Obstetrics

(Continued from page 209.) The Toxsemia of Pregnancy.?Davis 5 draws attention to the importance of examining the blood as well as the urine in cases of toxaemia occurring during pregnancy. With regard to the urine he points out that although albumen is generally present in eclampsia, cases do occur in which the toxicity of the urine is not materially increased and albumin is absent. It is interesting to observe that the chlorides of the urine and the amount of water may be greatly lessened, and leucin is sometimes present. The blood serum is found to be distinctly toxic, and when injected into animals causes convulsions and death. The source of the toxin has not yet been discovered. Modern investigation has shown that the kidneys are but slightly responsible, that the liver is the organ most frequently diseased, and the one which shows the most striking postmortem chinges. Hsemorrhagic necrosis of the liver with multiple thrombosis is the characteristic lesion found. These lesions strikingly suggest the first stage of acute yellow atrophy. In some cases changes in the thyroid and deficiency of the thyroid secretion have been observed. Some maintain that the foetus may be the source of the toxin, but no satisfactory evidence has been brought forward. It may be that a placental ferment which has been named syncytrolisin has something to do with the causation of eclampsia, as an extract of human placenta injected into animals has caused convulsions and death.