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On Gestation.
105

ference with the circulation of the blood, upon the proper action of which all that concerns our well-­being depends.

It is generally known that the circulation of the blood takes place through two sets of vessels—the arteries and veins. The former come from the heart, and are employed in distributing the vital fluid over every part of the system, until they terminate in the capillaries, or vessels small as a hair, which are distributed over the whole of the internal and external surfaces of the body. When its vitality has been exhausted, the colour of the blood is changed from a bright red into a very dark hue, and it is then taken up by the other set of vessels, and carried back again to the heart and lungs, to undergo another process of purifi­cation. Any interruption of this circulation by a pressure upon the soft pipes through which the fluid is carried, must, as a natural consequence, lower the natural action of the organs, and by increasing the sensibility, give rise to pain and disease. Hence the headache, the giddiness, dul­ness, depression, and languor, the numbness of the extremities, the enlarged veins, and other painful sensations which too often accompany gestation; and when all these have passed away