increase deficient menstruation; as the
former is owing to inirritability of the veins, and the latter of the
arteries of the uterus. See Article IV. 2. 6. in the Materia Medica.

M. M. Opium, steel, pediluvium. Warm bath.

13. _Lochia nimia._ Too great discharge after delivery. In that unnatural
practice of some hasty accoucheurs of introducing the hand into the uterus
immediately after the delivery of the child, and forcibly bringing away the
placenta, it frequently happens, that a part of it is left behind; and the
uterus, not having power to exclude so small a portion of it, is prevented
from complete contraction, and a great haemorrhage ensues. In this
circumstance a bandage with a thick compress on the lower part of the
belly, by appressing the sides of the uterus on the remaining part of the
placenta, is likely to check the haemorrhage, like the application of a
pledget of any soft substance on a bleeding vessel.

In other cases the lochia continues too long, or in too great quantity,
owing to the deficiency of venous absorption.

M. M. An enema. An opiate. A blister. Slight chalybeates. Peruvian bark.
Clothes dipped in cold vinegar and applied externally. Bandages on the
limbs to keep more blood in them for a time have been recommended.

14. _Abortio spontanea._ Some delicate ladies are perpetually liable to
spontaneous abortion, before the third, or after the seventh, month of
gestation. From some of these patients I have learnt, that they have
awakened with a slight degree of difficult respiration, so as to induce
them to rise hastily up in bed; and have hence suspected, that this was a
tendency to a kind of asthma, owing to a deficient absorption of blood in
the extremities of the pulmonary or bronchial veins; and have concluded
from thence, that there was generally a deficiency of venous absorption;
and that this was the occasion of their frequent abortion. Which is further
countenanced, where a great sanguinary discharge precedes or follows the
exclusion of the fetus.

M. M. Opium, bark, chalybeates in small quantity. Change to a warmer
climate. I have directed with success in four cases half a grain of opium
twice a day for a fortnight, and then a whole grain twice a day during the
whole gestation. One of these patients took besides twenty grains of
Peruvian bark for several weeks. By these means being exactly and regularly
persisted in, a new habit became established, and the usual miscarriages
were