The patient must confine herself to a bland liquid diet, principally of milk, raw eggs beaten up in bouillon or broth. Vegetables may be eaten, but they are not to be seasoned with anything but salt; and alcoholic liquors, wine or beer must also be suspended for the time being. NEURALGIA OF THE URETHRA. The female urethra is sometimes the seat of simple neuralgia, by which is meant a painful condition in which there is no apparent disease or inflammation of the tissues. This pain assumes often a spasmodic character; that there is a cause for this is certain, but it is as a rule remote from the sensation which attracts attention. It is often found to be the symptom of some of the diseases to which I have already referred. These are ulcerations, displacements, or inflammation and congestion of the neighboring organs. Abnormal growths or tissues will often be painfully reflected on the nerves of the urethra. I remember a case of internal hemorrhoids, which was never suspected by the patient because there were no painful symptoms pointing to the rectum, but in which the urethra was very painful in its entire extent. The suffering from this urethral neuralgia had lasted for years, but disappeared at once, on the removal of the piles. I have called attention to a catarrhal inflammation of the urethra, from stretching occasioned by the ascending womb after the third month of pregnancy; there is a similar pathological process after the seventh month of gestation, when the pregnant womb begins to descend again into the pelvic cavity, and this is particularly marked in the pregnancy with the first child, when the pain is often very severe. If in a first pregnancy there is no abnormal disproportion between the dimensions of the child’s head and the maternal pelvis, or if there be no abnormal position of the child, then there is an obstetric rule that the womb, or rather the child’s head, begins to descend into the pelvis after the seventh month of gestation, so that it can accommodate or conform itself to the maternal parts. This occasions a drag on the urethra downwards and backwards, which is painfully annoying, and there is a constant inclination to pass water. There are two mechanical methods of relieving this distressing symptom; one is to obtain as much rest as possible in the recumbent position, and the other is to wear an abdominal supporter or bandage around the lower abdominal region, so as to take the weight off the urethra. The internal medication consists of an occasional dose of a mild laxative medicine. In the newly married, the urethra becomes sometimes the seat of a painful spasmodic contraction; this is due to a tense hymen, which should be slightly nicked with a pair of scissors. Exposures to colds will also cause neuralgia. Fresh beer and sour wine make the urine irritating, and also occasion painful symptoms.