Infanticide is common among the nso tine tribes of Brazil. (London Geog. Journal, ii. 198.) In Christian countries, although infan ticide is regarded with the deepest abhor rence, and is visited with the extreme severity of the law, the expense and trou ble of maintenance, and the fear of shame and loss of reputation, are motives suffi ciently powerful for the occasional perpe tration of the crime.
It is one of the most difficult questions of medical jurisprudence to establish the murder of a child lately born. The chief points for decision are,-1st, whether the infant, the subject of inquiry, was born dead or alive ; and 2nd, whether its death was the result of violence or of natural causes.
To establish the former point it is ne cessary to prove, first, that the infant was not born before the end of the sixth month after conception, because before that time a foetus cannot be deemed capable of maintaining an independent existence, or to be what is called viable. This being proved from the size and form of the child, the decision whether it was born alive or not must generally rest on the condition of the lungs and heart, in which certain remarkable changes are produced as soon as respiration in the air has com menced. The result of many experi ments has established certain rules by which the fact of the child having breath ed after birth can in general be ascer tained. In more difficult eases the weight of the lungs and their specific gravity re quire to be examined.
The signs of a child having lived after birth, which are to be found in the heart and other parts, supply no positive in formation unless life has continued for at least a day, and then the lungs alone will always suffice for decision. We need not consider the evidence required to prove whether a child born alive was murdered or died from natural causes, for it must be similar in all respects to that which is necessary in cases of homicide.
If the result of the evidence be that the child was born alive, and that it was destroyed, the offence is murder, and punishable accordingly.
If a woman be quick with child (that is, if she has felt the child move within her), it is murder if she take, or any per.
son administer to her, or use any means with intent to procure abortion. But in cases where the woman is not quick with child, the offence is punishable at the discretion of the court by transportation for any term not exceeding fourteen or less than seven years, or imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding three years ; and if the offender be a male, he is to be once, twice, or thrice publicly or privately whipped (if the court shall think fit), under 9 George IV. c. 31. But this sta tute has been amended, and an attempt to procure abortion is now punishable, under 1 Vict. C. 85, with transportation for life or any term not less than fifteen years, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.
The murder of bastard children by the mother was considered a crime so difficult to be proved, that the statute 21 James I. c. 27, made the concealment of the death of a bastard child absolute evi dence that it had been murdered by the mother, except she could prove, by one witness at least, that it had been actually born dead. This law was repealed by the 43 George III. c. 58; and this act also was repealed by the statute 9 George IV. c.31. Itis enacted by § 14 of this last act that if "any woman" be delivered of a child, and shall, by secret burying or otherwise disposing of the dead body of the said child, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof; every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction, for any term not ex ceeding two years ; and it shall not be necessary to prove whether the child died before or after birth : provided that if any woman tried for the murder of her child be acquitted thereof, it shall be lawful for the jury to find, in case it shall so appear in evidence, that she was de livered of a child, and that she did, by secret burying or otherwise disposing of the dead body of such child, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof, and there upon the court may pass such sentence as if she had been convicted upon an indict ment for the concealment of the birth.