Note 8 — The Cycle of Life
Reading edition
To produce a miscarriage, a secret liquor is made from the bark of a tree. After several drinks of the brew, the abdomen is kneaded and pushed downward until the foetus is discharged. A canvass of forty women past the child-bearing age showed an average, to each, of five children, about 40 per cent of whom died in infancy. Apparently about the same ratio of births is being maintained at present.