_Prognosis as to the duration of labour._ There are few subjects upon which an accoucheur is so frequently importuned, or about which it is so difficult to give a decided opinion, as the probable duration of labour. It is natural enough that both she and her friends should be anxious to know how long this process of suffering is likely to last: nothing, however, is more hazardous than a prognosis in these cases; and we would warn our junior brethren to be cautious how they commit themselves by venturing an opinion, which the result of the labour may prove to have been founded upon guess-work or ignorance. The character of the labour during the second stage, is frequently very different to that of the first, so that the mode in which the labour commences is by no means a criterion for its latter part. A labour which has commenced briskly and regularly, and with every promise of a rapid progress and termination, frequently becomes exceedingly lingering during the second stage, so that the expelling powers may, perhaps, even fail altogether in making the head pass through the os externum; whereas, on the other hand, a labour, the first stage of which has been slow and protracted, frequently experiences a complete alteration of character, and advances with a degree of quickness and energy, which could scarcely have been anticipated from the manner in which it commenced. In primiparæ, especially, it is particularly difficult to foretell, with any thing like certainty, the duration of labour: hence it is, that unguarded assertions in this respect are not only liable to disappoint the patient, but destroy her confidence in the practitioner. _Wigand's views._ The celebrated Wigand of Hamburgh considered that the form of the vagina would frequently furnish the means of a pretty certain prognosis, as to the duration of labour: thus, if it were wide and yielding throughout its whole length, the labour would be quick, both at its beginning and termination; if, on the other hand, it were small, rigid, and contracted throughout, the labour might be expected to be of a very opposite character. If on examination the vagina is found roomy and well dilated at its upper part, but contracted and rigid near the os externum, the labour will be probably quick and easy during the first half, but slow and difficult afterwards; on the contrary, where the os externum is yielding and wide, but the upper portion of the vagina narrow, the labour may be expected to be slow at first, but to be brisk and active afterwards. We have already stated, that the course of labour varies in every possible way; in some cases the same peculiar character of labour shows itself through two or three successive generations: hence it has been observed, that very tedious or very violent and rapid labours sometimes seems to be hereditary; the mother, daughters, and grand-daughters, being all remarkable for their lingering or rapid labours.