Tokology

CHAPTER I.. Painless Childbirth.

PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH.

Painless childbirth--Testimony of travelers, missionaries and physicians--Sufferings in childbirth greater in this country than in any other--Is this a curse upon woman?--Indian women do not suffer in labor--Dr. Dewees--Prof. Huxley--Remarkable cases of parturition without pain--Author’s professional experience--Anecdote of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes--Proofs of science--Lay aside prejudice 17-24

CHAPTER II.. Conception--Fetal Development.

CONCEPTION--FETAL DEVELOPMENT.

The reproductive apparatus--The ovaries--The oviducts--The uterus--The vagina--Mammary glands--Conception--Law of conception--Development of the embryo--The placenta--Fetal circulation--Blue baby--Duration of pregnancy--Growth of the embryo--Eight months baby 25-36

CHAPTER III.. Pregnancy--Signs and Symptoms.

PREGNANCY--SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS.

Four physical signs--Cessation of menses--Increase of size--Quickening--Fetal heart-beat--Positive indication of pregnancy--Pathological symptoms--Physicians offer no relief--A woman’s sad experience 37-41

CHAPTER IV.. Diseases of Pregnancy--Indigestion, Nausea, Etc.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY--INDIGESTION, NAUSEA, ETC.

Indigestion a common ailment--Starch and fats the prime cause of dyspepsia--Children’s food is given to the pigs--Morning sickness--Is it a natural symptom?--Biliousness, what is it?--Enemas, their uses--Do not force the appetite--Tradition’s teachings--Will the fetus starve? 42-50

CHAPTER V.. Diseases of Pregnancy--Constipation.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY--CONSTIPATION.

Most women suffer from constipation--Causes--Hot bread--White flour--Baking powders--Errors in dress--Cathartic drugs--Treatment--Wally and the Lockport entire wheat bread--Wheatlet--Cracked or rolled wheat--How Charlie was cured--Feast on fruits--Foods, laxative and constipating--Special exercises--Going without supper 51-73

CHAPTER VI.. Diseases of Pregnancy--Headache, Neuralgia, Heartburn.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY--HEADACHE, NEURALGIA, HEARTBURN.

Headache--Tea and sick headache--Headache can be cured--Treatment--Heartburn--Flatulence--Hemorrhoids--Greedy appetite-Loss of appetite--Longings--Diarrhea--Neuralgia--Case from practice--Burning feet--Cramps--Swelling of extremities--Sleeplessness--Leucorrhea--Pruritus 74-89

CHAPTER VII.. Hygiene of Pregnancy--Dress.

HYGIENE OF PREGNANCY--DRESS.

Congenial surroundings--Overtaxed mothers--An old lady’s story--An every-day experience--Lucrative work--An author’s interesting testimony--Prophecy for the future--Dress and fashion--Common sense shoes--Can ladies stand in street cars?--Union under-garments--The chemiloon--The princess garment--Bates waist--The divided skirt--Equestrian tights--Dress and freedom for women--Dress in pregnancy--What corset can be worn--Fashion in deformity 90-110

CHAPTER VIII.. Hygiene in Pregnancy--Bathing.

HYGIENE IN PREGNANCY--BATHING.

The water cure mania--The “ounce of prevention”--“A coat of mail”--The sitz-bath the very best bath for a pregnant woman--Fomentations--Save doctors’ visits--Hot water bottles--Cold compress--Foot and leg bath--The Turkish bath--Thermal bath at home--Queen of baths 111-123

CHAPTER IX.. Hygiene in Pregnancy--Diet.

HYGIENE IN PREGNANCY--DIET.

Avoid fats and sweets--The chemist’s theory--Proper food prevents pain in childbirth--Mrs. Rowbotham’s experience--Marvelously easy labor and rapid recovery--Interesting testimony from the wife of a Michigan judge--Mrs. ---- could get no doctor, and child born without pain!--She believes pain in childbirth unnecessary--Extraordinary experience!--Scientific theory accidentally proved--A boon to every woman--Bill of fare for every day in the week--Analysis of food 124-137

CHAPTER X.. Hygiene in Pregnancy--Exercise.

HYGIENE IN PREGNANCY--EXERCISE.

Motion a law of nature--Nest building--Home labor delights the heart--Contact with the earth a “cure-all”--Waist breathing--Educate the muscles--Massage--Muscle beater--Military position--Exercises in pregnancy--Climbing stairs during gestation--Rules for climbing stairs and hills--Delsarte 138-149

CHAPTER XI.. Chastity in the Marriage Relation.

