MANAGEMENT OF LYING-IN WOMEN. 583 



1241. Sleep being of the first necessity to a being worn out with 

 fatigue, there would be a sort of cruelty in not permitting the wo- 

 man to enjoy it: in advising that she should be kept awake for several 

 hours for the purpose of avoiding hemorrhage, De la Motte certainly 

 did not in this morbid phenomenon distinguish the effect from the 

 cause. Although women sometimes do fall asleep with all the ap- 

 pearances of health, and wake up soon afterwards in the midst of a 

 profuse flooding, there is a far greater number who owe their well 

 being only to the beneficent influence of a refreshing sleep. Be- 

 sides, these floodings were imminent, or had even begun at the time 

 the women fell asleep; the desire for sleep being one of their most 

 common symptoms; if they should be unsuspected at first, and the 

 woman yields to the necessity she feels, she in fact falls into a dan- 

 gerous sleep, and sometimes never awakes from it; but in this case 

 the sleep is the elTect, and not the cause of the disease; it is conse- 

 quently not contra-indicated by any thing; only, prudence requires 

 that the pulse should be watched, and that the hand should from 

 time to time be placed on the hypogastrium, to ascertain that the 

 womb has not fallen into a state of inertia. 



After this first sleep, that is to say, after the lapse of two or three 

 hours, she should set up in bed and take a little broth; this position 

 serves to rest her, and allows the lochia which had accumulated in 

 the vagina to flow readily oflf. 



In the following days her linen is shifted accordingly as she gets 

 it soiled; the external parts of generation should be often washed, 

 and cleansed with mallows-water, which may, without inconvenience, 

 be replaced by a decoction of chervil mixed with milk; constipation, 

 so frequenUy met with in these cases, is combatted by means of 

 mild clysters, without regard to the prejudice which decides that no 

 clyster should be given previously to the occurrence of milk fever: 

 smarting about the meatus urinarius, difficulty of making water, 

 hemorrhoids, and other efl^ects of the frictions which must be expe- 

 rienced by the bladder and rectum while the foetus is passing out, re- 

 quire emollient or slightly aromatic lotions, hip-baths, and sometimes 

 the use of the catheter. 



1242. The regimen, both alimentary and medicinal, of lying-in 

 women, is a point deserving the whole attention of the accoucheur — 

 not on account of the number or energetic quality of the substances 

 Avhich it is proper to administer, but because there are no where else 

 so many vulgar practices to proscribe, so many ridiculous prejudices 

 to extirpate, as upon this subject. 



Drink should only be given to satisfy thirst, and not for the mere 

 pleasure of making her swallow ptisan; the woman requires a drink, 



