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rather more serious business, and the best method is the double tying of the Fallopian tubes and excision of the segments between the ties. Though generally reliable this method is not absolutely safe owing to the spontaneous power of the ovum to wander, reported now and then as resulting in unexpected pregnancy.

In women excision of ovaries or womb leads to sterility, but these operations are now seldom undertaken by doctors except to combat definite disease. A decade or so ago, however, removal of the ovaries tended to be rather a fashionable operation in some circles.

The subject of sterilization is a separate and very large theme and will not be dealt with fully in this volume, though some further notes will be found on p. 196.

Methods of abortion are most frequently used by poor and ignorant women who are denied the necessary contraceptive knowledge, and many and various as they are, all can fairly be described as physiologically harmful as well as legally criminal.

Medically necessary "evacuation of the uterus" or therapeutic abortion is suffi-