In view of the possibility of any local or circumscribed peritonitis becoming general, and as such may prove fatal, the importance of recognizing it in its first stage, or early, becomes readily apparent. Preventive measures of circumscribed or local peritonitis are to be found in avoiding the causes that have been referred to as inducing the affection under consideration, among which, criminal abortions are the most fruitful. It seems to me that if women were cognizant of the dangers that threaten them, they would not only be more careful in observing the ordinary rules of health, but they would voluntarily shrink from committing crimes that not only stain their souls with the blood of their own kindred, but also entail disease and death, that unexpectedly waft their spirits into the presence of their Creator, whose laws they have outraged. How often have I been told by women who lay prostrated on their death bed, “O doctor, I did not know that the induction of an abortion was a crime and dangerous, because the person who performed the operation told me that it was neither dangerous nor criminal.” Alas! poor woman, there is no greater crime, and nothing more pernicious to your health and life; would that others would only learn and profit from the inexorable fate into which your delusions enticed you. TREATMENT. The treatment in this affection, when prompt and intelligently administered, offers every chance of success. In the acute stage of pelvic peritonitis, we must resort to remedies that promptly counteract the inflammatory action. The internal administration of opium or some morphine preparation is invariably demanded, not only to relieve the pain, but also to completely check or constipate the bowels, so that their peristaltic action is entirely suspended, for their motion would irritate the peritoneum. Dr. McMunn’s elixir of opium in one-half to one teaspoonful doses should be given every four hours, until the pain is relieved and the bowels controlled. Rubber ice bags should be applied to the lower abdominal region. This course of treatment will generally limit and check the inflammatory process in a few days; then the bowels should be gently moved every day, with an enema of warm water impregnated with a little soap; after which, complete quietude in bed for another week or two, will complete the cure. Chronic perimetritis must be treated according to its complications; should there be a gonorrhœal infection, then what was said of the treatment of this complaint elsewhere, applies with equal force to these cases. The patient’s strength must now be an object of jealous solicitude. The diet must be of the most nourishing nature, and milk or egg punch should be the principal food, at regular intervals of four hours, alternating with strong soups or beef teas, to which a raw egg thoroughly beaten should first be added. Vaginal and uterine catarrhs, if they exist, require the attention that is recommended in the preceding pages.