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"Reverend Sir,—Yours of is received. It is impossible to decide at the present stage whether your wife is pregnant or not. The morning sickness, even if often repeated, would be very far from proof, because in nearly all uterine ailments the same sympathetic phenomena as occur in pregnancy may exist—and from the same general
cause, uterine irritation. In the case of intestinal worms, for example, the same rule obtains. The symptoms proceed from intestinal irritation, but this irritation may be caused by other things than worms; so we are never sure till we have physical proof. Thus the question of pregnancy in your wife's case, cannot be decided until sufficient time has elapsed to furnish the necessary physical signs.
Independently of all moral considerations, to assume that she is pregnant, and to endeavor to overcome that condition, would, in case the assumption were wrong, be attended with great risk to her life. So, in any event, the necessity for waiting is inexorable. Of this, however, I am certain; she has an uterine affection entirely independent of pregnancy, capable of producing all the symptoms she
has yet manifested. You seem to invite me to a discussion of another branch of the subject, and from our relative positions I cannot well avoid accepting your challenge. You are a teacher, to be sure, and so am I; but you are a teacher of religion, I, of science. It belongs to each of us to speak oracularly in his proper sphere, but in this instance the two are mutually dependent; you must base your teachings upon the clearly determined facts of science, for true
science and true religion can never conflict. Now, both declare positively that the child in the womb, from the very moment of conception, has being and soul, and consequently 'life or animation.' I presume you intend by this expression, 'life or animation,' the moment when it could
