The next most important factor during this period is in dress. Garments should fit loosely, should be suspended from the shoulders, and no undue pressure should be made upon any part of the body, especially the vital organs. The wearing of tight garters should be interdicted. Extremely active exercise should be avoided, although even up to the very day of the lying-in a healthy pregnant woman will be benefited by moderate exercise. Be careful in regard to exposure to cold and dampness, especially wet feet, as these conditions will often be sufficient to cause the death of the child, and may place the mother herself in a very dangerous condition. The morning bath is refreshing, but cold baths should be used very carefully. To avoid colds, the hot bath should always be taken at night. These should be taken regularly, and especially so towards the close of the pregnancy, in order to relieve the kidneys as much as possible. Now, gentlemen, be careful of the sitz bath. Do not allow it to be of more than three or four minutes' duration, and insist on at least one hour's rest afterward. Cut out vaginal douches unless they are taken under your advice. The application of some oil during the last four months of pregnancy will relieve the irritation and crackling of the skin. There should. be at least from eight to ten hours' sleep during the night, and a nap during the daytime will only be productive of good. The usual marital relations are abhorrent to most women during this period, cause discomfort in the pelvis and are an aggravation to the nausea and vomiting of the early months and in causing abortion. Therefore, I am of the opinion that two beds should be used for husband and wife during this period, and particularly during the first four months. No absolute rules can be laid down as regards diet, as the same foods do not agree with all patients. However, the food should be plain, nutritious and easily digested, and should be taken at regular intervals. Morbid cravings must be overcome, but fancies, dislikes, etc., may be yielded to, provided the food fulfills the above requirements. Alcoholic drinks and coffee should be taken in moderation, and especially tea, which is liable to constipate. Water is, of course, the proper drink for a pregnant woman. I am not going into details as to what a pregnant woman can take, but will give a list of articles that, in my opinion, should be avoided, viz., soups made from vegetables growing underground; salt pork with or without beans, in any form; boiled dinners, ham, veal, duck, liver, kidneys, hash, meat mixed-salads, corned beef, any canned meat or soups, mackerel, dried fish or salt meats, except codfish, bananas, tapioca, breakfast cereals, mince pies, suet puddings, fruit cakes, or, in fact, any kind of cake, tea or coffee, especially if they have been boiled. The nipples and breasts for a couple of months before labor should be washed daily, afterward carefully dried and anointed with cocoa butter or white vaseline. Massage of the breasts is also of value, as this will make the milk flow more freely on the first days, at which time it is usually slow. The physician should examine and find out if the nipples can be drawn out easily, or if any cracks, fissures or soreness can be found. If the breasts are healthy, they need very little care. Everything should be in readiness at least one week before the expected time of confinement. The nurse should know the exact location of every article that is liable to be needed. If possible, the lying-in room should be large, well ventilated and with a sunny exposure. As labor may occur at night a good artificial light should be provided. Under no circumstances use a room that has lately been occupied by a patient suffering from any contagious disease. Thorough cleanliness is a matter of chief importance, and should be attended to at least one week before, and can usually be done even in the most humble homes. The bed should be strong and firm, placed so as to be accessible from both sides, and should be made as follows: There should be a hard mattress covered with a piece of rubber sheeting; over this a sheet is laid, a second rubber sheeting, a second sheet, while over all is placed another sheet or pad, if one is to be had, to catch the discharges. After labor has been completed the last coverings should be taken away. When practicable I use a cot or single bed, and when labor has been completed the patient is removed to her permanent bed. The physician should now find out if the mother is in a condition to nurse her child. Due to a series of causes incidental to modern civilization, the number of cases in which the mother's milk should be made to give way to artificial feeding is rapidly increasing. Some of these are: (a) Many women are unable or unwilling to nurse their children. (b) The wet nurse is being gradually dispensed with. (c) There may be certain well known physical causes that may prevent the nursing, such as (1) syphilis; (2) tuberculosis; (3) any other well-marked cachexia; (4) poor nutrition, showing itself in inferior quantity or quality of milk; (5) chronic infections or degenerative diseases, such as albuminuria, chorea, Graves' disease, neuritis, melancholia, neurasthenia, etc. These conditions the physician should examine into thoroughly and advise the patient accordingly. See that the baby is not suffering from a deficient energy of assimilation, see that the nervous system is being properly developed, and you will find the child developing both in physical and mental strength.