Page:Sexology.djvu/174

 the areola, or ring around the nipples, spreads in circum- ference, and assumes a darker color, in brunettes becoming almost black. The little follicles, or pimples, also become more prominent and darker, and the veins more blue. These symptoms and changes, however, often occur from sympathy with a diseased womb. And some women state that they experience them before and during every men- struation.

The presence of milk in the mammae is an additional sign, although old women and young girls have been found with milk in their breasts.

Morning sickness — nausea or actual vomiting on rising from bed — is another rational sign. The term is misap- plied, however; for the sickness may come on after every meal, or at any time during the day or night. Many are fortunate enough to escape this distressing symptom en- tirely; others are subject to it during the first two or three months and the last; others are afflicted by it through the whole period, becoming thus much exhausted, and their life, in some instances, put in jeopardy. This symptom is so common, that it is sufficient, in some women, to pro- nounce pregnancy at its appearance. It generally lasts from six weeks to three months, when the patient experi- ences a great relief until the eighth month; then it often re-appears.

It is advanced, also, and it has been pretty thoroughly tested by accoucheurs, that a certain change in the urine of a pregnant woman takes place, which may add to the circumstantial evidences of pregnancy; and that is, the presence of a mucilaginous principle called Kyestein. This may be detected in the following manner: take half a pint of the urine of a woman supposed to be pregnant, passed early in the morning, before breakfast; put it in a glass