CHASTITY IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION.

Rights of children--Popular theories--Social evil--Who are the prostitutes?--Touching experience--Lessons for husbands--Theory of continence--A New Testament Lesson--Continence in pregnancy--Its influence upon pain at parturition--Influence upon offspring--Men reverence the maternal in woman--Parenthood and progress--Motherhood, central fact in human life 150-162

CHAPTER XII.. Ventilation--Rest.

VENTILATION--REST.

A pregnant woman breathes for two--Open fire places in sleeping rooms--Charcoal pit easily constructed--Fresh air in bedrooms--Drafts--Cold air not pure air--The nose a sentinel--Unslaked lime and charcoal--Interesting experiments--A daily siesta needed--How one mother slept--Recapitulation--Mrs. Stanton’s experience--A girl is as good as a boy 163-173

CHAPTER XIII.. Parturition.

PARTURITION.

What are labor pains?--Stages of labor--Bag of waters--Necessary preparations--Directions for making the bed--Management during the first stage--Meddlesome midwifery--Cutting the cord--A new heresy--No child should be washed as soon as it is born--Delivery of the after-birth--Should the bandage be applied?--Castor oil--Rest, the best remedy 174-182

CHAPTER XIV.. Dystocia.

DYSTOCIA.

Difficult labor--Caustic treatment a frequent cause--Hot sitz-bath overcomes rigidity--A very remarkable case--Notes from practice--Ergot and cohosh--Their poisonous effects--Instruments--Temptation of physicians--Women can make instruments known in tradition only 183-189

CHAPTER XV.. Post Partum Diseases.

POST PARTUM DISEASES.

Daily bath--Compress--Sitz-bath--Very best food--Cases in Home of the Friendless--No need of milk fever--Abscess of the breast--Excoriated nipples--Insufficient milk--Drink new or hot milk--Do not use ale or beer--Excessive flow of milk--After-pains--The lochia--Hemorrhage--Childbed fever--Causes to be avoided--Dr. Playfair’s opinion--Treatment must be prompt 190-203

CHAPTER XVI.. Infants, Their Care At Birth and During Early Infancy.

INFANTS, THEIR CARE AT BIRTH AND DURING EARLY INFANCY.

A new being--Need of rest--An oil bath--Dressing the navel--Clothing--Useful suggestions--Habits of cleanliness can be secured--Nursing--Mother’s milk the natural food--Best artificial food--Causes of mortality in hand-fed children--Artificial human milk--Analysis of milk--Care of the bottle--Time of weaning--Meat-fed children 204-216

CHAPTER XVII.. Diseases of Infants.

DISEASES OF INFANTS.

Aphtha--Excoriation--Colic--Mother’s friend--Soothing syrup--Constipation--Diarrhea--Dysentery--Summer complaint--Inflammation of the bowels--Dentition--Lancing the gums--Starchy food Remedies 217-231

CHAPTER XVIII.. Diseases of Infants--Continued.

DISEASES OF INFANTS--CONTINUED.

Worms--Incontinence of urine--Retention of urine--Croup, the mother’s terror--True and false croup--A sovereign remedy--Diphtheria--Popular remedies--Contagious diseases--Scarlet fever--Tabular differences between scarlet fever and measles--Whooping cough--Convulsions--Practical suggestions 232-242

CHAPTER XIX.. Abortion.

ABORTION.

Prevention--Treatment--Feticide--Viability of the embryo--Two wrongs cannot make one right--Maternal instinct inherent--Incentives to produce abortion--Unwelcome children 243-251

CHAPTER XX.. Menstruation.

MENSTRUATION.

Definition--Cause--Should be devoid of suffering--Disorders--Suppression--Painful menstruation--Errors in dress--Lack of exercise--Romping girls--Wrong diet--Heat, a sovereign remedy--Remarkable cases--Flowing, Remedies 252-262

CHAPTER XXI.. Diseases of Women.

DISEASES OF WOMEN.

Nine-tenths of American women have these maladies--Common-sense hints--Inflammation--Mental sufferings--A cause of insanity--Ulceration--Induration--Errors in dress and diet--Sitz-bath--Thermal bath--Injections--Valuable exercises--Caustic treatment--Acids and probes--Sufferings induced and prolonged--Physicians taking the back track--Reforms effected by the protest of the people--Leucorrhea--Displacements--Hysteria 263-275

CHAPTER XXII.. Change of Life.

