Paris, 1915, iv, No. 5.] believes that when there is prolonged
vomiting in early pregnancy, with an increase in systolic blood
pressure, and with an increased viscosity of the blood, the outlook
is serious, and active treatment should be inaugurated.

Irving [Footnote: Irving, F. C.: The Systolic Blood Pressure in
Pregnancy, THE JOURNAL A. M. A., March 25, 1916, p. 935.] reports,
after a study of 5,000 pregnant women, that in 80 percent the
systolic blood pressure varied from 100 to 130; in 9 percent it was
below 100, at least at times, but a pressure below 90 does not mean
that the woman will suffer shock; in 11 percent the pressure was
above 130, and high pressure in young pregnant women more frequently
indicates toxemia than when it occurs in older women; high pressure
is more indicative of toxemia than is albuminuria; a progressively
increasing blood pressure is of bad omen, and most cases of
eclampsia occur with a pressure of 160 or more, but eclampsia may
occur with a moderate blood pressure. Irving believes that with
proper preliminary preventive treatment most eclampsia is
preventable.


ALTITUDE

It has long been known that altitude increases the heart rate and
tends to lower the systolic and diastolic blood pressures; that
these conditions, though actively present at first, gradually return
to normal, and that after a prolonged stay at the altitude may
become nearly normal for the individual. Burker [Footnote: Burker,
K.; Jooss, E.; Moll, E., and Neumann, E.: Ztschr. f. Biol., 1913,
lxi, 379. The Influence of Altitude on the Blood, editorial, THE