1. Drink more water or lemonade. 2. Take a mild cathartic. 3. Avoid eating much meat and other highly protein foods. CONVULSIONS OF PREGNANCY This serious complication of the last weeks of pregnancy demands immediate attention. They may almost invariably be avoided if the blood-pressure and the urine are studiously watched during the latter part of the expectant period. If you are unable to get your physician at once, the following treatment should be administered immediately. 1. A hot colonic flushing (See Appendix). 2. A hot bath followed by the hot blanket pack (See Appendix). 3. One drop of croton oil on a bit of sugar may be placed on the back of the tongue. 4. Chloroform may be administered, provided a competent nurse or other medical person is present. The appearance of convulsions which have been preceded by one or more of the symptoms noted under the head of "toxemia," indicates that the patient has become so profoundly intoxicated and poisoned by the accumulating toxins, that the lives of both mother and child are jeopardized by threatened eclampsia. At such a time, the attending physician will immediately set about to bring on labor, and thus seek to empty the uterus at the earliest possible moment. CARDINAL SYMPTOMS OF TOXICITY Since toxemia (eclampsia) is one of the complications of pregnancy most to be dreaded, it is fortunate that it almost invariably exhibits early danger signals which, if recognized and heeded, would enable the patient and physician to initiate proper measures to avert danger and escape the threatened disaster. The presence of this toxic danger is indicated by the persistent presence of the following three symptoms: 1. Persistent, dull headache. 2. Presence of casts in the urine. 3. Persistent high blood-pressure, with tendency to increase. Of course, albumin will probably appear in the urine along with the casts, but it is the continued appearance of the casts that is of more importance as a danger signal. Albumin is quite common in the urine of the expectant mother, but casts--long continued--suggest trouble. Headache as an indicator of toxemia is of special significance when coupled with the other two cardinal symptoms of eclampsia--urinary casts and increasing high blood-pressure. Therefore, the necessity for frequent urinary tests and blood-pressure examinations during the last weeks of pregnancy--especially, if the patient has suffered from headaches and has been running albumin in the urine. [Illustration: Fig. 4. Taking the Blood Pressure] HIGH BLOOD-PRESSURE