Odger's English Common Law

ABORTION. 225
herself any poison or other noxious thing or to unlawfully
use any instrument or other means with intent to procure
her own miscarriage. 1 And any one, who unlawfully
administers to a woman or causes her to take any poison or
other noxious thing or unlawfully uses upon her any instrument
or other means with intent to procure her miscarriage,
is guilty of felony, whether the woman be with child or not,
and is liable to the same punishment. 2
Where the drug administered is a recognised poison, it is a "noxious
thing," even though the quantity administered was so small as to be
incapable of doing any harm. But where the drug is not a recognised
poison, or is not harmful wheu taken in small quantities, nevertheless if
the accused administered it in such large quantities as to be capable
of doing harm, he has administered a " noxious thing " within the meaning
of the statute. 3
It has been decided that if the accused takes a harmless
drug under the belief that it is " noxious " and with intent to procure her
miscarriage, she can be convicted of attempting to procure abortion. 4
Moreover any one, who supplies or procures any poison or
other noxious thing or any instrument or other thing, knowing
that the same is intended to be unlawfully used with
intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman, is guilty of a
misdemeanour punishable with fiye years' penal servitude. 5
The fact that the woman was not with child is wholly
immaterial.
Indecent Exposure.
Any person, who exposes in public his naked person,
commits a misdemeanour indictable at common law and is
liable to two years' imprisonment ; the offence, however, is
usually dealt with under the Vagrancy Act, 1824. 6
Thus, bathing in the state of nature near to inhabited
houses or near to a public footpath would be an indictable
misdemeanour at common law. 7
It is no defence that from
> 24 k 25 Vict. o. 100, s. 58.
* lb. ss. 58 and 59. The woman may in such a case be indicted for conspiracy
with such persons to procure abortion : B. y. Whitchurch and others (1890), 24
Q. B. D. 420.
8 B. v. Cramp (1880), 5 Q. B. D. 307' ; Bichley v. B. (1909), 2 Cr. App. Rep. 53.
' B. v. Brown (1899), '63 J. P. 790.
« 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 69.
• 5 Geo. V. c. 83 ; see post, p. 231.
i R. v. Sedley (1663), 17 St. Tr. 155 ; It. v. Beed (1871), 12 Cox, 1.
B.C.L.
15