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"WOMAN'S  LIFE:
& ^en^tcture of
WOMAN'S FUNCTIONS, FRAILTIES, AND  t }
            FOLLIES.
I
     BOSTON:
A.  W. LOVE RING
       1879.
\ 
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£>'/>:,    A/,,   £-?£$
        Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869,
                     By W. W. BLISS, M.D.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
J 
                TO






   MOTHERS,  PARENTS,




                AND




          GUARDIANS




                OF





YOUTHFUL  IE~EXPEKIEN"CE,






             This  Book





      is respectfully dedicated. 
 
  f

  )           CONTENTS.
  i .               —■—
                                       PAGE
  INTRODUCTORY    .*»•••••  T
                     L
  PUBERTY..........M
                     IX
  MENSTRUATION........  38
                     III.
  INFLAMMATION OF THE MENSTRUAL ORGANS   .   .  M
                     IV.
  SYMPTOMS.........103
                     V.
  CAUSES..........148
                     VI
  4MEN0RRHO3AL TYPE.......282
                    vn.
  MENORRHAGIC TYPE.......°°     ,j
>                               '             4 
6                    Contents.                 \  1
                                                *  I
                                                 * w
                       VIII.                     \j
DYBMENORRHCEAL TYPE.......« 1

                        IX
HYSTERICAL TYPE.....:    •    • 8»j

                        x.                        3
LEUCORRHCEAL TYPE    ....... 8M

                        XI.                        ]
STERILITY     ......... 863

                       xn.
ABORTION.........409 
INTRODUCTORY.
        NO good and wise man can  possibly dispute, or be  indif-
         ferent  to, or unconcerned  at, the increase of invalid fe-
  males.
    What is the cause ?   It is the march of civilization and over-
  refinement.  It is the cultivation  of the mental powers;  of the
  sentiments  and  passions, the refinements, the indulgences,  the
  luxuries,  ay,  eveii  the character,"  of social intercourse.   It is
  the want of light, pure air, proper food, and healthful exercise;  the
  want of exercise in the open air, instead of being confined within
  doors, studying absurd  accomplishments and romantic nonsense.
  It is  the uninterrupted rounds  of excitement consequent  upon
  balls,  parties, the opera, &c, with the liability to cold imposed by
  these  amusements; protracted vigils sacrificed at the shrine of
  folly,  luxury,  and  fashion;  pampering with  stimulating food;
!  injuring by modes of dress which unduly compress most important
  viscera.  It is the dissipations of society, the infatuation, bewilder-
  ment,  and  constant excitation, consequent  upon fashionable life;
  the influence of luxury, indolence, sentimental  reading, and card-
  tables  ; the perusal of  prurient books, passion-stirring pictures,
  statues, &c, obtruding their seductions on the youthful imagina-
  tion, provoking flights of vivid fancy, and arousing impulses of
  desire  and yearnings after unknown gratifications.   It is the want
 ]of proper physical, moral, and mental training.
 ! This it is that is developing morbid influences that will entail
 years of mental, moral, and  physical sufferings, and incapacitate
 woman for the great purposes of her existence.   This it is that is
 developing a condition of system  which no temperament or frame
                                               7 
                                                          T.
8                      Introductory,
of body can resist, — a debilitated vital power, an  altered and
impoverished state of the  blood, manifesting  itself in a vitiated
condition  of the  secretions, accompanied by  decay, or complete
loss, of the enduring tone of the muscular and other solid tissues
of the body.   This it is that is  weighing on  woman like iron
upon the feet of slaves, like shackles on the hands of victims.
  We have but to turn our eyes, and we see the truth of this on
every side.  We  see it among  women of professed refinement.
We  see it among those tasting the joys of plenty.  We  see  it
among those who  have  been  idolized for  their beauty, and we
see it among those in the humble walks of life.   We do not see it,
though, among the untutored inhabitants of the forests, into whose
glades the light of civilization  has  never dawned, and over whose
hills and mountains the arts  and sciences, the refinements and
graces, have not traversed.  Wonder as we may, the stern reality
is  nakedly before  us, that women among  the rude  inhabitants of
earth, educated only by Nature as she instructs in the vast volume
of her wisdom, are physically  and  morally far above  the level of
the shattered condition of bodies and minds schooled in the wrongs
of civilized society.

  A Nero playing on his fiddle in view of a city in flames is a less
frightful picture than that of the physician basking in the serenity
of his own indolence, when that indolence is the  cause of igno-
rance, and ignorance the cause of his non-success in ascertaining
the true seat of a  morbid process  that is not only defeating the
great purposes of woman's existence, but rendering her a victim
to mental, moral,  and physical  suffering that may attend her to
the grave.

  To be in error one's self is a misfortune : if it be such an error j
as mightily affects the well-being, health, and happiness of those \
intrusted to our care and treatment, it is a very grievous misfor-
tune. If, however, error arises from wilful blindness, sheer indo-J
lence, or positive incapacity and stupidity, and it be such an error]
as to compromise the health and happiness of those, who, requir-
ing  help, and  deceived  as  to our endowments  by  the  false
lights that we have held up, have intrusted themselves to our carel
and  treatment, it is a crime, a most cruel  triumph over  good
faith, a barbarous wrong;  and it is the  kind of wrong which we
 
Introductory.
9
  would most justly and  keenly resent, could we be sensible of its
  being put on ourselves.

     On medicine, as on all other subjects, there is an honest differ-
  ence of opinion.  In fact, it is through differences of opinion that
  truth is arrived at: and the highest honor we can pay to truth  is
  our desire to have it  sifted and analyzed ;  and, if it  be truth, it
  will abide all tests, and, like genuine gold, come out purer from the
  fiercer fire.   There are  those, however, who, because an idea  does
  not emanate from  certain  high  sources, or confe straight down
  from the professor's chair, instead of examining into it, and giving
  it thought and  consideration, and evincing a disposition of meek-
  ness, humility,  and teachableness, as common sense would natural-
  ly induce them to do, rise up in bristling hostility against it.   And
  why ?  Not from any honest difference of opinion; not from any  false
  reasoning, so far as they may see;  but because it contradicts their
  ignorance, their selfishness, their popularity, their worldly-minded
  ambition, their dogmatical assumptions;  and because  they are so
  puffed up with a second-hand distinction, that they cannot stoop to
  learn any thing that does not come straight down from some great
■  high priest in medicine  ; and they seek to augment  this voluntary
  contempt of things, which they have not the courage  to examine
  nor the manhood to  overthrow, by an undue  assumption of pro-
  fessional pride  and professional exclusiveness.

     " When pain and anguish wring  the brow;" when months,
  years, of pain and suffering have been, still are, experienced; when
  forms have wasted and become weak ; when debility and exhaustion
[1 have supervened, and the constitution  has become undermined and
 !'f broken, and the patient  dispirited, despairing, and scarcely to be
 ! recognized, —what does she seek, and what does she require ?  Not
 jl suppression  of  inquiry, not imposture  and cunning, not ignorance
  and stupidity, but medical  knowledge and skill, — a  knowledge
  that will ferret out the true seat and primary cause of her infirmity,
  and a skill that will lead to judicious  application of proper reme-
 i dies.

     To women and of woman we write.  The object aimed at is to
i produce  a volume which may contain information  advantageous,
I and not unacceptable, to her.   We seek to throw a  ray of light 
10                     Introductory.
 over the diseases  peculiar to  her sex, — their sources, symptoms,
 results, and the true indications of treatment.  We  seek  to point
 out one among the many  ills — the chief one — that destroy the
 bloom,  beauty,  vigor, health, and life of thousands of females
 yearly.   We seek to point out the multiplied  symptoms emanating
 from this morbid  process, — symptoms that have so often given
 rise  to ridiculous notions of liver-disease, dyspepsia, consumption,
 pleurisy, heart-disease, lead-disease,  rheumatism, neuralgia, kid-
 ney-complaint, womb-disease,  spinal irritation, spinal disease, &c,
 but which, havidg ordinarily one common origin, vanish like the dew
 before the rising sun, if the single point of diseased action, the
 cause, be removed.   We seek to trace  out the follies of youthful
 inexperience,  the evil influences to which young women are sub-
 jected,  and  the trials  and sufferings  inseparable  from a contest
 with disease.  "In their journey from youth to womanhood, paths
 of pleasure  appear on  every  side.  Happiness surrounds  them,
 and they are eager for its  enjoyments.   But indiscriminate  frui-
 tion too often leads to folly, pain, and  suffering.  They are crea-
 tures of the moment.   They pursue no settled course, but follow
 the stream  of life  in all its windings,  and commit themselves to
 the mercy of the winds."   They need an instructor.   We seek to
 advise them.  We seek to show what experience has taught us.
 We give to woman the benefit of that experience.

  In discoursing upon diseases of females for  the  eye of the gen-
 eral reader, the task is both a difficult  and a delicate  one; and
 our pen, at the very threshold, tarries in suspense above the paper,
 awaiting the descent of the right words in  their proper places.
 For to be of service, to benefit, to warn of danger, truth must bed
 spoken, but with a delicacy of diction, a discreet  choice  of words,
 and  a veiled manner of expression, that will  wend its way to  the
 understanding without wounding sensibility, or causing a blush to
 mantle the cheek of the most fastidious.

  In pursuing the more delicate  inquiries, — inquiries indispensa-
bly necessary to the full understanding and inseparably connected
with our subject, —  we shall  strive to the  utmost to  wend  our
way, making choice of language and  modes  of expression calcu-
lated  to impart the idea we propose to communicate,  without ]
awakening any feelings which may disturb the chaste sobriety of ' 
Introductory.
u
 physiological research.   We would, however, remind the reader
 how almost impossible it is to tread the path that we have set out
 upon, and not seem to violate those conventional forms of language
 to which American readers are mostly accustomed.

    We are aware that  a portion  of the community condemn all
 works of a physiological character addressed to any other than
 the  profession; but we certainly fail to see  any impropriety in
 instructing woman as regards  her organization  and the  laws of
 her being, moral and physical, which  she  must obey, or of her
 manifold  infirmities, their  origin,  accompaniments,  and   their
 results.  We fail to see any impropriety in imparting such knowl-
 edge as is intimately  connected with the health  and well-being of
} those who are mothers, not only of individuals, but of nations;
| and who, by their strength  and  vigor of  constitution, by their
I physical and moral perfection, transmit highly-developed physical
1 mental and moral qualities to their offspring, or, if weakened and
 enervated  by excesses  or disease, their soul-and-body-destroying
 ^legacy to an unoffending progeny.  We fail to see any impropriety
 un imparting such knowledge as  is intimately connected with the
 fricalth, well-being, and  future usefulness of  their offspring, — that
 (subjecting the tender and half-grown brains  of their daughters to
 ! prolonged mental exertion in educational pursuits for the  purpose
 'of securing to them either pre-eminence in intellectual society, or
 an advantageous matrimonial alliance, does  not  only not advance
 them in those attainments necessary either to an  intellectual stand-
 ing in  society, or to become  companions of intellectual  men, but
 renders them insipid, superficial, ignorant, full of terms of many
 kinds of knowledge, and wearied and disgusted with all.
I   If it be wise to suppress all inquiry, or shut out from woman all
'knowledge of the structure  of the human frame, and those laws
Ithat regulate its functions  in  health and  disease,  she  certainly
i stands but a feeble chance of guarding against  and  escaping the
 many ills peculiar to  her sex; of properly appreciating the advice
 of or co-operating with her medical adviser ; or of discriminating
(between true merit and unblushing impudence and pretension.
    If it be wise to conceal from woman that knowledge, whether
 deduced from observation or science, or both, which enables her
 to avail herself, in her choice  of a companion, of one whose offspring
 shall not inherit insanity, imbecility, bodily deformity,  or other
I 
12                     Introductory.

hereditary diseases ;  if it be wise to conceal from her that infirmi-
ties and sins of the parents are literally visited upon  the children
unto the third  and fourth generations; that beauty, health, and  |
sound intellect, in children, are inseparably connected with a per-  I
feet physical organization on the  part of the parents; that simili-
tude of temperament, and marriages  among blood-relations, tend
to the degeneracy of the offspring, — future generations  certainly
will have ample reason  for cursing the wisdom, the religion, the  j
reason, and the common sense, of their progenitors.
   We are satisfied that a little reflection will lead all to acknowl-
edge, that unless woman be properly instructed as regards her | I
organization and those laws that regulate its functions, and of the j
great purposes of her existence and the  causes that defeat them, .
she will continue to be, as she long has been, a poor, unsubstantial  /
shadow, trembling at the slightest breeze of accident, and  subject/J
to a multiplicity of ills; transmitting  to her offspring weakened,'
enervated, and other disastrous  conditions of system, which wil'
prove the curse and bane of their entire existence.   And  we are
also satisfied, that unless she throws aside  absurd prejudices  thai
so long have bound her hand and foot, and thinks and examine;!
for herself, instead of handing herself over to her medical adviser
                       ...                        i
to think for her, and decide questions which she alone can solve, —'
questions which are peculiar to  her sex, and a  mystery to  man,:
and  by him never to be resolved by any  objective reasoning ;i
unless she discards those idolized, but empty, fallacious, and perni-l
cious  notions,  that spirit  is  infinitely higher  and  nobler  than.'
matter, that the spiritual part of our being  is vastly of more import I
tance than the animal, and that the moral  and intellectual enjoy-') ■
ments  should be exalted over all  others, and  adopts the  more j
philosophical and  only  true idea, that reverence  for the  human
body itself is as grand an object for  enthusiasm as the spiritual
part that laws of health claim the highest place  in  man's respect,
that a virtuous, physical life is as much to be  proud of as  a well-
spent moral one, and that Nature allows no exaltation of the moral
over the sexual enjoyments, or any departure from  her plans with  '
impunity, — she will continue to be subject to  the  multiplied ills
peculiar to her sex.
   There is nothing from which women  in Ihe present day suffer  i
more than from the ignorance in which they are content  to  pass \:
their lives as regards the structure of the human body and its laws.  :'
4 
                      Introductory.                       13

For it they have not a single thought, nor the slightest reverence,
and are, it would seem, wholly indifferent as to its  fate.   Plys-ical
laws, as little reverenced as  understood, are broken without even
the remotest idea that the culpability is just as great as though
they were moral ones.  The importance and universality in the
constitution of the  great  law  of normal and sufficient  exercise,
and of the  most disastrous  consequences which ensue when dis-
regarded, are wholly unknown and  uncared for.  They may, per-
haps, have  some crude notions that  the body must, in order to be
vigorous and healthy, have a certain amount of exercise ;  but how
ittle realization have they of the extent of the application of this
Treat physiological law!   How little aware are they, and mankind
 enerally, that  the  law applies  to  every part of the body, — as
,iuch to one organ as another; that it applies to all  organs; and
hat  every  several  member must,  in order to b"e vigorous  and
 ealthy, have a due amount of  exercise, and that of the normal
 imd I  They may understand  that  the eye, in order to retain its
 |)rmal condition, must have light, and the  limbs motion, and the
  tellect reflection.   How little, however, do they realize that the
  uial  organs  are subject  to precisely the same  law as other
  ;ans  of the body, and  that  the appetites and passions  require
  i.*ir normal gratification, else the sexual system infallibly becomes
  feebled and diseased !    How little dp they realize that each and
  cry organ was designed for a purpose, and their  due  exercise
   ressary to the harmonious  workings  of the  economy;  that
   je can be neglected without becoming enfeebled, and, in  fact,
   lout suffering the same  injurious consequences that follow
   ;ssive use !   Nature  is all-perfect.  She shows no partiality.
    laws apply to no single organ, or set3 of organs, but to all
    is of the economy, the generative as well as all  others;  and
    e we shall see  the  duty and necessity of  their having  due
    ise from the time  of their  maturity, which takes place at
 iberty, till  that of  their deeline.
1  There  is  no subject  so vitally important, so  far  as concerns
  ilth,  happiness, morals, and political economy,  and on which
  man  is more  profoundly ignorant, titan the human  body gener-
 y, and of her own sexual organs  more particularly, and  the
 tural  laws which preside over them.  These organs, after their
 iturity, have a  dominant influence over the entire system.  Yet
liorance and false ideas have shrouded them in mystery and com.
<Lr 
14                    Introductory.

cealment; and  why ?  They do not differ from  the  rest of her
humanity.  They are regarded with  feelings of shame;  and  a
knowledge of their  laws, and of  her  passions  and appetites, is
avoided.  The  latter  especially, and  the reciprocal inclinations
that Nature has given the sexes, are viewed in a  most degrading
b>ht.   The  caprice  of mankind  has  affixed a shame to them.
Nature, though, permits no degradation of one part below another.
She demands that all parts of the body be equally reverenced; that
the harmony of the economy, where all  parts are equally important,/
be not destroyed.  She demands that all the organs of the body and \
their functions have their due exercise and normal gratification.  Anj|!
violation  of a natural law carries with it its inevitable penalty.   I
  Woman  should  understand  these  things.   It is  essential]/ i
requisite  that she should  perfect  herself in a knowledge  of tlrf
economy  generally, and especially of the sexual part of her  systen
and the laws that preside over it.  Nature has given her noorgai
which she intended  to be  shrouded  in  mystery and concealmen
She should study and reason upon their diseases, and the causes th
produce them, or the consequences will not cease to be ruinous a
destructive in the extreme.   And finally, instead of avoiding a mat;
so vitally important as her passions and appetites, she should st
and analyze them ; for they are closely allied to health and h
piness.   Passion is, as we  shall endeavor hereafter to show, a pr
ciple  deeply implanted within  us for wise purposes.   It  persi
vehemently during youth and adult  age.  It may not  be  ignoy
or opposed.  Its force is of immense power, which, if  imprisoi/
and not permitted to discharge or expend itself through its naty
and legitimate outlet, as in those unmarried and chaste, falls \ '
disastrous consequences upon  that portion of the economy'
least  able to  ward  off its disturbing force;  and amenorr
chlorosis, dysmenorrhoea,  leucorrhcea,  hysteria, &c, are the
sequences.
  Disease and misery follow close upon  ignorance  and raysttri
and, from the sad neglect of that aid which  a knowledge of t
nature and laws of the sexual organs would  have afforded thi
thousands and  millions  of women  have spent years  of  raise
have  languished and died, and all  through mistaken  notions tl
those  organs and their functions were not to be studied, but rati
avoided.
  To woman we submit our labors; and if she, who is  the  o 
Introductory.                      17
most vitally interested in this matter, acquit us of any impropriety
in striving to instruct her as regards the wonderful functions •
her curiously-eonstructed  organs, we care  not a rish for the fa  ;
delicacy and perverted  sensibility of the  balance  of mankind.
" To the pure all things are pure."

   The task that we have set out upon is to us an awkward  and
delicate one; and its object is, we know, open to criticism :  but,
nevertheless, we are honest, conscientious,  and sincere, the truth of
which, we believe, will be fully recognized by every candid, fair-
judging mind, and every seeker after truth; by all  save those
who see no object of enthusiasm in the cultivation of the physical
being, and who,  regarding  the  spiritual  and intellectual  as the
only truly glorious part of our humanity, and worthy of our great-
est reverence and profoundest consideration, would  elevate moral
far above  physical excellences, and beauty and power of mind far
above beauty of form and physical  strength and activity; by all
save those who have no reverential eye for the sexual parts of the
body, and would  hide them in mystery and shame; by all  save
those who condemn as " unprofessional "  all attempts  to instruct,
or extend to men generally that knowledge which is so  closely
allied to their  well-being, prosperity, and  happiness; save those
who cling with ridiculous tenacity to every species of form  and
etiquette and professional usage, as though these things were  mat-
ters of the highest moment; by all save  those who may  become
alarmed lest a light be thrown that would  affect their popularity, —
alarmed  lest patients go astray from their fold, and  find what will
induce them to keep away, lest a survey of other pastures  may be
 found more inviting, and lest the desolation  of their own fields
 should be appreciated and forsaken.

   Before proceeding farther, we wish to admonish  the  reader,
 whether male or female, that, if  this book has been taken up with
 the expectation of finding nothing but a  rehash  of those  tangible
 matters that have been  thousands of times before  written upon,
 they will, as they proceed, find their mistake.  We  have no inten-
 tion, that we may live with ease and satisfaction among men with
 whom we associate, to go no further than to copy what they  have
 thought  politic, or have been pleased to  communicate to those be-
 yond the  pale of the profession. We shall copy their  ideas and 
' 16                     Introductory.
 imitate their sayings only just so far as they are in unison with our
   m belief; nor shall we stop there.  That knowledge which they
;uave refrained from imparting through fear of " public opinion," no
 matter how vastly important and beneficial it might have been, we
 shall not hesitate to consider so long as we believe  it may prove
 serviceable.   The object aimed at in this book is to consider what-
 ever we  may conceive to appertain to the relief of suffering human-
 ity ; not so much to  please  as to  write what  we consider to be
 truth and of utility.   Too much circumspection has  the effect of
 fostering ignorance and mystery.  Reserve shuts up  the only door
 through  which the poor sufferer can hope to gain accurate notions
 of causes that are working  his or her  destruction.   The reader
 must, then, be prepared to hear many  singularities ; and, if they
 should  appear rather the offspring of  a  perverted imagination
 than just and  scientific conclusions, he or she is  at liberty to rate
 them accordingly.  Every one has his own manner of thinking ;
 and — we have ours.
   Let us also  hasten to add, that if the reader be one of the many
 whose false delicacy and perverted sensibility prevent him or her
 from stepping beyond  the  beaten path of custom  to study and
 reason in a natural  and open manner upon  a subject which  we
 believe to be of vast importance, but which may seem, on first im-
 pressions, to be opposed to generally-entertained notions of moral-
 ity, or one whose prejudices  are so strong as to leave no relish for
 looking facts  squarely in  the face, or to whom truth is unaccepta-
 ble, it is time  that the book be closed and  laid aside, and that we
 part company; for to all such this book will be of  no profit.
   To those, however, who,   like ourself, have  deliberated upon
 human happiness, and  the causes  that  oppose  it; to those who
 have striven to ascertain the true  sources of woman's multiplicity
 of infirmities, and who  have ever been  diligent in seeking to
 ameliorate her sufferings, — are these pages addressed; and we cali
 on them, for the sake of suffering humanity, to read with diligence
 and care,  to  deliberate uninfluenced  by  preconceptions,  and to
 be governed  by  the decrees of wisdom;  and  we  believe  we
 may Safely promise,  that, if the following  pages are read in the
 proper spiiit, many  valuable lessons, to  say  the  least, may be
 drawn  from its counsel upon subjects  intimately connected with
 the health, happiness, and well-being of the female portion of our
 race.  And although there  may be many who cannot at once con- 
                        Introductory.                    I y

 cur with us in all our views, yet we believe that all  will become
 impressed with the importance and truth of what  should be uni-
 versally regarded as  an axiom, —thai every violation of a natural
 law carries with it its inevitable penalty.
   It is unnecessary for us to observe that this book is not intended
 for youth, but for those of maturer years ; more especially the mar-
 ried, parents, and those having the direction of youthful inexpe-
 rience.
   In the  execution of the work, we  shall avail ourself of good
 works  having reference to the subject, and for several reasons:
 first, that it may be  seen that we  are supported in our views by
 eminent writers; second, because, in the more delicate inquiries,
 we shall prefer occasionally to use the language of others  rather
 than our own; and, third, that we may lighten our labors.  When-
 ever we employ the language of others, we shall mark the quota-
 tions  by  inverted  commas  at its  commencement  and  end only,
 excepting where we  abridge, enlarge, or  alter their expression,
 or  where we shall  make use of and  introduce  here matter
 from another manuscript of ours in  which  may  be paragraphs
 where proper credits are not given,  and beyond our power to do so
 now.  We make this statement  to avoid the possibility of our
 being thought to claim that which  may belong to others.  We are
 ever ready to acknowledge  the helps we borrow in writing, and
confess freely that we are  chiefly indebted to the books that  lie
strewn around us.
2 
 
                 WOMAN,
                       AND HER

THIRTY   YEARS5   PILGRIMAGE.
                          i.

