This, which is often connected with an hysterical condition, is more especially apt to occur in those who are subject to flooding after the expulsion of the child, as this marks a natural feebleness in the womb, and a disposition to flag in its actions after delivery. In such patients it is often preceded by ill-smelled lochial discharge, which proceeds sometimes from the original state of the secretion, but more frequently from its being retained for some time, and acquiring this smell. This has given rise sometimes to an idea that the complaint proceeded from the retention of part of the placenta or membranes; but this retention often takes place without any such discharge succeeding; and, on the other hand, in several instances of this complaint we have certain knowledge that no part of the placenta has remained, whilst in almost every case we have a coagulum expelled, possessing exactly the shape of the uterine cavity, shewing that nothing else has been contained within it. Indeed, the opinion is not very tenable, for a small part of the placenta or decidua would, if the uterus were contracting, be soon expelled, and would then surely cease to have any farther influence; whilst, on the other hand, if the uterus do not regularly contract in size, or recover itself, the hemorrhage will take place from this cause alone, independently of all considerations relating to the placenta. By attending to this fact, we shall not only refrain from blaming midwives unjustly, but also from adding to the danger, by endeavouring to remove a substance which has no existence in the uterus, and which, even were it to a certainty within, it is there not as a cause of the hemorrhage, but as an effect of the cause which produces that. This disease may take place at any period of gestation. It may follow abortion in the second month, or expulsion at the full time; but it is dangerous in proportion as we approach to the term of natural labour. It may attack only once or twice, or it may make many attacks for several weeks; and it is wonderful how the system can be supported under these continued and repeated discharges: but we find that an incredible quantity of blood may be lost, if it be discharged at intervals. We read in a foreign journal of a woman who, in the space of nineteen years, was bled no less than one thousand and twenty times without material injury. Each paroxysm is accompanied by slight pain in the back and belly, with considerable languor and feeling of depression. The discharge continues until the clot escapes out of the uterus, and for some time after that until a new one forms; and during this last process we have a considerable oozing of serous fluid.