the recumbent posture for at least three or four hours in the middle of the day; and to keep the bowels open with some mild aperient (a drachm or two drachms of Epsom salts); and every morning to use the shower bath. This condition will now and then be accompanied with a feeling of bearing down, as if every thing would drop through; symptoms which will receive appropriate treatment by the adoption of the above plan (more particularly the recumbent posture), and, if not entirely relieved, will be found to disappear altogether between the fourth and fifth month.

If the discharge is in excess, no scruples of delicacy should prevent medical advice being sought; for if it is not attended to, most probably miscarriage will result.

In the latter months. Coming on in the latter months for the first time, provided it is not profuse, it is useful; for there will generally be symptoms of weight, heat, and discomfort present, which are alleviated by the discharge.

If, however, it is excessive, the frequent use of the bidet, and injections of tepid water into the vagina, will be productive of great comfort. The bowels should be kept constantly open by mild aperient medicines. And the recumbent position, by diminishing the pressure of the womb upon the parts from which the discharge proceeds, will tend

greatly to reduce the quantity.

Should these

means fail to diminish the amount of discharge, the Goulard injection may be thrown up into the vagina with great relief, night and morning: Goulard's extract, one drachm and a half; distilled water, one pint.

I think it right to observe, that when this discharge continues in considerable quantity during the whole period of pregnancy, it predisposes to premature delivery. Again and again have I known the same individual prematurely confined from this cause alone; her hopes thus repeatedly blighted; and, what is worse, her health unstrung for a long period.

In such women, the discharge exists more or less abundant when they are not pregnant; the menstrual secretion being more plentiful than it ought to be, and the intervals between the periods generally shorter than natural. Such women are generally weak, although they may have the appearance of strength; they can take very little exercise without fatigue; and their habits, although perhaps originally sedentary by choice, after a while become so from necessity. The symptoms, disregarded for months, nay, years, by the sufferer, increase; and now she has pains in the head, giddiness, and perhaps, indistinct vision, and many other symptoms which it is unnecessary to mention. At last the urgency of the symptoms leads her to seek for pro

fessional assistance. How much wiser, if the advice of the medical attendant had been sought at an early stage of the complaint, when the inconvenience was slight and easily manageable; for in proportion to the duration of the disease will be the difficulty in removing it.

SECT. XXI. PAIN IN THE SIDE.

THIS affection comes on towards the latter period of pregnancy, never being felt in the earlier months. It is exceedingly troublesome; and it too frequently happens that the remedies given for its relief, although varied enough, produce no good effect.

The pain at first is slight. The individual suffers little in the morning, but a few hours after dinner the pain becomes more violent; she is obliged to lie upon a sofa, and is frequently observed to place her hand over the part in pain, and press it pretty forcibly. Cough does not necessarily accompany this complaint; it is not unfrequently present, but it is then unconnected with inflammatory action in the chest.

Women are much in the habit of resorting to bleeding for this affection: but never, as far as I have observed, with the slightest advantage. Depending, as it does, on an irritable condition of the liver, nothing relieves it so speedily as those cathartic medicines which act on this organ.

Take at first, then, two pills composed of four grains of calomel, six of the compound extract of colocynth, and two of the extract of henbane; after which keep the bowels relaxed with three grains of blue pill, and three grains of the purified extract of aloes, taken every night: the diet being carefully attended to: no animal food or stimulants to be taken for some days.

The medicines will bring away black and offensive stools, and must be continued until these secretions are perfectly healthy in their appearance. This object gained, the pain in the side will have subsided; and all that is then necessary, is carefully to watch over the state of the bowels for the future.

HEADACH during the latter months of pregnancy ought never to be trifled with; for although it will most frequently arise from a disordered stomach, and is then easily removed, it is now and then the effect of a cause much more important.

Headach from disordered stomach. This will generally depend, either on a costive state of the bowels, indigestion, or nervous irritation: is attended with acid eructations, occasional giddiness or slight sickness, foul tongue, and perhaps paleness of the countenance, the attacks being fre

quently periodical, and confined to one side of the head.

This kind of headach is to be relieved by taking a mild aperient every other night, until the bowels are fully relieved and the tongue clean, — rest, — abstaining from animal food for a few days, and from all stimulants (wine, beer, &c.) for the remaining period of pregnancy. During the attack itself, ether, or eau de Cologne, may be applied to

the head.

This is

Headach from fulness of its vessels. an important disease when severe and constant, and more particularly if the patient is far advanced in her pregnancy. It is to be recognised by a dull appearance and suffused condition of the eye; by the presence of giddiness, especially upon stooping or lying down; and by a sense of heaviness or weight over the eyes, or in the head.. Its presence is still more strongly marked, if there is singing in the ears, fiery objects before the eyes, and indistinctness of vision. The seat of the pain is generally in the back of the head, and is usually accompanied by a fixed pain in some part of the spinal column.

This form of headach is very rare; but if the foregoing symptoms manifest themselves, as they indicate the approach of an attack of an alarming character, which may be prevented (and it is therefore here alluded to), timely recourse should be