                    PUBERTY.

    SEE you that loving, watchful care, and tender solicitude,
     those  brooding instincts of the maternal heart, with
which that mother is regarding the crimsoned and dimpled
cheek of her first-born, with its sweet  little face always so
smiling and so beautiful?  See you  that  purest  passion
sent from Heaven upon this sin-stained world (the love a
mother bears her child),  enduring, faithful, and intense;
a perpetual sacrifice of self at the shrine of Nature; a deep"
mystery, which, when fathomed, causes the world to wonder
at its depth and purity ?  Look into that young mother's
heart; see  how new feelings stimulate its pulsations; see
it  expanding, welling  forth  its very essence into the new
life, which, though mysteriously parted from it, is dearer to
it than ever.  There is a whole  universe  of  love, pure, un-
selfish, spotless love, love without limit, boundless as ocean,
and deeper than its  deepest  caves, in that young mother's
heart towards the little lump of half-animated clay that is
her child.  Does she not think that smile the brightest, that
little kiss the  sweetest, her eyes the clearest, the music of
                                      18 
)
 20   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 her little voice the softest, that ever gladdened a mother's
 heart ?  And perhaps she is amusing herself by wishing she
 might always  be "little," and never grow  older,  lest she
 should grow away from her, lest the whiteness of her spirit
 should become sullied by its contact with the world.  Is
 she amusing herself  by such  fancies?   If so, they will
 shine  only for  the  moment,  flash, and disappear;  for she
 knows that her little babe is but the mould in which are to
 be formed the organs of Woman;  that she will be for
 fourteen years employed in forming and perfecting her
 structure to  fit it for  its high and noble destiny as a re-
 producing agent ;  that,  as  she grows up  from  infancy
 and childhood, crises, great and important ones,  will be
 passed, and faculties continually  developed appropriate to
 particular  stages of existence through  which she is  pass-
 ing ;  that the  last  faculty she will acquire, the crown and
 glory of  them all, will be at the period when she takes on
 the last great reproductive force, the period of puberty, the
 period when she becomes  a Woman ; " and possessed  of a
 faculty that she is destined to enjoy for nearly half her life-
 time, and then losing it again, she turns on the reverse of
 the path of life, and begins to descend to the bosom of the
 dust from whence she originally emerged." — Meigs.
   Puberty. — This stage of existence passed, the crisis
 over, the  great transformation accomplished,  behold her
 now a
   Woman, with  a  mind  expanded, a heart awakened, vi-
 brating with  love, pouring forth  a  melody of affection, an
 intelligence unfolded, and her noble instincts awakened, so
 beautiful, so childlike, so  confiding, with thoughts so unfet-
 tered, yet  so delicate,  so  vigorous,  and so original 1   Her
 wide,  womanly pelvis  has become  suddenly and  visibly
increased.  The  great muscles  of  the thighs and  hips
have become duly and fully developed; and  a more  con-
siderable deposit  of fat,  lending roundness to her limbs,
and grace  to her contour, reveals  by serpentine  undula- 
Puberty.                      21
tion  all the elegance of a delicate, well-turned figure, whose
every action is as graceful as the wave of a golden willow
in the breeze.  All that poets have ever dreamt of female
perfection is to be found in that face and figure, — exquisite
proportions,  graceful symmetry  of limbs,  an assemblage
of the most lovely features, and a complexion which seems
to have been painted  by the gods themselves;  a  brow
slender, and of  polished whiteness;  hair  bright, glossy,
waving in  natural beauty as though liquid gold were circu-
lating in silky threads, and so long and so luxuriant, that
its fair owner can almost infold herself in it like  the Venus
rising from the sea; lashes long  and beautiful, edged.with
silver, fringe and adorn the azure of those  large eyes that
seem carved from  an autumnal  sky, and which, according
to her feelings at the moment,  ever varying  in color, be-
come as bright and soft as the blue of the  beautiful violet,
or brilliant and  clear as  the  emerald, or dark and limpid
green like that  of the ocean, always transparent, however,
deep, and beaming with intelligence, and pouring out a soul
full of  benevolence  and great  resolve upon all  around;
cheeks full, and united by soft  undulations to  a  swelling
neck that  rivals a Grecian statue;  lips like  a thread  of
vermilion;   teeth  "like a  flock of  sheep  that are  even
shorn,  which come up from  the washing;" a velvet  skin,
dazzling in whiteness, smooth and  polished, so firm and so
healthy in its texture; features delicate and  regular as if
fresh from the chisel of Praxiteles, and with such a perfect
finish in every line and hue, that she seems, to fancy,  fresh
from  the  innermost chamber of  some enchanted palace,
 " where no air of  heaven could  visit her cheek  too rough-
 ly ;"  shoulders  of snowy whiteness;  limbs like  columns
 of ivory, and hips of  sculptural richness, white, firm, and
lustrous as Pentelic  marble.   Tall, slender, graceful, bend-
 ing like the flexible  reed, with  step and air  possessing a
 bounding  and sportive elasticity, and her every movement
 revelling  in the  voluptuous, tempered with  grace, she 
22   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

hardly appears to touch the ground, and at every motion
seems  ready  to  fly; ever  in  motion  that  enchants the
senses, and with  manners  in  every respect  harmonizing
with this ever-varying mien.
   Now, a new and different lustre sparkles in her eyes while
her young and busy fancy waves her wand,  and scenes of
every variety and beauty paint  themselves upon her mind
in the softest and brightest tints  and colors, — scenes so
various  and delightful,  so full of beautiful prospects  and
melodious sounds, that the fabled lute of Apollo, or the harp
of Orpheus, are not more charming than is her ideal future,
so full of beauty and majesty and  splendor,  so bright, so
radiant  with pure, unmixed delight,  unfettered by  obsta-
cles or difficulties, that her eyes, before its boundless  splen-
dors, droop, and more promptly veil  their brightness by
downcast glances, or by  a continual dreamy and thoughtful
drooping of the  eyelids  above them.   Her  mind,  her
heart, her gentleness, her beauty, those exquisite features,
so brilliant  and bewitching, form a chain at once so binding
and so agreeable,  that  the  heart expands to a  thousand
sentiments  of  pleasure of which it had never before the
remotest idea.   The  seal of perfection has  been set, and
she is indeed a
   Woman. — But a little time  ago, she found amusement,
satisfaction, and delight  in playing  with her doll  and her
toys;  but  now her whole  physical, intellectual, and  moral
forces have become changed, and the very foundation of
her vanity,  the moving  springs of  all her actions, are to
engage man's admiration, to augment the flame of his love,
and to become subject to the will of a master and lord, that
she may by her gentleness, her docility, her submissiveness
and  patience, her keen  sensibility, and  her  steady  and
pure and holy devotions and sacrifices, make herself  the
queen and arbitress of the fate of him she loves.
   What  has  caused  this wonderful  transformation, — a
transformation so  great, so  rapid, and  important, and in 
Puberty.                     23
which soul  and body expand with new powers and new
feelings ?
   Hitherto, the ovaries, immature and undeveloped, have
remained quiescent; but now they have reached the period
of their full growth and maturity.   They become suddenly
aroused  into life, and by their supremacy of influence over
the  whole  moral,  mental,  and  physical  constitution  of
woman,  become ruler of her destiny.   Over the  whole
physical, intellectual, and moral forces  of woman, the ova-
ries are rulers.  Over all they cast the  mantle of their
lofty functions.
   The overwhelming power of the ovaries, and their dom-
ination over the whole animal economy, will, we  think, be-
come apparent to every reflecting mind as we proceed.
   Woman has beauty, gentleness, mien of an angel.  Man
cannot  but  admire her. With  her beauty rests respon-
sibility.   She can make man happy and powerful.   In
form, he  reigns in  states and  powers; but  she rules in
homes and hearts.  She has power to enliven and embellish
this world, and make it the way to heaven.
   Her Mission. — Is it to wear the crown that rests  on
her  brow by political accident, where  reigning  man gov-
erns ?   No:  she  does  not breathe that impure  atmos-
phere of ambition which corrodes the heart and withers the
beauty:  her seat  and her throne are by the hearth-stone;
she reigns in the heart.   Is it  the  forum, where her  silver
voice, so full of tenderness and sensibility, is to be heard?
No:  the forum is too angry for her.   Is  it  to  be  an
eloquent and impetuous orator, a bold, intrepid caviller,
a specious sophist ?   Is it to be admitted to political rights
and franchises, to command the bent ear of listening sen-
ates, to throw into the arena two-edged arguments with the
rapidity  of  a thunder-bolt,  to move  like  a  tornado  the
agitated  masses of  a people tossed in the tempest  of  its
own  vehemence, to inspire with the power of her own pas-
sions, to be the sun  to the sea of all thought  and emotion 
24   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

which rises and falls, is calm, and boils into billows, as she
chooses ?  No : her voice, like the  sighing of the evening
breeze  among the drooping willows, low and sweet, tender,
soothing,  caressing, and more musical than  the  harp of
Orpheus, with its sweet under-song of the softest  cadence,
insinuating  itself  into the  brain  as an  artless tune, and
winding its way into the deepest heart like the melody of a
magic incantation, is not for haranguing or  brawling. What,
then, is
  Her  Mission ? — She is the mould in which humanity
is  to be  cast, the  nourisher and supporter  of mankind.
On  her  depend  their  growth  and  development,  their
strength and their beauty, their perfection or  their deteri-
oration.   On  her  rest the  health, activity,  and vigor of
constitutions,  of  families, and of nations.   On her  rest
their enervation and  deterioration.  She is to  be the
helpmate  of  man, the  greatest  blessing and  the  most
valuable  possession that Heaven in this  life can bestow,
the  assuager of  his pangs, the solacer  of  his woe, the
comforter of his soul,  the sharer of his joys,  the temperer
and softener of his asperities, and  the chief  agent in the
communication of his sublunary bliss.   She  is to be  his
best companion in prosperity, and his only friend in adver-
sity ; the most careful preserver of his health, and the kind-
est attendant on his sickness; the  faithful adviser in dis-
tress, and the prudent manager of  his  domestic affairs.
She is to be the partner of  his life, the future mother of
his children, to nurse, foster, and preside over their dawning
intellects, and develop sentiments never  to be eradicated.
She is to be  the sacred  intercessor between them and her
God, and the angel which is  to accompany him and  them
into eternity.  She is to command for him  the  respect of the
world by setting the example herself.  She is to  hide  his
imperfections and infirmities by her silence, and lay a claim
to the gratitude as well as  the acknowledgment of  his
heart.   She is to adorn her person in agreeable  attire, and 
Puberty.
25
1
enrich her mind with all useful knowledge, that his  eye
may be pleased while his soul is  refreshed by new and
unfolding beauties of  her conversation.  " After  this man-
ner, in the old time,  the holy women who trusted in God
adorned  themselves, being  in  subjection unto their own
husbands " (1 Pet. iii. 5).  And finally, she is  " to be dis-
creet, chaste, a keeper at home, good, obedient to her hus-
band, that the word  of God  be  not blasphemed" (Tit.
ii. 5).
   Will  iier Mission  be fulfilled? — The question is
an important  one,  and  determined by her physical  vigor,
by her temperament,  her idiosyncrasies,  her constitution,
condition, and her
   Diseases, — the most important of which,  in  the long
catalogue of ills peculiar to her  sex, and which seem to  fall
with  malignant  delight most  heavily on those  endowed
with  genius, amiability, and patience, and demanding a
treatment adapted to the specialities of her constitution as
a moral, a geniferous,  gestative, and parturient creature, is
disease  of the menstrual  organs. 
      BEFORE proceeding to the consideration of Disease of
       the Menstrual Organs, let us first ascertain, What is
menstruation ?   What are the organs of menstruation ?
   What is Menstruation? — Menstruation consists  in
a periodical discharge from the vagina* of a sanguinolent

   * The vagina is the canal, sometimes  called vulvo-uterine  canal, extending
from the vulva orifice to the uterus, or womb, the neck of which it embraces.  It
is flattened from before backwards, the two walls lying in contact.  In the virgin,
its length is from four to six inches, and from an inch to an inch and a half trans-
versely; but after childbearing these dimensions may be much exceeded.  It  is in
contact with the bladder in front, and, posteriorly, with the rectum, or lower
bowel; is slightly curved, with the concavity forward; and  narrower at  the
middle than at the extremities.   Its internal surface is covered by mucous mem-
brane, which in the virgin is thrown into folds  forming numerous closely-set
transverse rugae, which become larger, and sometimes take the  form  of little
leaflets, towards the external orifice. These become gradually less prominent
from sexual intercourse; and frequent parturition wholly obliterates them, leav-
ing the surface entirely smooth.
   The office of the vagina is to receive the male organ of intromission, and afford
a lodgement for the male sexual element previous to its passing into the womb.
The ejaculatory act of the male deposits the seminal fluid,  not, as is supposed
by m.»ny, into the mouth of the womb, but at the upper end of the canal, where
its dilated extremity forms a pouch, and in such a position as to facilitate the
introduction of that fluid into the u*erus.  Dr. James Blundell has described a
peculiar movement which, he observed in the vagina of the rabbit, and which
serves to explain the mode of introduction of the seminal fluid into the uterus:
" This canal during the heat is never at rest.  It shortens, it lengthens, it changes
continually in its circular dimensions; and when  irritated,especially, will some-
times contract to one-third its quiescent  diameter.  In addition to this action,
the vagina  performs another," which "consists  in the falling-down, as it were,
of that part of the vagina which lies in the vicinity of the womb, so that it every
now and then lays itself flatly over its orifice, as we would apply  the hand over
the mouth in an endeavor to stop it.  How well adapted the  whole of this move-
ment is for the introduction of the semen at the opening it is needless to explain."
   The vaginal canal also affords a passage to the menstrual fluid, and, in labor,
transmits the foetus.
   Surrounding the vagina is a deposit of fat, which gives an elastic contraction
                  26 
Menstruation.
27
fluid, differing in no important particulars from blood circu-
lating  in vessels throughout the system, which  is  evolved
from the mucous surface  of the womb * under the influence


to th« vulva; and from the large quantity of nerves distributed to its lower part,
and .be clitoris in particular, they are endowed with  a high degree of sensibility,
aud are the chief seat of pleasure during sexual intercourse.
   The orifice of the vagina presents, in its undistended state, the form of a ver-
tical fissure in women who have long made use of  sexual stimulus, and espe-
cially in those who have borne children;  but, in those whose parts have never
been penetrated by the male intromittent organ, it is  more constricted and circu-
lar, and is further narrowed by a fold of the mucous membrane, which encircles
or semi-encircles the orifice, and which is called the hymen.  This fold of mem-
brane is of variable degrees of thickness; being in some subjects very strong and
tough, and with difficulty penetrated, and  in others thin, and easily ruptured.
The hymen is  commonly ruptured on the occasion of a first complete inter-
course ; but its presence, although it raises a strong probability of virginity, yet
affords no certain evidence upon that point; nor does its absence establish  the
contrary, for it may be broken by accident, or may become obliterated by the
employment of vaginal injections, and in other like modes.

   * The womb, or uterus, is situated in the pelvis, between the bladder in front,
and the rectum, or lower bowel, behind, and rests on the upper end of the vagina.
In shape it has been compared to a flask, or a pear flattened.   Its length is about
two inches; breadth at upper or widest part an inch and a quarter, and an
inch at its lower part or neck, and about an  inch in its antero-posterior diameter.
Its weight is from an ounce to an ounce and a half.  The upper, or widest part,
is called the fundus, and affords an attachment to the Fallopian tubes on  either
side.   The middle portion is called the body, and the lower the neck, or cervix
uteri, the extremity of which forms an attachment  with and projects into  the
vagina from a quarter to  a third of an inch.  The end of the neck does not,
as is commonly supposed, lie exactly at the upper extremity of the vaginal canal,
but is " let in" to the upper wall of the vagina a little distance from its extremity:
consequently the vaginal canal extends beyond the  neck, and forms  the little
pouch already spoken of.   The walls of the body of the womb are about  a half-
inch in thickness, and separated from  each other by a scarcely appreciable
cavity.
   The womb attains its full development at puberty. Previous to this period, it
remains but little altered from its infantine condition. It is a hollow organ; and
its walls, as has  been stated, are in close apposition internally, leaving only  a
small intermediate transverse space termed  the cavity of the uterus.  This cav-
ity has three outlets, one on either  side at its superior  lateral borders, which
are the orifices of the Fallopian tubes.  The inferior  opening constitutes the os
uteri, or mouth of the womb.  The uterine cavity in  the unimpregnated state is
nothing more than the narrow interspace between the flattened walls, which are
either in  immediate contact, or are separated from each other by only a  small
quantity of mucus.  The triangular form of this cavity results from the conflu-
ence of the three channels;  viz., the two channels into the Fallopian tubes above,
and the canal of the neck  below, which opens into the vagina. The  apertures
which lead into the Fallopian tubes are so small as scarcely admits the passaga 
  28    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.


  of a stimulus transmitted to these  organs from the ovaries.*
  " Although the uterus is the efficient instrument in the per-
  formance of  menstruation, yet the  power  of initiating  and


  of a fine oristle, while the lower opening is from an eighth to a quarter of an
  inch in diameter.  The office of the womb is to receive the foetus, and retain it^,
  during gestation.
    The Fallopian Tubes, or oviducts, are two tortuous, conical tubes, or canals,
  four or  five inches in length, extending  from  the superior angles of the womb
  very nearly to the brim of the pelvis.  The form of the tubes was compared by
  Fallopius to that of a horn or trumpet.  The uterine extremity, or apex, of the
  tube, is extremely small, and opens into the womb by an aperture so minute as
  scarcely to admit a bristle, as already remarked.  As it proceeds outwardly, it
  gradually and regularly widens up  to  its  distal extremity, terminating in a
  trumpet-shaped mouth, the margins of which are deeply fringed.   This extrem-
  ity has much freedom of movement, and is generally directed inward and back-
  ward towards the ovary, in close proximity to  which it is preserved by means of
  one of its longest fimbroe.  During sexual intercourse, this funnel-shaped extrem-
  ity inclines towards and adapts itself to or envelops the ovary.  The Fallopian
  tubes are the true excretory ducts of the ovaries,  and serve to convey the ova
  from the ovaries to the womb.

     * The ovaries are two oval  flattened glands, somewhat resembling the
  testes in form, but not in size, situated deep within the pelvis, on either side of
  the womb, at a distance from this organ  varying from a quarter of an inch to an
  inch and a half.  They are the germ-preparing organs, and the essential portion
  of the entire sexual apparatus.  Their functirns are  the formation of ova, or
  eggs, and their separation and expulsion when they have reached  such a state of
  maturity as will render them susceptible of impregnation.  They are from one to
  two inches long, a quarter to a half inch thick, and  from  a half-inch to an inch
  in their perpendicular diameter; their dimensions, however, varying in different
  subjects, and at different epochs in life.  Previous to puberty, they are rudiment-
  ary and undeveloped; and, after "change of  life,"  they become  atrophied and
  shrunken.  Each has its  secretory duct, — the Fallopian tubes just described;
  between which and the ovary there is not only an indirect connection by means
  of one of the long processes of the fimbriated extremity of the tube, but a tem-
  porary connection, as has already been said, during  sexual  intercourse, also
  during the menstrual period.  At these times,  the fimbriated extremity of the
  duct, or tube, envelops the ovary for the purpose of receiviug and transmitting
  to the womb ova which are formed in the ovaria, and evolved at each menstrual
  period.  The ovarv is protected by two coats,  which " correspond precisely both
  in structure and derivation with the analogous coverings of the testes." — Farre.
  Its outer coat consists of a layer of peritoneum derived from the broad  ligament,
  and so closely adhering to the tunica albugenia  underneath, that  the scalpel is
  unable to separate them.  Its inner coat is  a hard, whitish, and exceedingly
  tough membrane, and constitutes its proper covering.  It gives form and solid-
. ity to the organ, and protect.s the stroma, or substance, of  the ovary and its con-
  tained ova  from injury.  The stroma, or substance, of the  ovary is of a soft,
  spongy texture, and, from the multiplicity and  peculiar arrangement of its blood-
  vessels, highly vascular, it is important that we should be aware of, and bear 
Men.
   igulating this function resides in
   . powerful reflex  influence,  not onty
  ilso upon the entire organism." — Cyclop.
  ind Physiology.

    Not  only  is the uterus affected  by the influe.
  mitted from  the  ovaries, but  the vagina and othe*
  of the genital organs are more vascular  and turgid wt
  blood than in the interval.   The breasts also participate xt
  the excitement, and become sometimes swollen and hard.
    The ovaries commence the transmission of this influence
 lor stimulus, at the  period of their maturity,  which is ordi-
  narily at about the age  of fifteen.   They  retain this  influ-
 | ence for a period of thirty years; then, losing it, menstruation
[ ceases.

