REPRODUCTION 579 



but in normal labor this is speedily checked by firm contraction 

 of the uterus. Should this fail to take place profuse hemorrhage 

 occurs (flooding) and the mother may bleed to death in a few 

 minutes unless prompt measures are adopted. 



For a few days after delivery there is some discharge (the 

 lochia) from the uterine cavity: the whole decidua being broken 

 down and carried off, to be subsequently replaced by new mucous 

 membrane. The muscular fibers developed in the uterine wall in 

 such large quantities during pregnancy undergo rapid fatty de- 

 generation and are absorbed, and in a few weeks the organ re- 

 turns almost to its original size. The parturient woman is es- 

 pecially apt to take infectious diseases; and these, should they 

 attack her, are fatal in a very large percentage of cases. Very 

 special care should therefore be taken to keep all contagion from 

 her. 



There is a current impression that a pregnancy, once com- 

 menced, can be brought to a premature end, especially in its early 

 stages, without any serious risk to the woman. That belief is 

 erroneous. Premature delivery, early or late in pregnancy, is 

 always more dangerous than natural labor *at the proper term; 

 the physician has sometimes to induce it, as when a malformed 

 pelvis makes normal parturition impossible, or the general de- 

 rangement of health accompanying the pregnancy is such as to 

 threaten the mother's life; but the occasional necessity of decid- 

 ing whether it is his duty to procure an abortion is one of the most 

 serious responsibilities he meets with in the course of his profes- 

 sional work. 



The production of abortion, even in the first stages of preg- 

 nancy, by the taking of drugs, the so-called abortifacients, a prac- 

 tice which seems to have gained considerable headway through 

 the widespread advertisement of their wares by unscrupulous 

 vendors of " patent medicines," is so dangerous to the health, 

 and even the life, of the woman who practices it that no consid- 

 eration sanctions it. 



Lactation. The mammary glands for several years after birth 

 remain small, and alike in both sexes. Towards puberty they be- 

 gin to enlarge in the female, and when fully developed form in 

 that sex two rounded eminences, the breasts, placed on the thorax. 

 A little below the center of each projects a small eminence, the 



