_The Food._--But little solid food should be taken, and nothing stimulating. Gruel, milk, toast and water, Indian meal, light puddings, or broth, should be the chief articles for some time. Roast apples are also very good, being pleasant and relaxing. For refreshing drinks, if there be any fever, lemonade or tamarind tea may be taken. _The After Pains._--After the expulsion of the after-birth most females experience, more or less, severe pains, almost like those of labor, arising apparently from the further contraction of the uterine walls to expel the coagulated blood. These pains are seldom or never felt in first labors, but afterwards they are often most acute. I have known many patients suffer _much more_ from them than they did during labor. They sometimes last only a few hours, or a day, and sometimes even extend to six or eight days. Nothing that we know of can prevent them, though many means are known of mitigating their severity. If there be no tendency to flooding, a large poultice may be placed over the abdomen, or it may be fomented, or covered with cloths wrung out in hot water. An injection may also be used, either in the Vagina or Rectum, consisting of warm thin starch, with about twenty drops of laudanum; or either of the following recipes may be used internally:--_Pills of Gum Camphor_, two, about the size of ordinary pills, to be repeated, if necessary, in an hour.--Or, _Syrup of Poppies_, two drachms; _Mucilage of Gum Arabic_, two ounces; and _Solution of Sulphate of Morphia_, ten drops; to be made into a mixture, _one-half_ of which may be taken at first, and the remainder in _two hours_, if the patient is not relieved. This seldom fails.--It is necessary to bear in mind that the pains arising from _inflammation_ have been mistaken for ordinary after-pains, and serious consequences have resulted from the error. The after-pains however, are concentrated, and _intermittent_, while the sensations from inflammation are more diffused and constant, and are also usually attended by fever. _The Lochial Discharge._--From the time of delivery until the uterus has returned to its ordinary condition, there is poured from it a discharge, at first like blood, and afterwards thin and light colored, called the _Lochia_. The duration of this discharge varies from one week to a month, and its quantity from one ounce to six or eight ounces, daily. It gradually diminishes however, and frequently stops for a few days altogether. In women who do not nurse it is both more abundant, and lasts longer, than in those who do. The bloody color usually disappears after the first or second day, though sometimes it will show itself again, even when the discharge has nearly ceased, particularly if the female exert herself too soon.