untoward effects somewhat by cutting down the morphine dose. He had five infant deaths before he cut down the morphine, and 25 per cent. of the children were intoxicated. The chief action of scopolamine or hyoscine is upon the cerebral cortex, producing sleep, which is accompanied often by a low delirium. They depress the centre of respiration, and have a depressant effect also on that part of the spinal cord which governs the motions of the body. They intensify the action of morphine and other narcotics. Morphine, which is used to prevent pain, is the chief drug in the twilight sleep method, and it is greatly intensified in action by the presence of scopolamine. When, however, morphine and scopolamine are given to a pregnant woman hypodermically, these drugs are at once carried by the blood to the fetus. Children for years after birth all withstand the action of morphine badly, and a fetus _in utero_ may be overwhelmed by it. Just in this fact lies the chief moral crux in the use of the twilight sleep method of obstetrical delivery. The woman may go on to the end more or less safely in competent hands, but if constant watch is not kept at the bedside by a skilled observer the infant is liable to be killed, and the danger comes to it not solely from the drug directly--it may be drowned in the amniotic fluid, its condition may be masked by the restlessness of the mother, which prevents proper observation: when a woman is plunging all over the bed, as is extremely common in twilight sleep, the pulse-rate of the baby cannot be properly watched. If the mother happens to be particularly susceptible to scopolamine or morphine, the first will cause delirium and the second coma; or the respirations may become arhythmic and be reduced to only five or six a minute. The kidneys may be affected by the morphine so as to bring on total suppression of urine. Labor is prolonged, and it may be very much prolonged. In some women uterine atony is induced by the morphine, with very dangerous consequent post-partum hemorrhage. Morphine relaxes all musculature, and it relaxes the muscle of the arterial walls and so disposes to hemorrhage. There is little or no premonitory symptom of these idiosyncrasies (except in the case of an injured kidney) to inform the physician that he should avoid the scopolamine-morphine treatment.