Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/68

Rh 52 A B O A B R Opican tribes. In modern times the term Aborigines has been extended in signification, and is used to indicate the inhabitants found in a country at its first discovery, in contradistinction to colonies or new races, the time of whose introduction into the country is known. ABORTION, in Midwifery (from aborior, I perish), the premature separation and expulsion of the contents of the pregnant uterus. When occurring before the eighth lunar month of gestation, abortion is the term ordinarily employed, but subsequent to this period it is designated premature labour. The present notice includes both these terms. As an accident of pregnancy, abortion is far from uncommon, although its relative frequency, as compared with that of completed gestation, has been very differently estimated by accoucheurs. It is more liable to occur in the earlier than in the later months of pregnancy, and it would also appear to occur more readily at the periods corresponding to those of the menstrual discharge. Abor tion may be induced by numerous causes, both of a local and general nature. Malformations of the pelvis, acci dental injuries, and the diseases and displacements to which the uterus is liable, on the one hand; and, on the other, various morbid conditions of the ovum or placenta leading to the death of the foetus, are among the direct local causes of abortion. The general causes embrace certain states of the system which are apt to exercise a more or less direct influence upon the progress of utero- gestation. A deteriorated condition of health, whether hereditary or as the result of habits of life, certainly pre disposes to the occurrence of abortion. Syphilis is known to be a frequent cause of the death of the foetus. Many diseases arising in the course of pregnancy act as direct exciting causes of abortion, more particularly the eruptive fevers and acute inflammatory affections. Prolonged irritation in other organs may, by reflex action, excite the uterus to expel its contents. Strong impressions made upon the nervous system, as by sudden shocks and mental emotions, occasionally have a similar effect. Further, certain medicinal substances, particularly ergot of rye, borax, savin, tansy, and cantharides, are commonly be lieved to be capable of exciting uterine action, but the effects, as regards at least early pregnancy, are very un certain, while the strong purgative medicines sometimes employed with the view of procuring abortion have no effect whatever upon the uterus, and can only act remotely and indirectly, if they act at all, by irritating the alimen tary canal. In cases of poisoning with carbonic acid, abortion has been observed to take place, and the experi ments of Dr Brown Sequard show that anything inter fering with the normal oxygenation of the blood may cause the uterus to contract and expel its contents. Many cases of abortion occur without apparent cause, but in such instances the probability is that some morbid condition of the interior of the uterus exists, and the same may be said of many of those cases where the disposition to abort has become habitual. The tendency, however, to the recurrence of abortion in persons who have previously miscarried is well known, and should ever be borne in mind with the view of avoiding any cause likely to lead to a repetition of the accident. Abortion resembles ordi nary labour in its general phenomena, excepting that in the former hemorrhage often to a large extent forms one of the leading symptoms. The treatment of abortion embraces the means to be used by rest, astringents, and sedatives, to prevent the occurrence when it merely threatens ; or when, on the contrary, it is inevitable, to accomplish as speedily as possible the complete removal of the entire contents of the uterus. The artificial induc tion of premature labour is occasionally resorted to by accoucheurs under certain conditions involving the safety of the mother or the foetus. For Criminal Abortion, see MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. ABOUKIR, a small village on the coast of Egypt, 13 miles N.E. of Alexandria, containing a castle which was used as a state prison by Mehemet Ali. Near the village, and connected with the shore by a chain of rocks, is a small island remarkable for remains of ancient buildings. Stretching to the eastward as far as the Rosetta mouth of the Nile is the spacious bay of Aboukir, where Nelson fought &quot; the Battle of the Nile,&quot; defeating and almost destroying the French fleet that had conveyed Napoleon to Egypt. It was near Aboukir that the expedition to Egypt, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, in 1801, effected a landing in the face of an opposing force. ABRABANEL, ISAAC (called also Abravanel, Abarbanel, Barbanella, and Ravanella), a celebrated Jewish statesman, philosopher, theologian, and commentator, was born at Lisbon in 1437. He belonged to an ancient family that claimed descent from the royal house of David, and his parents gave him an education becoming so renowned a lineage. He held a high place in the favour of King Alphonso V., who intrusted him with the management of important state affairs. On the death of Alphonso in 1481, his counsellors and favourites were harshly treated by his successor John ; and Abrabanel was, in consequence, compelled to flee to Spain, where he held for eight years (1484-1492), the post of a minister of state under Ferdi nand and Isabella. When the Jews were banished from Spain in 1492, no exception was made in Abrabanel s favour. He afterwards resided at Naples, Corfu, and Monopoli, and in 1503 removed to Venice, where he held office as a minister of state till his death in 1508. Abra banel was one of the most learned of the rabbis. His writings are chiefly exegetical and polemical ; he displays in them an intense antipathy to Christianity, though he lived on terms of friendship with Christians. He wrote commentaries on the greater part of the Old Testament, in a clear but somewhat diffuse style, anticipating much that has been advanced as new by modern theologians. ABRACADABRA, a meaningless word once supposed to have a magical efficacy as an antidote against agues and other fevers. Ridiculously minute directions for the proper use of the charm are given in the Prcecepta de, Medicina of Serenus Sammonicus. The paper on which the word was written had to be folded in the form of a cross, suspended from the&quot; neck by a strip of linen so as to rest on the pit of the stomach, worn in this way for nine days, and then, before sunrise, cast behind the wearer into a stream running to the east. The letters of this word were usually arranged to form a triangle in one or other of the following ways : ABRACADABRA ABRACADABRA ABRACADABR BRACADABR ABRACADAB EACADAB ABRACADA .A CAD A ABRACAD CAD ABRACA A. ABRAC ABRA ABR AB A ABRAHAM or ABRAM, father of the Israelite race, was the first-born son of Terah, a Shemite, who left Ur of the Chaldees, in the north-east of Mesopotamia, along with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, and turned westwards in the direction of Canaan. Abram had married his half-sister Sarai, who was ten years younger than himself ; and though such relationship was afterwards forbidden by the law, it was common in ancient times, both among other