Quinine in Pregnancy

The fact that quinine is used to overcome uterine inertia in weak women, and as an ecbolic is always prescribed during labour, if there is no obstruction, is mainly responsible for the general impression that its use should be avoided during pregnancy as far as possible. Clinical experience, however, warrants no such fear about the administration of quinine during pregnancy. Hare, in his Practical Therapeutics, says that quinine " will not of itself cause abortion, but in nervous, hysterical women who have a tendency to abort, and whom it is necessary to give full doses of quinine during pregnancy, it may be well to combine some sedative, as one of the bromides or opium with the antiperiodic." Ghosh boldly affirms that "the notion that the administration of quinine in pregnancy is highly dangerous is a mistake. Very large doses are frequently taken without causing any ill effects. Indeed, one often sees abortion result from an unchecked fever, which might have been avoided by the timely administration of quinine." (Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 3rd Edition, page 344.) During the last epidemic of malaria in Bombay, a large number of inhabitants of this place suffering from malaria, came up here for a change. Most of these people stay in Bombay on the Frere Road and the North Fort side, the headquarters so to say of the epidemic. Among these arrivals, were a number of pregnant women, all more or less infected, who applied for treatment at the dispensary and had to be