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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    from very slight causes. She grows more irascible, often has queer appetites, and is capricious—her imagination is more elevated, and a secret instinct gives her the presentiment of that important destiny that nature calls her to fulfil. At length the flow makes its appearance, preceded and followed by a muco-serous discharge ; it is in inconsiderable quantity, rarely lasts more than two or three days, and at first recurs at irregular periods, but acquires precision after the fourth or fifth return. [There are a great many persons to be met with who bqcorae regular at first, and who continue so throughout the whole period of the menstrual life. —M.] In women, already regular, the discharge is gentle or moderate, but without any interruption from beginning to end. On the first day it is scarcely a show, but increases progressively until the third; from which time it gradually lessens until the fifth or sixth, more or less. By this time great relief is obtained, all the precursory symp- toms have vanished, and nothing remains but a feeling of languor, which makes her seek repose, not exercise—the countenance has a languishing look, the cheeks are pale, the eyes are less bright, and have a dark palpebral areola, the breasts continue to be painful, the odour of the breath and perspiration is strong, and there is in the genital parts a sense of heat, and pruritus which provoke the aphro- disiac sense. [M. Colombat has, in the above paragraph, painted, in colours, perhaps, a little too strong, the features of a healthful menstruation. I am assured, by many persons in the various classes of society, that the menstrual act is, in them at least, unattended by such very marked signs of constitutional consent as M. C. would seem to believe. Many of them have assured me, during more than thirty years, that for them the catamenia have never been the occa- sion of the least trouble or the smallest modification of their health. The flow begins, continues and ends without sensation or inconvenience, except what arises from the needful cares as to cleanliness of the person. I am very much inclined to think, seeing that so many millions of women exist who never make the# least complaint of their menstrua, it is only in particular cases that the reader should adopt M. Colombat's description, and not in all cases.—M.] There are women who, though always very regular, are quite ill at each menstrual revolution—such persons are generally unwell and suffering at the approach of the menses, and some of them suffer from various accidental affections, as colic, headache, vapours, spasms, hysterics, convulsions, and even epilepsy. In others the digestive functions become deranged and painful. The patient feels debilitated, and the memory is weakened: all women at this time readily take cold, are soon fatigued, and as they are generally more sensitive to all sorts of impressions, they become more susceptible, sad, timid, irasci- ble, and subject to caprices that claim not indulgence only, but the tenderest commiseration.