I   This period, that is, when the ovaries  have become fully
  developed, is known as the age of puberty, and is distin-


  in mind, the multiplicity of its blood-vessels, and of its great vascularity. " It is
  sometimes of a pale pink, but more often of a bright red color, from the large
  number of blood-vessels which it contains, whose arrangement, proceeding  from
  within, and radiating outwardly in all directions, gives to this tissue, when viewed
  by the naked eye or by a common lens, the appearance of being formed into
  bundles, or laminae.  The microscope, however, serves to resolve this tissue into
  i's true element.  When so  examined, the stroma is found to be composed
  mainly of blood-vessels." — Cyclopaidia of Anatomy and Physiology.  The
 stroma affords a soft bed, which also serves as a protection  to the delicate ova
 which are to be found scattered everywhere through it.  Each ovum, or egg, has
 Its own true covering; that is, it is enclosed in a sac, cell, or vesicle, called a
  Graafian vesicle.   These are easily brought  into view in the adult ovary by
 making a perpendicular section through the organ in the direction of its longer
 axis.   When divided by a clean incision, the section will be found  to have in-
 cluded several vesicles, varying  from a> fourth of an inch down to cells of mi-
 croscopic minuteness.  In the adult ovary, these  vesicles are found in every
 portion of the stroma, in its centre as well as at the periphery of the organ; but
 previous to puberty, and before the full development of the organ, the vesicles
 are to be found only at the peripheiy, where they form a thick rind, the interior
 being occupied only by blood-vessels.  The number of vesicles in each ovary has
 been variously estimated.  It waa formerly supposed that twenty or thirty was
 the limit; and that, when these were exhausted by chikl-beariug or miscarriage,
 the power of procreation of necessity ceased.  More recent and careful observa-
 tion, however, has shown that the number is governed by the a^e of the subject,
 and that the healthy adult ovary  may contain from fifty to two hundred; while
 " in very young subjects their number exceeds all power of  accurate computa-
 tion."— Farre. 
Yeats' Pilgrimage.
                        phenomena of menstruation, bv
                    .cal, mental, and moral changes which
                ^ m previous pages.
            on  of ovarian influence, or menstrual  life,  is
          same  in all climates.  The ovaries reach  their
      xcy,  however, at a somewhat earlier age in tropical >
  ^ions, and at a more advanced life in the higher latitudes. '
We are told, that, in some  elevated northern  regions, the
ovaries do not mature  till after twenty years  of  age ; and
Walker tells us,  that, "in.most parts of France, puberty  in j
women commences usually at fourteen years of age,  and,  in |
the southern departments and  the great towns, at thirteen. \
In Italy, it takes place at twelve.   This is  also the case ■
very generally with the Spanish women; and at Cadiz they \
often marry at that age.  In Greece, it is not unusual for |
puberty to occur at ten years of age.   In Persia,  according |
to Cliardin, it occurs  at nine or ten.   Nearly the same  is
the case in Arabia,  Barbary,  Egypt, Abyssinia, Senegal,
and various parts of  Africa.  Thus puberty in women com-
mences generally, in  tropical climates, from nine to ten  years
of age."  Mr. Robertson, however, has attempted to  show
" that the age of puberty is about as early  in the cold  as  in
the tropical regions of the earth;  and that, were  marriages
to take place in England at as juvenile an age as they do
in Hindostan, instances of very early fecundity would  be  as
common in England  as they are in that country.  He is of
opinion that early marriage  and early intercourse between
the sexes, where found prevailing generally, are  to be at-
tributed, not to any peculiar precocity, but to a moral and
political degradation, exhibited in ill laws  and  customs, the
enslavement more  or less of the  women, ignorance of let- j
ters, and impure or  debasing systems of religion." — Dun-
glison.  In  this climate, the ovaries  assume  their powers ,
at about the age of  fifteen, and lose them at about forty- I
five, as already stated; which latter is known as that critical
period in woman's existence, " change of life." 
Men.
  When the ovaries assume thei*
fourteenth year, or not till after tin
struation is then said to be precocious in
the  other instauce.   Both conditions arc
danger;   one  in exhibiting premature devel<^
part, at the  expense of some other parts or struct^
the other in portraying signs of weakness of the pv.
of life.
  When one part  of  the  economy exhibits a  precipitate
development, that part appropriates to itself more than its
proportionate share of nerve-force at  the expense of some
other part, and that harmony of action which is so essential
throughout  the system is lost:  hence the necessity of a due
performance of all the functions  of life, that harmony of
action may  exist throughout the economy.
  For fourteen years, nerve-power or nerve-force,  generated
in the brain by contact of the oxygen in  the  blood with
the substance of the brain,  and sent down throughout the
system, is employed in perfecting the  growth and develop-
ment of all parts  of the body, and  preparing it for the
great transformation observable at the age of puberty.   At
the end of  this period, the ovaries become  fully developed
and the menstrual flow established.
  Peculiar  temperaments, however, produce variations as
to the first establishment of  the  flow.  Delicacy of  con-
stitution  retards  the appearance of  menstruation;  and
females of a bilious temperament, and those of a nervous
constitution, are earlier  subject  to  the  discharge, which
is evolved in  greater  quantities,  and  with a  longer  con-
tinuance,  than in  those  in  whom the lymphatic tempera-
ment predominates.
  Climate has also  its influences.  Heat increases the vital
energy in all  organized  bodies.   It hastens the  budding
germ  of the plant.   Cold arrests it.   So, in women living
in warm latitudes, the ovaries become  earlier matured than
in those  brought up in  cold, moist countries.    And  Tilt 
Years' Pilgrimage.
                         jean age  of the first menstrua-


                                    12 years 6 months,
             .......14   "  9    "
           Jopenhagen   .    .   .    16   " 10    "

     ^s reared  in cities,  and partaking much of animal
  A,  stimulating  condiments,  coffee,   wines, &c,  reach
maturity earlier than those brought up in the country; and
for  the reason that the  diet of  the latter, as  a general
thing,  consists  less of  stimulating  meats,  &c,  and more
of farinaceous substances,  milk, and a vegetable diet, which
naturally retards  the  development   of  the ovaries,  and
which is in the highest degree advantageous.   Girls  sub-
jected to the influence of fashionable life, with its rounds
of excitement consequent upon balls,  parties, the opera, &c,
as we]J  as those subject  to the influence  of  sentimental
reading  and card-tables,  the perusal of prurient books,
passion-stirring pictures,  statues, conversations upon love,
constant proximity to, and fond toyings  and  personal  free-
dom with, the opposite  sex, the fashionable  display of the
arms and bosom, &c, reach puberty many months earlier,
ordinarily, than those  not subject  to influences of  such   /
injurious character.  With all  such, puberty  is not, as it  i
should be, retarded, that  the physical  structure, and the  i
vigor of the  mind, may become so developed, before  the  '
union  of the  sexes, that the  stature  may  not become   ;
diminished, nor  the beauty fade, nor premature  old  age
induced.  Girls  brought up in  the  country, and not sub-
jected to  the  infatuations, bewilderments, and constant
excitations consequent  upon fashionable life, nor  to  the
influence of  luxury, indolence,  confinement within  doors,
studying absurd accomplishments, and who  ordinarily take
much  active exercise  out  of  doors under  the health-in-
vigorating influence of  the sun and  pure  air, and  less
frequently subject to contact with the opposite sex, do not 
A
usually reach puberty until t^
development of the bones and o*
such as to enable them to fulfil the gu
existence, —- the ends of marriage, — and .
retain their energy and  freshness  of  st.
strength,  youthful  aspect,  and reproductive p
advanced  age.   And not only are these  outward  c
sions of beauty present, but  there is, moreover, that ele.
tion of mind  which curbs  all passion whilst  it bays  all
temptation.   B.  de Boismont has shown that the mean
age of first menstruation, —

      In the country, was  .    .   .    14 years 10 months.
      In Paris it was .    .    .   .    14   "  6    "

And from statistical information gained from medical prac-
titioners in Denmark, Dr.  Ravn states  the  average date
of the first menstruation to be, —

In women born in the country .     .   .    .16 years 5 months.
 "    "    "  " commercial towns   .    .    15  "  4   "
 "    "    "  " Copenhagen     .   .    .    15  "  7   "

   Civilization contributes  also  its influences.   In  the
multiplicity of its false and fatal notions of physical  and
mental cultivation,  its ever-increasing  complications of
social intercourse, nurturing and increasing feelings in man
to which he was almost a  stranger in rude  and barbarous
times, a temperament  is   begotten  which has  no little
influence in  advancing first menstruation.  M. Brlerre de
Boismont  has demonstrated  this influence  in a  limited
number of cases (fifty-three), and found that while the
mean age of first  menstruation was, —

Ic the noble and rich  .    .    .    13 years 8 months in 53 women,
It was in the well-to-do working-classes, 14 "   5   "    "135  "
      "   poor     .   .    .    14 "  10   "    "171  "
             3 
Years' Pilgrimage.
                          , in Denmark, the average  late
                      .*, —

                 .ascs in towns   .    .    14 years 3 months.
                                      15  "  5£   "
                 "...        16  "  5±   ■'

    . m the country or farming population, the average  date
 x first menstruation was, —
s
    In the rich......14 years 0 months.
      "   daughters of domestic servants .   16 "   5    "
      "      "    " peasantry   .    .   16 "   8    " *

   " Civilization, by its numerous  modificatory influences, by
its constant appeals  to sexual appetites, begets  the nervous
temperament, to which may be  ascribed the earlier men-
struation, and the  more  disturbed  performance  of  this
important function ; whereas  in  the  lower classes, particu-
larly  in the peasantry, menstruation is less  anomalous  and
diseased, as already noticed  by Stahl and  Baglivi.  It  is
then  useless to disguise  that the educated classes suffer
from  the effects which ever follow a very  high state of
civilization;  for as a tree  first takes  root, then throws off
its strength in unlimited florification, so man, at first sober
and chaste, as civilization  advances, seeks in every way to
extend  his  power of  sexual  gratification.  The literature
of Rome and of Greece, the Cabinetto scgreto of the Musio
Borbornico at Naples,  to which no woman can be admitted,
shows to what a pitch  this was carried in the most  civilized
periods of polished Greece and Rome ;  and if, as medical
men, we are aware  of this evil  tendency of our own age,
how can we withstand one of the principal causes  of the
frequency of diseases  of women ?  Every practitioner must
have met with many a lady whose abuse of the fashionable
pleasures of society had  induced  extreme  nervous  irrita-
bility,  with   irregular and  profuse  menstruation,  often
                           * Tilt. 
Jkc
recurring every fourteen or \
these are the results of this fashio.
from the fact that the  opposite conJiu.
function is induced by contrary mode of liv.
  The first appearance of the menses  is not  .
governed by hereditary peculiarities; the daughter
ating at the same  age as her mother, and subject aLv
same menstrual infirmities.
  The early use of the  stimulus of sexual intercourse has
the influence of hastening first menstruation.   Notwith-
standing that much evidence can be adduced  in opposition
to such a belief, there can be  no  doubt of the fact.  " In
India, dishonor is attached to the parents of a girl who
is not  married  when extremely young.  It is  therefore the
custom to affiance  children of seven, eight, or nine years of
age.  They then  reside with  the family of their intended
husband; and connection generally takes place long before
it has received the sanction of a religious  ceremony.  The
precocious  use of matrimonial stimulus is, no  doubt, calcu-
lated to advance the period of first menstruation; and it is
to the influence of this perverse custom, strengthened  by
hereditary transmission of what was habitual in the parent,
that  Mr. Robertson  ascribes the incontestably early men-
struation of Hindoo women.   But this view is  too exclusive,
when we remember that we  are told by  Col. Parry and
other travellers 'that  the  beasts  have more modesty in
them than the  Esquimaux, whose licentiousness   is only
equalled by that of Hindostan.'  Nevertheless, their mean
age  of menstruation  is  sixteen, if not later, instead of
twelve, as in India.   Besides, if the practice  of early con-
nection  brought  on the early  menstruation of  Indian
women, how is it that menstruation  is retarded beyond the
average of teimoerate climates in  Russia, where,  for cen-
turies, early marriages have been customary ? a national cus-
tom which  the last emperors have sought to discountenance
by repeated enactments." — Dr. Tilt. 
Years  Pilgrimage.
                          condition, the ovaries transmit
                     - j every  twenty-eight  days,  which
                iree/to six da}Ts, longer or shorter, accord-
             .pefament and other constitutional peculiari-
           .uons, however, in the recurrence  of this phe-
        i from the ordinary rule of nature, are frequently ob-
      ie.  In some  females, its recurrence is more frequent
   several days; while in others the returns are experienced
only every thirty or thirty-five days.  Ordinarily, the cata-
menial  period and  interval together occupy a  space of
twenty-eight days, or one lunar month.   The flow is from
three to six days' duration;  leaving  an  interval of about
twenty-three days, or from twenty-one to twenty-five days,
from the time the flow ceases  to that of its recurrence.  In
some women, the  menstrual influence is transmitted with
such regularity, that the day, and very nearly the hour, of
the expected flow, may be predicted.
  During pregnancy and lactation,  the  influence of the
ovaries becomes suspended, and  no flow takes place.   Ex-
ceptions, however, occur;  and the flow sometimes takes place
accidentally from the placenta being  situated  low down in
the uterus or over the os.  Cases are also  on record of its
being evolved  regularly  from the vaginal portion  of the
cervix uteri in consequence of disease:  none, however,  takes
place from the  interior of the  organ.
  The discharge generally takes place slowly, drop by drop,
and is ordinarily preceded and accompanied, more especially
in weak and unhealthy  women, with considerable  excite-
ment of the pulse, nervous irritability, heat of skin,  a sense
of oppression,  faintness at the pit of the stomach, swelling
and soreness of the breasts, pain in the back and loins and
in the region of the ovaries, but which more or less  subside
after the full establishment of the flow.   In young women,
upon the occasion  of its first appearance, these symptoms
are frequently most strongly marked.  Its commencement
is more or 13ss serous in  character and small  in  quantity, 
Menstruation.
37
but, after some twelve or twenty hours, becomes more abun-
dant and  fully tinged.  Towards the middle of the  period,
it  is evolved in its greatest quantity.   In two or three or
more days, it  gradually subsides, leaving not unfrequently,
in fact ordinarily, a whitish or leucorrhoeal discharge, or, as
it is sometimes called, " the whites."
  The quantity of fluid evolved at each menstrual period is
extremely variable.   In some it is very considerable, in
others scanty; and the  same variations are experienced on
successive occasions in the same individuals.  It has  been
estimated that some women lose as much as twenty  ounces,
while with others  the discharge does  not  amount to  more
than one or two ounces.   Ordinarily, the quantity may be
said to be some two or three ounces in  temperate regions.
In  tropical climates, the quantity is enhanced very  consid-
erably, while in the colder  regions it is very inconsiderable;
and we are told, that, among females of the arctic regions,
menstruation  recurs only during the summer months,  and
that even then  the discharge  is  very scanty, and scarcely
observable.   In females confined in rooms of high tempera-
ture, the  quantity is ordinarily very considerable.  Women
of  dark  complexion  and  ardent temperament  evolve a
larger quantity than fair women of milder character.  It is
also more copious  in  women of  sedentary habits, and those
subjected to the excitement of city life, than among  women
of  the country, whose life is active, and  devoid of injurious
influences.  The quantity evolved is increased by all those
circumstances which  irritate or determine a  greater  than
usual flow of blood to the pelvic viscera, or sexual organs:
hence the effect of irritating  diuretics,  drastic purgatives,
ennnenagogue  medicines, alcohol, constipation of the  bow-
els, worms, &e.
  The true nature of the discharge, whether it  be  a secretion
or a periodical  hemorrhage, lias been the subject of much
discussion among  physiologists.  Some  maintain that it is
a hemorrhage, and, of course, precisely similar to blood cir- 
38   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

culating in  vessels  throughout the  system ; while  others
maintain that it is a true secretion, and with but slight re-
semblance to true blood;  and others there are, who, while
they regard it as a true secreti.n, yet believe it to differ  in
no important particular from true blood.  Its commencement
and termination in serous and mucous discharges, and the
fact, also, that an injection  sent  into  the arteries  of the
womb readily transudes through its lining membrane, would
seem to indicate that it is a true secretion.  We have also
the testimony of several distinguished physiologists (Blun-
dell, Sir C. Clarke, Ruysch,  and others), who have  seen
the fluid  distilling from   the  mucous  membrane during
menstruation in cases of prolapsus or inversus uteri.  A case
of vicarious catamenial discharge  has also  been reported,
which  took  place from the hairy scalp, evincing distinctly
the peculiar odor of the discharge.
  Respecting  the cause and nature of the menstrual dis-
charge,  the ancients had  many absurd  and curious ideas.
It was a common belief among them  that it exerted a bane-
ful influence upon every thing; and  their  laws show  that
they looked upon this natural process with  abhorrence.
Pliny tells us that  " woman is the only menstrual animal,
and therefore  the only one  whose womb  produces what is
called  a 'mole.'  A mole is an aiQorphous mass of inani-
mate flesh,  which can neither be cut with the edge nor
pierced with the point  of a knife."   He also adds, —
   " There is perhaps nothing in the world more monstrous
than the menstrual fluid.   Wine turns sour in its presence,
seeds when touched with  it lose  their germinating power,
hedges  die,  and seeds planted in a garden where it falls
are burned up in the ground.  If a woman with the menses
sits upon a tree, its fruit  falls.  Mirrors lose  their polish,
knives their  edge, and ivory its brightness, by its contact.
Bees perish in their  hives, and brass and iron are  seized
with sudden rust, and acquire a horrid odor, if touched with
the fluid.   A dog that tastes it goes mad, and his bite is
mortal/' 
Menstruation.
39
  From 1 he Bible we learn many of the superstitious observ-
ances  and opinions relative to  the menstrual discharge.
When Jacob fled  from Laban, taking  with  him  Rachel,
they stole some of his images.  " In the thirty-first chapter
of  Genesis,  the  story is told  in the following words:
' And  it was told Laban on the  third day that Jacob was
fled.  And he took  his brethren with  him,  and pursued
after him  seven days' journey; and they overtook him  in
the Mount of Gilead.  Now, Jacob had pitched his tent in
the mount, and Laban with his brethren pitched their tents
in the Mount of Gilead.   And Laban said to Jacob, What
hast  thou done?  yet wherefore  hast thou  stolen  my
goods ?  And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into the
two maid-servants' tents; but he found them not.  Then
went he out of  Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.
Now, Rachel had taken the images, and put them  in  the
camel's furniture, and sat upon them.  And Laban searched
all  the tent, but found them not.   And  she said unto  her
father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up
before thee, for the custom nf women is upon me,' &c.   Here
you see at how ancient a period it was  a custom of women
to be unwell; and, what  is more,  you see a man, who, with
an armed  force, had pursued his run-away family for seven
days'  journey, manifestly with the most violent anger and
eagerness  to  recover  his idols, yet for  the simple  words,
custom of women, he went out of  the tent  without  making
the lady violate the convenances belonging to her sexual cus-
tom.  If she  had not made this pretence, do you doubt that
he would have dragged her from her seat to find  the  pre-
cious gods in whom he put his trust ?
  " The Hebrew lawgiver doomed every Israelitish man to
death that should lie with a wo.nan at such a conjuncture."
— Prof Meigs.
  Notwithstanding all their speculations and theories, the
earlier physiologists groped about in thick darkness; and it
remained for  the pliysiologists of our own  day to elucidate 
40    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

the great  truths  as  regards this important  phenomenon.
It was held by earlier writers (Gall and others), that from
the great regularity and return of this physiological process
every twenty-eight days, or a lunar month, it was ruled by
the moon's  influence.   If  this were true,  however, all
women in  the same meridian would experience its return
at the same  time; whereas it is known there is not a day
throughout the month in  which  some women are not men-
struating.   Others regarded menstruation as a  mechanical
consequence of the erect attitude ; and Roussel maintained
that the menstrual flow ordinarily did not exist, but was
produced  artificially  by  too succulent and  nutritious  a
regimen, and afterwards handed  down  from generation  to
generation.
  Another idea, at one time very  generally accepted,  as
regards this phenomenon, was, that, as woman is a gestative
creature, she requires an increased supply of blood for  the
proper growth and development of the embryo.  In view of
this necessary requirement, there must needs be manufac-
tured, every month, an excess of blood beyond the  require-
ments of her own system ;  and, if this excess was not required
for the purposes of reproduction, the womb, acting as a safety-
valve, threw off the surplus, which, if retained, would endan-
ger life by inducing a state of general plethora and vascular
fulness.    Those  adopting  this  idea overlooked  the fact
that those who  evolve  the greatest quantity of menstrual
fluid, and  who menstruate the greater number of days, are
those women the very opposite of plethoric, — those who are
thin, spare, attenuated, and  enervated, and who have  the
least and often the most impoverished blood; and, besides,
were  these  same women bled from the arm just previous
to the flow,  the  menstrual  phenomenon  would still take
place.
  That there is, however, a local plethora, or vascular ful-
ness  of  the different organs and tissues  of the  sexual
system,  is  true, — a plethora induced by the physiological 
Menstruation.
41
congestion of the  ovaries  every twenty-eight days, while
these organs are undergoing the process of ovulation; i.e.,
maturing and discharging the ovules, or eggs, into the ovi-
ducts, or Fallopian tubes, which connect with the womb  at
each of its upper angles.
   To these monthly changes in the ovary, that is, the ripen-
ing of the egg, and its  discharge into  the  tube leading to
the womb, is due the occurrence of the menstrual flow.
   During the thirty years of menstrual life, there  is  con-
stantly developed  in  the  ovaries minute sacs, or vesicles,
called Graafian  vesicles, each containing an ovule, or  egg.
Every twenty-eight days, one of these sacs, with its enclosed
egg,  becomes matured.   In the process of maturation,  it
reaches the surface of the ovary, and projects slightly beyond
it, like a nipple.  At last, from the increasing pressure of
the rising ovule, the  sac, or Graafian  vesicle, bursts, and
discharges its contents.   The Fallopian tube receives the
ovule, and carries it forward to the uterus.
   This process  is  termed ovulation.  It takes place  spon-
taneously ; that is,  without the intervention of the male.   It
was formerly supposed,  in fact  is  even now believed by
many, that the egg is only discharged after fecundation, and
that the latter takes place while the  egg is  incased in the
ovary.
   During the  ripening process of  the Graafian cell and
germ,  the vital  processes  of  the  ovary  become  greatly
enhanced.   The nerves  are in  a highly exalted condition;
and blood-vessels that were before  invisible  to  the  naked
eye now rise into view, interlacing each  other in great  pro-
fusion over the whole surface of the organ, but more  espe-
cially surrounding the swelling follicle or vesicle.
  It is while undergoing these  physiological changes  that
the ovary transmits a stimulus, or influence, to the womb;
which  stimulus, or  irritation,  by inducing a turgescence of
the vessels of the  uterus, and hypertrophy of its  lining
membrane, is the efficient cause  of the  flow.  The  flow is, 
42   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

in fact, the resolution of  the  previous  turgescence of the
vessels.
   Menstruation is but an  external sign that the ovaries are
perfected.  It cannot take place until the ovaries are suffi-
ciently developed to mature and discharge ova, and it con-
tinues to recur so long as the ovaries are in active operation;
but when they become so shrunken, and their tissues atten-
uated and wasted,  that no ova are matured or evolved, men-
struation  ceases, because that which was the cause of the
flow ceases to exist.
   When the ovaries are congenitally deficient, no flow takes
place, nor does it occur if the uterus  is deficient; but in
this case  a regularly-recurring   menstrual  molimen  takes
place, and a flow would result but for the want of the uterus
to carry out the function.
   The result of the researches of  M. Raceborski are as fol-
lows : " First,  That there exists  the most intimate  connec-
tion between   the Graafian  vesicles  and  menstruation.
When the vesicles arrive at their full development, menstru-
ation commences;  and, when they are destroyed, it ceases.
Secondly, At each menstrual period, a follicle projects,  like
a nipple, on the surface of the  ovary, where it afterwards
bursts without requiring for that purpose any  venereal
excitement.    Thirdly,  The rupture of the  follicle gener-
ally  appears  to take place at  the period when the men-
strual discharge is stopping.   And Fourthly,  The ovaries
do not act alternately as has been  affirmed;  in  this respect,
not seeming to be  under any fixed law.   In a  more recent
work, he asserts the doctrine that  the catamenia are but  a
secondary phenomenon in  menstruation, so called;  that the
capital phenomenon  is the maturation  and  periodical  dis-
charge of  ova; and  hence  a  woman  may give birth to
several  children   without  ever having seen  the  catame-
nia."— Dungl'ison's Physiology.
   The approach of the first menstrual period is ordiuarily
marked by the occurrence of a variety of affections; such as 
Menstruation.
43
 skin-diseases, chorea, epilepsy, headache, disorders  of the
 stomach and bowels, &c, — disorders  that will obstinately
 remain, no matter what treatment may be instituted, until
 the  catamenia  become established,  when  they  at once
 disappear.
   Ordinarily, just previous to the initial discharge, premoni-
 tory symptoms  are  observable,—disturbed or unrefreshing
 sleep, restlessness, and bad dreams, which are followed with
 a sense of heaviness, languor, and headache.   As the time
 approaches, great irritability of the nervous system evinces
 itself, with much  vascular  fulness.  The head feels unnatu-
 rally full, pressed, and swollen, as if more blood than usual
 was circulating  there.   The temples throb, the eyeballs feel
 hot, and a stooping or recumbent  position  adds to the dis-
 comfort.  Pains in the small of the back and iliac regions,
 darting pains radiating from the  pelvis in  every direction,
 with swelling and soreness of the breasts, are among the
 usual manifestations; all of which symptoms, however, are
 speedily dissipated on the  appearance of the flow.  With
 many, the above symptoms are so slight as scarcely to be
 recognized; while with others they occur with much severi-
 ty, and oblige the female to rest from her usual daily avo-
 cations until the time has passed.
   The initial discharge may be  and very frequently is a
 profuse leucorrhoeal discharge, but which is attended with
 full relief to the system.
  The discharge  may, from  the first, observe its proper
 regularity; but this is seldom the case.  A period usually of
 some months is  passed over before the returns  occur regu-
 larly every lunar month.
  This period of transformation from childhood to woman-
hood may  well  be termed " critical," in these days of
improper physical, mental, and moral training; and parents
may well regard its approach with anxiety.   It is not, as
we have already observed,  accomplished  at  once,  but  ex-
tends over a  period of months;  during which time  the 
44    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

