Page images
PDF
EPUB

as is sometimes the case, drive a nail into the tree and hang up your meat for a few minutes. As an article of commerce, under this particular head, the juice would be the only exportable part.

4. "Children show a great partiality toward the seeds of the ripe fruit. It is an excellent vermifuge. All the seeds contained in an ordinary-sized fruit (it is often as large as a very small pumpkin), if particularly ripe and soft, will not harm a child four or five years old. Its anthelmintic properties are more rapid in their effect if the fruit, instead of being plucked, to ripen in house, is left to ripen on the tree.

Nearly all these beliefs may be mythical or superstitious, as was the case in relation to the Upas tree. But there is always some truth at the bottom of all these myths and beliefs, and we should not reject them without subjecting them to a scientific test. I urgently solicit all my colleagues to prove this drug, and also test its curative powers in impotence (using the 6th and higher). Also in amenorrhoea from uterine atony (in same dose).

OBSTETRICS AND DISEASES OF WOMEN.

DANGERS ACCOMPANYING THE SIMPLEST MANIPULATIONS ABOUT THE UTERUS.

Great care is necessary in all uterine manipulations. Upon this point I would lay some stress, on account of the constant resort to the sound and applicator, even the sponge tent and the intra-uterine syringe, by all physicians, regardless of their experience in uterine therapeutics.

This is equally true in the centers of medical learning in the East, as it is in the interior of our Western States, where a consulting physician cannot be reached. Dr. Clifton E. Wing, in an address delivered to the physicians of Boston and vicinity, before the Suffolk District Medical Society, on Medical Abuses of Gynecology, April 10, says, "It is surprising to see the number of physicians in good standing in the community, who are wanting in proper knowledge of the diseases of women, and do not hesitate to confess their ignorance when in conversation with professional brethren, who, nevertheless,

treat patients for uterine ailments, and give them the impression all the while that they are good authority upon such matters. Some who, at one time and another, have many women in the families in which they practice, under local treatment, are not competent, even after they have made their examinations, to tell what trouble is present. What untold harm is done by unskilled manipulators, we may divine when Dr. T. G. Thomas, the judicious and expert operator, says that he has seen cellulitis and peritonitis in several cases follow the use of pessaries in his own hands; and how dangerous an instrument is the sound, the applicator or the intra-uterine syringe, in the hands of careless men, not to speak of the knife, and yet they constantly make use of them.

"I, of course, presume that the most ordinary caution is observed, that instruments are skillfully handled, and only introduced into the cavity of the uterus after we have excluded all such conditions in which the organ is peculiarly sensitive: "1st. The physiological conditions of menstruation, pregnancy and involution.

"2d. Pathological conditions, uterine or circum-uterine inflammation, whether recent or not, indurations, adhesions, etc., all of which contra-indicate certain manipulations.

"I had thus briefly referred to the dangers arising from the existence of a cellulitis, as I deemed the subject sufficiently well understood, and did not properly consider how rarely this most important complication is detected, when limited in extent and when detected, how rarely the warning its presence should convey is understood. I will accordingly add a few words, at the suggestion of my valued friend, Dr. T. A. Emmet, who has so thoroughly and so forcibly treated this subject in his recent work (p. 259, 2d ed.), and I can do no better than quote his own words: 'I hope you will point out the great danger which lies in the existence of cellulitis, which will be found, to a greater or less degree, in almost every case coming under the charge of the surgeon, and that, sometimes, even with the most careful preparatory treatment, serious consequences follow any surgical interference. This inflammation exists far more frequently than the profession have any idea of, and in

a form readily overlooked. So obscure is its existence sometimes, that I have for years regarded the operations about the female pelvis, as a class, the most dangerous in surgery.'

"However patient the uterus is, and however kindly it bears the varied and serious insults to which it is subjected, there are times, especially during the periods of its physiological activity, when it resents all encroachments most violently. This, however, is well known, and may be excluded from our consideration. I plead for the greatest caution at all times, as serious accidents may result from the use of the ordinarily most harmless instruments, which are unaccountable, even in the hands of the most skilled."-Abstract from an article by George J. Engleman, M. D. Medical Herald.

STUDIES OF THE RELATIONS EXISTING BETWEEN THE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION AND THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM IN WOMEN.

