The change of life in health and disease : a practical treatise on the nervous and other affections incidental to women at the decline of life / by Edward John Tilt.

  • Tilt, Edward John, 1815-1893.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The change of life in health and disease : a practical treatise on the nervous and other affections incidental to women at the decline of life / by Edward John Tilt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the womb by leeches as the best mode of depletion at the change of life, for leeches are generally applied to the womb so as to determine blood to that organ; and to apply them at this period, except under peculiar circumstances, would be likely to prolong what nature wants to curtail. To check the determination of blood to the womb is clearly indicated at the change of life; and even in cases of uterine inflam- mation I seldom apply leeches, for I find that repeated small general bleedings are more effectual in checking that monthly turgescence of the womb which may take place long after cessation. Purgatives. — Diarrhoea relieved fifty-two out of 500 women at the change of life. These bear witness to the utility of purgatives, as well as the thirty-seven who Avere subject to dyspepsia, the twenty-three who were troubled with obstinate constipation, the fifty-five in whom bilious- ness was a prominent ailment, and the six who had jaun- dice once or more frequently. The utility of purgatives at cessation is further shown by the very intimate sym- pathy which I have proved* to exist between the gene- rative and intestinal canals, and which is indicated by the relaxation of bowels which generally attends the menstrual flow. Purgatives constitute one of the most convenient local depletions by which the system can be habitually relieved; their employment, therefore, at the menopause, fully deserves the confidence which the profession has long accorded to the practice, and the sanction which Fothergill has given to it; indeed the utility of purgatives has become so much a matter of popular, as well as of medical belief, that both patient and medical attendant too often confide in these alone, to the neglect of other important means. I might give numerous cases in proof of the utility of diarrhoea, but I will merely state the following. Case 12.—Catherine M., aged fifty-three, tall, thin, and * Gn Uterine and Ovarian Inflammation, and on Diseases of Men- struatioD. 3rd edition.