388 DYSTOCIA. 



about the head, giddiness, confusion of ideas, hallucinations, indis- 

 position to move, uneasiness in the limbs, a dull or frightened look, 

 redness of the conjunctiva, or of the whole countenance, headach, 

 vertigo, stammering, vivid brightness of the eyes, irregularity of the 

 pulse, slight convulsive motions of the muscles of the face, subsultus 

 of the muscles of the extremities; but it is often, also, found to appear 

 in a sudden and unexpected manner, and to attack at once, with the 

 most alarming symptoms. The woman suddenly becomes insensi- 

 ble, and seems to revive for a moment only to fall again into the 

 most violent agitation; the limbs writhe, contract, become flexed and 

 ex-tended with astonishing strength and celerity; the body is bent 

 backwards, as if the head and heels were about to approach each 

 other; the hands are powerfully directed towards the breast or the 

 epigastrium, which they strike, and sometimes appear to tear with 

 rage; the features of the face become distorted and convulsed; the 

 lips, which are drawn in various directions, move in the most sin- 

 gular manner; the eyes roll, are agitated and turned up under the 

 orbits; the pulsation of the carotids and temporal arteries is seen 

 through the skin; the jugulars swell; the throat and face become 

 tumid, and almost purple; the eyes seem as if they would start out 

 of the head; the moulh fills with water, which is spirted sometimes 

 to a great distance upon the assistants; the tongue, irregularly agi- 

 tated, is often pinched, and even violently bitten by the grinding of 

 the teeth and the spasmodic motions of the jaws. In these terrible 

 moments the woman is truly a frightful object, and highly deserving 

 of pity; the diaphragm by its rapid contractions gives rise to sobs, 

 and an appearance of suffocation, and forces from the mouth and 

 nostrils the substances accumulated in them. The stomach and 

 bowels, the bladder and uterus itself, when they become the seats of 

 such motions, produce vomitings, involuntary expulsion of the faeces 

 and urine, and sometimes of the ovum, with an extreme promptitude; 

 in fine, it might be said that all the viscera participate in the disor- 

 dered movements of the limbs. At other times, the face and rest of 

 the body pass, so to speak, with the rapidity of lightning, from this 

 state of agitation and vivid color into the most perfect calm, and fall 

 into a mortal paleness; at last, and more or less promptly, the con- 

 gestion of the brain brings on coma, which generally succeeds the 

 attacks of syncope and insensibility. 



892. The duration of an attack is not less variable than its inten- 

 sity; it lasts in some cases only from ten minutes to a quarter of an 

 hour or half hour; whilst in others it continues half a day or even 

 twenty-four hours; if coma supervenes, it may prolong the insensi- 

 bility for several days and terminate in a complete and prompt restora- 



