The amount of lochia varies, and will likely fall below the average in small or anemic women and rise above it in those who are large or robust. Then again, the discharge is less profuse if considerable blood has been lost immediately after the labor. For the first ten days the total quantity seldom exceeds eight or ten ounces; after that time it is so small that it cannot be accurately estimated. Formerly much larger amounts were considered normal, and, therefore, it is probable that modern aseptic treatment of child-birth has lessened the subsequent loss of blood. Toward the end of a week the lochia changes from a bright red to a brownish color, because the discharge now includes certain products of disintegration. Somewhat later the lochia consists almost entirely of mucus, being only streaked with blood; but there will be an increase in the bleeding when the patient gets up; and injudicious activity may cause flooding. A slight bloody discharge may be expected to continue until five or six weeks after the child was born. A faint but characteristic odor to the lochia proves very disagreeable to some patients, and on that account it was formerly customary to give them a daily douche throughout the lying-in period. This was before the characteristics of the puerperal uterus and the nature of infection were thoroughly understood. Most physicians are now convinced that the early use of douches is rarely beneficial; and since there is danger of washing infectious material from the lower part of the vagina into the uterus, they may, if given prior to the second week after delivery, actually do harm. Consequently douches are not now used in a routine way. Whenever irrigations are indicated the doctor will prescribe them. Late in the puerperium vaginal douches are unobjectionable, and patients may take them unassisted, for then the fluid will not penetrate the womb so long as it has a free escape from the outlet of the vagina. Moreover, it is immaterial if some of the fluid should pass into the womb, for its lining will have been largely restored by this time, and at points where restoration is incomplete defenses have been thrown up against infection. THE RETURN OF MENSTRUATION.--On account of the dilatation at the time of labor women who have previously suffered with menstruation may look forward to relief after child-birth. Menstruation generally becomes as painless as the flow of the lochia; and so far as a patient can tell the two phenomena are identical. Actually, however, they bear no relation to each other. The fact that the cavity of the uterus has been deprived of its lining is responsible for the lochia, whereas the menstrual discharge occurs in spite of the lining, through which it breaks at regular intervals in response to a stimulus that is absent for a longer or shorter period after the birth of a child.