ANIMATION signifies the informing an animal
body with a soul.—The different hypotheses of phy-
sicians and philosophers, concerning the time of anima-
tion, have had their influence on the penal laws made
against artificial abortions; it having been made capital
to procure miscarriage in the one state, while in the
other it was only deemed a venial crime. The em-
peror Charles V. by a constitution published in 1532, put
the matter on another footing; instead of the distinc-
tion of an animated and unanimated fetus, he intro-
duced that of a vital and non-vital fetus, as a thing of
more obvious and easy decision, and not depending on
any system either of creation, traduction, or infusion.
Accordingly a fetus is said, in a legal sense, to be
animated, when it is perceived to stir in the womb;
which usually happens about the middle of the term
of gestation.