Very often have I been consulted by a female far advanced in pregnancy for what she supposed mere looseness of bowels, which has already been found to originate under circumstances like these. It is of the highest importance that the patient should endeavor to guard against such a result; and without doubt she may avoid it, and regulate her bowels with great comfort to herself, throughout the whole period of pregnancy, if she will only use the means. In pointing out a plan to accomplish this desirable object, the first prescription I have to offer is by far the most valuable,—“prevention is more easy than cure.”[23] If the bowels are sluggish to-day,—that is to say, if they are not as freely relieved as usual,—and you do not assist them by medicine, depend upon it, to-morrow they will be confined, and there will be no relief at all. If, then, the bowels, are _disposed_ to be costive, I would recommend one large tablespoonful of castor oil—if it does not nauseate the stomach,—and advise that the dose be repeated in four hours, if the desired effect has not been produced, or a wine-glass of beaume de vie at night; and early the next morning, before leaving the dressing-room, let the lavement be used, the injection consisting merely of a pint of blood-warm water;—or the following pills will be found useful to be kept in the patient’s bedroom:—Two scruples of the compound extract of colocynth and one of the extract of henbane divided into twelve pills. Two or three of these may be taken at bedtime, when the bowels have not been, during the day, satisfactorily relieved. These are always ready in the bedroom, and, as they generally answer the object efficiently, and with comfort to the patient, are the most convenient form of aperient. It will now and then happen, however, that the female has let the day slip. When this is the case, in combination with medicine, the use of the lavement is desirable. Medicine alone will not answer the purpose, unless it be taken in doses so strong as will not only move the bowels but irritate them too. With the exhibition of the warm water, mild aperients never fail. Females, generally, are averse to the use of the lavement, and it is a prejudice which is most deeply to be regretted. I have known purgative medicines so often resorted to, and, in time, so increased in power and quantity, because they began to lose their effect, that, by their continual irritation, disease of the lower bowel has been produced, and death has, at last, been the consequence. If, then, the bowels have been one or two days confined, the lavement in the morning will render much less medicine necessary, and frequently have an effect when medicine alone would not. Many ladies use the warm water every second or third morning, during the latter weeks of pregnancy; and by this means they regulate their bowels—which would otherwise be confined—with great comfort to themselves, and need no medicine at all.