ion of the foetus; the return to the normal
condition took place gradually during the puerperium. Tridandani found in
pregnant women that though the superficial reflexes, with the exception of
the abdominal, were diminished, the deep and tendon reflexes were markedly
increased, especially that of the knee, these changes being more marked in
primiparae than in multiparae, and more pronounced as pregnancy advanced,
the normal condition returning with ten days after labor. Electrical
excitability was sensibly diminished.[181]

One of the first signs of high nervous tension is vomiting. As is well
known, this phenomenon commonly appears early in pregnancy, and it is by
many considered entirely physiological. Barnes regards it as a kind of
safety valve, a regulating function, letting off excessive tension and
maintaining equilibrium.[182] Vomiting is, however, a convulsion, and is
thus the simplest form of a kind of manifestation--to which the heightened
nervous tension of pregnancy easily lends itself--that finds its extreme
pathological form in eclampsia. In this connection it is of interest to
point out that the pregnant woman here manifests in the highest degree a
tendency which is marked in women generally, for the female sex, apart
altogether from pregnancy, is specially liable to convulsive
phenomena.[183]

There is some slight difference of opinion among authorities as
to the precise nature and causation of the sickness of pregnancy.
Barnes, Horrocks and others regard it as physiological; but many
consider it pathological; this is, for instance, the opinion of
Giles. Graily Hewitt attributed it to flexion of the gravid
uterus, Kaltenbach to hysteria, and Zaborsky terms it a neurosis.
Whitridge Williams considers that it may be (1) reflex, or (2)
neurotic (when it is allied to hysteria and amenable to
suggestion), or (3) toxaemic. It really appears to lie on the
borderland between healthy and diseased manifestations. It is
said to be unknown to farmers and veterinary surgeons. It appears
to be little known among savages; it is comparatively infrequent
among women of the lower social classes, and, as Giles has found,
women who habitually menstruate in a painless and normal manner
suffer comparatively little from the sickness of pregnancy.

We owe a valuable study of the sickness of pregnancy to Giles,
who analyzed the records of 300 cases. He conclud