(4) Drinking water liberally,
(5) Avoiding an excessive quantity of meat,
(6) Guarding against constipation.

At present the value of prevention in the treatment of the toxemias
of pregnancy is so clearly recognized that charitable organizations
employ nurses to visit women of the poorer classes during pregnancy
in order to instruct them about the measures that I have just
indicated. Remarkable results have already been obtained. In one
clinic where this method has been adopted the frequency of all kinds
of toxemia, I am told, has notably diminished, and serious types are
not permitted to develop. Similar results should be obtained in
private practice when patients place themselves under medical
supervision at the beginning of pregnancy. Under these favorable
circumstances symptoms of autointoxication probably occur not oftener
than once in every hundred pregnancies, but nine out of ten of them,
being promptly recognized, yield readily to relatively simple
treatment.

The early detection of such complications depends largely upon the
patient herself. As has been emphasized--and it cannot be said too
frequently--she should not fail to submit, at appropriate intervals,
a specimen of urine for examination. It is by such an examination
generally that the development of a toxemia is first detected.
Occasionally, however, significant signs will attract the patient's
attention before there is any change in the urine. For that reason,
it is important to notify the physician if any of the following
symptoms appear:

(1) Serious vomiting.