The essential character of the urine of pregnancy, then, is the presence of the kisteine; and the characters of the pellicle are so peculiar that it is impossible to mistake it for anything else. A pellicle sometimes forms on the surface of the urine of patients laboring under phthisis, abscess, or disease of the bladder, but may be easily distinguished by this circumstance, that it does not form in such a short time as the kisteine, and that in place of disappearing, as this last, in a few days, it increases in thickness and at last is converted into a mass of moldiness. There exists, likewise, a very marked difference between its mucous aspect and that of kisteine; a difference which is difficult to describe, but which is easily recognized.
Kisteine appears to exist in the urine from the first month of pregnancy till delivery. It has even been recognized in the urine of a few gravid animals.
“PARTURIENT BALM,”
For Rendering Childbirth Easy and Less Dangerous—A very Important Medicine.
Take blue cohosh root, four ounces; lady's-slipper root and spikenard root, of each one ounce; sassafras bark (of root) and clover, of each half an ounce. Bruise all, and simmer slowly for two hours in two quarts of boiling water. Strain, and add one pound of white sugar.
Dose: A wineglassful twice a day for two weeks or a month previous to expected confinement, for the purpose of rendering parturition, or childbirth, more easy.
Should be taken by every pregnant woman.
ABORTION.
Abortion, or miscarriage, means, in plain language, a woman losing her child previous to the seventh month of her pregnancy; that is, before its due time. When this occurs after that period it is called