[37] “In women with dark eyes and hair, this discolouration is very distinct; in women with light hair and eyes, it is often so slight that it is difficult to tell whether it exists or no.”... “In brunettes who have already borne children, the areola remains dark ever afterwards, so that this ceases to be a guide in all subsequent pregnancies.” (Gooch, on some of the more important Diseases of Women, p. 201 and 203.)
[38] We had, at the moment of writing the above, a patient just recovered from her first labour, in whom the discolouration extended nearly over the whole breast: it was darker in some spots than in others, and presented a variety of shades not unlike a large bruise of some days’ standing. Dr. Montgomery mentions a case where the areola was almost black, and upwards of three inches in diameter. A similar case occurred not long since.
[39] Bibliothèque Universalle, t. ix. p. 248; also in the Isis for 1819, part iv. p. 542.
[40] “Mémoir sur l’Auscultation appliquée à l’étude de la Grossesse, ou Recherches sur deux nouveaux Signes propres à faire reconnaïtre plusieurs Circonstances de l’Etat de Gestation; lu à l’Academie Royale de Médecine dans la Séance Générale du 26 December, 1821. Par J. A. Lejumeau de Kergaradec.”
[41] Dr. Evory Kennedy, Observations on Obstetric Auscultation, &c. 1833.
[42] H. F. Naegelé, Die Geburtshülfliche Auscultation, 1838; also Dr. Corrigan, Lancet.
[43] Die Geburtshülfliche Exploration, von Dr. A. P. Hohl.
[44] This sign of pregnancy has very recently excited some attention, and the researches of M. Tanchou of Paris, (see American Journ. Med. Sc. Feb. 1840, p. 483,) Golding Bird, (Ibid., Aug. 1840, p. 501,) and Drs. McPheeters and Perry, (American Medical Intelligencer, March 15th, 1841, p. 350,) conclusively establish, that taken in connexion with other symptoms, it forms a very valuable aid to diagnosis.
The following is the description given by M. Tanchou of the changes which the urine during pregnancy exhibits, and of the characters by which its peculiar ingredient, named by M. Nauche Kiesteine, may be recognised.
The urine of a pregnant woman, collected in the morning, is usually of a pale yellow colour and slightly milky in appearance; it is not coagulable by heat, or by any of the tests which indicate the presence of albumen. Left to itself and exposed to the air after the first day, there begins to appear suspended in it a cottony-looking cloud, and, at the same time, a flocculent whitish matter is deposited at the bottom of the fluid. These phenomena are not of constant occurrence, and, moreover, healthy urine sometimes exhibits analogous phenomena.