Miscarriage
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
1.
In its general sense, of erroneous doing or behavior, this word occurs in the original English statute of frauds, 29 Car. II. ch. 3, § 4, which enacts that no action shall be brought to charge the defendant upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default, or "miscarriage" of another person, unless the agreement, &c., shall be in writing. Some other instances of its use, in this general sense, are found.
2.
When used with reference to pregnancy, it signifies, in the strict medical after conception. In law-books, it often occui-s as an equivalent of abortion, q. v. Miscarriage, as used in an indictment for procuring a miscarriage, does not necessarily include the idea of destroying the life of the foetus before delivery, nor exclude a case where the functions of life are exercised, briefly, after birth.
Smith V. State, 33 Me. 48, 60.