OF TRUE PREGNANCY. 117 



vermicular motion which seems to proceed from the womb and pass 

 to the iliac fossae or flancs; borborygmi, first in the uterus, Avhich 

 seems to be full of gas, and then throughout the whole abdomen, and 

 sometimes a general shivering, beginning in the abdomen, complete 

 the series of symptoms which announce that fecundation has taken 

 place. 



303. This first condition is succeeded by pregnancy, properly so 

 called. The eyes lose their vivacity, their brilliancy, have an ex- 

 pression of languor, and seem to sink in their orbits; the eyelids 

 grow dark and are surrounded with a blackish, livid, or leaden circle; 

 the nose grows sharper and longer; the mouth widens by the sepa- 

 ration of its corners; all the features of the face seem to retire 

 backwards, which renders the chin more prominent; the face be- 

 comes pale, is covered with spots of various sizes and numbers, 

 sometimes reddish, or of a more or less deep brown; sometimes, 

 but more rarely, of a dead or milk white color; in a word, it be- 

 comes masked. 



The neck swells, becomes softer, and is the seat of a congestion, 

 which, according to Diogenes, was formerly indicated by Democritus, 

 and which Catullus has mentioned in the following lines: 



Non, illam nutrix, oriente luce, revisens, 

 Hesterno colluin, poterit circumdare filo; 



a congestion which Dumas says he has positively observed.* The 

 breasts enlarge, become more tender, firmer; sometimes a few drops 

 of whitish serosity can be extracted from them; the nipple rises and 

 is more prominent; the areola enlarges and grows visibly browner; 

 the delicacy of their tegumentary layer increases, and they also occa- 

 sionally exhibit some whitish stains, analogous to those on the face. 



304. The pulse, at first embarrassed, acquires a greater degree 

 of frequency, and then of force and hardness; it becomes larger, 

 fuller, sometimes irregular, and somewhat bounding, quick and 

 feverish; towards the term of labor, it is found to be, says Bordeu, 

 convulsive-like, intermittent and corded; in fine, the artery seems 

 to be more tense, beats with more Irequency and velocity; the cir- 

 culation being more active, hemorrhages are commoner and more 

 dangerous; blood drawn from a vein, or escaping accidentally from 

 the organs, is found to be covered with a sizy coat, of variable 

 thickness, according as the fibrine or crassamentum happens to be 



* There is more poetry than truth in the lines of Catullus. The feet become 

 less swelled, and the neck and face more swelled by a night spent in the hori- 

 zontal posture, and the lines are as applicable to niea as they are to women. — M. 



II* 



