ndemnation of the mother.

But the most dangerous and the most common error into which we are apt
to fall, is this, _viz._ supposing the experiment to have been fairly
made, and that we have guarded against every deception above mentioned,
we may rashly conclude that the child was born alive, and therefore must
probably have been murdered; especially in a case where the mother had
taken pains, by secreting the child, to conceal the birth. As this last
circumstance has generally great weight with a jury, I will only
observe, that in fair equity, it cannot amount to more than a ground of
suspicion, and therefore should not determine a question, otherwise
doubtful between an acquittal, or an ignominous death.

Here let us suppose a case which every body will allow to be very
possible. An unmarried woman, becoming pregnant, is striving to conceal
her shame, and laying the best scheme that she can devise, for saving
her own life, and that of the child, and at the same time concealing the
secret--but her plan is at once disconcerted, by her being unexpectedly
and suddenly taken ill by herself, and delivered of a dead child. If the
law punishes such a woman with death for not publishing her shame, does
it not require more from human nature than weak human nature can bear?
In a case so circumstanced, surely the only crime is the having been
pregnant, which the law does not mean to punish with death; and the
attempt to conceal it by fair means should not be punishable by death,
as that attempt seems to arise from a principle of virtuous shame.

Having shewn that the secreting of the child amounts at most to
suspicion only, let us return to the most important question of all,
_viz._ If in case of a concealed birth, it be clearly made out that the
child had breathed, may we infer that it was murdered? Certainly not. It
is certainly a circumstance like the last, which amounts only to
suspicion. To prove this important truth to the satisfaction of the
reader, it may be thought fit to assert the following facts, which I
know from experience to be true, and which will be confirmed by every
person who has been much employed in midwifery.

1. If a child makes but one gasp, and instantly dies, the lungs will
swim in water as readily as if it breathed longer, and had then been
strangled.

2. A child will very commonly breathe as soon as its mouth is born, or
protruded from the mother, and in that case may lose its life before its
bod