That form of FLOODING that arises from a partial and accidental separation of the placenta which occupies its usual position, must here be briefly referred to, as the nurse may be called on to do something in an emergency. The immediate cause of the flow is the separation of some portion of the placenta from the womb, and the laceration of the vessels. The hemorrhage is at first internal, is accompanied with dull pain at the spot where it takes place, it generally becomes external, it may or may not be attended with the discharge of coagula from the os uteri, and when the discharge commences it varies in quantity from a few ounces to an amount that is alarming. It is generally necessary to make a digital examination, to distinguish the accidental from the unavoidable hemorrhage. Until the doctor arrives the patient should be kept in bed on a hard mattrass and very lightly covered with bed clothes. The temperature of the room should be kept very low, and nothing but cold water allowed. The danger from hemorrhages that occur at or near the full period of utero gestation, may often be estimated by the absence or degree of pain, as well as from the quantity of the discharge. Hemorrhages are much more dangerous with sudden than with slow discharges of blood, and women are always in greater danger when they are not accompanied with pain. Puerperal convulsions, whether of the hysteric, epileptiform, or apoplectic variety will always demand and almost always receive the prompt attention of the physician. While the nurse is waiting for the doctor to arrive she might possibly administer a cathartic, thirty grains of bromide of potash, and an enema, but as a general rule she should not give anything. She might insert a wedge or roll of linen between the teeth to prevent injury to the tongue, and she should remove every thing out of the way, by striking against which, the patient might hurt herself. PART V. ÆTIOLOGY, SYMPTOMOTOLOGY, MEDICATION, NURSING. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF DISEASE. The causes of disease are spoken of by authors as predisposing, and exciting. By proximate cause of disease is meant the cause of the symptoms present; this cannot appropriately be dwelt upon here. By exciting cause is meant the immediate cause of a disease, and the distinction from predisposing cause arises from the fact that when two persons are exposed to something injurious to the health, they may not be equally affected.