The clinic aspect of the different forms of cardiac disease during pregnancy is largely modified by the physiologic status at this time. The character of the blood, the development of the heart muscle, the changes in the circulation, the displacement of the viscera by the gravid uterus, have all a more or less direct bearing on the abnormal conditions due to cardiac disturbance.
As to the condition of the blood, we may consider in this connection the general increase in the quantity of the blood, this increase, contrary to the earlier observations on this point, being due, according to Fehling and Meyer, to an augmentation in the various constituents—namely, the red and white corpuscles, as well as the serum. This fact has a special bearing on the increased function imposed on the circulatory system, and the occurrence of stasis in pregnancy. The tendency of the fibrin of the blood to