Very soon after impregnation, if blood be drawn and suffered to stand a short time undisturbed, it will become sizy, of a yellowish or bluish color, and somewhat of an oily appearance. But we cannot from such appearances of the blood alone pronounce a woman pregnant, for a suppression of the menses, accompanied with a febrile state, may give the blood a like appearance as pregnancy, so also may some local disease. Of the above-mentioned symptoms, perhaps there is no _one_ on which we can place more reliance than the increased color of the circle around the nipple.* * See "Advice to a Wife," P. H. Chavasse, pp. 115-124, where many details are given.--Publishers' note. Six or eight weeks after conception, the most sure way of ascertaining pregnancy is to examine the mouth and neck of the uterus, by way of the vagina. The uterus will be found lower down than formerly, its mouth is not directed so much forward as before impregnation, and is more completely closed, and the neck is felt to be thicker, or increased in circumference. When raised on the finger it is found to be heavier or more resisting. Whoever makes this examination must have examined the same uterus in an unimpregnated state, and retained a tolerably correct idea of its feeling at that time, or he will be liable to uncertainty, because the uterus of one woman is naturally different in magnitude from another, and the uterus is frequently lower down than natural from other causes than pregnancy.* * No one but a doctor, or one trained in physiology could, of course, make any such examination with safety and utility.--Publishers' note. It has not been fully ascertained how long it is after a fruitful connection before an effect is produced upon the ovaria, that is before any alteration could be discovered, were the female to be dissected. But Brighton's experiments have established the fact, that with rabbits, whose term of utero-gestation is but thirty days, no effect is propagated to the ovaria until nearly fifty hours after coition; we should judge, therefore, that with the human species it must be several days, and it is generally estimated by physiologists that the ovum does not reach the uterus until the expiration of twenty days from the time of connection.* * "The time occupied in the passage of the ovum from the ovary to the uterus," says Dr. Kirkes, "occupies probably eight or ten days in the human female."--"Handbook of Physiology," p. 741.--G. R. It is probable that in all cases in which any matter is absorbed from any part of the animal system, some little time is required for such matter, after its application, to stimulate and arouse the absorbent vessels to action; hence it is probable that after the semen is lodged in the vagina, it is many minutes, possibly some hours, before any part of it is absorbed. CHAPTER III. OF PROMOTING AND CHECKING CONCEPTION