young woman is subject to a multiplicity of ills, which may
terminate with the full establishment of the flow, or attend
her through life.
  It has already been remarked that the ovaries lose their
influence  over the sexual  system  at about the forty-fifth
year of age, and menstruation ceases.  Menstrual life may
terminate  at once,  and without  being followed by  any
morbid  or  unpleasant symptom.   This, however,  is  not
ordinarily the case.   The change usually occurs gradually,
accompanied with irregularities.   One or two or more peri-
ods may be passed over without any appearance of the  dis-
charge,  and then again appear with considerable profuse-
ness.   The quantity also  varies.   For several successive
periods, the discharge may become more and more scanty,
and then be followed by a flow that partakes of the charac-
ter of menorrhagia.
  This  is a period in the existence of  woman which may
well be  regarded with  some degree of apprehension, and
has been well termed "critical."   Seeds of disorder,  that
have  long lain  dormant, now become roused into activity
by  the changes which take place in the  system.  Any ten-
dency to organic disease generally manifests  itself at  this
time.  Induration,  cancer, and other diseases, may attack
the womb, and serious disorders may  arise in other parts
of  the system.  Apoplexy,  disease of  the stomach  and
bowels, of the liver, lungs, hemorrhoidal affections, obsti-
nate diseases of the skin, ulcers, gout, rheumatism, &c, are
both frequent and common.   This is a  period of life,  also,
that is looked forward to with much satisfaction by those
who have long suffered from obstinate  chronic diseases, in
the hope, that, when they  shall cease  to  menstruate, their
many obstinate infirmities may fade away.
   That the reader  may have  clear perceptions as  regards
 the process of ovulation,  or  menstruation,  we will  here
 introduce the views of Prof.  Meigs, in his  own chaste  and
 beautiful  language.  He says, " If you should  pick  up a 
Menstruation.
45
pebble on  the shore, or a handful of sand; if you should
break off a bit of stone from one of the great rocky strata
of the earth ;  or if you take  in your hand some salt, or a
piece of glass, or a  bar of iron, or an  ingot  of silver or
gold, and  carefully examine them, and  inquire  into the
laws  of  their production,  and continuance  in a present
condition,—it will be easy to arrive at the conviction that
they are destitute  of  life, of  sensibility, of appetency, and
incapable of producing or generating their like,  and alto-
gether without organization;  and  that they  are, in short,
inorganic bodies,  controlled only by laws of the cohesive,
elective, and gravitating attractions.   If, now, you take into
your hand  a  butterfly, or  the  smallest creeping thing or
infusorial creature, or any plant, blossom, or seed, or what-
soever thing that is endowed  with life, with life-force, you
will perceive at once the difference between it and the inor-
ganic masses that possess only brute force of matter; but, if
you attempt to set down in plain words the difference betwixt
inorganic and living organic matters, you will be surprised
to  find how difficult is  the  task. ... It appears to me
that the reproductive force is  the  eminently discriminating
and characterizing force as betwixt the  organic  and the
inorganic bodies, since it is clear that the ponderable bodies
— as metals, alkalies, earths, and gases — are incapable of
reproductions; whereas all living,  all organized bodies are
but the repetition, or reproductions, of forms and forces with
which their archetypes were endowed from the commence-
ment of the present cosmic order and arrangement. .  . .
  '• You ought to remark that the  divine Author of the
world has so  ordained his laws, that the  fleeting and eva-
nescent form  of living being is, after all, as permanent as
creation itself; and that, while we are in our own persons
such perishing creatures, we  are permanent, I  had almost
said immortal, as a genus or a kind, who have been here
since the beginning, and destined to exist as  long as the
inorganic materials upon which we tread.  Does  it not seem, 
46    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

then, that God has impressed upon our natures a great force,
a great principle of extension  in  time and in  space, and
whicl insures our permanency ?   Judge, then, what must bo
the amazing power and necessity of that law or that  force
upon which the conservation here, and  the permanency, of
the genus depend, and alone depend. .  . .
  "Take further into consideration the thought, that if these
laws are really so potent as  to  keep us forever here  upon
the earth, as  mankind, so that the earth cannot become
again a wilderness, the  abode  only of inferior creatures,
must it not be that similar laws and sanctions are provided
for the conservation of all other forms  of existence ?  Do
you not, therefore, perceive that each blade of grass, each
tender blossom, or branching oak, or lofty pine, or trailing
vine, repeats  itself by means of the same force, from age
to age, so  that the modest violet, peeping with  its blue
petals and yellow anthers from  its shelter of  dewy leaves,
is, in fact, as durable as time itself, and that its  perpetuity
is secured by the same force that perpetuates us and all
creatures besides ?  Every grain of wheat, every kernel,
every seed, contains a  germ.  Every  egg of  the smallest
aphis, the tiniest sparrow, the  tallest  ostrich, has a  germ
within it.  All  the spawn of fishes contains in  each gran-
ule a germ.   If you  put a  quart of distilled water in an
open vessel upon your window-sill, it will soon be teeming
with living infusoria, whose  invisible germs float on every
breeze through  the  air, and, when  deposited in the vase,
evolve  themselves, and  become  instinct  with  life  and
motion.  All the mammalia are likewise  reproduced from
germs contained within true vitellary bodies or eggs.   The
egg of the barn-door fowl is not more perfectly an egg than
is the microscopic egglet you find in the Graafian follicle
of a cow, a mare, a sheep, a dog, or a whale.   Each egg
contains not only its  germ, but  its yolk.   The viviparous
creatures require but a small  quantity of yolk  about  the
germ, as the embryo  attaches itself to  the  living solid  of 
Menstruation.                 47
 the mother;  the oviparous creatures require a large amount
 of vitellary matter for the embryotrophic wants of the em-
 bryo.   The germ in the egg of a humming-bird is as large,
 probably, as that in a cassowary's egg; but the  humming-
 bird at leaving its  shell is  incomparably smaller than the
 young  of  the cassowary   or ostrich.  Hence the embryo-
 trophic wants of the latter are supplied by a vast quantity
 of materials, and  the former by a few grains only of the
 same sort of reproductive  matter.
   " The germ of a whale  eighty feet in length is not larger,
 probably, than that of a  perch : but the placental life of
 the  baloena  enables  it to evolve its young  of the length
 of twenty feet or more; while the  spawn  of the  perch or
 salmon is not larger than  the head of a pin, and its embryo
 of a conformable magnitude.
   " I have now  to ask you to inquire whether these eggs
 in all the  living tribes, whether of an  animal or vegetable
 kind, are produced continually, or  at  stated times.   But
 why should I ask you to  make this  inquiry, since I know
 that you have already made it, and are well informed  upon
 the point ?
   " You know when you go into the gardens, in early spring,
 to soften the soil,  and prepare it for planting.  You know
 when  the  farmer  mows,  and when he reaps his harvest.
 You know when the lambs of the  flock are yeaned, when
 the roses and tulips, when the migratory birds and fishes,
 produce their young.  How often does the  germ-production
 take place ?   Once a 3'ear.  The flight  of  the pigeon ; the
 migration  of the swallow;  the annual arrival on  our coasts
 of  the  shad, the  herring, and the salmon  and  cod; the
 bursting of  the leaf-buds of the forest; the springing-up
 of the  grasses and flowers in the vernal season, — are facts
 known  to  you,  and  which have taught  you that gerni-
| production  is not  continuous  ami  progressive, but parox-
 ysmal  and periodical.  But if, throughout all Nature, we
1 find that germ-production  is  a periodical  occasion, a vital 
48    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

paroxysm, why do we hesitate to believe  that we also  are
under the same universal  sole law of reproduction ?  As
well suppose half a dozen different principles of gravita-
tion, or  of cohesion, or elective attraction, as  a variety of
reproductive  principles:  there  is but one, which is  omne
vicum ex ovo ('all life springs  from germs or eggs'); and
the ovum is produced, not continuously, but paroxysmally.
  " As I am considering the  subject of  germ-production, I
shall take occasion to call your  attention  more particularly
to a wonderful scene  that  is  annually  presented in  the
United  States.   I allude  to  the  annual rush  into  the
American rivers of different tribes of migratory fishes, that
force their way from the  ocean into the mouths of  our
rivers,  and,  ascending as near as  they  may  towards  the
head waters, find  at length the  suitable  places  for deposit-
ing their spawn, or, in plain English, for laying their eggs,
each one of which contains a germ.  The fishermen  of  the
Potomac, and of  the rivers in  North  Carolina, not  un-
frequently catch, at a single haul, as many as fifty thousand
herrings; while vast quantities  of shad are also captured in
all the rivers of the Atlantic American coast.  In  spawning
season, the salmon in the Oregon rivers  are so  abundant
as actually to check, in a degree, the current of the streams,
as we learn from  the traveller Mackenzie, as well as from
Messrs.  Lewis  and Clark.   The annual visitation  of  the
shad takes place in the United  States in  the spring  of  the
year.  They, perhaps, come up  from the  antarctic ice, and
strike our  coast  north of Carnaveral,  entering first  the
rivers of Georgia, where they are  seen  sometimes about
the 20th of January.   They next in succession explore  the
waters of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, •
entering the streams of Pennsylvania,  New Jersey,  and.'
New York; and so on, at later and still later times of arriv- j
ing, until the migration is over.  Millions are consumed asfi
fresh food, and an immense number put up as salt fish  fort'
later consumption and for exportation.   It is  rare  to  find! 
Menstruation.
49
one  of them  in  the waters that run  into the  Gulf of
Mexico.    Thousands of  millions  of  herrings annually
pursue the  same course.   The herring  are  said  to come
from  the  shores of  Spitzbergen  and the Greenland ice.
They  divide  into  two immense  streams, one of  which
proceeds downwards, near  the coasts of Europe,  and the
other by way of Labrador, and so south, until their instinct
teachns them  the time is at hand for securing the  repro-
ductive product.  Now, this vast  migration through many
hundred leagues of trackless ocean is compelled  by an
instinctive force, which is a part of, or at least attached to,
the reproductive force; just  as the commencement  of the
nest for the mocking-bird, or the  darkening of the aurelia
for the impregnated woman, is  part of  that  force.   That
instinctive force it is which causes them to  ascend to the
shallows,  where the sun's  vivifying light, and where  a
lessened  temperature of the  waters, at  the proper season,
may perfect the evolution  and exclusion  of  the embryo
fishes.
   " In all the bony fishes, the male is destitute of any copu-
lative apparatus; and hence his only function is to  follow
the female,  in order to shed his fecundating secretion over
the places where her germs are deposited; and his voyage
of hundreds of leagues is a  compulsatory one, under the
stimulation  of that great reproductive life-force.  Once a
year, he returns from his distant  feeding-ground ' in num-
bers numberless,' to perform this great act of the conserva-
tion of the genus.
   " It is in  a staccato, not a sostenuto mode, that this great
hymn  of Nature is  performed.  Could  I possibly  cite a
stronger case to show the periodical, paroxysmal, pulsatory
lature of  the great reproductive function ?
   " In like manner, the herds of buffaloes  on the great West-
ern prairies, ten thousand in a herd, wander from the inter-
aal provinces  to the banks of the Saskatchawan, annually
repeating the same  scene ; and so it is with the moose, the
             4 
50    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

elk, the deer, bear, wolf, fox, and marten; it is so with the
saurians, the chelonians,  the ophidians, and with every
animal and every vegetable.  Why should  it not be thus
with woman?   It is  thus.   Her term is mensual, not
annual: she has the reproductive paroxysm every twenty-
eighth day.  Some of the  domestic animals have it every
forty-fifth day;  and  the vibration  is longer or  shorter
according to the nature and condition of the subject of it.
  " A healthy woman matures and deposits  an ovum every
twenty-eighth  day from the age of fifteen to that of forty-
five years, failing only in case of pregnancy and lactation,
and sometimes not even then.   She sometimes suffers an
arrest of the force  during  lactation ; yet, in the majority,
even that arrest  is but of short duration, and in many it
does not take place at all.  The closing stage of the process
of maturing and depositing, or discharging, the ovum, is
attended with  a discharge  of bloody fluid  from the  genita-
lia, which is called menstruation, because it takes place
once a month."
  We have given a much longer extract from Prof.  Meigs's
work than we intended, but not longer, we  believe, than*
would  be interesting and instructive  to  the reader.  Nor
will we stop here.  As he has shown what menstruation is,
we will follow him yet a little longer, to his  conclusion, and
learn from him —
  What are  the Organs of Menstruation. — He says,
" I shall now proceed to state, that in the  economy of the
human female, as  in all other creatures,  there is provided
an organ for the evolution of germs, and  that these germs
cannot be produced by means of any other tissues or organs
of whicL  any  animal  or vegetable consists.   This organ is
the ovary.   In the woman, there are two  ovaries, — oval,
compressed bodies, each about  an inch in  length  by half
an inch in depth and a third of an inch in  thickness.  But
the size of the ovary differs in different  women; being in 
                     Menstruation.                   51

some  larger,  and in  others smaller, than the above-men-
tioned average.  Each ovary is attached to an angle of the
womb by means of the ligament of the ovary, which is a
cylindrical cord about an  inch and a half in length, more
or less, and  as  large as  a  small quill.   Each ovary lies
behind the Fallopian  tube and round ligament, and is en-
closed within the peritoneal or broad ligament, which gives
it its covering, or indusium.   Inside  this  indusium,  or
peritoneal covering,  is found the fibrous  strong coat,  or
delimitary membrane, of the ovary; which being taken off,
nothing  is left  save the stroma, or ovarian  substance, con-
taining the Graafian  vesicles, or Graafian follicles, or Graa-
fian cells, as they are indiscriminately called.
   " The stroma of the ovary is produced by the ovaric artery
and nerve.   I say, produced by them;  for it was originally
evolved by them, and is constantly fed and  maintained  in
its rate of size,  weight, and functional power by them,  as
the source whence are derived all the  accretions required
by the momentary waste,  detritus, or life-combustion, of its
molecules.  What a curious speculation it is, that this long,
wandering, ovaric  artery, and spermatic nerve, should be
the only  artery and only nerve in the whole economy capa-
ble of producing vitellus, or yolk matter !  for, after all, they
dc produce it, and they alone.
   " The ovary being  endowed with the power of  producing
vitellus (yolk matter), as  in the ostrich, where a vast quan-
tity is evolved,  and  in the female of our  race,  where the
quantity is so small that a good doublet is necessary to fiud,
and a good  microscope to observe it  afterwards, it is also
endowed with the power of producing germs, of which vitel-
lus, or yolk, is the  sustaining principle, or aliment, or cyto-
blastema.  (The germ is  enclosed within,  or surrounded
and sustained by, the yolk.) . .  .
   "At different times, I have exhibited to you [his medical
class] the yolk  taken from the ovary of the cow, as well  as
that from the ewe.  You remember that the ovarian vesicle 
52    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

was  punctured with a lancet; and a drop of liquid which
spurted from the incision being collected on a lamina  of
glass, and placed under the microscope, the yolk containing
its germinal vesicle and macula were shown you in one  of
Chevalier's microscopes. This yolk-ball was contained within
Graaf s vesicle.  Graaf's vesicle has two coats; an inner one,
and  an outer one which contains  the inner one, — sphere
within sphere; but  the  spheres  are buried beneath the
fibrous coat of the ovary.   This fibrous coat is contained
beneath the peritoneal coat.
  " This statement, taken in connection with the fact that
the ova of birds  and fishes  and frogs, &c., are  discharged
without the intervention  of the male,  or any  antecedent
sexual conflict, ought to convince any one that fecundation
of the ova does not take place within  but outside  of the
ovaria, and therefore the  ova  must escape from the ovaria
previous to the impregnating act.   In other words, there is
a physiological function of the ovaria to mature  and dis-
charge its ova in  order  that they may be afterwards haply
fecundated.   If you  admit  that  this statement is  a cor-
rect  one,  then you accept  the  doctrine of the spontaneous
expulsion of ova, or the oviposit.   Admitting the oviposit
as a  law of the reproductive force, then  the question arises
again, Is it an irregular or a regular and periodical func-
tion  ?  I have shown, that, through all living nature, it  is
periodical, not  continual, not irregular,  not accidental.  I
see no bar to the conclusion that it is so in women.  .  . .
  "I conceive that enough has been said  to convince  you
that  the ovulation and spontaneous deposit of ova is com-
pletely independent of and disconnected with  any  sexual
sense or sentiment  in the human  being, though  it is far
otherwise  in  the  lower mammals, &c.  The reason of this
difference  is to be found in the high morals of reasoning
creatures,  as distinct from  those beings  that are governed
by instinctive sense,  and not by reason.
  " If you accept the doctrine of the spontaneous periodica] 
Menstruation.
53
deposit of ova, then  I think you  have little  difficulty to
account for the menstrual engorgement of the reproductive
organs, or the monthly local plethora or  turgescence  or
hyperemia, which is  relieved so regularly and completely
by the catamenial or menstrual hemorrhage.
   " The evolution of the Graafian  cell is more and more
rapidly effected as it  approaches  nearer and nearer to its
completion.  The largest and most mature follicle is  now
enveloped, so to speak, in a mass of injected  and engorged
and hypercernic tissues redolent with life :  it is surrounded
with red vessels  carrying on in  it  the development-offices.
The cell, like a growing tooth, is magnified and  raised up
so rapidly, that,  like the gum over the  tooth, the stroma
(i. e., the  substance of  the ovary)  around the cell becomes
turgid, succulent,  almost  inflamed,  we might  say.
 Under such circumstances, what  wonder  have  you to find
the  WHOLE OVARY  SWOLLEN and turgid, or the womb
itself  affected  in the  same  way (from  the  stimulus
transmitted to it from  the ovaries);  what wonder to find
the woman complaining of pain in the ovaric region  {low
down on each side in  the bowels, the iliac  regions),  and in
the  womb, with aching, with heat, with sense of weight
and dragging in the  pelvis; and to find, on examination,
that the uterus is larger, heavier, and more colored, than in
the inter-menstrual periods ?
   " In fact, the womb, previous  to the disengorging outflow
of the menstrual  blood, is redder  and heavier, and more
succulent,  than  when it has been fully  acquitted by the
discharge.''
   We  have quoted at great length from Prof. Meigs ("Dis-
eases of Females"), and for  the reason that we believed it
would  interest and instruct the reader, but more especially
that we might call the attention particularly to the state of
the ovaries just previous to and during the early jjart of
the periodical flow as described above by the professor, and
Italicized by ourself.  We are glad  to be able to give such 
54   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

high  authority ; glad, when we say, that during each c ata-
menial period, although a physiological process, the ovaries,
or menstrual organs, are in a highly congested and engorged
condition, in fact " almost inflamed," that we can point
to such high authority as Prof. Meigs.
  The menstrual  organs  are  of a  spongy, erectile, and
vascular  tissue.  This tissue  is  subjected every  twenty-
eight  days to a state of vital turgescence.   Its blood-vessels
are in a  highly congested and engorged  condition.  How
pre-eminently susceptible, then, must be  these organs  to
disease !  how  liable to take on  diseased  action from  the
slightest  cause ! how easy, from some trifling  cause  pro-
ducing a slight exaggeration of this physiological condi-
tion,  the transition from this  " almost  inflamed" to  a
pathological state!   And yet neither this pre-eminent sus-
ceptibility, nor the actual diseased condition of the ovaria,
and the  morbid stimulus they must inevitably transmit to
the womb, inducing morbid action there,  receives  scarcely
a thought, we will venture to say, from  nine  physicians
out of ten.
  In  passing to the consideration of the menstrual organs
in a state of disease, it should be  borne in mind that  these
organs are subjected monthly to a process,  which, although
a physiological one, approaches to the very boundary-line of
a pathological condition.   They are  subject, as is  no  other
organ in  the economy, to a state of  periodical turgescence,
which amounts almost to an  inflammatory process.  We
have seen, that during the later days of the ripening process,
or  maturing of  the Graafian  cell and  germ,  the vital
processes  become greatly  enhanced;  the  nerves  are in  a
highly exalted condition ; the entire organ is engorged,
swollen, red, sensitive, painful, and not unlike  the swollen
and sensitive  gum over  a growing tooth; the  swelling
tyllicle, like a small nut protruding from the organ, rises up
rapidly,  until at last, the sides of the cell becoming so
thinned from progressive  absorption, the ovule bursts from 
Menstruation.                  5 5
its prison-house,  and falls  into  the  oviduct  or Fallopian
tube, or into the peritoneal sac.
  Bearing this condition in mind, it is  no difficult  task to
conceive how this vascular and nervous  excitement, under
the influence  of  morbid stimulus (as, for instance, " cold,"
or those prurient  incitations to which the sexual organs are
so  frequently  subjected),  may  become  increased  till  it
reaches a point  where each  of  the  above  manifestations
become greatly intensified;  where  the menstrual  organs
are still more congested and engorged with blood, more
swollen,  more  red,  more  painful;  the nerves  in  a  still
higher exalted condition, with more heat, more pain on press-
ure ; an intermittent or permanent deep-seated and severe
pain deep in the  iliac regions, which  is greatly aggravated
if the patient attempts to rise, or even straighten the  limb
upon the pelvis, and which may be accompanied with  hys-
terical symptoms,—pains radiating to the loins, and down
the thighs, and upwards to the small of the back, with  or
without  more  or less  fever, hot  skin,  quick pulse, and  a
slight puffiness or swelling in  the iliac regions.  The womb
participating  in  the over-excitation  (for it can hardly be
supposed, so  intimate is  the connection  between these
organs and the womb and vagina, that this  condition of the
menstrual organs could long exist without implicating  or
transmitting a morbid stimulus to those organs), the  flow
may be arrested  entirely, or retarded for a  time, and  then
burst forth  with  a profuse flow. What is the condition
that we now behold ?  We see that the vital processes of
a physiological  condition under the influence  of morbid
stimulus has become heightened until it has  emerged into
a pathological condition; and that pathological condition
is inflammation of the menstrual organs. 
m.
  INFLAMMATION  OF  THE  MENSTRUAL ORGANS.

