I can not leave this subject without urging upon women the necessity of educating their own fingers to judge of the heart’s actions by the radial pulse. Get your physician to tell you and study in your books the meaning of a quick, a throbbing, a slow, a weak, feeble or wiry pulse. It is one of the surest guides to abnormal conditions, and is a great aid to nurses in the administration of remedial measures, besides often determining the necessity of medical aid. In my _conversations_ with women, often in an audience of one hundred ladies, I find none who know even the frequency of the normal pulse. The enlargement of the breasts at about the third month, the secretion of a fluid in them, also the darkening of the areola around the nipples are of frequent or usual attendance upon gestation--but not always; consequently of themselves can not be taken as diagnostic symptoms. THE PATHOLOGICAL symptoms are more numerous. Indeed, almost any symptom accompanying any disease may attend gestation. This is a sad reflection upon our enlightened civilization. Were it not for this, Tokology would have no special mission. The facts now are that with most American women the 280 days of pregnancy are days of disease and suffering. The inconvenience, the discomfort and the pains attendant upon this condition, together with the dread of the final throes of travail, transform this period, which should be one of hope, of cheerfulness, of exalted pleasure, into days of suffering, wretchedness, and direful forebodings. It is one long night-mare, and child-bearing is looked upon as a curse and not a blessing. Motherhood is robbed of its divinest joys. Dr. Cowan says: “The period of pregnancy should be one of increased health, rather than increased disorders. The mother who has hitherto led a true life, will, during this period, experience an exhilaration of spirits, a redundancy of health and cheerfulness of mind that is not to be enjoyed at any other time.” Alas! how few have this experience. Ordinarily pregnancy is classed both by physicians and women among the diseases. Physical sufferings and mental agonies are the common accompaniments of the condition. Murderous intent fills the mother’s heart, and the fearful crime of feticide is daily committed.