16Q DISEASES CLASS II. 1. 1. 13, 



women to occasion convulsions, from the violence of the pain 

 without inflammation. See Class IV. 2. 2. 2. arid 3. 



M. M. Fomentation clyster with oil and laudanum, push the 

 stone back with a bougie; if froro cantharides, give half a pint of 

 warm water every ten minutes. Mucilage of gum and traga- 

 canth. 



The natural evacuation of the urine is aprocess similar to this, 

 except that the muscular fibres of the bladder, and the muscles 

 of the abdomen, which act in concert with them by the combin- 

 ed powers of sensation and of association, are, in the former case 

 of strangury, excited into action by painful sensation; and in the 

 latter by a sensation, which may almost be termed pleasurable, 

 as it relieves us from a previous uneasy one. 



The ejectio seminis is another process in some respects similar 

 to strangury, as belonging to the same sensible canal of the ure- 

 thra, and by exciting into action the acceleratory muscles; but 

 in the strangury these muscles are excited into action by painful 

 sensation, and in the ejection of the semen by pleasurable sensa- 

 tion. 



13. Parluritio. Parturition is not a disease, it is a natural pro- 

 cess, but is more frequently unfortunate in high life than amongst 

 the middle class of females; which may be owing partly to fear, 

 with which the priests of LUCINA are liable to inspire the ladies 

 of fashion to induce them to lie-in in town; and partly to the bad 

 air of London, to which they purposely resort. 



There are, however, other causes, which render parturition 

 more dangerous to the ladies of high life; such as their greater 

 general debility from neglect of energetic exercise, their inexpe- 

 rience of the variations of cold and heat, and their seclusion 

 from fresh air. To which must be added, that great source of 

 the destruction of female grace and beauty, as well as of female 

 health, the tight stays, and other bandages, with which they are 

 generally tortured in their early years by the active folly of their 

 friends, which by displacing many of the viscera impedes their 

 actions, and by compressing them together produces adhesions of 

 one part to another, and affects even the form and aperture of the 

 bones of the pelvis, through which the nascent child must be pro- 

 truded. 



As parturition is a natural, not a morbid process, no medicine 

 should be given, where there is no appearance of disease. The 

 absurd custom of giving a powerful opiate without indication to 

 all women, as soon as they are delivered, is, I make no doubt, 

 frequently attended with injurious, and sometimes with fatal con- 

 sequences. See Class II. I. 2. 16. 



Another thing very injurious to the child, is the tying and 