   INFLAMMATION  of the menstrual organs may be of
    the acute or sub-acute form; or may be,  from the
peculiar character of its exciting cause, specific.
  Acute Form.—The acute, an  extremely rare form in
the unimpregnated female,  is  characterized by the great
intensity of the morbid process, passing through its differ-
ent stages with great  rapidity,  terminating  in resolution,
effusion, the sub-acute  form, or disintegration.  This  form
we do not propose to consider.
  Sub-Acute Form. — This is generally the  primary of
the two forms, and by far the most frequent.  It is distin-
guished from  the acute  by its  longer continuance, and a
less intensity  of morbid  action.  This form usually gives
rise to very little if any  external  appearance of  swelling,
and very little febrile action  ordinarily.  If there be  any
fever, it is generally of a  slight and intermittent character.
If the pulse be affected at all, it  is  in frequency, generally,
more than in strength or  firmness.   Its characteristic  local
symptoms are often very obscure;  and the disease may be
present for months, without any decided symptom develop-
ing itself sufficiently to attract the attention, and may pass
undiscovered unless sought  for.  Sometimes, however, the
sub-acute  partakes of the character of the acute form, and
is accompanied with considerable  fev^r, an  excited pulse,
much local tenderness,  and sometimes swelling.
  The effusion from  its outer coat, like matter effused by
             66 
       Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      57

all other  serous  membranes in  sub-acute  or  chronic  in-
flammation, is cacoplastic or aplastic (patches of a kind of
fibro-cellular or fibro-cartilaginous membrane incasing  the
organ, or gluing it to  the  neighboring tissues) ;  or  the
deposit may be in  shape of detached  floating  flakes or
curds.
  When we speak of inflammation of the menstrual organs,
we  have  no reference  to the puerperal state; nor do  we
mean inflammation of the substance of the organ only,  but
of  the Graafian vesicle or cell,  and  of its peritonea-
covering.
   It is supposed by some that the  substanee of the organ
is the  part  generally  involved, while   by others  it  is
thought to  be confined  to its peritoneal covering,  and by
others to the  Graafian  cell: but the seat of the  inflam-
mation may be in its peritoneal coat, or in the Graafian cell,
or in the substance of the organ;  or these may be simul-
taneously the seat of the morbid process.
   The organs, one or both, are generally found more or
less increased in size, often covered with a false membrane,
and frequently glued to  the  fimbriated  extremities of  the
Fallopian tubes.   The latter, and  the ovaries, are  not  un-
frequently simultaneously the seat of inflammation,  and the
two organs firmly matted together; or each may become
adherent to adjacent tissues,  and so  separated that  the
fimbriated extremities of the tubes cannot  reach or adjust
themselves to the ovaries.  If this  happens to  both ovaries
and tubes,  sterility is  inevitable:  if  only one ovary  and
tube be involved, there  may be  no hinderance to concep-
tion.
   " Chronic inflammation of the substance  of the  ovarium
terminates, as in  other  viscera of the body, by thickening
and enlargement of the  part.   Such cases, after the com-
mencement of the disease,  will often  remain stationary,
without inconvenience, for years." — Seymour.
   Unfortunately for  woman,  disease  of  the  menstrual 
58    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

organs has  been and is  now  regarded by many  medical
writers (Ashwell, Churchill, West, Bennett, and others)  as
being of far less frequent occurrence than disease of the
womb ; and that, when it  does  occur, it ordinarily succeeds
uterine inflammation.  Churchill •'ays, "It is true that dis-
eases of the ovary are less frequent than those of the uterus;
and one reason for this is,  that  their physiological changes
are of a character l«ss liable to be converted into disordered
action (they are not exposed to irritation from  acrid dis-
charges), and  far less to  mechanical injury,  especially to
that which  results  from  excessive  sensuality."   Ashwell
says about the same thing.
  In our opinion, the very opposite is really the truth : for
we have seen, that, instead of " their (the ovaries) physio-
logical changes being of a character less liable to  be con-
verted into disordered action,"  they  are  subject  every
twenty-eight days  to a  vital  process, which, although  a
physiological one, approaches the very confines of a patho-
logical condition ; and the slightest  breeze of accident is
oftentimes sufficient to heighten this physiological process
to a  point where it becomes a diseased condition.
  That inflammation of the menstrual organs occurs ordina-
rily as the effect  of a previous  uterine  inflammation, as is
affirmed by many, is exceedingly improbable.   That it is
vice  versa, is, we think,  capable of demonstration.  One
among the many reasons that could be adduced, is, that
uterine inflammation is very seldom, if ever, present before
puberty, or after  " change of life."   Uterine disease, acrid
discharges, &c, do not occur when the ovaries do  not exist;
and  they  are seldom or never present before  puberty, and
very generally cease at  the close of menstrual  life, when
the ovaries become shrunken and atrophied.  Why is this?
If uterine inflammation be a primary disease, why  is it not
observable before puberty, and  after " change " ?   Why do
not morbid discharges occur before menstruation ? and why
do they generally, we say generally, cease with it ?  Why 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     59
does woman look forward with  pleasure  to  that golden
period of her existence when she shall no longer be subject
to her monthly ill;  i.e., when the ovaries become shrunken,
and lose their power over the womb, — a period when she
can throw aside the many infirmities that have  attended
her during menstrual life ?  Certainly it looks very suspi-
cious that the menstrual organs  are the  chief agents of
these infirmities: for we see, that, when  these organs are
absent, those diseases peculiar to women are never manifest;
we see that when these organs are yet immature, and hold
no  controlling influence over the womb  or  other sexual
organs, uterine  diseases are  exceedingly  uncommon,  and
almost  unknown;  we  see that  when they  become fully
developed, and assume their powers at puberty, and capable
of  transmitting their  physiological stimulus, or a morbid
stimulus  if diseased,  uterine disease, morbid  discharges,
hysteria,  &c, are frequent and  common; and we  see, also,
that when they have reached the full period of their exist-
 ence, and lose their influence over the sexual system, and
 are no longer capable of transmitting either a physiological
 or a pathological stimulus, these infirmities cease.   Ashwell
 says, "It  is  true that  morbid  lesions  (uterine disease,
 acrid discharges, &c.)  are uncommon, although  not  alto-
 gether unknown, before puberty."
    That these organs  are  less exposed to " mechanical in-
 jury which results from excessive sensuality" is perhaps
 true enough; but to the morbid stimulus  of  excessive sen-
 suality they are more subject than any organ  of the sexual
 system.  Why ?   Because the erotic sensibility of the clito-
 ris is almost  entirely if not wholly due to the influence of
 the  menstrual organs.  If there  be no menstrual organs,
 there will be none  of that erotic  sensibility  of the clitoris
 which  leads to sensuality.  If the menstrual  organs become
 diseased, or  if their functions  become  suspended through
 pregnancy or nursing,  erotic sensibility is lessened; and so,
 from the strong bond of sympathy that  exists between the 
60    Woman, and her Thirty Year.  Pilgrimage.

clitoris and ovaria, the over-stimulation  )f one is inevitably
followed  by  over-stimulation  of the other.   What  says
Alexander  Walker ? — that, " whenever erotic passions are
present, ovaries  will  be  found; whenever these passions
are  absent, no ovaries will be discovered."  Nauche  says,
" Young women of a sanguine temperament and vivid pas-
sions are the most  obnoxious  to  this affection " (inflamma-
tion of the  menstrual organs) ; and Lowenhardt says,  "In-
flammation of the ovary decidedly occurs not only without
the  slightest approach to  nymphomania, but is  frequently
attended by a directly opposite state of feeling on the part
of the patient."   When investigating causes, we shall see
that not only does excessive sensuality contribute to disease
of the menstrual organs, but that  ungratified sexual feel-
ings tend  to  the  same end.  Ashwell  says, " The  ovaries
are  subject to excitement before  and  during  menstrua-
tion.  The  state of the  Graafian vesicle,  too, is  liable to
sudden change, not  only  as the natural result  of concep-
tion, but from ungratified sexual feeling,  and  acute and
chronic inflammation."
  The above observation of Ashwell — viz., that "the state
of the Graafian vesicle,  too, is liable  to  sudden  change,
not only as the result of conception," &c, in connection
with what he says subsequently,  that " the investing tunic
(of  the ovary) must also  be  torn whenever impregnation
occurs "—very evidently shows that be regards impregnation
as necessary to the deposit of the  ovule in the Fallopian
tube;  and  that when impregnation takes place, and  the
oviposit does occur, he admits, that, from the tearing of  its
investing tunic, the ovary, or the Graafian vesicle (which is
a part of the ovary), is   subject to " acute and  chronic
inflammation : " and he further says, that from  this cause,
viz., impregnation and tearing  of  the  investing tunic  of
the ovary,  "weeanhave  no  hesitation in believing that
the ovaries and Fallopian tubes must for many years  of
female life be common seats of disease."   Now, we  havu 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      6\

 seen that impregnation is not necessary'to oviposit (on the
 contrary,  impregnation  cannot  occur while the  ovule  is
 incased in the Graafian cell of the  ovary), and that there
 is  an  oviposit  and   "tearing  of  the  investing  tunic"
 every twenty-eight days; and consequently, according to his
 own  admission, the  ovaries are liable  monthly "to acute
 and  chronic  inflammation; " which therefore renders  nu-
 gatory his assertion,  that  "the causes of this  disease
 (inflammation of the menstrual organs) are commonly puer-
 peral."
   Ashwell, in common with Churchill, West, Bennett, and
 many others,  labors with a good deal of stubborn perti-
 nacity  to foster  preconceived  notions, which  are enter-
 tained  by a  large  number of  the  professson ;  viz.,  that
 inflammation  of the ovaries is a secondary affection, and
 consequent upon uterine disease.   He,  however, is  con-
 strained to admit that ovarian disease does occur ''occasion-
 ally, apart from inflammation of the uterus;" and cites the
 following case: "Some years  since, in consultation with
 the late Dr. Cholmcley of Guy's Hospital, I attended Mrs!
 ----, aged thirty-nine, the mother  of several children, for
 what we supposed to have been  acute  inflammation of the
 unimpregnated uterus.   She recovered with great difficulty.
 Immediately  afterwards, she began  to suffer pain,  and to
 enlarge in the left iliac region.  Dr. Cholmeley was again
 called; and we feared that it might be commencing ovarian
 dropsy.  She  was advised to  keep  quiet, and not  to take
 any thing beyond mild aperient medicine.  She  continued
 however, to enlarge ; and in the course of three weeks, with-
 out  any aggravation  of the ovarian symptoms, she died
 from neglected pneumonia.  On inspecting the body after
 death, wo found the  uterus entirely free from all appear-
 ance of inflammation; but the left ovary was enlarged and
 highly vascular, and in one spot there  was an evident cyst
containing healthy pus.  The Fallopian tube was thickened,
and adherent  by its  fimbriated extremity to the surface of 
62    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

the ovary."—Disease of Females.  "In one fatal case, an
out-patient of Guy's, which I saw only a few hours before
dissolution, the inflammation arose from sudden suppression
of the catamenia.  The  patient was  seized, having sat in
her wet clothes for some hours, with  violent pain in the
left iliac fossa.  In four days, she died ; and, on inspection
of the  parts, the uterus was found to be large and soft, but
without marked evidence of inflammation.   The left ovary
had been intensely inflamed, jjus had formed in its struc-
ture, and the whole organ was almost in a  state of disor-
ganization." — Ashwell.
  Prof. West adopts very nearly the same ideas as Ashwell
and Churchill.   He admits the frequency of acute inflamma-
tion of the menstrual organs as a complication of puerperal
peritonitis,  but not otherwise.  And as to the  frequency,
symptoms,  and  importance of the sub-acute form of the
disease, he thinks they have been  greatly overrated by the
few medical writers who advocate  them.  He says, " Some
facts  are indeed well  known  and universally admitted,
such as the frequency of  acute ovarian inflammation  as a
complication of puerperal peritonitis, its  rarity in other
circumstances; but the frequency, the symptoms,  and the
importance of the more  chronic forms of inflammation of the
ovaries are questions which have  received very discordant
replies, and for whose final decision  data appear to me to
be still wanting."  Again  he says, " The ovaritis, which is
chiefly dwelt on by  medical  writers, is said for the  most
part to be either sub-acute or  chronic in its  character.  It
is an affection supposed to be capable of lasting for many
years without leading to any grave alteration of structure,
though occasioning much functional disorder, and producing
much  local suffering.   Disturbance   of  menstri ation of
various kinds, sterility, and pain in the abdomen  more es-
pecially pain referred to one or other  iliac  region, are the
symptoms commonly assigned to this chronic ovaritis ; and,
indeed, a very  large proportion of the ailments that have 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     63

been referred by some observers to inflammation of the cer-
vix uteri, and ulceration of its orifice, have been attributed
by others, equally confident, to chronic inflammation of the
ovary.   My own impression is that a larger share has been
assigned to chronic inflammation in the production of these
symptoms than can be proved to be really true."
  Now,  let us compare  what the  professor has just said
with what he says subsequently; and perhaps it  may seem
as though he was disposed to dodge the question by denying
the frequency  of inflammation  of the  ovarian  substance,
but admitting its frequency in its peritoneal covering and
the Graafian vesicle.  And what are these, pray,  but parts
of the  ovaries ?   The  Graafian vesicle has its  rise and
origin in, and is completely enveloped by, and in fact con-
stitutes a part of, the substance of the ovary ; and as to its
peritoneal covering, we  refer to Prof. Arthur Farre, who
says, " The ovary is so  closely invested by this peritoneal
lamina, that no effort with the scalpel will suffice to  detach
it from the tunic beneath." — Cyclopozdia of Anatomy and
Physiology.   Prof.  West says, " We often, indeed, find the
evidences of circumscribed peritonitis about the ovary;"
that is, inflammation of its  outer or  peritoneal covering.
Here,  certainly, he admits a " frequency " of the disease.
" It is," says he, " in the Graafian vesicles themselves that
we find, as indeed might be anticipated, the most important
results  of inflammation;  and  such  inflammation  is  of
great moment,  from the circumstance, that,  in some cases,
it is probably the first  strp  in  the production of ovarian >
di opsy."  Here he certainly admits the " importance " of
tin  inflammation.    "More  important than the changes
produced by inflammation on the exterior of  the  ovary are
those alterations in their substance, and especially  in the
Graafian vesicle.   The mere substance of the ovaries does
not, indeed, except in the puerperal state,  often present
appearances indicative of inflammation  or its results.  Af-
fections  of the  ovarian  tissue (substance), apart from the 
   64    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

   puerperal condition, are, I believe, almost always secondary,
   and subordinate to those of the Graafian vesicles themselves.
   Thus, when the functions of the ovaries are no  longer exer-
   cised, and  the ovules  are  not in  the course  of production
   and maturation, we find the substance of the organ shrunken,
   dense, and frequently intersected by white lines  of  firm
   cellular tissue ; and just  in  a similar way do we find it
   swollen,  congested, and infiltrated,  in connection  with a
   turgid state of  the Graafian vesicle, and with the presence
   of evidence of inflammation  about their  coats.  In these
   circumstances, indeed, we may find the whole of the ovary
   considerably increased in size ;  but my own experience  cor-
   responds with  that of Kerwisch, who says that it is  ex-
   tremely unusual for the organ in the unimpregnated condi-
   tion to be enlarged by an inflammatory affection of its
   stroma (substance) to more  than double  its size."  And
   here he admits most certainly the " symptoms " of the dis-
   ease.
    The professor furthermore says, that notwithstanding we
   " often " find evidences of inflammation of the peritoneal
   covering of the ovaries, yet " we  find them in  cases where
   there have been no s}rmptoms of an urgent character durin^
   life, and often,  indeed, when  no symptom of any kind  ex-
   isted."  If " evidences" of inflammation of the menstrual
   organs  were "often" found after  death, most  certainly
   there must have been some symptoms of that pathological
  condition during life, and would probably have been discov-
^ ered if properly  sought for.    Touching  this matter,  and
  the frequency of ovarian inflammation, let us  refer to  the
  testimony of other medical men of celebrity.
    "Nothing can more forcibly prove either the difficulty of
  diagnosis  of  ovaritis,   or  the  little  attention  paid to its
  diagnosis, or, in other  words, the ignorance of this form of
  disease, than the fact,  that out of thirty-seven cases of  the
  puerperal  form observed by Madame Boivin and Duges in
  the years 1819, 1820, only  two were  correctly diagnosed 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      65

during life.   The existence of ovaritis in the other thirty-
five cases was subsequently proven by post-mortem exami-
nation ; and  doubtless the same disease has escaped detec-
tion in  many of those who have recovered from puerperal
fever." — Tilt.
  "Of all the organs of the human body, scarcely any seem
so prone  either  to  functional or  organic  disease as the
ovaries; for I can with truth say, that I have rarely, when
examining these important organs  after death, found  them
entirely healthy." —Ashwell.
  " Of all the organs of the human frame, none are so often
affected by disease as the ovaries." — Neumann.
  " If I wished to enumerate all the  lesions of the ovaries
and oviducts which I have seen in my dissections, this let-
ter would be the longest of all." — Morgagni, forty-sixth
letter.
  " Every  one at all  accustomed  to  examine dead bodies
must have seen  a variety  of examples of disease in the
ovaria,' where  no symptoms (?) of such complaints  were
displayed in the lifetime of the patient.  The  author has
met with large  abscesses  in them, and in other parts, where
no evidence  had existed that such complaints were,  pres-
ent."— Sir CM. Clarke.
  Dr. Robert Lee tells us that " the adhesions between the
ovaria and the Fallopian  tubes, being so frequently met
with in examining the bodies of  women of different ages
and conditions, prove that  slight  attacks of inflammation
of the peritoneal  coat of the  ovaria are not of rare occur-
rence, and that their presence is seldom discovered during
life."  — Cyclopaedia of Practical Med.
  " How frequently have  authors  noticed  the  numerous
anatomico-pathological lesions of the ovaries !  But of what
avail  such information, if they do  not describe their cause
and symptoms ? " — Kruger.
  " Our ignorance of ovarian inflammation is one of the
strongest proofs that  can be given of the little attention
             6 
66   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

uterine  pathology has  received." — British and  Foreic, n
Med. and Sur. Review,  January, 1850.
   " I am persuaded,  however, that our knowledge of the
disorders of these important organs  (the ovaries)  is vague,
and that the most serious of their maladies are of a nature
so insidious as to  allow them to become considerably ad-
vanced,  and  firmly established, long before they are de-
tected by the pain or inconvenience  or interrupted  functions
to which they give rise." — Prof Meigs.
   Notwithstanding Prof. West's extreme reluctance to sub-
scribe to  the frequency of inflammation  of the menstrual
organs,  yet  he indorses  the opinion expressed by  Dr.
Churchill of Dublin as  regards the frequency of a class of
affections the  result of ovarian irritation.   In describing
this  'ovarian  irritation,"  he  says, "It [the  pain] is
ordinarily dull  and aching; is accompanied by tenderness
in the iliac region, in which  situation a degree of fulness
may often be detected; though careful percussion will dis-
cover that this fulness is due  rather to  presence  of flatus
in the intestines than to the  existence of any solid tumor.
Though this pain seldom subsides completely, it  is apt to
be increased  in  paroxysms.   Walking, riding, exertion of
*ny kind, and sometimes even remaining for a short  time
in the erect  posture, considerably aggravates it.   Menstru-
ation almost always adds greatly to  its severity ; and sexual
intercourse nearly invariably  increases  it, sometimes  even
induces  a paroxysm of great violence.  The extent of the
pain is very variable.   Always severest in the situation of
one or the other ovary  (and, for some unexplained reason,
generally in the situation  of the  left), it is  sometimes
limited  to that  spot, but, in  other cases, extends  more or
less to all the pelvic viscera.   Difficult, frequent, and painful
micturition is then always experienced;  and defecation is
likewise  often  attended or followed by  severe  suffering.
While pressure in the iliac  region is always painful, a vagi-
nal examination sometimes causes little inconvenience.   In 
        Inflammation of the Menstrua I Organs.     67

other cases, however,  it is  productive of pain which lasts
for  several hours,  and this even though no trace of dis-
ease may be detected. (?)   In some  instances,  indeed, in
which  the suffering  produced by examination  was  most
severe, the uterus was smaller than natural; a condition,
which, when coupled with sterility of the patient, seemed to
indicate  an imperfect development of  the  whole  sexual
system.  In those instances where the  patient's sufferings
were the severest, there were  almost  always unmistakable
signs  of hysterical  temperament, — often very  obvious
symptoms of hysteria; while, even when this was  not the
case, the sudden  aggression  or sudden cessation of the
pain was sufficiently characteristic of its  neuralgic char-
acter."   To all of which we reply in  the language of Dr.
Ashwell of London, " Dull and heavy pains in  the region
of the ovary, lasting for months, are the consequence of
chronic inflammation of the ovaries.  I mention this circum-
stance because they  are too often regarded as neuralgic,
and treated accordingly."   We  are very well aware that
pain and irritability  may exist in an  organ apart from any
inflammatory action; but if the  above  expose of "ovarian
irritation," taken as a whole, be not something  more than
"irritation,"  if it be  not the  heightened vascular and
nervous  sensibility of an inflammatory congestion, we cer-
tainly  do not understand what the characteristic symptoms
of that morbid process are.   Notwithstanding his friend
Churchill suggests, in the first instance, the  above idea of
"ovarian irritation,"  with its  multiplied symptoms, and
furnishes the language used in expressing the idea, yet he
(Churchill) gives  the same symptoms  to  ovarian  inflam-
mation.  He says, " The patient suffers from deep-seated,
severe  pain in the  pelvic  cavity; and, wdien  the disease
is limited to the organ itself, the situation of this pain, which
is accompanied with a sensation of burning, is very well
marked.   An  aching sensation extends to the  groin and
thighs, with great weariness.  The evacuation of urine and 
68   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

fseces is performed with  pain and difficulty.  If we examine
the lower part of the  abdomen on either side, or on both
(for the attack is not always limited to one ovary), we may
often  find a slight puffiness or swelling; and, upon pressure,
this part will be found very painful."   Churchill also gives
the following case (abridged from Lowenhardt), which, he
says, "very well illustrates  the symptoms presented by  this
disease " (inflammation of the ovaries).  " Mrs. S----, aged
forty years, of middling  stature, delicate  figure, and florid
complexion, mother of several children  (the youngest  of
which is eight years of age), having hitherto enjoyed good
health, was attacked  on March 12, 1829, with pains in the
abdomen, when the catamenial period was just over, in con-
sequence, as she  supposed, of catching cold: these  pains
increased considerably the following day, and compelled her
to keep in  bed.   She  complained of a continued  throbbing
pain on the right side of the abdomen, in the ovarian region,
and a violent desire to pass water, accompanied with much
painful  scalding, — the   urine   red and clear.  On  closer
examination,  the abdomen appeared nowhere enlarged or
tender, except in the above-mentioned spot, which was some-
what  swollen; and pressure here increased the pain con-
siderably.  The vagina  was hot, but  not painful; neither
was the  rectum : but, upon examination with the  finger
through this  passage, the ovary of the  right side of the
uterus was  found  swollen and pain fid."
   It is not  a  little surprising  to witness  with what ridicu-
lous tenacity men cling to the  opinions of those  who have
gone  before them, and  how little  use they have for  any
one that is  in the habit of obeying his own spirit, instead
of following custom.   The profession always love a member
that  affiliates  with   them, that  possesses  a genius  for
being moulded to the pattern of their own minds; but  woe
to that man who sets up  any notions  of his  own,  or adopts
a belief in opposition to the tenets of leaders that have the
ear of  the public! — leaders   that  have  outlived their 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     69

