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A few weeks ago Dr. George T. Harrison read an admirable paper before the New York County Medical Association on the Indications for the Induction of Premature Labor, which is worthy of careful study. In general terms it may be said that the object sought in this operation is to give a better prognosis in those cases in which the further continuance of pregnancy, or childbirth at term, involves great dangers to mother or child, or both, by artificial termination of pregnancy at a time when the fœtus is capable of living outside the uterus. As the chief danger to the mother, in the performance of the operation, is not, as formerly supposed, the mechanical irritation of the uterus but septic infection, it may be affirmed that, if proper antiseptic precautions be observed, this danger is an avoidable one.
The first and most important indication for the operation is furnished