A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Marc Colombat de L'Isère
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    The period of eruption in 1781 women of England and France, which I have calculated from the tables of Brierre de Boismont [De la Menstruation, &c, Paris, 1842, p. 39,) and Lee's Lecture, was as follows:—'' At 11 years in 110 At 16 years in 284 12 144 18 144 11 13 256 19 72 14 360 20 40 15 366 A medical gentleman and His lady informed me in Dec. 1847, that the women of Costa Rica which is their country, are generally regular as early as 12 years; and that it is very common to meet with persons who change as early as the 10th and 11th year. But it is rare to find a sample of parturition in a female before the age of fifteen years. The lady herself, a native of Cartago, was married at fourteen, but has never had children. She is now twenty-two.—M.] PHENOMENA OF MENSTRUATION. Menstruation is a distinctive characteristic of the human species, for, except at the coupling season, no other animal is subject to a periodical discharge from the sexual organ. In some females the first eruption of the menses takes place sud- denly, and without the least premonitory sign. The blood, by accu- mulating within the organ destined at some future period to contain the embryo, by its superabundant quantity, opens an easy way of escape by a before unaccustomed route. [I do not perceive the necessity or force of this remark, if he refers to the cavity, since it is certain that a drop of fluid, whether of blood or any other liquor, can never have the least difficulty in escaping from the cavity of the fundus and body of the womb, along the canal of the cervix, which is always sufficiently open to admit of the introduction of a medium bougie, even to the fundus uteri.—M.] In the major part of the cases, however, the first menstrual haemor- rhage is both preceded and accompanied by various inconvenient circumstances. A real febrile movement is set up ; the pulse is full, irregular, bounding; a considerable heat is felt in the genitalia, which become tumid, painful and sensitive, occurrences which are also ob- servable with regard to the mammary glands. The young girl com- plains of general plethora, cephalalgia, suffocation, colic and other symptoms, the signs of uterine congestion, such as pain in the loins, with a sense of weight in the thighs and in the pubic region. In some cases spasmodic cough is noticed, and the sleep is disturbed by palpi- tations and wearisome dreams. At this period, the young adolescent becomes sad and melancholy, and gives herself up to indulgence in reverie, the cause of which she does not understand; she is now more susceptible, impressionable, and becomes subject to violent emotion