 energy, but not their  impatience of rivals.  Any sin  may
 be forgiven  except that  of  thinking and acting for one's
 self; except that of incurring the displeasure of those who
 hold stations for which they are  not fitted, and who have,
 by administering  to the  credulity of men, won their  con-
 fidence
   One of the earlier fathers of medicine once said, " Mulier
 est propter uterum," — "A woman is what she is on account
 of her uterus ;" and ever since very  many of the profession
 have been pleased to adopt the same belief.  Whilst there
 is in it much of  truth, yet it  should be  taken with many
 grains of allowance.  The ancients were close  observers,
 but as liable to error as are men of the present age.  They
 have, however, set us an example, and every respect  is due
 to their meritorious  exertions.  But  sacred as  is the duty
 of acknowledging what thej', long before we had a being
 in the world, have done in the  way of advancing the science
 of medicine, yet we are equally bound not to  forget that
 they have  confided to us the business of a more rigid scru-
 tiny, and  of farther  and  deeper  research  in general:
 hence, if we would rightly honor  the fathers of  our science,
 and if we would rightly follow their example, we must, as
 they did, think and examine for ourselves, and  not  merely
 echo just what they say,  and just in  the way they said it
 before us, and thus, like the flock  following the bell-wether,
 blindly trot on in  the path which they trod.
   What a  multiplicity of opinions exists as regards the true
 nature of woman's  chief infirmity !  We  are told by Dr.
 Bennett that the chief disease  of woman  is  ulceration  of
 the neck of the womb.  By Simpson  and by Hodge we are
 taught to  believe  that  deviations  of the womb from  its
 normal position  are the  great  causes of her manifold in-
 firmities ;  by Tyler Smith, hyper-secretion of the mucous
glands of the neck of the womb ; by Boivin and Duges, ute-
rine catarrh of the body and neck of the womb; by Recamier,
 inflammation  and ulceration  of  the womb; by  Lisfranc 
 70   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 congestion and engorgement of its neck.  Chomel regarded
 granulations of the os uteri as the first great cause of wo-
 man's suffering, and Velpcau saw in flexions of the ivomb
 the primary element of uterine disease.  And it is no doubt
 true that the great mass of the profession of the present
 day see in the womb the great source of woman's infirmities.
 They regard that organ as  the primary one  of the sexual
 system, and that from its  diseased  condition go forth  all
 the ills that woman  is heir to.  Irritable, enlarged, con-
 gested, inflamed, ulcerated, displaced uterus is  the Alpha
 and Omega of all  their ideas :  it is their  faith, their joy,
 their midnight hymn, their  dreams, their waking hours,
 their paradise.  And their first, best, and all their treatment
 is  directed to that organ ; but with what  success, let the
 thousands of sick and suffering, weakened, enervated, and
 exhausted women of the country answer.
  We do not believe in  the  idea; and the success  of our
 treatment attests to our correctness in discarding it. Uterine
 regarded as a  primary disease we believe to be a great
 mistake, and the treatment usually adopted, so far as woman
 is concerned, to be as the weapon of death in  the hands of
 ^zrael.
  We are also confirmed in our idea for reasons already and
yet to be given ; and, besides, neither the "touch," nor ocular
observation, in the great majority of cases,  discloses any
symptoms of congestion or displacement or tenderness, or
any morbid process whatever.  That there  may be tender-
ness,  displacement, congestion,  inflammation,   and  the
womb in  a highly  irritated condition, in many instances,
there can be no question ; but is this condition a primary,
or secondary one ?  We believe it to be secondary in the
 great majority of cases.   "Very certainly,  many of the
cases of puerperal  metritis and peritonitis (inflammatior
of the womb and peritoneum) commence with pain  in the
iliac regions ; and, when the case has proved fatal, dissec-
 tion has revealed greater ravages in the ovary than else- 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.
71
 where:  and it is by no means rare to find the organ  filled
 with  pus, or converted by inflammation into  a mass  of
 softened tissue which had undergone the process of ramol-
 lessement, one of  the results of inflammation in this special
 tissue." — Prof Meigs.
   We are satisfied, that, ordinarily, uterine  is a secondary
 disease, and induced by a morbid stimulus transmitted from
 the menstrual organs.   We adopt this idea  from the fact,
 .that, before  puberty, diseases peculiar to women are ex-
 tremely rare; and after the menstrual  organs  lose  their
 influence over the sexual system, and  menstrual  life ter-
 minates, irritable, enlarged, congested, inflamed, ulcerated
 womb, leucorrhoea, hysteria, &c., vanish;  organic action
 becomes more active ; and the heightened and diseased sen-
 sibility, morbid discharges, &c, become by degrees less and
 less, until they disappear entirely.
   As  is seen, there  is much conflict of testimony  among
 medical men as regards the frequency of ovaritis; and it
 is no doubt true that its frequency has  been  overrated.  It
 would be strange  if it were  not true ; for very generally,
 when  any thing in the shape of a new idea is once  started,
 it is run till  the thing is " run into the ground."  But the
 idea is not to be  rejected as without value,  and very  high
 value too, because some of its promulgators  carry it to ex-
 tremes.  Though  the frequency of sub-acute inflammation
 of the menstrual organs may have been  overrated, yet we
 believe it to be the only  pathological  condition that can
 be diagnosed in the great majority  of those cases which
 have  been generally regarded as uterine; for,  in a  vast
 majority of those cases, no pathological condition whatever
 of the womb can be discovered, no  mal-position,  no ul-
 ceration, no inflammation, no  engorgement, — nothing, in
 fact, but that deranged, nervous sensation which  has been
 taken as evidence of uterine derangement.
  Astruc ("Diseases of Women") says, "The inflammation
of the  ovaria is always attended  by heat  and pain in the 
72    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

place of the belly where they are placed; but these symp-
toms  are almost  always attributed to inflammation of the
uterus, which  is joined to that of the ovaria."
  "J/. Portal asserts  that he  has often met with patients
who have experienced all  the  pathonomonic symptoms of
inflammation of the uterus, but  who, after the lapse of some
time, and subsequent  to their apparent recovery, became
subject  to fulness, and, in fact, to very great intumescence
in one  or both iliac regions, for which they took various
remedies without advantage.  On inspecting the bodies of
such  persons  after  death,  he found the uterus perfectly
healthy; whilst the ovary of one side, and  in other cases
of both  sides,  together with the ligament or ligaments,
round and  broad, of either or both sides, presented the ap-
pearance of great engorgement." — Davis, Obstetric Med.
  That  a sub-acute inflammatory condition of the  men-
strual organs will be found in the great majority of those
cases usually referred  to the uterus, provided a proper ex-
amination and investigation be instituted, we are positive.
It has not been found,  for the simple reason that it has not
been sought for. " Chronic ovaritis forms an important ele-
ment in the most distressing  cases of uterine  disease, when
it has told most severely on the general health ; aud, if this
remark  has not been previously made, it is because the co-
existing  uterine disease seemed to render unnecessary the
search after  ovaritis." — Aran.  To  discover  a  sub-acute
inflammatory condition of the  ovaria, in  very  many cases
requires  not  only considerable  experience, but much tact;
for the organs  are situated deep in the pelvis,  and are fur-
nished with a dense  fibrous  capsule, which, though elastic,
and admitting of vast  expansion in the  course  of  time, are
yet not capable of yielding so as to allow of much swelling
in a  short period.   Indeed, "when inflammation of the
acutest  kind attacks these organs, and ends in the forma-
tion of  matter, proving fatal, it does not lead to any great
increase  of their size,  but  to softening and  disintegration 
       Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     73

of their tissues." — West.  When their peritoneal  invest-
ments are implicated, as in some cases of painful menstrua-
tion, a well-circumscribed  swelling  in  the  iliac region is
often readily discovered; and its locality, the character of
the pain, &c,  will distinguish it from that inflammatory
action which sometimes supervenes in the eellular tissue
about the womb.  There are cases, however, where no ex-
ternal manifestations can  be discovered, and where only a
careful  examination per vaginam and  rectum will  disclose
the  disease.
   The  menstrual organs, and  the  oviducts or Fallopian
tubes, have by all early writers, and by very many writers
of the present day, been spoken of as appendages of the
womb (uterine appendages) ; and they are regarded by the
great mass of the profession as subsidiary to the womb, and
of secondary importance.  This error originated from igno-
rance as regards their true character, and also from their
diminutive  size.  That the  menstrual  are the primary or-
gans of the sexual system, and are physiologically of higher
moment than  the uterus itself, and originate those acts to
whose due  performance the womb  does  but minister, and
that the other organs of the sexual system  are subsidiary
and dependent organs, no one can, in the present day of ad-
vancing knowledge, well deny. As the  male organ is but an
appendage  to  the testes, so  is the uterus but an appendage
and subsidiary to the ovaries.  The male organ is the me-
dium  through  which the vivifying fluid secreted by the
testes is transmitted.  The ovaria produce  and evolve the
ovum; and the uterus receives it, and is  the medium  through
which it becomes vivified by the male sexual element. The
new being is produced and acquires the  means and  power
 of self-existence in the ovary.   At a further stage  of devel-
 opment, it is transmitted to the uterus,  from which  it  draws
 nourishment from the mother; and,  at a later period,  it
 draws its support from the breast.  The breast, however,
 is  not  indispensable, as all  know;  nor is the  uterus, as  is 
74    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

seen in cases of extra-uterine pregnacy, where the ovum re-
mains in the ovary or in the Fallopian tube, or falls into the
peritoneal sack, and never enters the uterus.
  The ovaries and testes are the primary organs, and of
higher moment; while the uterus, and the organ of intro-
mission,  are secondary and subsidiary organs.   In  some
classes of birds, fishes, and oviparous reptiles,  there  is no
uterus, nor any organ of intromission; they are  not essen-
tial, from the structure of the animal: but in all are found
the higher and  more essential parts, — the ovaries in the
female, from which germs are  evolved; and an organ  in
the  male which secretes the fecundating fluid.
  Touching this matter, Dr. Tilt says, "I object  also  to
the term appendages  or productions of the womb, because,
in the hierarchy of our organs, the  ovary ranks  above the
uterus, which is, in fact, as much  the appendage of the
ovaries as the urinary bladder is that of the kidneys:  these
hollow organs are equally subsidiary in  their different pur-
poses to the function 6f the respective glandular structures
with which they are connected.  When there  is no ovary,
the  uterus, should it  exist, does not menstruate.   It  is the
ovary which calls the uterus into action, imparting to it
a stimulus which is either healthy or morbid, periodical  or
continuous."
  Until the menstrual organs become fully developed, and
capable of exercising  their influence over the other organs
and tissues of the sexual  system, woman  is  ordinarily free
from the diseases peculiar to her sex.  Dr. C. Locock (phy-
sician accoucheur to Queen Victoria) says, "Before puberty,
and after the cessation of menstruation, the female differs
but little from the male in the character of  disease, unless
in those  points  which may be considered as accidental, such
as organic diseases of the sexual organs."
  Full development of the ovaries, as we have seen, takes
place at puberty.  The young woman may arrive at the age
of puberty with womb, vagina, and external genital organs, 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      75

 in  full state of development; yet, if there be no menstrual
 organs, she will be free from her peculiar diseases.  But if
 the ovaria are present, and fully developed, and capable of
 exercising their influence over, and transmitting their physi
 ological menstrual stimulus  as  well as morbid stimulus to,
 the womb and vagina, then  it is  that her day of suffering
 commences; then it is that she becomes subject to a multi-
 plicity of her peculiar ills which exhaust, enervate, weaken,
 and render  life any thing  but desirable.   She  drags or
 through a sickly existence;  the womb, the vagina, the en-
 tire sexual system, becomes by turns the seat of disease;
 the womb becomes congested,  swollen, inflamed,  enlarged,
 hypertrophied, and ulcerated, and the vagina sore, inflamed,
 and excoriated; hysteria in  all its multiplied shapes and
 forms, and leucorrhoea with  its weakening discharges, be-
 come,  with her, common infirmities.   Thus  she suffers, has
 suffered for thirty years.  Now,  if her sufferings have arisen
 from  the  womb, if she  is what she is on account of her
 uterus, if her womb is the cause  of all her multiplied in-
 firmities,  then, indeed, does she stand a fair chance of roll-
 ing on through  life a victim to her many peculiar ills.   But
 she passes that crisis in her existence known as the "change
 of  life."   The ovaries become diminished in size, shrunken,
 and atrophied;  they no longer transmit the  menstrual or
 any other stimulus; they have lost their influence over the
 sexual system  forever ;  and  what do we now behold ?   Wo
 see that the health begins at once to improve, and all the
 multiplied ills that have for thirty years rendered life almost
 insupportable vanish and disappear.  Woman looks forward
 with pleasure to this golden period of her existence, when
 the aurora of the day of deliverance from pain and suffer-
 ings of maternity shall appear with its rosy light in the  east,
 — a day splendid  and glorious,—when she, whether mar-
 ried or single, whether blessed with children or denied this
 great  privilege  of woman, shall no  longer, without cessa-
tion or repose, be a martyr to neuralgic complaints; always 
J 6    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

dying, but still surviving.   The  "change  of  life" gives
hope;  the mind and spirit rejoice.   It delivers  her from
wretchedness,  from moral, mental, and physical  suffering.
It accomplishes her ransom, her emancipation, — " an eman-
cipation so great, so admirable, and so prolific of happiness ;
an  emancipation holy, great, salutary, productive, and  one
that will  give new  life  and joy and  peace, brighten  the
darksome  breast,  solace  those who droop and  mourn, lull
the soul into a state  of peace and good-will towards men,
and ineffable love and thankfulness to the great Giver."
   Who shall  say that  the womb  is the primary organ of
the sexual system ?  Who shall say that woman's diseases
have their origin in that  organ ?
   If, then, the womb  and vagina are diseased only when
subject to the influence of the ovaries, must we not regard
those organs as the points whence emanate  that influence
which  is the cause  of disease ? and are not they the organs
which  demand the application of 'our remedies ?
   If,  as  Dr.  Bennett  (" Diseases  of  the Uterus ")  would
have us believe, " the symptoms given as  indicating  the
positive existence  of sub-acute ovaritis may be, and very
frequently are, met  with as mere sympathetic conditions
depending on the presence of disease in the uterus or its neck,
and not on its existence in the ovaries themselves," it strikes
us that we should see something of these " diseases of the
uterus or its neck" before puberty; but we see  nothing of
the kind.  We see them only after the ovaries are matured,
and capable of transmitting  their influence to the womb.
Dr. Bennett has given us in his book a list of three hundred
cases  of diseases  of females: but, in the entire number,
not a single case of  disease  appears  to  have arisen  before
puberty, and not more than eleven or twelve continued after
" change  of life; " and four or five of these, if not all of
them, were in  consequence of accidental causes, tumors, or
cancerous ulcerations.
  The doctor  also  says that the ovaria are not liable to 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     JJ

disease, because of their fibro-cellular structure;  and that.
"throughout the economy, it is the mucous and serous mem-
branes which are most frequently attacked by inflammation,
especially by  sub-acute and chronic inflammation;  paren-
chymatous organs, especially those of a dense, non-vascular
structure, enjoying comparative immunity."  But the  ovaries
are not " of a dense, non-vascular structure: "  on the con-
trary, they are, as we have seen, " sometimes of a pale pink,
but more often of a bright red color, from the large number
of  blood-vessels.  . . .  When so examined  (by the micro-
scope), the stroma (substance of the ovary) is  found to be
composed mainly of blood-vessels." — Arthur Farre: Cyclo-
paedia of Anatomy and  Physiology.   And we have seen,
that, every twenty-eight days, this soft, spongy, and vascular
tissue undergoes a process of vital turgescence and engorge-
ment, which is in itself " almost a disease; " and that the
merest accident is sufficient to exaggerate this physiological
process into a morbid one.  And so far as regards the "  mucous
and serous membranes " being more frequently attacked by
sub-acute or chronic inflammation than other tissues of the
body, it is undoubtedly true; and for this very reason — the
outer coat of the ovary being a serous tissue, and  subject
to  a periodical turgescence  through ovulation,  and con-
tinually vibrating between a quiescent and a highly-excited
state (alternately pale, flaccid,  red,  and swollen), exposing
it,  and the soft, spongy, erectile,  and vascular stroma, or
substance of the ovary, to a  multiplicity  of  accidents to
which tissues of an unequal rate of vital functions are liable
— are  these  organs  oftener the seat of disease  than any
other organ in the human  body, and the  chief  agents in
the communication of morbid stimulus that  induces the
many forms of uterine disease.
   " We can have no hesitation  in believing that the ovaria
and Fallopian tubes must, for many years of female life, be
common seats of disease." — Ashwell.             ,
   " We believe no disease is more common  than,  though so
little understood as, ovaritis." — Tilt. 
yS     Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  " Ovaritis is probably of much more frequent  occurrence
than is generally supposed." — Prof. Haston.
  " Of all the organs of the human body, none are so often
affected by disease as the ovaries." — Neumann.
  Dr. Bennett also remarks, that "if you merely treat the
patient  for  ovaritis, and  neither  examine nor treat  the
womb, they [ovarian pains] either continue indefinitely, 01
return in a short time." While we do not for a moment admit
this to be true, yet, if it were so, it does not disprove that the
infirmity had its origin in the diseased ovary.  If a diseased
ovary has transmitted a morbid stimulus that has lighted
up disease  in the womb, the medical adviser would come
far short of his duty towards his  patient if he did not give
both  organs  attention in the way of  treatment; for he
knows, or ought to know, that, if disease of the  womb was
produced by disease of the ovary, the  former  cannot be
cured so long as the latter continues.  He knows, also, that,
if there be much disease of the womb, it will re-act upon
the primary seat of the disease.  The diseased ovary lights
up a disease of the uterus; and, in return, the diseased con-
dition of the uterus reflectively prolongs the disease  of the
ovary.
  " Acute and chronic ovaritis is much more common than
is generally admitted.  For the last few years, during which
I have given more attention to the condition of the ovaries
(never failing to examine them, as well as the womb, in every
post-mortem examination), I have become surprised at the
frequency of ovaritis alone, or associated with internal or
chronic metritis (inflammation of the womb).   If, when
these are cured, the  old pains survive as  strong  as  ever,
they are due to the persistence of ovaritis." — Aran.
  Though small and insignificant as the menstrual organs
may appear when compared with the womb, they are not
only the primary organs of the sexual system, but govern
the whole physical, mental, and moral cor dition  of woman.
They give to woman her sexual character   If these organs 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     79

have  never  existed,  though there  be a  fully-developed
womb, vagina, and external genital organs, she is not  a
woman; for she can evolve no germ.   If, on the contrary,
these organs do exist, though there be neither womb, vagina,
nor external genitals,  she can be nothing else but a woman;
for she is  endowed with a germiferous faculty.   The ova-
ries are the organs whence flows the stream  of human life.
They are  the organs through whose  influence the blood
becomes directed to the other organs of the  sexual system,
and  by which they become  fully developed, awake  from
their torpor, and increase  in  their sensibility.  The womb
receives an increased supply of blood,  becomes augmented
in size, matures, and finally becomes  periodically swollen,
congested, more succulent, heavier,  and  the outlet  of that
sanguinolent fluid known as the catamenia ;  and the vagina,
at  these  periods,  becomes  incited,  through the same in-
fluence, to pour forth an increased secretion of acid mucus
as a solvent of the menstrual fluid, preventing its coagula-
tion  and  detention within the canal;  the vagina becomes
endowed  with a  capability of  dilatation, and the  cellular
tissue surrounding the canal a seat  of  a  deposit of fat,
which swells, and gives an elastic contraction to the vulva;
a luxuriant  growth of hair begins to  cover the  mons vene-
ris ; the nymphse become more  swollen and red, the hymen
more distended ;  the clitoris (whose  anatomical constitution
shows it to be the analogue in female of the male parts)
becomes endowed with the most  intense erotic sensibility :
and, except there be  that elevation of  mind which  acts by
the decrees of Wisdom, fierce will be the struggles of desire
when its fires are once lighted.  It is through the ovaries
that pregnancy occurs; and they are  the organs on whose
integrity depends that normal condition of the womb which
enables it to retain its embryo  until fully developed, — the
organs that incite the womb to the action necessary to the
expulsion of the foetus when  it has attained its proper
 growth and development.  It is through the influence  of 
 80    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 the  ovaries that the hips, breasts, neck, throat,  limbs, in
 fact the entire person,  becomes developed  from  the  lank
 figure and  unrestrained movements  of the girl into  that
 characteristic  luxuriance  of woman whose splendor  of
 charms rivets  the attention.  It is through their  influence
 that the head becomes  adorned with full, rich, clustering
 locks, which heighten the dazzling fairness of the  face and
 bosom as they fall in waves upon them.    It  is through
 their influence that the forehead becomes high, smooth, and
 luminous; the eyes  majestic in depth and  liveliness, at-
 tractive, fascinating; the countenance sensible, tender, and
 engaging;  the lips vermilion;  and  the teeth  near allies
 to the other vivid and  animated features.   It  is through
 the influence of these organs  that the neck becomes swollen
 into beautiful  proportions, uniting to  full and falling shoul-
 ders with a sj'mmetry that completes  every-expressive wave
 and line of beauty.   It is through  the influence of these
 organs  that  the  heart sends the blood  to  the cheeks, and
 throws  the  softest  splendor around her  assemblage  of
 graces;  that the complexion acquires  its  peculiar bloom
 of  health and beauty  ; the voice  its full, mellow, and
 more sonorous intonation; and every feature  that  spar-
 kling brilliancy of an  expanding intellect that  so engages
 the attention.  It is through the influence  of these organs
 that the voice acquires its  purity and richness,  reaching
 without effort the most elevated notes, while it  deluges
 with cadences  and passages  constantly changing  and suc-
 ceeding each other with  marvellous rapidity.  It is through
 the influence of these organs that the chest becomes  more
. expanded, the respiration more free, the  heart more for-
 cible in its pulsations, and the circulation more active; that
 the  breasts  augment in size, become prominent,  firm, and
 rounded; that the  nipples  enlarge,  and become endowed
 with much  sensibility,  and  acquire  the state  of erection.
 It is through the influence of these organs that  the whole
 pelvis enlarges, giving breadth  and voluptuous  swell to  the 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     8l

hips, and graceful swing to  the  carriage ; that a deposit of
fat takes place, lending roundness to the limbs, grace to the
contour, communicating to  the  body an  elasticity, fulness,
and softness, defining its outlines, and forming those fine
and delicate contours which make the possessor always at-
tractive, charming, and beautiful beyond all statue, picture,
or poet's dream.  It is through the influence of these organs
that the  young woman becomes materially changed, evin-
cing disinclination to share  in the sports of her former com-
panions, and  becomes  all gentleness  and timidity.  It is
through the influence  of these  organs that  new life, firm-
ness, and vigor are given to every organ  and tissue of the
body.   By their influence over the brain, energy, noble and
generous impulses, enthusiasm, and the elements of genius,
suddenly burst forth.   No matter what may  be the amount
of effort,  attention,  industry, cultivated  patience, applica-
tion,  or  perseverance,  bestowed,  except there be fully-
developed and healthy menstrual organs, she can enjoy no
proud  and  enviable  conquest of  fame,  nor  attain to any
proud  and emulable station in  life.  These organs are  the
corner-stones upon which rests the superstructure of great-
ness and consequent immortality.  On their presence, matu-
rity, and healthfulness  depends her intellectual standing
in society, — whether the mind  is to possess faculties  sus-
ceptible of great culture and expansion, and of enjoyment
consequent  on high and refined  attainments;  or whether
she  is  to fall short of  the great purposes for which she
was created, with a mind barren, and productive of no good.
As these organs advance in  their ultimate development, the
mind gains one truth after another, acquires one principle
after another, until  at length, when  they have arrived at
the period of their full development, wre see, as life advances
and the elements of genius become unfolded,  the light of
intellect as a bright luminary ascending higher and higher,
and  ever  brightening till it gains its brightest meridian
splendor, and shines as a star of the first magnitude in the
             6 
82    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

