The condition is a serious one no matter whether it is attended with grave symptoms or apparently no symptoms. If it occurs shortly after conception, during the first few months of married life it is serious, if not in its physical consequences, it is in its significance, because it establishes the tendency to miscarry,--a tendency that may result in great mental distress because of the worry and fear it engenders, and of sorrow and heartache because it may blast the hope of parentage. Such a miscarriage may take place at once after conception. If so, the following menstruation may be delayed for a week or so and is then a little more profuse than is customary. This will be the only indication that a life has been sacrificed that the young wife may have, and frequently the significance of such an occurrence is never understood, yet the tendency to miscarry is nevertheless established, and a seeming sterility is apparently the fate of the woman. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that extreme care should be taken to bring the first pregnancy to a successful consummation. A young wife should realize that she is apt to become pregnant at any time. Her conduct therefore should be such at least as not to harm the life principle with which she has been entrusted. To this end any excessive sexual activity should be strictly avoided. CAUSES OF MISCARRIAGE.--Any strenuous physical effort must be guarded against. Included in such efforts may be the following: dancing, running, jumping, surf-bathing, sewing on a machine, sweeping, washing, house-cleaning, moving furniture, etc. Sometimes the primary cause of a miscarriage is to be found in some hygienic act, such as a hot bath, too prolonged or too many hot douches near the menstrual periods. A blow or a fall, even a fright or shock may cause a miscarriage. Anything that violently shakes or agitates the womb, which may at this time be irritable because of its condition, will be sufficient to excite it to contract and miscarry. Hence violent coughing or vomiting should be avoided if possible; horseback riding, jolting in a carriage, convulsions, hysterical crying, may also be the causative factors. Displacement of the womb by limiting its tendency to grow when pregnant, may cause it to miscarry. Very severe general diseases such as small-pox, pneumonia, etc., will cause the womb to empty itself. Disease of the fetus or the presence of syphilis in either of the parents will also have the same result.