First lines of the practice of physic (Volume 2).

  • William Cullen
Date:
1806
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First lines of the practice of physic (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. BOOK IV. CHAPTER VI. OF THE MENORRHAGIA, OR THE IMMODE- RATE FLOW OF THE MENSES. 965.] T>LOOD discharged from the vagina may pro- J3 ceed from different sources in the internal parts: but I here mean, to treat of those discharges only, in which the blood may be presumed to flow from the same sources that the menses in their natural state proceed from ; and which discharges alone, are those properly comprehended under the present title. The title of Metrorrhagia, or hce- morrhagia uteri, might comprehend a great deal more. 966.] The menorrhagia may be considered as of two kinds ; either as it happens to pregnant and lying-in women, or as it happens to women neither pregnant nor having re- cently born children. The first kind, as connected with the circumstances of pregnancy and child-bearing, (which are not to be treated of in the present course) I am not to con- sider here, but shall confine myself to the second kind of menorrhagia only. 967.] The flow of the menses is considered as immode- rate, when it recurs more frequently,* when it continues longer, or when, during the ordinary continuance,f it is more abundant^ than is usual with the same person at other times. 968.] As the most part of women are liable to some in- equality with respect to the period, the duration, and the * The usual period is from twenty-seven to thirty days. + The time of its continuance is very various in different people; it seldom continues longer than eight days or shorter than two. In general, women of a lax and delicate constitution have a more copious and a longer continued discharge than robust people. t It is extremely difficult to ascertain precisely what quantity is usually discharged ; but the women themselves can generally inform the physician with sufficient exactness for regulating the practice whether the discharge be immoderate. 2r