The patient may be entirely normal for six or seven months and then notice that her rings and shoes are a little tight, because of the slight swelling of her hands and feet. Puffiness of the eyelids may appear, and other parts of the body may also be slightly swollen. Headache, dizziness, lassitude, drowsiness, depression, apprehension, nausea and vomiting are all symptoms, as also are high blood pressure and a diminished amount of urine, containing albumen. The patient frequently complains of visual disturbance, which may be only a slight blurring, but in severe cases may amount to total blindness. Other symptoms, when the condition is grave, are epigastric pain; rapid pulse; extreme nervousness and excitement, which may amount almost to insanity; or drowsiness, which grows deeper and deeper until the patient sinks into a coma. Under such conditions, she may die without recovering consciousness, but more frequently, eclampsia ensues. The child may perish as a result of the toxemia and a dead, premature baby be born. =Prevention= is of course, the most important aspect of the treatment and is accomplished by means of the pre-natal care and supervision which were described in the last chapter. In this connection must be mentioned again the danger, during pregnancy, of overeating. It is more and more frequently observed that toxemic seizures follow in the wake of a single, large, heavy meal, such as one is so likely to take at Thanksgiving or Christmas time. This is particularly true of patients who have had nausea or who have even slightly disabled kidneys, which, though able to meet the ordinary demands made by pregnancy, are inadequate to cope with the sudden strain imposed by a large meal. In such a case, toxic materials which should be excreted are retained within the body, and the familiar symptoms of toxemia are the result. Much the same condition is produced by the patient’s getting wet or chilled. The excretory function of the skin is interfered with, under such circumstances, and the kidneys are unable to do enough extra work to make up for the skin’s failure, and again toxic material is retained, instead of being excreted. =Treatment and Nursing Care.= As might be expected, the details of treatment and nursing care of a pre-eclamptic patient vary with different doctors and with the severity of the attack. But the essentials of treatment, the country over, may be summed up as rest and elimination, coupled with close watching for unfavorable symptoms. The surest way to have the patient really rest is to put her to bed, even in mild cases, and recovery is so hastened, thereby, that she is well paid for the temporary inconvenience.