Page:The American improved family physician, or home doctor.djvu/272

266 ten lunar months, or two hundred and eighty days. A majority, probably, are born in the fortieth week; and they are not very unfrequent in the thirty-seventh, forty-fourth, and forty-fifth weeks.

PATHOLOGY OF THE FOETUS.—Nearly all the malediesmaladies [sic] to which the child is subject may affect the foetus; and when we consider how unhealthfully the majority of females live while in the pregnant state, and how readily the organic instincts, true to the all-pervading law of self-preservation, throw the morbid conditions of the mother upon the new being within, it seems almost wonderful that so great a majority can live, until the time for being born arrives. But the foetus does often die in the uterus, and it is sometimes important to ascertain the fact. The signs are: a cessation of its motions; flaccidity or falling in of the abdomen; recession afof [sic] the umbilicus; a sensation of coldness, and of a dense weight in the abdomen; the breasts suddenly becoming flaccid; to which may be added a loose feeling of the uterine tumor, failing health, sunken countenance, dark areola round the eyes, foetid breath, frequent chills, &c. Here as usual, we are to "trust to nature." At an uncertain time the uterus will expel its contents, and the treatment required is the same, in all essential particulars, as for ordinary abortions.

HYGIENIC MANAGEMENT DURING PREGNANCY.— Given by Dr. Trail in his own language. Those females who would escape the usual and dangerous maladies which frequently accompany pregnancy, and avoid in a great degree the ordinary pains of childbirth; and above all those who would be mothers of healthy children—healthy in body and mind, in constitution and in disposition—must observe attentively and obey inviolably a few simple hygenichygienic [sic] precepts.

1. All high-seasoned, high-salted and complicated dishes must be abstained from. The whole course of diet must be plain and simple., and coarse enough to keep the bowels always free. Animal food, if used, should not be taken more than once a day.

2. All drugs must be eschewed, especially every thing of the narcotic kind, as opium and its preparation?, which have a direct tendency to stupify and enfeeble the future being.

3. Some form of bath must be taken daily; a towel wash or rub-sheet will answer, and it need not be very cold; about