of prepared lard or vaseline or a flask of salad oil, a package of pins one and a half inches in length, besides ordinary pins; tape, bobbin or wrapping twine; fine toilet soap; fine sponge for washing the child; soft linen or carbolated cotton for dressing the naval; a box of unirritating powder; a pile of towels, and a little aromatic ammonia or brandy to be used in an emergency. Let every thing be placed in such order that either may be found without hurry or bustle at a moment’s notice. Hot and cold water should always be in readiness. CHAPTER V. DIRECTIONS TO THE MONTHLY NURSE. If you attend a woman to whom the physician has already been called, you will thereafter be subject entirely to his orders. Whatever your opinion is, notwithstanding you have this book or any good authority for your opinion, if it seems to conflict with his directions, obey him; on him rests the responsibility and he is presumed to know what is best. But it is best that you should confide in each other—be on such relations that you can communicate to him anything you have learned about the case; be free to ask of him explicit directions and instructions. But your duties may precede his as well as accompany them, and I wish now to give special directions in regard to things that first demand your attention. 1. A nurse may properly provide a soft rubber catheter and also a syringe; this should be constructed so that it acts as an enema apparatus when one pipe is used, and as a vaginal syringe when the other pipe is applied. The holes in this pipe should be made so that the fluid injected is thrown backward. It is important that this last direction be observed. I know of one instance where the vaginal pipe of a Davidson syringe was used, yet the fluid injected passed through the cavity of the uterus and through the Fallopian tube and entered the cavity of the peritoneum, causing severe pain and inflammation. Besides the things already mentioned, I advise that there be furnished for use if needed a small blanket to receive the baby, a little bath tub, two chamber vessels, a bed pan, carbolic acid, fluid extract of ergot, and chloroform. 2. Being employed as a monthly nurse, do not (except very rarely indeed in an emergency) give any medicine at all or any stimulant that has not been ordered by the attending physician. Many women do not consider that labor is a natural process; it is painful indeed, and often lingering and tedious, but will go to a safe termination ordinarily without interference; any medicine given, unless very wisely administered, is much more likely to do harm than good.