r left side; when she turns on her
back, the plaits can then be readily drawn out. These directions, though
apparently trivial, are important. The object is to guard against the
great danger to which the mother is exposed by sitting up in bed for
even a few minutes during the first week.

_Cathartic medicine_ should not be administered the first, the third, or
any other day after confinement, unless it is needed. If the patient is
perfectly comfortable, has no pain in the abdomen, no headache, and is
well in every respect, she should be let alone, even if her bowels have
not been moved. If a laxative be called for, citrate of magnesia is much
pleasanter and equally as efficacious as the castor-oil so frequently
administered on this occasion.

TO HAVE LABOR WITHOUT PAIN.

Is it possible to avoid the throes of labor, and have children without
suffering? This is a question which science answers in the affirmative.
Medical art brings the waters of Lethe to the bedside of woman in her
hour of trial. Of late years chloroform and ether have been employed to
lessen or annul the pains of childbirth, with the same success that has
attended their use in surgery. Their administration is never pushed so
as to produce complete unconsciousness, unless some operation is
necessary, but merely so as to diminish sensibility and render the pains
endurable. These agents are thus given without injury to the child, and
without retarding the labor or exposing the mother to any danger. When
properly employed, they induce refreshing sleep, revive the drooping
nervous system, and expedite the delivery.

They should never be used in the absence of the doctor. He alone is
competent to give them with safety. In natural, easy, and short labor,
where the pains are readily borne, they are not required. But in those
lingering cases in which the suffering is extreme, and, above all, in
those instances where instruments have to be employed, ether and
chloroform have a value beyond all price.

MORTALITY OF CHILDBED.

_The number of the pregnancy_ affects the danger to be expected from
lying-in. It has been declared by excellent authority, that the
mortality of first labors, and of childbed fever following first labors
is about twice the mortality attending all subsequent labors
collectively. After the ninth labor the mortality increases with the
number. A woman having a large family, therefore, comes into greater and
increasing risk as she bears