The induction of abortion should be undertaken as reluctantly as one would commit justifiable homicide. If in the course of pregnancy some disease arises as a direct consequence of gestation, or if a woman suffering from disease is made much worse by the existence of pregnancy, and if her life is distinctly endangered in consequence, it is not only justifiable, but it is the physician's duty to terminate gestation, and thus to save one life, and that the more valuable of the two, instead of sacrificing both mother and fetus. This statement by Hirst1is quoted as one setting forth, in my opinion, the fundamental principles to be considered in therapeutic abortion. My topic calls for a discussion of the indications for abortion in neurologic and psychiatric disorders under these principles; that is, a discussion of the neurologic and psychiatric disorders found in pregnant women which arise as a