=The abdomen= as a whole changes in contour as it steadily enlarges, and the skin and underlying muscles are somewhat affected as a result. The tension upon the skin is so great that it may rupture the underlying elastic layers which later atrophy and thus produce the familiar _striæ_ of pregnancy, known variously as the _striæ gravidarium_ and the _linea albicantes_. Fresh striæ are pale pink or bluish in color, but after delivery they take on the silvery, glistening appearance of scar tissue, which they really are. In a woman who has borne children, therefore, we find both new and old striæ; those resulting from former pregnancies being silvery and shining, while the fresh tears are pink or blue. Striæ may be found also on the breasts, hips and upper part of the thighs, and as they are of purely mechanical origin, are not necessarily associated with pregnancy alone. They may result from a stretching of the skin by ascites, a marked increase in fat or an abdominal tumor. The same distension that causes striæ sometimes causes a separation of the _recti muscles_. This separation, known as _diastasis_, is sometimes slight but frequently very marked, the space between the muscles being easily felt through the thinned abdominal wall. The =umbilicus= is deeply indented during about the first three months of pregnancy. But during the fourth, fifth and sixth months the pit grows steadily shallower, and by the seventh month it is level with the surface. After this it may protrude, in which state it is described as a “pouting umbilicus.” The increased pigmentation at the umbilicus and in the median line is scarcely to be classified among the abdominal changes, as the skin elsewhere presents the same discolored appearance. The degree of pigmentation varies with the complexion of the individual, as blondes may be but slightly tinted while the discolored areas on a brunette may be dark brown, sometimes almost black. The changes in the =breasts= during pregnancy were practically all included in the enumerated signs and symptoms of pregnancy. They increase in size and firmness and become nodular; the nipple is more prominent and together with the surrounding areolæ, grows much darker; the glands of Montgomery are enlarged; the superficial veins grow more prominent, and after the third month a thin, yellowish fluid can be expressed from the nipples. This fluid, called _colostrum_, consists largely of fat, epithelial cells and colostrum corpuscles and differs from milk, in its yellowish color, and in the fact that it coagulates like the white of an egg when boiled. The previously quiescent mammary glands develop very early in pregnancy an ability to select from the blood stream the necessary materials to produce a secretion. Colostrum is the product of their activity until about the third day after delivery, when milk appears.