diately set about to bring on labor, and thus seek
to empty the uterus at the earliest possible moment.

CARDINAL SYMPTOMS OF TOXICITY

Since toxemia (eclampsia) is one of the complications of pregnancy
most to be dreaded, it is fortunate that it almost invariably exhibits
early danger signals which, if recognized and heeded, would enable the
patient and physician to initiate proper measures to avert danger
and escape the threatened disaster. The presence of this toxic danger
is indicated by the persistent presence of the following three
symptoms:

1. Persistent, dull headache.
2. Presence of casts in the urine.
3. Persistent high blood-pressure, with tendency to increase.

Of course, albumin will probably appear in the urine along with the
casts, but it is the continued appearance of the casts that is of more
importance as a danger signal. Albumin is quite common in the urine of
the expectant mother, but casts--long continued--suggest trouble.
Headache as an indicator of toxemia is of special significance when
coupled with the other two cardinal symptoms of eclampsia--urinary
casts and increasing high blood-pressure. Therefore, the necessity for
frequent urinary tests and blood-pressure examinations during the last
weeks of pregnancy--especially, if the patient has suffered from
headaches and has been running albumin in the urine.

[Illustration: Fig. 4. Taking the Blood Pressure]

HIGH BLOOD-PRESSURE

Blood-pressure is a term used to indicate the actual pressure of the
blood stream against the walls of the blood vessels. The
blood-pressure machine tells us the same story about our circulatory
mechanism, that a steam gauge does about a high-pressure boiler (See
Fig. 4). The normal blood-pressure varies according to the age of the
patient. For instance, the normal pressure of a young person, say up
to twenty years of age, runs from 100 to 120 millimeters of mercury;
and then, as the age advances, the blood-pressure increases in direct
ratio; for every two years additional age the blood-pressure increases
about one point--one millimeter.

The average pregnant woman starts in her pregnancy with a
blood-pressure of say, 125 millimeters, but as pressure symptoms
increase, and as constipation manifests itself, and as the circulating
fluids are further burdened with the toxins which are eliminated from
the child, the blood-pressure normally increases to about 140 mm., and
later, possibly to 150 mm. If