firmament  of  greatness.  All that is  lovely, sweet, volup-
tuous, tender, and endearing ;  the emotions of jealousy, the
caprices  of  affection  or antipathy,  which submit not  to
control;  her modesty, her gentleness, her timidity, her ten-
derness,  and sensibility, all charmingly blended with  con-
stancy and love, — spring  from  the influence  of these
important organs.    They influence her judgment; they
imbue  her with those intrinsic qualities of mind  and dis-
position which  inspire respect and love, and fit her to reign
queen over  man's  domestic  life and  associations.   They
give to her her fidelity,  her devotedness, her patient endur-
ance, perpetual vigilance, and forecast, and make her cling
to and watch over man whilst his physical nature  is bowed
in the midst of fears.
  If these  organs have  never existed, no menstruation will
take place, even though the womb be present and fully de-
veloped.  She will be subject to no  ills peculiar to woman;
pregnancy cannot occur; the pubes will be hairless, or nearly
so ;  the upper lip bearded ; the pelvis contracted; the voice
husky; the stature small; the face  long, thin, and tawny;
the features cold, rigid, and  pale; forehead low; hair  thin
and coarse;  eyes small,  twinkling with maliciousness;  eye-
brows thick and bushy.   The full development of the other
generative  organs, and  a  full and rounded figure, will be
wanting; and her soul will  be benumbed in  her shrivelled
body.  Her cold, dull  glance  will press  upon one like a
mantle of lead.  There  will be none, of that  beauty which
beams  from the brow of the maiden  possessed of all her
organs and functions.   Her countenance will  be mute; the
structure of her mind will be volatile, whimsical, exacting,
and  essentially vulgar;  her judgment will be wanting  in
solidity;  she will possess no elevation of character or senti-
ment, and her intellectual faculties will be wanting in culti-
vation.   She will feel an antipathy, a profound  aversion, to
ever}- thing that is beautiful; and her heart will be untracta-
ble,  her  disposition haughty, with  a will of iron,  and ca- 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.
83
 pricious; the tone of her  voice dry, imperious;  and her
 words will  pass  away without leaving  any traces belind
 them.  If,  perchance, her  affections become engaged, the
 anomaly will be attended by cruel consequences; for, wh*re
 she cherishes one, she hates  a hundred more.   If flattery
 escape  her lips,  it is  employed with that most dangerous
 tact which  draws secrets from the simple and unsuspecting
 to control  at some later period the dupes of her cunning;
 if employed upon those whom she is well aware she is un-
 able  to  dupe,  its exceeding  translucency discloses under-
 neath concealed cynical innuendoes.  If she bestow marks
 of affection and  caresses, no  tenderness prompts her, but a
 desire of amusing herself with the aversion and terror which
 the act produces.   Subtle, adroit, penetrating, and formidable
 in consequence, fearing nobody, she assails every one.   Lov-
 ing cruelty in epigram, and roughness in jesting, the vulgar
 of the opposite sex are  more at ease with her than with a
 man, and less embarrassed than with a woman.   Her piety
 will be hypocrisy, a tribute to appearances.  Of babbling dis-
 position, egotistical, with pretensions to wisdom ridiculously
 exaggerated, and inspired with ambition as men  are, and
 gifted with none of the qualities and graces of women, she
 enters the arena of political, diplomatic, and woman's-rights
 discussions ; and  notwithstanding her perfect urbanity, with
 moroseness  of disposition,  caustic wit, and  pitiless malice,
 dealing most deadly blows, with smiles on the lip, and flow-
 ers upon the brow, she sacrifices without remorse all who do
 not adopt sentiments prompted by her coldness and feeble-
 ness of heart, and sterility of mind.   Her chest will be con-
 tracted, respiration constrained, the heart feeble in its pul-
 sations, and the circulation languid.  The  breasts will re-
main  undeveloped; and the nipples, if there be any, will be
wanting in  sensibility.  The erotic sensibility of the clitoris,
and sexual desire, will have  no existence.  Equally indiffer-
ent as to males  and females, there will be none of that
characteristic gentleness and timidity, none of those inex- 
84    Woman, and her Thirty Years  Pilgrimage.

pressible and irresistible (harms that rouse the soul, warmth,
enthusiasm, and energy of the opposite sex; nothing sweet,
voluptuous,  tender, and endearing: bu", on  the  contrary,
she will be as cold as Nova Zembla's eternal ice, repel-
ling, heartless, selfish, cynical, unfeeling, and wanting in
noble instincts and generous impulses;  a traitress  to her
sex, to humanity;  a moral sirocco, withering and blasting
every flower of beauty in her way.
  So, too, when the integrity of these organs becomes com-
promised through  disease, menstruation is disturbed, if not
entirely suspended; pregnancy  is quite  unlikely  to occur:
if it does occur, miscarriage is imminent,  and  will take
place, ordinarily, at the period of the usual menstruation, —
at the  time when  the  menstrual  organs have been accus-
tomed  to take on their periodical turgescence and  conges-
tion.  The skin loses its softness, and assumes a dry, harsh
texture;  the breasts shrink;  the hair  on the pubes falls
out; the form loses its luxuriance and pleasing outline, the
voice  its sweetness; she becomes equally indifferent  as to
males and females; her soul becomes less acutely  alive to
human charities; and  trembling sympathies and blessings
cease  to flow  around her  from  relieved misfortune.
  Through  the influence of these  important organs, the
young woman, as she approaches the period of puberty, be-
comes  materially changed.  She  draws herself away from
companions younger than herself, and evinces disinclination
to share in her accustomed enjoyments and exercises.   She
seeks solitude, and strives  to avoid observation.  She be-
comes plunged into a state of continued revery, and strives
to unravel the seeming mystery of her sighs, which arise
without any apparent cause;  of her tears, which give relief,
she knows not why; of the strange inequalities of her tem-
per, and unaccountable caprices; and  her feelings of joy,
sorrow, anger, &c, which follow each  other in quick succes-
sion,— a condition, however, which lasts not long:  the veil
soon becomes removed, and a new light breaks in upon her. 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      85

Her relative position to the opposite sex, and the great \ ur-
poses of her existence, become unfolded.  A new chain of
ideas takes possession of  her.   That which was unintelligi-
ble, and fell upon the ear in accents of an unknown tongue,
now becomes understood; the impulses of nature now explain
themselves; the heart admits her into its secret counsels;
interior movements rouse her from supineness; and inclina-
tions hitherto unknown  cause her to blush in secret.   She
now learns what is passing in the minds of men, and under-
stands the meaning of every word, look, and action.  Now
will she be closely assailed, and learn amidst the intiicacies
of situation how far she is redoubtable, and the degree of
prowess she  can oppose to vindicate integrity.   Now  will
she experience what  trials await  her.  She  will encounter
the world's temptations, and she may feel  the weight of its
curse.  She will struggle with duty;  and may, in appealing
to her strength  and  her courage, find but weakness within
her.
  The ovaries, having reached the period of their full devel-
opment, inspire  a tender regard  for man; a regard whose
depth and purity and intensity  absorb her whole nature;
a regard seeking its  ultimate expression  in sexual union,
and which consummates her life and happiness, and gov-
erns  the destiny of  the  race.  She is no longer a child:
the ovaries are perfected, and the  curtains  of darkness  aud
ignorance have become cast aside, revealing the  existence
of sympathies within her which she knew  not of.  The
woman has become  awakened.   The reproductive organs,
through the influence of the ovaries, have now reached that
period of their development  when they become incentives;
when they give appetite, which,  like hunger,  must be  ap-
peased, or Nature revolts. Her heart becomes the home of
secret longings that are new to her.   She may  possess skill,
learning, beauty;  she may  have at  her command riches,
rank, fame, the flattering homage of society, and the appro-
bation of the thoughtless, noisy world:  but all fail to ap- 
86    Woman, and her Thirty Years  Pilgrimage.

pease those silent, inward  promptings  which  have now
destroyed her hitherto  tranquil life.   Once,  solitude  was
delightful to her; but now  a new  world, with new hopes
and new pleasures, has become opened to her.  Imagination
has become active, and new thoughts  visit the soul.  It
feels oppressed, is restless, sad, and seeks for fellowship.
  The ovaries, now matured, have  commenced to cast off
ova, which also are matured; and  sexual  congress is de-
manded  for the impregnation of the evolved ova.  The
act is attended with the most pleasurable sensations that
man or animals can experience.  It was so designed to be
by the great Framer, and for wise purposes; viz., to insure
the continuance of the species here upon the earth, and pre-
vent its  becoming  again a vast solitude.  Her heart now
expands, and quickens in its pulsations.  Every sensation
is raised  to an exquisite  degree.  In her mystic eye there is
a nameless power that fascinates.  Her every nerve has be-
come  surcharged with vitality, and  her  touch  is magnetic.
Her look, the sound of her voice, her language, the expres-
sion  of her eyes, her whole demeanor, court the affections.
Warmth and  voluptuousness preside  over her every move-
ment, which man  is equally unable and unwilling to  re-
sist.   The voice  of Nature  is speaking within her, — a
voice  that is law, — a law of all nature,  and a law of God.
Violate it as she may,  repress it as she will, it still exists,
or she subdues Nature  at her own cost.   Every triumph
over Nature — Nature  which is  spontaneous, natural, and
healthy — is destructive to the victor.  Touching this mat-
ter, Prof. Laycock of Edinburgh  says, " The final cause of
all vital action is  the  reproduction  of the species and the
preservation of the individual: the latter indeed, in many
cases, seems merely subservient to the former.   Throughout
the whole chain of being, we  find  the  power to reproduce
the species is the climax of development, being  co-existent
with the perfection of the individual: indeed, it woild ap-
pear to be the sole object aimed at in the changes which 
        Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      87

many animals undergo, particularly butterflies, silk-worms,
and other insects, which die as soon as they have performed
the generative functions.  In the higher animals, the mere
generation of a new being  is but an initiatory part of the
reproductive  process; the subsequent nutrition and defence
of the young animal constituting an important part of the
same series of action, and requiring the exercise of numer-
ous instinctive faculties by the parent: so that, while the
generative nisus  is  influencing  a variety of the corporeal
organs,  the mental receives a corresponding impulse; and
the desire for sexual congress, the secretion of milk, and the
love of  offspring, are equally the result of the same repro-
ductive  effort."
   Up to the eighth week  of fetal  life, the ovaries and
the testes  are  one and  the  same organ: they possess
no distinguishing characteristics.  Both form slender, elon-
gated bodies, occupying the same locality below the true
kidneys.  Both are precisely alike, and  are  equally the
products of the false kidneys.   In  after-life they perform
analogous functions.  Both have the  same influence over
the general system ; and,, on their removal, the individual
approximates the opposite  sex.   " In  the castrated male,
the form and  texture of  the  body approach  that of the
female;  and  the mental faculties  seem to partake, in  a
certain  degree, of a  similar  modification: the voice remains
high and clear; and hence the barbarous custom prevailing
to the present, in  Italy and elsewhere,  of making  eunuchs
for the sake of their high voices in singing.  In the spayed
female,  on the other hand,  there is a certain approach  to
the character of the male.   In women in whom it has been
necessary to extract the  ovaries on  account  of disease, the
bones and muscles have been  observed to have  a more
masculine  contour, the voice is harsh  like a man's, the
breasts are flat, and  there is frequently a formidable beard,
and hair on different parts of the body."— Cyclopaedia of
Anatomy and Physiology. 
88    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  As the testes make man manly, so the ovaries make wo-
man wonanly.   All that is great and  noble  and beautiful
in woman's  character or capacity or  destiny springs  from
the ovaries ; and just as the absence of the testes, or their
destruction  by  disease  or by the operation  of castration,
affects men,  so does the destruction by disease of the testes
mulicbrum, as the ovaries are sometimes called,  bring about
precisely the reverse in women.
  When the testes muliebrum, or  ovaries, are absent, or-
remain,  through want of proper development, in complete
repose, the skin is dry and harsh; and  the harder  outline
and angular harshness of men take the place of those fine
and delicate contours which are constant objects of admira-
tion.  When the male  is  similarly circumstanced,  that is,
when the testes are absent or undeveloped, the skin possesses
the softness  and delicacy so peculiar to the female; the cel-
lular tissue is more abundant, more replete with fat, which
lends roundness to the limbs, and communicates a fulness,
softness, and elasticity to the body.   Walker says, " Eunuchs
increase in stature like other men, and  even  more  in  pro-
portion ; but they  have a configuration  and  habits very
analogous to women. . . .  To be convinced of the influence
which the  testes exercise over the muscular  power  and
courage in every species of animals, it is sufficient to observe
the difference between a ram and a  tup, a bull  and  an ox,
a cock and a capon. .  .  . The  lymphatic glandular  system
of the castrati is generally gorged and inert.  The cellular
system  becomes more  abundant, more loose,  and  more
replete with fat.  It  is, indeed,  known to be  a common
practice to  castrate animals in order to fatten them, and
give to their flesh a more delicate taste."
  When the ovaries are absent, mustaches and beard cover
the upper lip and chin.  The same is also observed  among
aged females who have passed  the critical period of their
existence, and whose ovaries  are shrunken, atrophied, and
destroyed, more  especially those who have been deprived 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.
 of sexual congress.  When the testes are absent, the beard
 never grows.  Hunter tells us that old  hen-birds  assume
 the plumage of the cock ; and, from the testimony of  Yarrel,
 we find that "when there is a  shrinking of the ovaria, from
 disease, in young birds, the hen-bird assumes, in  many in-
 stances, the plumage of the male."
   When the ovaries are absent, the breasts remain undevel-
 oped, and  the nipples are wanting in sensibility.  When
 the  testes are absent, the  breasts are  fully formed, some-
 times very prominent, firm, and rounded, and, according to
 Vaughn,  sometimes secrete milk.  A  case of  inordinate
 development of the breasts of  a  man  from wasting of the
 testes, caused by a blow on the back, is  reported in " The
 London Lancet," vol. i., 1858-59, p. 356.
   When  the ovaries  are  absent, the  voice is  dry, harsh,
 husky, and wanting in fulness, mellowness, purity, and rich-
 ness of intonation; and all effort towards its cultivation is
 a failure.    When the testes are  absent, the voice reaches
 without effort the most elevated notes ; and we are told by
 Walker,  that, " in modern times, castration has been per-
 formed in Western Europe, principally in Italy, in order to
 provide soprano singers for the pope's chapel and the stage
 of the opera.  In Naples, at one time, there were barbers'
 shops with  the sign, ' Qui si castrano ragazzi a buon  mer-
 cato.'  . .  .  The narrowness of the larynx is a remarkable
 characteristic of the  eunuch.  All who have examined the
 larynx of the castrati to discover the reason of their preserv-
 ing the infantine voice have acknowledged the truth  of this
 observat ion.  Dupuytren, in dissecting the larynx of a person
 who had been castrated in  infancy, was  enabled  to  satisfy
 himself of this.   He observed, that, in this person, the lar-
ynx was less, by one-third, than in adults of the  same age
and  stature; that the  glottis was  much  narrower: so  that
all  these  parts resembled  those  of  a  won.an or  a  boy.
The change that takes place in the voice of castrati  is well
known;  and nearly the same changes  are observable in
castrated animals." 
90    Woman, and her Thirty Years Pilgrimage.

  When the ovaries  are  absent, the pelvis is  contracted
and narrow, and the  hips wanting in that breadth  and
voluptuous swell which give graceful swing to the carriage.
When the testes are absent, the pelvis is broad, the hips
wide,  and the knees approximated, as in women.  Walker
says, " In eunuchs, the bones which form the prominence
of the haunches are much expanded, and therefore  form a
pelvis of uncommon capacity ; and the thigh-bones are less
arched than in man, and the  knees  more  inclined inward,
which proceeds  from the greater distance existing tetween
the  heads of the  thigh-bones;  in consequence of which,
eunuchs, like women, when they walk, render very evident
the  change  of their gravity,  marked  as it is by the arch
which they describe at every step."
  When the ovaries are  absent, the  hair on the head  is
short, thin, and coarse ; and  but little, if any, appears on
the  mons veneris at the lower part of the belly.   When the
testes are absent, the  head is adorned with full, rich, and
clustering locks, and closely set and abundant over the
pubes.
  When the ovaries  are  absent, no  periodical  flow takes
place.   When the testes  are absent, there  is ordinarily a
periodical discharge from the nose  or bowels,  but  more
generally from  the hemorrhoidal vessels.  " A  fact which
is constant, though little observed,  is,  that castrati are
subject to periodical hemorrhages, which  ordinarily proceed
from the hemorrhoidal vessels.  In this case, it would seem
that the blood necessary to the  development of  the repro-
ductive  organs  and the beard, and likewise that destined
for  the  secretion  of  the  reproductive liquid,  is directed
towards the  hemorrhoidal veins, and distends them,  so that,
being debilitated,  they open, and throw it  out.   There  is
then established a hemorrhoidal flux, which gradually be-
comes periodical.   Ossiander made this observation, even
in many beardless  men; and  he also observed that bearded
women  have no catamenia." 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      91
  We have familiar examples of the influence of the testes
over the muscular development  of the neck in the stallion,
buck, bull,  and boar.  The ovaries  influence the lumbar
-region instead of the neck, increasing its expansion. When
the ovaries are absent, the loins  are less heavy, and the neck
increased in width.  When the  testes are absent, the loins
are heavier, and the neck small, as in females.
   When  the  ovaries are absent, hysteria and nervous de-
rangements peculiar to women are  exceedingly uncommon,
if not wholly unknown.  When the testes are absent, mor-
bid sensibility and nervous diseases are the constant attend-
ants  of a person  thus circumstanced; and, on the slightest
mental commotion, he falls into delinquium.  " Often a pro-
found apathy takes possession  of them, and they sink into
a gloomy and fatal melancholy."
   When the ovaries are absent,  the feet and hands are
large, bony, and  hard.   When the  testes are absent, the
 feet and  hands are small, delicately formed, and soft; and
 thus we see, that when the ovaries are absent in the female,
 and the testes in the male, each approximates the opposite
 sex.
   The change which takes place in the moral disposition of
 castrati resembles that which takes place in  the  moral dis-
 position  of those women in whom the ovaries do not exist.
 Realizing their own deformity, — that they are cut off from
 the ties  of humanity, that  they are possessed of no seduc-
 tive  exterior full of life  and racy freshness, of nothing
 attractive to the opposite sex, but devoid of all powef of
 fascination, without a single redeeming quality,—and seeing
 themselves, in the dark flight of their thoughts, isolated  in
 the  midst of the world, they  feel  a profound disdain for
 every thing and every person ; and, whatever may be their
 apparent exterior, their cold and arid heart swells with that
 most baneful, most ferocious, and most implacable of humane
 passions, — envy,  with all  its varied tortures of  hatreds,
 distrusts, and  humiliations.  Selfishness and indifference, 
92    Woman, and her  Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

harshness and cruelty, the  most sordid baseness, the  most
flagrant ingratitude, the most revolting caprice, joined with
a contempt for all virtue, and an admiration for all crimes, are
their prominent traits.   With a soul dark, empty, incredu-
lous, hateful and frozen words only full of gall and bitter-
ness, or cutting repartee or impudence, come from their lips.
"Their understanding, in reality, appears to suffer from the
absence of those impressions which give to the brain of men
so much activity, though that is excited by sexual impres-
sions.  It is, indeed,  asserted that this  faculty is altered
from the moment when the knife cuts them  off from Na-
ture.  Sinibaldi says that the minds of eunuchs are changed,
and become artful and depraved;  and that there never was
one of first-rate understanding.
  " Even the  castrati who acquire some  celebrity on the
stage of the opera, and in the churches of Roman-Catholic
countries, owe a great part of their merit rather to a good
organization of the organs of hearing and voice than to their
understanding.   In general, they infuse even into the music
neither feeling nor expression; and it is  asserted that not
one of  them was ever able to compose a decent air.
  ilHuart asserts, that even  the  person  endowed  with re-
markable  genius and  great ability, when the  testes are
removed, begins to lose his genius; and he  adds, ' If any
one doubts this, let him consider, that, out of a thousand
eunuchs who have  devoted themselves to learning, scarcely
one has become learned.'
  " The castrati are cowardly,  and incapable of great enter-
prises.   Nares  is, perhaps,  the  only imposing exception to
this rule, by having displayed some talent in war.  Cut off
as he is from all social relations, he can think only of him-
self, and becomes an egotist from necessity.
  "Eunuchs have, moreover, all the defects of human beings.
Imperious and  despotic in good  fortune, they become vile
slaves  under reverses.  They arc, perhaps,  the  most de-
graded class of  the human species  —' cowardly and deceit- 
         Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.     93

 ful, because  they are  feeble; envious and wicked, because
 they are wretched.'
   " The greater number of castrati see women only to slan-
 der them.  It is, perhaps, a rage on  account of their own
 degradation  that renders them fit guardians of  the  harem.
 It is not impossible that 'they find a  satisfaction in oppos-
 ing the slightest amusements of women, as it is the desire
 of every feeble and incapable being to see others reduced to
 his own state of  impotence.'
    " When men or animals are subjected to this operation at
 an early age, they are much more denaturalized than when
 it is performed after puberty.
    " In the former case, the cause of the great  phenomena
 which  characterize puberty is destroyed, and the members
 never acquire their beautiful masculine forms: the vocal or-
 gans remain in the state of imperfection in. which they are
 found  at first; the voice  continues harsh and  acute;  and
 the beard never  grows." — Walker.
    In conclusion, we repeat, that, just  as the absence of the
 testes, or their destruction by disease or  by the  operation
 of castration,  affects man, so  does the  destruction of the
 ovaries by  disease bring  about precisely  the reverse in
 women.  Both — the  testes and the ovaries — have the
 same influence over the physical, mental, and moral devel-
 opments.  All those  remarkable changes  which occur in
 girls  at puberty are  due to the influence  of the ovaries.
 The proof that this is so, is, that when these glands do not
' exist, or when they remain  in  the torpor of infancy, none
 of those phenomena occur.
    Mr. Charles Pears  gives the case of a young woman  who
 died at the  age  of twenty-nine, in whom  the ovaries were
 wanting.  The  following appearances were uncorded  and
 published in '-The Transactions of the Royal Society of
 London:"  " Having  ceased to grow at ten years  of  age,
 she was in stature not more than  four feet six inches high.
 The breadth across the shoulders was as much as fourteen 
 94    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 inches; but her pelvis measured only nine inches from  the
 ossa ilia to the sacrum.   Her breast and nipples never en-
 larged more than in the male subject.  She never menstru-
 ated ; there was no appearance of hair on the pubes;  nor
 were there any indications  of puberty in mind or body at
 twenty-nine years of age."
   In Pott's works, the author records  the case of a young
 woman whose ovaries were  extirpated  by him in an opera-
 tion for inguinal hernia.  He says, "Menstruation ceased,
 the voice became hoarse, the mammae shrunk, and hair ap-
 peared on the chin and upper lip.   Before this period, this
 female wras  stout, large-breasted,  and menstruated  regu-
 larly."  What proofs can be more complete of the omnipo-
 tence of ovarian influence over the character of women ?
 We have also the testimony of Dr. Robert Lee  of London,
 who says, "There are certain  facts which seem to prove
 that it  is not to the influence of the uterus, but the ovaria,
 that we are to attribute all the changes which take place in
 the female pelvis, in the mammae and uterine  system, at  the
 period of puberty."
   We have also the testimony of Arthur Farre (professor of
 midwifery, King's College, London); and with this we will
 conclude.  Touching the matter of the primary importance
 of the ovaries, and  of the secondary importance  of the
 uterus, he  says, "It is only in  a practical or obstetric
point of view that the uterus can be regarded as the most
important of the generative organs.  Physiologically con-
sidered, it is  by no means entitled to  the foremost  place;
for although the presence of the uterus is  necessary to the
completion of  the generative act in its regular course, yet
reproduction,   to a  certain  extent, may be  accomplished
without it.  The uterus is  necessary to reproduction, first
as affording the only channel by  which  the  seminal fluid
cat: obtain access to the ovum, and next as constituting,
together with  the vagina, the only natural passage for the
exit of  the fully-matured ovum,  which requires -.his con- 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.
95
 tractile organ to effect its expulsion by that passage; such
 expulsion not being essential  to the generative act, because
 Che foetus may be extracted by the Coesarean section without
 necessary loss of life either of the parent or offspring, while
 other parts — the Fallopian tubes, for example — may, to a
 certain extent, perform the offices of a uterus  in all that
 relates to the protection and nutrition of the ovum.  More-
 over, the  entire removal of the uterus may have no other
 effect upon the individual than that of preventing impreg-
 nation and menstruation  by the simple abstraction of the
 parts necessary thereto.
   " On the other hand, the ovary, though constituting only
 a small portion  of the reproductive organs, is nevertheless
 that part  to which  all the rest  are subservient.  It is the
 organ  which  furnishes the generative element essential to
 the reproductive act.  It  is  that  part, which,  in a great
 measure, regulates the growth of the body, and  determines
 the distinctive characters of the sex.  It is the organ upon
 the presence  of which depends the sexual  passion and the
 process of menstruation;  whose  congenital deficiency is
 indicated  by  the absence, externally,  of all  signs of a sec-
 ondary sexual character; whose artificial removal entirely
 unsexes the individual; and the decline of whose functional
 activity, as age advances,  is  the  cause of the  generative
 faculty being lost in the female long before the ordinary
 term of life has expired, and at a much earlier period than
 that at which the power of procreation ceases in  the other
 sex." — Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology.
   Certainly no further proofs are needed  to establish the
 fact  that  THE OVARIA ARE THE PRIMARY  ORGANS OF THE
 sexual system, and organs, too, of great power, influencing
 the whole being and constitution of woman;  ay, and do
they not  "govern  the world by  their influence  on the
nature, extent, and great power of  that phrodisiac instinct,
which, it must be admitted, controls to a certain extent a
very considerable part of the motives and  actions of men 
96   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

