Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips.

  • Phillips, John
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    74/332 page 54
    MENSTRUATION. By Menstruation we usually mean a periodic hemorrhagic dis- charge from the interior of the uterus, occurring every twenty- eight days; more precisely, we may speak of it as a cyclical change accompanied by certain constitutional and local disturb- ances, the most marked of the latter being the periodic loss of blood from the uterus, mixed with epithelium from the superficial layers of the endometrium. Date of Appearance.—In this country it usually appears from the fourteenth to the sixteenth year; but statistics prove that its date of onset is influenced by climate, surroundings, and heredity. For instance, in India, among the native races, menstruation often begins as early as nine years of age, whereas in colder climates than our own it may appear as late as the seventeenth or eigh- teenth year. Again, a girl in the upper classes, accustomed to every comfort and never exposed to hardship, her mind excited by novel-reading and high education, will commence to menstruate earlier than the country-bred girl, plainly fed and working in the open air. Often it is found that if the mother began to men- struate early the daughter will do likewise, and vice versd. There seems to be no doubt that the mixing of girls and boys which necessarily occurs among the poorer classes, and which is pro- ductive of premature sexual excitement, is a cause of early men- struation. Ehythm and Duration.—The most common form of menstrua- tion is what is called the twenty-eight-day type—that is to say, when that interval occurs from the commencement of one flow to the appearance of another. Twenty-seven and twenty-one day varieties also are not uncommon. A clear understanding of this is necessary, as patients will often say their periods come every week and'last fourteen days. By this must be understood that the onset of the period occurs every twenty-one days, lasts fourteen, and that the patient only has a clear interval of seven days; these figures are given for the sake of example only.
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