FCETAL TOXINS 203 



time — say, nine months — then her health is liable to Superiacta- 

 be affected: she may suffer with headaches, lassitude, lon * 

 and with menorrhagia and epimenorrhcea, or epi- 

 menorrhagia 1 . 



Now, these symptoms are all produced by the with- 

 drawal of calcium salts from the tissues for the purpose of 

 milk -formation ; and the patient can be quickly cured 

 if the child be weaned, and she herself take large doses 

 of calcium lactate. 



The Placenta and Maternal Disorders 



The history of the scientific study of eclampsia may Foetal toxins 

 be woven around the question of the effect of foetal eclampsia 

 toxins on the mother. 



It goes without saying that Nature in the evolution 

 of the mammals, in which the placenta gradually assumes 

 an important position in regard to reproduction, has 

 provided the mother with some means of meeting the 

 demands on her metabolism of the growing foetus, 

 and on her biological resistance to foreign substances 

 in her blood. Even to-day it is impossible to enunciate 

 the position in more definite terms than these. 



It may be stated here, as will have been obvious in 

 what has gone before, that too readily has it been 

 assumed that eclamptic convulsions resemble the spasms 

 of tetany. There are many toxins that will cause con- 

 vulsions unless they be neutralized; and it is certain 

 that the convulsions of eclampsia are in some way due 

 to poisons elaborated by the fcetal tissues. But it must 

 not be forgotten that there are two sides to this question 

 — the fcetal and the maternal. It is probable that the 

 fcetal tissues, through the medium of the placenta, 

 eliminate substances which are always taken into the 

 maternal circulation, but with which the mother is able 

 successfully to deal, provided her protective processes 

 are normal. 



1 * Epimenorrhcea', ■ epimenorrhagia ' : terms coined by the author 

 to indicate too frequent, and too profuse menstruation. (See ' The 

 Disorders of Function ', in The New System of Gynaecology, 1917.) 



