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
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 relief that follows the menstrual travail is a sure index of the regularity of this function, which in general recurs, when well estab- lished, at fixed periods of twenty-eight or thirty days, and in this regard, in some females, seems to correspond with the phases of the moon. This opinion, being generally entertained among the vulgar, has been reduced to a proverb by the poet:— Luna vetus vetulas, juvenes nova lima repurgat. Instead of having any reference to the lunar month, Haller and some other authors suppose rather that the menses coincide with the solar months. Gall, whilst not admitting a sidereal influence, believes that the discharge will be found generally to take place at about the same period of time, and that there are certain weeks in each month in which no women are menstruating. He divides the menstrual epochs into two classes—comprising the first eight days of the first and second fortnights, that is to say, the first and third weeks : if there be women who, from accidental causes, become unwell during the second and fourth weeks, he pretends that, after some months, they will return under obedience to the general law ; but Dr. Gall furnishes no explanation of the cause of the general menstruation at two dif- ferent epochs. Many women are met with who, in all other respects, are in fine health, yet in whom the periodical returns anticipate as regards the lunar months. Thus certain nervous women, especially such as are of an erotic temperament, are found to menstruate every fortnight, while others, of an opposite constitution, are subject to the returns only every six weeks, or even only every two months. Lin- naeus says that he saw women in Lapland whose discharges occurred only once a year. In his Treatise on Diseases of the Womb, Dr. Pauly relates that M. Lisfranc has met with women who were regu- lar every fifth or sixth month, or only every fourth and even sixth year. Some of these women were habitually disordered, and others enjoyed perfect health—in the first case the indications would be the same as for persons who had never yet menstruated; but we shall return to this subject in treating of the diseases of menstruation. [I see no propriety in citing such cases as these as samples of menstrua- tion. I should, in all such instances, be inclined to regard the flow as a malady merely, and not as the result of the regular exercise of a nonmal phy- siological function. A lady, for example, informed me yesterday, (March 14, 1844,) that she was regular at thirteen, and, after giving birth to twelve chil- dren, lost her catamenia definitively at 35 aetat.; after having seen nothing for seven years, she had a very copious menstruation. She has had uninterrupted health all her life long. I could not regard the case in question otherwise than as an incident in her history having probably no relation to the menstrual function. The case mentioned by M. Colombat below, is, however, of a dif- ferent character.—M.] The Duchess of D., celebrated as much for her wit as for her ad- mirable literary talents, assured me that, having ceased to menstruate](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21029313_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