CHANGE OF LIFE.

A scape-goat of physicians--What is the meno-pause?--Irregularity--Hot flashes--Profuse perspiration--Hemorrhage--Mental symptoms--Nature creates no pathological conditions--Therapeutic measures--Natural remedies--Simple habits 276-285

CHAPTER XXIII.. Dietetics.

DIETETICS.

Nearly two hundred recipes, including: Drinks for the sick--Gruels--Jellies--Bread--Gems--Toast--Puddings--Eggs--Oysters and miscellaneous dishes--The outgrowth of experience on a scientific basis--Healthy food made palatable, suiting the fastidious and capricious taste of the invalid--Dainty dishes for the sick 286-320

A FAMILIAR LETTER.

TO THE READER FROM THE AUTHOR.

Regulating sex--Various theories--Limiting offspring--Maternal instinct sovereign in women--Law of ovulation--Law of continence--Other methods--Effects of tobacco--Testimonials--Reasons of failure--“Mind cure” a reality 321-350

AUTHOR’S SPECIAL REQUEST 351

GLOSSARY 351

INDEX 357

INDEX OF DIETETICS 364

ILLUSTRATIONS AND EXPLANATION OF PLATES--See Pocket.

TOKOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.. Painless Childbirth.

PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH.

“I know of no country, no tribe, no class, where childbirth is attended with so much pain and trouble as in this country.” Thus replied a traveler who had been many years in foreign lands, upon being interrogated as to the comparative sufferings of savage and civilized women. His occupation and sympathies had brought him into close relationship with all classes of people, and therefore fitted him for an intelligent and discriminating judgment in this matter.

Neither in India, Hindostan, China, Japan, the South Sea Islands, South America, nor indeed in any country do women suffer in both pregnancy and parturition as they do in this. Possibly among the higher classes in Europe there may be equal suffering; but the peasantry everywhere is comparatively exempt.

The usual testimony of missionaries and travelers is that the squaws of our own Indian tribes experience almost no suffering in childbirth, and the function scarcely interferes with the habits, pleasures or duties of life. I have myself seen a squaw of the Ottawa tribe carrying her pappoose upon her back, strapped to a board, when it was only twenty-four hours old.

Mrs. Armstrong, one of the early missionaries in the Sandwich Islands, says: “With native women the labor was not long nor severe; the mother, instead of remaining in bed, arose, bathed in cold water, walked and ate as usual.”

Dr. Storer says: “There is probably no suffering ever experienced which will compare, in proportion to its extent in time, with the throes of parturition.” Dr. Meigs says: “Men can not suffer the same pain as women. What do you call the pains of parturition? There is no name for them but agony!”

It is too true that women go down to death in giving birth to children. Thousands of women believe that this pain is natural and that for it there can be no alleviation. “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children” is thought to be a curse that applies to all women of all time.

If this pain and travail is a natural accompaniment of physiological functions--if it is a curse upon women, then why are the rich, the enlightened and more favored daughters of earth greater sufferers than the peasantry, the savage, the barbarian, and those who we call heathen? Is it not possible, by research and comparison, to learn the natural and true mode of life, so that motherhood may, among enlightened people, be relieved from this burden of suffering? May it not prove that our traditions and teachings upon this subject have been altogether erroneous?

American women in education and enlightenment, in freedom and progress, are the peers of the best and noblest of their sex. From individual, social and national interests, they ought to be conversant with all that pertains to this subject, so closely allied to the interests of the race.

We find in women of superior education and marked intelligence an exaggerated development of the emotional nature, and a corresponding deterioration of physical powers. Weakness, debility, and suffering is the common lot of most of them. Not one in a hundred has health and strength to pursue any chosen study, or to follow any lucrative occupation, and what is vastly worse, most are unfitted for the duties and perils of maternity.

Dr. Gaillard Thomas says: “Neither appreciation of, nor desire for, physical excellence sufficiently exists among refined women of our day. Our young women are too willing to be delicate, fragile and incapable of endurance. They dread above all things the glow and hue of health, the rotundity and beauty of muscularity, the comely shapes which the great masters gave to the Venus de Medici and Venus de Milo. All these attributes are viewed as coarse and unladylike, and she is regarded as most to be envied whose complexion wears the livery of disease, whose muscular development is beyond the suspicion of embonpoint, and whose waist can almost be spanned by her own hands.

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