. an. 1. p. 305.
- Id. dec. 2. an. 9. p. 1 5 1 . a Id . dec. 2. an. 4. p. 334. a Gull-
man. Obf. 92. Ephem. Acad. N, C. Cent, 7. p. 217. b Id. dec. 2. an. 1. p. 230. & 292.]
But what fhall we fay to Abortions by the mouth ? Grave au- thors give inftances of them; as Salmuth % Bartholin* 1 , Maroldus % Sachs ', &c. yet their reality may well be called in queftion. That famous one of the fhoemaker's wife, related by Salmuth, has been vigoroufly attacked by Lud. Kep- plerus, and defended by Bartholin : fome account for it, by fup- pofmg the fcetus conceived in the ftomach, the hufband, it feems, being fufpected of fome abominable way of converfmg with his wife s, Maroldus gives a different rationale ; he fuppofes the conception to have been in utero ; but how it came thence to the ftomach is a myftery ; fince naturally there is no canal or communication between the two, what- ever fome authors imagine to the contrary ; who pretend it might have afcended by the veins of the uterus to the vena cava, and thence have fallen into the ftomach h . This fyf- tem Maroldus refutes, as alfo another of Bartholin, who ap- prehended that the ftomach and uterus might have been ul- cerated, and that the two vifcera being contiguous in pregnant women, the foetus had been thifted out of one into the other. Maroldus refolves the whole into the vitious conformation of the uterus, which he fuppofes had an orifice extraordinary, with a canal patting from the fund and opening into the fto- mach ; fomething of which ftructure has been obferved in frogs '.— [ c Salmuth. Cent. 3. Obf. 94, d Barthol delnfolit.
Partus Viis. c. 9. e Ephem. Acad. N. C. dec. 1. An. 1. Obf.
108. p. 215. feq. f Ephem. Acad. N. C. dec. I. an. 1. Obf.
109. Schol. p. 221. feq. e Barthol. Anat. Reform, p. 168. h Fondeeh. in Lum. 2. p. 244. ' Marold. Diff. de Abortu per Vomitum rejecto, Ephem. Acad. N. C. ubi fupra. p. 209. feq.]
ABORTIVE Fluxjfiuxus Abortivus, is fometimes ufed, among the antients, as fynonymous with abortion or effluxion ; viz. Where the embryo lofes its hold, and flips away a . In this fenfe, the eagle-ftone is celebrated for Hopping Abortive fluxes ; for Which end it was to be hung to the arm, fubnexus fpem uteri de- fendit a fiuxibus Abortivis b . See Mri tEs. — [ 4 Salm, Exerc. Plin.p. 715. 1. D. *SeIin. Polyhift. p. 67. B.] Among modern phyficians, Abortive fluxes are chiefly under- ftood of a .kind of haemorrhages, which fometimes precede, and bring on abortion ; at other times burft forth in the act of ex- clufion. Junck. Confp. Med. tab. 11. p. 60. In this fenfe, a late author defines them a fpecies of uterine haemorrabges, happening to married women ; when after a ftoppage of the menfes, for three or four months fuccefiively, with a gradual fwelling of the abdomen, and other figns of pregnancy, the blood begins to iflue from the womb, at firft fparingly, like the regular menfes, but afterwards, burfts out with great force, attended with anxieties, faintingfits, and fometimes with mifcarriage. Bla%. Spec. Pathol, tab. 23.
The caufe is a violent reparation of the fecundines from the uterus e i which may arife from a vehement fit of patfion, or motion of the body, a fall, fright, or the like. Thunder, lightning, hot liquor, too liberal ufe of deobftruents, or the navel-ftring being too fhort, fometimes occafion an Abortive hae- morrhage". — [ c Davent. Art Midwif. c. 33. p. 160. d Bobn. Diff*. de Abort. Salub. app. Nov. Lit. Germ. 1708. p. 104.]
ABRAHAMIANS, or Abrahamites, a feet of heretics, who renewed the error of the Paulicians. They took their name from that of their leader Abraham, a native of Antioch, by the Arabs called Ibrahim ; whence alfo the name Ibrahlmiah, given by them to this feet. The Abrahamians arofe about the clofe of the eighth century, and were fupprefied by the vigilance of Cyriacus, patriarch of An- tioch. Elmacin. Hift. Sacr. p. 123. D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 283. Voc. Ibrakimiab. Trcv. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 39.
AbrahamitEs is alfo ufed, in church-hiftory, for a party of monks, who fuffered death for the worfhlp of images under Theophilus- Conji. Porphyrog. 1. 3. c. n. Trev Dia. Univ. T. 1. p. 40,
ABRAMIS, in ichthyology, a name given by BcIIonms and others, to the Cyprinus latus or Bream. See the article Cyprinus, and Brama.
ABRAUM, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome writ- ers, to a fpecies of red clay, ufed in England by the ca^ binet-makers, &c. to give a red colour to new mohogany- wood ; we have it from the ifleof Wight, but it is alfo found in Germany and Italy. The German writers call it Tarn Erde, and the writers of fome other nations Terra Adamica, from an opinion, that it was out of this very kind of earth that Adam was made.
ABRAXAS, (CycL) a barbarous word, denoting a power which prefides over three hundred fixty five others, the number of days in the year. Du Cang. Glofs. Graec. Add. p. 5. Mem. de Trev. Nov. 1703. p. 220. Caji. Lex. Med. p. 3. Abraxas is a word of obfeure origin, framed by antient here- tics as Ihould feem for quaintnefs fake b : it is fuppofed to be technically compounded of the Greek letters, confidered as numeral characters ; according to the cuftom of the Grecians, who exprefied their numbers by letters of the alphabet ; the va- lues of which in the prefent word ftand thus : A 1, B 2, Pi 00, A 1, s 60, a£ 200 ; which added together make the number 3 6 5-
The word is ufually written, among modern authors, Abraxas tho% as fome hold, by a corrupt tranfpofition of the letters s and s, for abrafex, as it is found in all the Greek fathers c , as well as on antient ftones. Irenjeus indeed has Abraxas, but the reafon may be, that the chapter in which the word occurs is only extant in Latin ; fo that tho' it be in Greek characters, the orthography is of Latin copifts or tranflators. — In ftrictnefs, the word ought to be written in Greek characters, abpaCas ; fince befides that the inventors of it fpoke that language, the word does not contain the number 365, when written in the Latin character. Hence a further error in moft books, wherein the word occurs in the fmaller or running character, on account of the Greek figma ; which having in antient inferiptions the fame figure with the Latin C, is often rendered by a Roman C inftead of S ; whence Abracax for Abrafax d .—[ h Du Cang. Glofl". Lat. Prsef. p. 21. Reiman. Hift. Voc. Lat. p. 67. c Baron. Ann. 120. N°. 10. T. 2 App. d Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1 . p. 38.]
Abraxas is more particularly ufed, in the Bafilidian theology, for the fupreme God, as fuppofed to contain the values or powers of 365 dependent deities. Vid. Iren. adv. Hseref. 1. 1. c. 23. Tertull de Prsefcr. c. 46. Epiphan. Hsref. 24. n. 7. 8. p. 56. Auguji. de Hseref. c. 4. Danaus ad eund. p. 1 1. Euftb. Hift. Ecclef. 1. 4. c. 7. Hieron. ad Amos, c. 3. The- cdortt. Hsr. Fab. 1. I. p. 4. Gaffend.X'w. Pierefc p. 38.
5 ■ Abraxas
