MARSUPIAL MILK

figures lies in the fact that they were abl-e to trace less than 50% of the patients who had suffered from severe post-partum heemorrhage during the period selected for review. Sehneeberg et alii conclude that though "Sheehan's syndrome" is one of the rarer endocrinopathies, it is more common than is generally supposed, and many cases are still overlooked. Because of the lack of correlation between the amount of blood loss or the profundity of shock and the subsequent appearance of hypopituitarism, they recommend that all survivors of this obstetric complication, however mild, should be kept under surveillance until the possibility of the late developm-ent of a mild degree of hypopituitarism has passed. It should be noted that suppression of lactation does not always occur, or may be incomplete; in exceptional cases transitory return of menstruation has been recorded; and there are a few reports of cases in which the patient has become pregnant again. In fact, no one element of the syndrome is entirely constant. Schneeberg et alii urge that even in obvious clinical examples of pituitary insufficiency careful laboratory studies should be performed to define more clearly the extent of endocrine damage and to det-ermine the subsequent needs for substitution therapy.