Painless childbirth is only relative, and in the absolute meaning of the term it is not true, and for this reason, that severe contractions of the womb are always painful, and extreme tension of tissues and muscles such as the passage of the child will occasion in its passage through the soft parts is also more or less painful and there is no natural childbirth possible without both these factors being present. Painless childbirth in its absolute sense, as a scientific fact, is not true, but to assure a comparatively painless childbirth in accordance with scientific facts which are capable of demonstration is not only reasonable but absolutely true. The term “food” is understood to be all those substances, solid and liquid, which are used for the process of nutrition. For our present purpose foods may be divided into three classes: _carbo-hydrates_, _albuminoids_, and _phosphates_. The carbo-hydrates furnish fat and warmth, as an example we have starch, sugar, and fats. Persons who are fed principally upon this class become warm and fat, but will lack muscle and nerve. The albuminoids are also termed nitrogenous substances, and constitute the muscle making material. They are derived both from animal and vegetable sources, and in their most concentrated form we find them in eggs, milk or cheese, and in meats also in certain meals; wheat, for instance, contains fourteen per cent of nitrate or muscle-making material. Phosphates are generally taken into the system as phosphate of lime contained in certain foods we eat, as fish, lobster, beef, Southern corn, peas and beans, barley, sweet potatoes and oats. It is obvious from what was said of painful and prolonged childbirth, that the pregnant woman should avoid as much as possible nitrogenous or muscle-making food; she must starve her muscular system as much as it is possible for her to do, and the result will be that her muscles will become soft and relaxable and that means a comparatively easy or painless childbirth. In Europe, the peasantry who eat meat sparingly or very seldom, have comparatively little pain, because vegetables enter largely into their daily diet; the same is true in Asiatic countries where the staple is rice, the throes of labor are very light. The squaws of our Indian tribes are remarkable for the little pain they suffer in childbirth and for the shortness of its duration, and the recuperation is also a speedy one, for an Indian woman will travel or be about in a few days after her confinement with her pappoose on her back.