280 LABOR-PAINS. 



as soon as it is over. The cause of this peculiarity is easy to be 

 understood: at tlie commencement, the fibres of the neck still resist 

 with great energy the action of the fibres of the body and fundus; 

 as the womb contracts at all points at the same time, and not in one 

 or another of its planes, as A. Leroy supposed, or in different por- 

 tions of its substance alternately, as taught by some others, the ori- 

 fice, instead of dilating so as to allow the membranes to engage, on 

 the contrary contracts, as if to prevent their passing out; whereas, at 

 a more advanced stage, when it is sufficiently open to permit the 

 point of the ovum to lodge in it, the bag of waters unites in assisting 

 the uterine contraction to force them to distend. 



702. Immediately after the discharge of the liquor amnii, the head 

 of the foetus occupies the situation of the bag of membranes, fulfils 

 its uses, and acts upon the neck in the same manner; nearly all 

 practitioners think this part less favorable for the dilatation than the 

 segment of the membranes, inasmuch as it is not so even, as it does 

 not form a tumor so equally stretched; but we shall see, in examin- 

 ing the subject of the premature rupture of the ovum, that upon this 

 subject observation requires to be consulted anew. It is principally 

 from this very moment that the uterine circle is converted, in first 

 labors, into a circular cushion of various thickness, and that the dila- 

 tation seems sometimes to diminish to such a degree as to impress 

 us with a belief that the labor is retrograding instead of advancing. 



§. VI. Of the Discharge of Glairy HIuciis. 



703. The term glairy or mucous discharge is given to certain 

 flakes of matter of a very clear yellow or greenish white color which 

 escape from the sexual organs during labor; this glairy matter occa- 

 sionally resembles white of eggs slightly cooked, and differs from the 

 mucus of the nostrils by being less adhesive and by forming masses 

 or lumps which are less coherent and more albuminous. It escapes 

 in masses or flakes which tremble like jelly, come away especially 

 during the contractions, appear in some instances several days before 

 the onset of labor, of which they constitute one of the most certain 

 preliminary signs,* become more and more abundant as the dilatation 

 progresses, and at last, in a majority of women, become tinged with 

 blood. 



704. Nothing is more variable than the quantity of this discharge; 

 sometimes a few lumps only are observed, and at others very large 

 quantities of it escape with each pain ; when in small quantity 



* In a great many animals, both domestic and wild, parturition is also pre- 

 ceded by a discharge of mucous matters, which is sometimes very abundant. 



