Volume 1
The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.
- M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.
554/602 (page 482)
![THE CHANGE OF LIFE. [Sect. XVII. common length of time is eight days, then three, and then four. The quantity of discharge dur- ing one period it is also impossible to state with definiteness. From 2 to 6 ounces may be stated as extremes which are within the limit of health. Any larger quantity should lead one to seek competent advice. While four weeks is the usual time that elapses from the beginning of one illness to the beginning of the next, there are variations quite consistent with health. One woman may “alter” every three weeks, and an- other only every six weeks. All departures from what is stated to be the general rule are to be judged by the custom of each person and by the condition of her general health. The discharge comes mainly from the inner surface of the womb, and while it lasts the womb is in the condition of having a greatly increased blood supply, and of being in consequence fuller and heavier than during the interval between two periods. These changes in the womb, as already noted, are coincident with similar conditions in the ovary, attending the ripening and discharge of an ovum. In the virgin condition the ovum passing down the fallopian tube into the womb undergoes no change except that of breaking down and be- coming dissolved. The Change of Life.—At the age of forty- five or thereby, earlier or later in different individuals, the regular periodical illnesses begin to ceji.se. They rarely cease at once, but become irregular. The “illness” returns at irregular intervals, and gradually the discharge diminishes in amount. It also greatly varies, being at one time scanty and at another very profuse, till it finally ceases. The womb at this time becomes smaller in size, and the ovaries shrivel rapidly. At this time the woman is in an unstable condition of health, and liable to many minor ailments, and also to some more serious. She is liable to headache, flushings of the face, and disturbances of the digestive and nervous systems. When this period is safely past, how- ever, a time of good health may be looked forward to with some confidence. Vicarious Menstruation.—This is the term which has been applied to a discharge of blood coming periodically from some part of the body other than the womb, and taking the place of that discharge, which is absent or very scanty. Instances of such menstruation are not very common. But there have been cases in which bleeding from the lungs, stomach, nose, &c., occurred at the usual period, and seemed to be the means of relieving the system when the oi’dinary discharge was wanting or scanty. The Management of the Monthly Ill- ness.— Details of the nature of the monthly illness have been given above, in so far as they seemed advisable for the purpose of communi- cating some intelligent appreciation of the char- acter of occim'ences of which every woman’s body is the seat. It is but in accordance with reason and common-sense that a woman should have some degree of accurate knowledge of so important a function. Disturbances of this func- tion are surprisingly common, are, indeed, appa- rently becoming more and more common, many of the conditions of modern life directly dispos- ing to them. That they are the cause of much suffering, borne largely in silence, because of the natural modesty of women and dislike to seek advice on so delicate a subject, is known to every medical practitioner of even limited ex- perience. Ignorance is undoubtedly mischiev- ous, and a certain amount of knowledge on the part of every woman desirable. Nowadays the only question is how, when, and by whom ought the necessary information to be imparted to every girl. Every medical man recognizes that a little knowledge of the subject would enable women to avoid much of the misery and suffer- ing they incur by tlieir ignorance. For this ])urpose the above details have been given as plainly and simply as seemed to suit the cir- cumstances of the case, and for the same pur- pose the following general directions as to the management of the “illness” are given. It is because the occurrence of the monthly illness is natural and periodic that women, so familiar do they become with the process, pay little heed to its indications, and do not much take it into consideration in regulating their habits of life. In arranging for their work or their _])leasure too little account is taken of it, though every woman knows jiretty accurately the time of its return. Even when some dis- turbance arises connected with it, less attention is paid than would be to disorder of the same extent of any other function. All this is the very reveme of what ought to be. For, at the very outset, it must be remembered that at the period of the illness the whole system is in a highly-strung condition, extremely sensitive to every variety of influence; the nervous system, in particular, is ]:>eculiarly impressionable, and the person, therefore, more open than at any other time to disorder of various kinds. It would only, on this account, be in accordance with](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28124674_0001_0554.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
