tly. In Jurisprudence, reason must
be our guide when it affords us evidence of the truth. But when our
reason offers arguments on both sides of the question, so that we can
arrive at no certain conclusion, then we act prudently by invoking the
authority of wiser minds who make moral questions a speciality, and we
are perfectly safe if we follow the best authority obtainable.

A Catholic physician has here a special advantage: for he has in cases
of great difficulty the decisions of Roman tribunals, composed of most
learned men, and renowned for the thoroughness of their investigations
and the prudence of their verdicts, to serve him as guides and vouchers
for his conduct. Although these tribunals claim no infallibility, yet
they offer all the advantages that we look for, with regard to civil
matters, in the decisions of our Supreme Court. These Roman courts have
uniformly decided against any operation tending directly to the death of
an innocent child ("Am. Eccl. Rev.," Nov., 1893, pp. 352, 353; Feb.,
1895, p. 171).

Non-Catholics are, of course, not obliged to obey such pronouncements;
yet, even for them, it cannot be injurious, but rather very useful, to
know the views of so competent a court on matters of the most vital
interest in their learned profession. This is the reason why the
"Medical Record" has published of late so many articles on the teachings
of Catholic authorities with regard to craniotomy and abortion (see vol.
xlvii. nos. 5, 9, 25; vol. xlviii. nos. 1, 2, 3, 4).

LECTURE IV.

VIEWS OF SCIENTISTS AND SCIOLISTS.

In my former lectures, gentlemen, I explained to you the principles
condemnatory of craniotomy and abortion, viewing these chiefly from the
standpoint of the ethical philosopher and the jurist. Not being a
physician myself, I think it proper, on matters of so much importance,
to quote here freely from a lecture delivered on this subject by a late
professional gynecologist, an old experienced practitioner, who was for
many years a professor of obstetrics in the St. Louis Medical College. I
quote him with the more pleasure because of my personal acquaintance
with him, and of the universal esteem for ability and integrity in which
he was held by the medical profession.

Dr. L. Charles Boisliniere, to whom I refer, had by his scientific
acquirements and his successful practice, during forty years of his
life, become, to a great extent, identified with the progress of the
science of