MID\yiFERY. 
generally arises, giving a bnffy appear- 
ance to the blood ; and if from any com- 
plaint fever ensue, this buff will be greater 
in quantity than at any other time it would 
have been ; the face will grow thinner, the 
fat being gradually absorbed. There . are 
also other symptoms of hectic; but the 
changes in the countenance are most ob- 
servable. The little fever sometimes occa- 
sions a great churlishness of temper ; a 
woman in such circumstances can hardly 
bear speaking to, and it frequently creates 
a degree of fretfulness unknown before. 
Another sign of pregnancy is, pain and' 
tumetaction in the breast, which is only a 
part of the uterine system, and is affected 
from the same cause with the uterus. The 
areola becomes darker and broader than 
before ; the rete inucosum is sometimes so 
altered, that it is as dark as that of a mu- 
latto, while the skin generally is as fair as 
alabaster. The breasts enlarge, and will 
not bear the pressure of clothes so well 
as before ; the woman will not be able to 
lie on one side so well as before : this pro- 
ceeds from the skin not increasing in pro- 
portion to the secretion of the glands. 
The next part that sympathizes witii the 
uterus is the stomach ; this is gener<ally per- 
ceived in the morning; for though occa- 
sionally it is affected the whole day, it is 
generally felt on first being erect in the 
morning. The morning sickness in the 
progress of pregnancy is closely connected 
with the growth of the child ; so much so, 
that it has sometimes been a rule to judge 
that where this ceases the child is dead. 
Pregnant women have antipathies and long- 
ings ; and this desire is in some for the most 
strange things, as is well known to almost 
every medical practitioner. No woman 
can be with child if she menstruate ; this is 
the sine non of pregnancy; for though 
there may be sometimes an appearance of 
blood, there is not that regular appearance 
of uncoagulating fluid which constitutes the 
menses ; even in Hippocrates we may see 
this. If in a young woman, between the 
age of fifteen and thirty-two, the, breasts 
shoot and are very painful, and she be not 
regular; if the areolae be enlarged and 
dark, and she have morning sickness, there 
is little doubt but that she is with child. It 
is not likely that all these things should by 
any accidental cause be present at the same 
time, though any of them may arise. There 
are also peculiar symptoms attending the 
pregnancy of particular women, as a cough, 
tooth-ach, head-ach. Dr. Clarke relates an 
instance of a person being as completely 
salivated during a certain period of her 
pregnancy, as ever was a patient in the 
Lock Hospital. When these symptoms 
occur, they mark a peculiar idiosyncracy 
in the constitution, and are the surest pos- 
sible indications. 
The uterus being the great centre of 
sympathy, the diseases of pregnancy are so 
many sympathies ; and, considered as such, 
there are no parts which may not become 
affected by its influence. Not uncommonly 
there is a cofitin'ual state of low fever; and 
yet pregnancy prevents the coming on 
of many diseases ; but though it prevents 
many, it produces some which are serious. 
The most troublesome complaint to 
which a pregnant woman can be subject, is 
a retroverted uterus. When this disease 
was first known, it was supposed to arise 
from fright, or some other surprise ; but 
this is not true. Tliere are no muscles at- 
tached to the uterus, nor is it capable of 
being influenced by muscular action. The 
only true cause for this change of position 
in it, is quite mechanical. There is fre- 
quently great fulness of the bladder, and if 
it be very much distended, the retroversion 
will happen in consequence. The only pe- 
riod in which it can happen, however, lasts 
but four weeks, between the end of the 
third month, and the end of the, fourth. 
For in the early months of pregnancy, the 
uterus, in length from the fundus to the 
cervix, is not so great as to fill the space 
between the sacrum and the neck of the 
bladder, and cannot for that reason pro- 
duce suppression, which alone constitutes 
the disease. This applies to all situations 
of the uterus in unimpregnated women, and 
W’omen who are with child till the close of 
the fourth month of pregnancy; after which 
the uterus cannot be made to go down into 
the pelvis. When the uterus has once 
fairly mounted into the abdomen, it is im- 
possible for it to pass down into the pelvis 
again. 
The retroversio uteri occurs thus : the 
bladder becomes full and rises into the ca- 
vity of the abdomen ; the neck of the blad- 
der in rising draws up the os uteri with it, 
which drawing up of the os uteri is assisted 
by the fundus of the bladder pressing down 
that of the uterus, and, in nineteen cases 
out of twenty, the bladder in this way be- 
comes the occasional cause of complaint; 
and when the complaint is formed, the 
suppression of urine is the only material 
object to be attended to. ^ For the titeru*. 
