milk whenever she heard the cries of a newly-born infant. It occurs often that physicians are summoned to labors where all is real, save the presence of an infant. This has happened many times.
We cite the following case from a reliable source: A woman, married late in life, mistook the "change of life" for pregnancy, and passed through all the usual symptoms attendant upon that condition, including enlargement of the abdomen, tumefaction and pain in the breasts, morning nausea, and even swelling of the lower extremities. At the expected "term" regular pains occurred, exactly simulating those of labor, and physician and attendants were summoned to this extraordinary scene where nothing was wanting, save the presence of a baby. Pichon cites the case of a woman of forty-eight, who had not menstruated for four years, and who, while assisting at the bedside of a sister during a long and painful labor, was seized with pains absolutely similar to those she was witnessing. Some hours after flooding commenced, which continued several days, after which the breasts became swollen, and furnished an abundant secretion of milk. Another case is that of a woman in labor whose sister, a woman of forty, married, but sterile, was taken with simulative labor-pains so severely that she had to be removed from the scene.
The influence of marriage upon longevity is a question which has given rise to much dispute. While statistics would seem to show that the average of bachelors die earlier than married men, we are inclined to think that the iacl is attributable to other circumstances than continence. In order to show the contrary it would be necessary to prove continence, or at least to select for the comparison bachelors whose known habits of life would tend to that presump- tion. In fact, they are very often men of irregular and dis-