elight
the mother's pregnancy as a period when clouds and storms give place to
sunshine and quietness. In some rare cases, also, pregnancy confers
increased force and elevation to the ideas, and augmented power to the
intellect.

As this book is written for women only, we do not mention any of the
signs or symptoms of pregnancy which medical men alone can recognize. We
will merely state that there are many other signs besides these referred
to, of great value to the doctor. One, the sound of the heart of the
child, which the practised ear can detect at about the fifth month, is
positive and conclusive.

MISCARRIAGE.

Miscarriage is a fruitful source of disease, and often of danger, to
wives. It also causes a frightful waste of human life. Unborn thousands
annually die in this manner.

_Frequency._--Miscarriage is by no means a rare occurrence. Statistics
show that thirty-seven out of one hundred mothers miscarry before they
attain the age of thirty years. But this accident is much more apt to
occur during the latter than during the first half of the child-bearing
period; and therefore it is estimated that ninety out of one hundred of
all women who continue in matrimony until the change of life, miscarry.

_Influence of age of mother._--A woman who marries at forty is very much
disposed to miscarry; whereas, had she married at thirty, she might have
borne children when older than forty. As a mother approaches the end of
her child-bearing period, it is likely that she will terminate her
career of fertility with a premature birth. The last pregnancies are not
only most commonly unsuccessful, but there is also reason to believe
that the occurrence of idiocy in a child may be associated with the
circumstance of its being the last-born of its mother. It has been
asserted, in this connection, that men of genius are frequently the
first-born. First pregnancies are also fraught with the danger of
miscarriage, which occurs more often in them than in others, excepting
the latest. A woman is particularly apt to miscarry with her first
child, if she be either exceedingly nervous or full-blooded.

_Influence of period of pregnancy._--Miscarriage is most frequent in the
earlier months of pregnancy--from the first to the third. It is also
very prone to happen about the sixth month. Habit makes itself felt
here; for women who have many times experienced this sad accident,
encounter it nearly always at the same epoch of their pr