Dr. Alexander J. C. Skene, has an elaborate article in the Annals of the Anatomical and Surgical Society, on the above subject. We append a portion of the article:

"The normal exercise of all the functions in the process of reproduction, imposes a tax upon the whole organization, but, in return, strengthens and preserves body and mind by maintaining the harmony of the entire organization. Excess in any of the functions of the sexual system causes depression of the whole organization, especially of the brain and nervous systems. Arrest of any of the functions of the sexual system causes derangement of nutrition and also of the brain and nervous system. Extreme functional activity of the brain detracts from the strength of the sexual system, generally by increasing excitability at the expense of power; sometimes excessive brain work causes diminished excitability and power also. Early excitation of the emotions and mental attention to the sexual system, will cause premature functional action to a limited extent, the result of which is imperfect development, abnormal irritability and want of power of the sexual organs.

"In illustration of the first proposition, it is well known that the best specimens of medical and physical health are

those women who have menstruated normally, and have borne and raised a number of children under protective and favorable circumstances. Although reproduction makes great demands upon the whole organization, the taxation is natural, and therefore strengthens and preserves the body in the same way that reasonable exercise will strengthen muscles. Cases which come under the second head are too familiar to require much notice. The pale, careworn mother, exhausted by frequent child-bearing and prolonged lactation, whose nervous system is rebelling against over-taxation, may be seen every day. Such a one complains of many nervous symptoms; she is emotional, fearful of dangers, and cannot relate her symptoms to her physician without weeping. Her whole bearing shows plainly that she is on the boundary line of insanity. The same general condition (arising from very different causes) is to be seen in the subject of easy virtue, who, regardless of the hygiene of her sexual system, is reduced to a pale, spongy mass of sluggish, ill-nourished tissues, with a broken nervous system, which is incapable of doing anything well without manifesting hysteria.

"Of all the menstrual derangements, dysmenorrhoea, whether due to malformation of the uterus or disease of the ovaries, is the most marked in its effects upon the mind. The pain. and suffering may be borne for some time, without producing. any very serious effects upon the brain and nervous system, but the ever-recurring week of extreme suffering, which makes an invalid of the patient during one-quarter of her time, soon undermines the strongest brain and nervous system.

"In 'Body and Mind,' by Bain, the influence of pain is well defined in these words: The light smart of a horsewhip is enough to awaken the energies without damaging the vitality. The pain of a flogging, which multiplies smarts of still greater intensity, is utterly exhausting to the whole system.' So it is with the suffering of dysmenorrhoea. At first it might be supposed, that, the reproductive organs being largely under the influence of the organic nerves, and to a great extent involuntary, the mind would not be capable of indirectly affect

ing the functions of these organs, except through the direct agency of the will. Theoretically this appears to be the state of the case, but actually it is otherwise. To show this in clear light, it is only necessary to recall the well-known facts of the effect of the emotions in arresting menstruation and uterogestation. Cases of suppression of the menses and abortion caused by shock, fear, grief, over-joy, and suffering from pain, are so familiar as to require no comment here. The facts teach, however; that other mental states of a milder nature produce effects upon the sexual system equally important although less abrupt and striking. Intellectual labor, too severe or prolonged, tends, no doubt, to debilitate and derange the sexual system, but not to the extent usually supposed. There are few in this world who have sufficiently overcome the natural laziness of the human race to over-indulge in pure intellectual labor. Much has been said, and books have been written, to prove that school-girls should not be compelled to study severely at puberty and during menstruation, but no one should be required at any time to pursue a course of study which cannot be kept up during menstruation. There should be sufficient reserve force at all times to sustain the little extra taxation of menstruation. It has always appeared to me that if school-girls were sufficiently supplied with good food, and could be protected from premature emotional excitement, they would be able to obtain a liberal education and menstruate comfortably during a part of their school days. But although woman may not require special rest during menstruation, she ought to be protected from all those influences which are capable of arresting that function. She may be capable of an amount of mental and physical labor which most men would consider sufficient for themselves, but she cannot endure over-work and extreme mental excitement during her menstrual period, without endangering her health from derangement of her sexual system. Physicians know, and women ought to know, that menstruation can be arrested or deranged by abnormal mental and physical influences, and that most unfortunate results may follow therefrom. That fact alone shows that she cannot safely expose herself to the dangers of

« PreviousContinue »