It is rare that one recovers entirely from their effects. They cause uterine inflammation, ulceration, displacement, etc., that are accompanied by amaurosis, loss of memory, headache and many nervous symptoms which are ignorantly attributed to the “last confinement.” Rupture of the cervix, for which ladies so often must be treated in these days, is frequently the result of rapid forced labor by the use of these drugs. As you value good health, never take these remedies in poisonous doses. If uterine contractions can not be increased by the hot bath or cold compresses placed on the abdomen, an _attenuated_ dose of the drug will be followed with as speedy results as a cup full of the infusion or a drachm of fluid extract, and the toxicological effect will be avoided. PROTEST POSITIVELY AND PERSISTENTLY against taking a poisonous dose of ergot or black cohosh. Better wait for nature than suffer the effects that are sure to follow. INSTRUMENTS will rarely be called in use if women learn the laws of life and obey them. Malformed and diseased as women are, instruments are resorted to far more frequently than necessary. There is a feeling in the profession that dextrous instrumental delivery often saves women suffering, and consequent nervous prostrations. Most women, on the contrary, have a horror of forceps, and this, with the temporarily increased suffering aggravates rather than lessens the prostration. Remember, the physician has selfish temptations for instrumental interference. It entitles him to an extra fee, it saves him time, and possibly gives him _eclat_ as an accoucheur. In most cases where instruments are now used, speedy results could be obtained from the _hot sitz-bath_, without danger of subsequent difficulties. Occasionally a case may require instruments, but the experience of many successful physicians, especially the women in the profession, proves that if there is careful preparatory treatment, artificial delivery need seldom be called in requisition. In several hundred obstetric cases in my own practice, instruments were never required where the previous preparation of the patient had been under my own direction. Women have it in their power to produce such healthful conditions that obstetrical instruments shall be known only in tradition. CHAPTER XV. POST PARTUM DISEASES. “Mysterious to all thought, A mother’s prime of bliss, When to her eager lips is brought Her infant’s thrilling kiss.”