OBSTETRICAL DIURESIS AND MILK FLOW. There are observations on record which indicate that the secretion of milk may be influenced by a contemporaneous diuresis. Precisely what changes in the composition of the milk may be initiated in this way had not been determined until recently, when the question of the influence of specific diuretics on milk flow was investigated by Steenbock at the University of Wisconsin. He remarks that in view of the importance which heretofore unknown constituents of diets and rations have lately assumed, it is of the greatest interest to dissect the various factors normally operative in the body under ordinary conditions of diet. Steenbock found that urea, for example, administered in a diuretic dose, is able to decrease temporarily the flow of milk. On repeated administration, however, the increased intake of water which follows the impoverishment of the tissues with respect to water content balances the draft for water imposed by the diuretic, and the milk secretion comes back to normal. Other diuretic salts, like sodium chloride, may be entirely unable to depress the milk secretion under normal circumstances, because they call forth a compensating thirst which simultaneously increases the water intake. In cases in which diuresis does lead to temporarily decreased flow of milk, the percentage of solids in the secretion is ordinarily increased, the fat being the principal variable. In ordinary experience, however, the composition of the milk may be regarded as essentially unaltered by slight variations in renal activity.—_The Journal of the American Med. Asso._ INDICATIONS AND CONTRAINDICATIONS FOR ABDOMINAL SECTION.