-Lancet-Clinic. The Use of Glyco-Thymoline in Obstetrics. BY GEO. H. SHELTON, M. D., DETROIT, MICH. I am so gratined and pleased with the action of Glyco-Thymoline in the various conditions in which it is indicated, and especially so in obstetrics, that I can not endorse it too highly. I have used Glyco-Thymoline in obstetrical practice wherever sepsis is present or threatened, and I can say candidly that I have yet to meet with disappointment. The result in every instance has been simply charming. Did not time forbid, I could recount numerous cases in which the happy climax was attributable to the use of Glyco-Thymoline. I wish to state that I find such general use for Glyco-Thymoline in obstetrics that I would not consider that I was fully prepared for any and all emergencies which might arise while attending a case of labor unless I had a supply of the above mentioned remedy on hand. What Texas Is. A man once asked a native What Texas soil would grow: Said he, "I'll never tell you, for really I don't know. The soil's so rich in this great State, Remember what I say, That if I told you everything, Just take the products of the earth And Texas soil will equal The best grown, every time. "Why, sir," said he, "If walls were built We'd have the best of everything And wouldn't half-way try. We have our mines, our countless herds, And industries galore; And hands that work, and hearts that beat, For Texas evermore. And women fair, large men and strong, I'll tell you, sir, what Texas is: The world rolled in one State." -G. Herb Palin. ONE HUNDRED AND THREE CASES OF EPILEPSY.-William L. Stowell gives the summary of his notes upon 103 cases of epilepsy in private, dispensary, and hospital practice. The young are most frequently affected. The disease has little tendency to shorten life or to be readily cured. The children of unhealthy or neurotic parents are more liable to become epileptic than are those of vigorous ancestry. Many of the hospital cases originate in a class of people used to poverty, overcrowding, and abuse of alcohol. Palsies appear in twenty-two of the writer's cases. The aura is most common in cases of eccentric origin-Jacksonian. Insanity and epilepsy are closely related or allied. In the treatment of these cases an attempt is made to improve general nutrition and to quiet the nerve cells. A vegetable diet is advised, together with the observance of the general laws of hygiene. The writer approves of the use of the bromides with general tonics.-Medical Record. LOUISIANA RACE SUICIDE.-Startling statistics, indicating race suicide in Louisiana at an alarming rate, have been made public by the Louisiana State Board of Education. Sixteen parishes report a total decrease of 9438 educable children during 1907, as compared with last year. Thirteen parishes are yet to report, and it is expected that the final figures will show more than 12,000 less in childhood for twelve months. The parishes that decreased are: Bossier, Cameron, Claiborne, Concordia, DeSoto, East Carroll, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lincoln, Livingston, Morehouse, Plaquemine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Tenasas and Union. Lafayette shows the greatest decline, with 1773. Statistics from Orleans Parish, embracing the city of New Orleans, have not been completed. THE EXPERIMENTAL EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.-D. Pierce Clark, of New York, says that the poisonous effects of tobacco depend on nicotine, pyridin, and a number of other alkaloids which have not been thoroughly studied as yet. Tobacco has a permanent and definite effect on the nervous system only after years of use. Experiments have been made on producing a tobacco that does not contain nicotine, and this is not found to be so poisonous, while not as satisfactory to the smoker. The author sums up the results of experiments on animals as to the effects of tobacco on the nervous system thus: Tobacco is primarily a cardiovascular poison; its acute toxic effects on the neuromuscular apparatus are first, as an excitant and mild convulsant; second, a motor nerve depressant, and finally, as a paralysant of the central and peripheral nerves of the heart and lungs. Its chronic toxic effects are to produce congestion of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, inducing a mild type of degenerative neuritis. The toxic coefficient is so variable as to make definite conclusions with reference to its effects on man hard to reach.Medical Record. Eloping up to Date. The coatless man puts a careless arm Like a leadless bullet from a hammerless gun, They fly to taste the speechless joys By endless union given. The only luncheon his coinless purse -Maurice Rutherford in Lippincott's. |