I have large opportunities of investigating this, as well as the several points touched upon in this chapter. On an average, between forty and fifty poor women call upon me every month, with midwifery letters for attendance in their confinement: and the result of my inquiries upon the present question has led me to believe, that more than one third of these women have conceived at least once while nursing, and very many of them oftener.[10] Mrs. M——, ætat. 30, married six years. Became pregnant three months after her marriage. Having suckled this child for more than two years, became pregnant a second time. This last died in three weeks, and immediately after she proved pregnant for a third time. The third child she brought this morning (being out of health), and assured me that she had not seen anything since she first conceived, that is, three months after her marriage, and six years from the present time. Mrs. W——, ætat. 25, married five years. Has not been unwell since she first fell in the family way; is now pregnant with a third child, having hitherto fallen pregnant while nursing. Many other cases illustrative of this fact I might assert, but these suffice to prove the exception.[11] _Third Exception._—That a female should become pregnant, and yet be unwell during the first three, four, or more months of pregnancy, may appear an extraordinary statement; but it is a fact, that the menstrual discharge sometimes continues in its usual regularity for two, three, or more months after conception, and without any dangerous consequences. It has been asserted, as an objection, that this discharge is not truly menstruation; but the discussion of that question does not concern us here. We have only to consider, whether there does not frequently, during pregnancy, take place a discharge, so closely resembling menstruation in its periods, quantity, duration, and appearance, that neither the female herself nor her medical adviser shall be able to detect any difference between them; and of this I have no doubt. It may occur _once_ only after conception, either in diminished quantity or more profuse than usual. It may thus give rise to miscalculation as to the expected time of confinement. It may continue in its usual regularity for _two_ or _three months_. The following instance of a patient I attended illustrates the fact of its going on to the period of quickening:—