and  without  the  incitation  of  which the  entire scene of
living nature would soon be blotted out, leaving the earth a
howling and desolate waste?" — Prof. Meigs.
   Accepting, then, these views  of the gigantic power  and
influence of the ovaries  over the whole animal economy of
woman, — that they are the most powerful agents in all the
commotions of her system;  that on  them  rest  her  intel-
lectual standing  in society,  her  physical  perfection,  and
all that lends beauty to those fine  and delicate  contours
which are constanl objects of admiration, all that is great,
noble,  and beautiful,  all  that  is voluptuous, tender,  and
endearing;  that  her fidelity,  her  devotedness,  her  per-
petual  vigilance,  forecast, and  all those  qualities  of mind
and  disposition which  inspire  respect  and  love, and  fit
her as the safest counsellor and friend of man, spring
from the  ovaries, — what must  be  their influence  and
power  over the great vocation  of woman and the august
purposes of her existence when these organs have- become
compromised  through disease !  Can  the record of woman's
mission on earth be  otherwise than filled with  tales  of
sorrow,  sufferings,  and manifold infirmities, all  through
the influence of these important organs?
   An inflammatory condition of the menstrual organs can-
not long remain without entailing other infirmities or disor-
ders.   While such important changes are going on in theye
organs, the nerves — whose office is to carry sensibility and
action between organs and parts — must receive and transmit
from the inflamed ovaries impressions which must necessarily
produce extraordinary and A^aried phenomena, according as
they act on different organizations; and which give type to
the disease.   It  will  be seen, when we  come to  consider
symptoms  of inflammation  of the  ovaries, that we  are
giving as symptoms what have been described by system-
atic  writers as special  diseases.  It will be  seen, that, in
our estimation, the sequences or effects of inflammation of
the menstrual organs, and which give type to the disease, 
       Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.      97

are non-appearance of, suppressed, profuse, and painful men-
struation, leucorrhoea,  and hysteria, — sequences which, by
the great mass  of  the profession, have been and are now
regarded as diseases, substantive diseases, rather than effects
of  a  disease, — effects  having  one  common  origin,  and
pointing to one source, one  diseased condition, and that
diseased condition  a sub-acute or chronic inflammation of
the menstrual organs; and which, in consequence, have been
met with a treatment nugatory, vague, injudicious, perni-
cious, which has doomed woman to long years of continued
suffering.
   That the above are often sequences of other pathological
conditions, we do not for a moment  deny.   That they are
not unfrequently  evidences   and symptoms  of primary
inflammation of the  womb, ulceration  of its  neck,  mal-
position,  irritability, and congestion of that organ, we do
not hesitate  to admit;  but that they are, in the great ma-
 jority of cases, sequences of the pathological condition
 named,  we   unhesitatingly  believe:  and  that such  is
 their frequency from this  pathological  condition,  may be
 regarded as  the rule; and when from other conditions, as
 the exception.
   In remarking upon painful  menstruation, Dr. Rigby of
 London says,  "The  organ  (the  ovary)  becomes  highly
 congested or  actually inflamed: it  swells considerably, and
 becomes intensely  sensitive.  The pain is of the most  ago-
 nizing  character,  and  frequently attended  with  severe
 nausea, or  obstinate and most distressing vomiting.   The
 patient describes it as being different  to any other pain she
' ever experienced,  and dreads a return of the attack; its
 peculiar,  unbearable, sickening character apparently resem-
 bling the  sufferings  from orchitis  (inflammation  of the
 testes), or  from any  injury to  the  testicle in the male."
 Prof. Meigs  says, "The  pain  of dysmenorrhcea (painful
 menstruation) is a pain felt in the hypogastric region, in
 either or both  of  the iliac regions,  in  the  tractus of  the
               7 
98    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

ligamenta rotunda, in the sacral regions, in the thighs, and
very frequently in  the course of the  distribution of the
obturator nerves."   By most writers of the present day, the
pain of painful menstruation is referred to the same locality.
  If, then, as is admitted, the great majority cf cases of
poAnful and hysterical menstruation commence with dis-
lressing"pain and tenderness, with more or less puffiness or
swelling in the iliac regions, does it  not indicate a highly
irritated and congested  or inflamed condition of the  men-
strual organs ? and is  it not fair to  presume that  these
paroxysms of pain and hysteria have their origin in  those
organs ?  And why should  it  not be considered wise and
judicious to meet those indications with an  antiphlogistic
instead of  a brandy and water and ammonia treatment ?
Who would  think  of treating  the  swollen  and sensitive
gum over a growing tooth with camphor, brandy, and such
like stimulating drugs?   If such a treatment be pernicious
in one case, why not in the other ?
  If, as  is  known, hysterical paroxysms  are usually an
accompaniment of painful menstruation, and  painful  men-
struation gives, ordinarily,  only  prominent  symptoms of
inflammation of the menstrual  organs, what can  be the
true  indications of  treatment but those which will relieve
those over-congested and inflamed organs?
  If, as is admitted, sterility always,  or very  nearly  so,
follows upon  painful and  hysterical  menstruation  (i. e.,
inflammation  of  the  menstrual  organs), does  not  the
infirmity point to that morbid  process as its source and
origin, and demand  its removal ere we can hope to see the
infirmity vanish ?
  If, as all know,  just previous to  the establishment of
the  true catamenial  flow  at  puberty,  the  engorged and
congested  menstrual  organs  transmit a stimulus  that
incites an  increased secretion of mucus, in other words, a
leucorrhceal flow, also  at the  commencement and  end of
each menstrual period,  may it not  very properly be pre- 
Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.
 sumed that those organs  are  instrumental, to a gi eater
 or less  extent, in  transmitting  a morbid  stimulus that
 incites and keeps up  those long-continued and  persistent
 leucorrhozal discharges, or " the whites," that so often  tax
 the ingenuity of the medical  adviser to  treat successfully ?
 Indeed, what other conclusion can  be  arrived at svhen we
 remember that all signs of leucorrhoea and follicular malady
 of the sexual organs disappear with menstrual life ?  May
 not the same morbid stimulus induce not merely a follicular
 excitation, but a state of congestion, engorgement, and tume-
 faction of the womb and  of the entire  sexual system,  and
 the arrest or suppression of the secretion, the same as super-
 venes  upon  the application of the stimulus of cold, or from
 violent mental or moral perturbation ? and may not the sup-
 pression continue for a longer or shorter time, until  at  last
 the over-burdened  and engorged capillary  vessels become
 broken, and relieve themselves by an inordinate menstrual
 evacuation,  or profuse menstruation?
   If, as  is  admitted, the  ovaria are the organs that incite
 the womb and Fallopian tubes to pour out that sanguinolent
 fluid known as the catamenia, may it not be presumed that
 in  a  diseased condition  they  may lose their  power  of
 inciting the womb to pour out this  fluid, and amenorrhcea
 or retention be the  consequence ?
   If,  as is  said by  Tyler Smith, and  subscribed to by a
 vast number of respectable physicians, the menstrual organs
 incite  the womb to action necessary to the expulsion  of  the
 foetus when  it has attained its proper growth  and develop-
 ment,  may it not be presumed, that, in  an inflamed condi-
 tion,  they would  transmit, instead of   a physiological, a
 morbid stimulus, that would incite muscular action  of  the
 womb  to the expulsion of  its fruit before it had attained its
proper growth and development ?  These are questions that
follow  each other in quick succession.
  Accepting these views, no matter wdiat form the disturb-
ance may take, no matter which of the  types may super- 
ioo   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

vene, we  have a  cause at  once recognizable, a locality
indicated;  and a  treatment  may be  instituted without
hesitation or doubt.   A writer in " The British and Foreign
Medico-Chirurgical  Review," January, 1850, observes, that
" amenorrhcea, dysmenorrhcea, menorrhagia, are more intel-
ligible as  the effects of pre-existing inflammation than as
the derangement of a function."
  Rejecting these views; regarding non-appearance of, sup-
pressed, profuse, and painful menstruation, &c, as distinct
diseases, as things  substantive, instead of effects of a dis-
ease, — doubt, confusion, bewilderment, will at once arise, and
a treatment be  instituted that cannot but  result in failure.
And why ?  Because an effect is treated instead of the cause,
a name instead of a thing; and "blessed salt," " holy water,"
or a horse-shoe nailed to  the door, will ill suffice to ward
off wretched health, suffering, and pain that will inevitably
follow'sooner or later.   Misapprehending  the true  seat of
the morbid process, the diseased ovaries are allowed to go
on to structural change and disorganization.  This occur-
ring, the mischief is past relief, irremedial; and the patient
doomed to suffering and  pain, seeking consolation  in  the
idea that her irremedial infirmity is a dispensation of an
overruling Providence.  How little does she dream, though,
that a most pernicious treatment has more to do with it
than any divine will!
   If, however, the above types are regarded, as they most
certainly  ought to  be, as effects of a  disease, and  that
disease an inflamed condition of the menstrual  organs, the
true indications of treatment are  at once obvious, and  can
be  met promptly and energetically with appropriate reme-
dies.  We are no longer obliged  to deceive our patient by
instituting a palliative treatment when  she  expects  and
demands  a radical cure.   We  no longer attack pairful
menstruation and hysteria with ammonia,  camphor, brandy
and water, and the like;  nor suppression  and retention of
the catamenia with external and  internal stimulants to 
         Inflammation of the Menstrual Organs.    i o I

 "bring on" the flow; nor sterility with bougies  to enlarge
 the constriction at the ne.ck of the womb, nor with caustics
 and escharotics to cure its ulcerations; nor leucorrhoea with
 stimulant and astringent washes to the vagina, and " iron "
 and " whiskey " internally to relieve the " weakness;" -nor
 any longer  confess that we are, John-Bunyan-like,  flounder-
 ing about in the slough of despair and doubt, with no clear
 perception  of what we are doing, or what we wish to accom- *
 plish, — a  not very creditable state  of mind truly for a
 physician,  who  is  presumed  always to know what he is
 about.
   Churchill says, "Organic  disease  of  the ovaries must
 always more or less  interfere with  the uterine functions.
 The lochia  will be checked and the menses suppressed by
 it.  If the  disease  involve the substance of both ovaries,
. the power of conception (at least, pro tempore) will be  de-
 stroyed, and sterility will be the result."
   Ashwell says, " Dull and heavy pains in the region of the
 ovary, lasting  for months, are the consequence  of chronic
 inflammation of  the ovaries.  I mention this circumstance
 because they are too often regarded as neuralgic, and treated
 accordingly; painful menstruation and sterility being their
 result."
   Neumann says, " Of all the organs in the human  frame,
 none are so often affected by disease as the ovaries; sup-
 pressed menstruation, which is a frequent cause of sterility,
 being their  result."
   Dr. Robert Lee says, " that in many cases of disordered
 menstruation,  chlorosis, and  hysteria, which we have  ob-
 served, the  symptoms have been  clearly referable to certain
 morbid states of the uterine appendages (ovaries  and Fallo-
 pian tubes)  ; and decided benefit has resulted from the appli-
 cation of those local remedies which were employed with a
 view of subduing the irritation, the congestion, or the inflam-
 mation which appeared to be present in these  parts of the
uterine system." — Cyclopaedia Pract. Med. 
   102   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

     Prof. Meigs says, " I have met with many samples of very
   distressing pain and  tenderness in the region of the ovary,
   connected with painful and hysterical menstruation;  and I
   deem I had good cause to suppose the ovaries were actually
   in a state fit to be called ovaritis."
     Dr.  Tilt says, "J. P. Frank, a  man of European celeb-
   rity, when giving an account of his  travels in 1806, men-
*  tions that Dr. Cheston of  Gloucester looked upon painful
   menstruation as produced  by inflammation  of  the ovaries;
   and that,  on his  return  to  Wilna,  he (Frank)  attacked
   such cases by an antiphlogistic plan of treatment, and with
   much greater success than had formerly atttended the exhi-
   bition of stimuli."
     Dr. Rigby  says,  " In the sub-acute or chronic  form of
   ovaritis, which is much more frequently met with than the
   acute disease  which I have just described, the  local symp-
   toms are better marked, from  not being attended with any
   severe inflammatory attack of the peritoneum or neighboring
   viscera, although it is usually complicated with more or less
   derangement  of the rectum,  bladder, and especially  the
   uterus."
     Seymour says, " When both ovaries are diseased, the men-
   ses are always absent."

     Specific Form. — Of the specific form of inflammation
   of the  menstrual organs, — the gouty and rheumatic, syphi-
   litic and gonorrhceal, — we shall speak hereafter.
                                     *

     Pathological  Anatomy. — As regards the alterations
   that take place in the  ovary in  a state of congestion  or
   inflammation, we have already, when speaking of the phe-
   nomena of menstruation, and in the commencement of this
   chapter,  said  sufficient,  and  need not here repeat or add
   any thing to what has already been said. 
                          IV.

                   SYMPTOMS.

   IN the studj of symptoms, it is important to clearly under-
    stand tha! the effects of a local affection frequently be-
come general.  A morbid action in one part  of the body  is
capable of  producing uneasiness  or pain and of  lighting
up diseased action in another part of the body.  This takes
place through the medium of the nerves,  whose office  is to
carry sensibility and action between, or to and from, all the
organs and parts of the body.  The morbid action is first
carried to the spinal cord, and from the spinal cord  reflected
or thrown back upon  the  organ or part  that becomes the
seat of the  disturbance : hence the term reflex action.   We
have familiar examples of this reflex nervous action in the
pain in the knee which occurs in disease  of the hip-joint;
in the right shoulder, when the liver is diseased; in the
cramps  and pains of the limbs, when some of  the  pelvic
organs are  diseased.   Over-eating disturbs and irritates the
stomach, and produces pain  in the  head; irritating medi-
cines taken into the stomach do  the same thing; a piece
of ice swallowed not unfrequently produces pain  over the
brow.
  The more an organ is supplied by nerves, and especially
if derived  from  different trunks of nerves, or from trunks
formed  by  different nerves united,  the  greater and  more
varied will  be the influence that that organ will exert, and
sudden, extraordinary, and  varied will be the  phenomena
produced.  Now, the nerves of the reproductive organs are
formed from various other nerves, which have relations with
those of all the viscera of the abdomen; besides th se, thev
                                        103 
 104   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 are connected with the entire nervous system  through the
 medium  of the great sympathetic nerve:  and so it is easy
 to see, that, by these alliances,  the  ovaries become  inter-
 ested in almost all the affections  of the female.  It is also
 readily seen, that, from the  multiplicity of their connec-
 tions with other organs and parts of the body, not only may
 disease in any part of the system influence these suscep-
 tible organs, but, from their great sensibility and important
 functions, they may, when diseased, send out influences that
 must act with great power on the brain, on the heart, on
 the lungs, on the stomach, on the liver, on the womb, the
 kidneys, bladder, muscles;  in fact, on  every part of the body
 with which they are connected through the  medium of the
 nerves : and this influence ought to be especially remarkable
 when their functions commence at puberty.
  There  is another important particular which  should be
 borne in mind;  viz., that the ovaries, when diseased, more
 readily influence  those  organs  with which they have  a
 direct physiological and anatomical  relation than  organs
 with which they have only  an  indirect  relation.  It will
 also be observed that the ovaries  more readily involve those
 organs with which they have  a direct physiological relation
 than those with which they have only an anatomical rela-
 tion.
  The organs physiologically allied with the ovaries are the
 uterus, breasts, larynx, subtegumentary membrane, skin and
 its appendages, and the hair and nails.   The  organs ana-
 tomically allied with the ovaries are  the  kidneys, bladder,
 Large intestine, and the dorsal and lumbar  portions of the
spinal cord.
  The symptoms of  sub-acute inflammation of  the men-
strual organs may be  divided into  Local  Symptoms and
 General Symptoms.

  Local Symptoms.—The  local symptoms embrace not
only those that arise directly from the inflamed ovaries, but 
Symptoms.
105
those that manifest themselves through the different organs
and tissues of the pelvis.
  One of the most common of the local symptoms is pain
in the lower  part of  the  abdomen just  above the  pubic
bones, or rather on each side of the pubes, near the  groin,
or between it  and  the  uterus.  Pain in this locality, how-
ever, is not invariably present.  In  some it is severe ; while
in others an uneasiness, or dull, heavy feeling,  or fulness, is
complained of, often  in one groin, but very seldom  in  both,
and generally, from some undefined reason, in the left.  Or-
dinarily, it  manifests itself in the same  side  in the  same
individual.  Sometimes the pain is referred to the womb,
at  other times to the bladder; and sometimes the lower
bowel is indicated as  its seat.  Sometimes it  is described
as arising in the groin, and darting towards or through the
bladder, or down " deep " into the fundament, and causing
more or less of spasmodic constrictions of the  sphincter am
muscle.                                            , *
   The degree or kind of pain is  extremely variable:  In
 some there is scarce any felt;  while in others it is described
 as acute, lancinating, sharp, darting, &c, commencing some-
 times in  the iliac region,  sometimes  in  the  small  of the
 back, and passing around to the front and down the thighs;
 in some continuous, in others intermitting.  In some the
 pain is of the most  agonizing  character, wearing down and
 exhausting the vital powers, and  rendering life any thing
 but desirable; while in others the discomfiture is so slight,
 that the disease escapes the notice, not unfrequently, of both
 patient and  physician.   Ordinarily, it is not violent,  but
 rather a  dull, heavy  pain, with sensations of fulness and
 uneasiness,  which  become  more   acute  and darting  as
 the  menstrual period approaches.   The pain sometimes
 experienced is described  as a throbbing  in the groin, with
 burning sensations  in the vagina along the urethra, and at
 the lower part of the  sacral bone.
    It may be  said that inflammation of the menstrual organs 
 106   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 ordinarily commences, or shows  itself rather, at the cata-
 menial  period.  Its advent  at  this time  is characterized
 with more or less of the symptoms that we have enumerat-
 ed, and wdiich continue  with more or less severity during
 the turgescence  of the organs.  The unusual symptoms
 are perhaps  regarded  as simply " painful menstruation,"
 and do  not  particularly arrest  the attention; but the
 diseased ovary remaining more  or less enlarged and con-
 gested during the interval between the menstrual periods,
 and the pain  and uneasy sensations  continuing, the  atten-
 tion is then, perhaps, for the first time called to the disease.
  With some the pain  is constant, whether in  the  erect or
 recumbent position;  while with others there is  an absence
 of all pain and of all uneasiness: in fact, the patient feels
perfectly well until she assumes the erect position, or com-
mences to move about; then she experiences sharp, darting,
lancinating pains radiating from the groin or small of the
back,  in every direction;  or, instead  of these, she may
experience  only dull and heavy  pains  in  the  limbs, with
feelings of extreme lassitude,  and an inability to move; or
dragging pains, with bearing down and  sensations  of an
internal weight, that, having  no  support, must  fall  away.
Sometimes pain is not felt immediately after assuming the
erect position; indeed, perhaps not until some little time has
been spent on the feet moving about: but it continues after-
wards for hours, notwithstanding the patient  may resume
the recumbent position.  Walking, ordinarily, is performed
with great exertion, and with much distress.
  This morbid influence of diseased ovaries over the womb
and vagina is of most frequent  occurrence;  and we have
every variety and grade  of symptoms, varying  from vague
and obscure uterine ailment to those sudden attacks of vio-
lent pain in the hypogastric, iliac, and lumbar regions,
attended with frequent desire to pass water, with burning
 and scalding sensations, and a bearing-down effort equal in
intensity to those  of labor, and other  symptoms that  are 
                       Symptoms.                   107

peculiar to prolapsus.  In other words, it simulates prolap-
sus uteri, or falling of the womb.  The importance of fully
understanding that the womb and vagina may be the seat
of this reflex action will be obvious.   Forgetting that these
organs may become thus affected, we search for a prolap-
sion of the womb, but, finding none, are not only surprised,
but not a little puzzled to understand the cause of so  much
pain and tenesmus uteri.
   We believe that the great  majority of cases of supposed
prolapsion are attributable to this reflex action alone.  We
believe so from the fact, that, in the great majority of those
cases pronounced " falling of the womb," the " touch " nor
ocular observation discloses  any  such condition of the
organ; but it is found to be high in the pelvis.  The sulcus
also between the  nates is as deep as usual; and the levatores
ani muscles, or the floor of the pelvis and vagina, apparently
possess their usual strength and tonicity, and occupy their
accustomed positions.  With this condition and position of
the  several organs and tissues of  the  pelvis, prolapsus is
impossible.
   Prolapsus uteri is a secondary complaint, an effect,  if not
of a general, of  a local relaxation of the muscular tissues:
in fact, we believe it to  be an effect  of a  weakened and
enervated condition of all the tissues of the  body.  When
prolapsus uteri really exists, there is not only a descent  of
the womb,  but  a descent also of the perineum, the  broad
ligaments, the vagina, the cellular tissues about the vagina;
in fact, all the tissues of the pelvis.   The womb becomes
prolapsed, becomes lowered, sunken, because all  the pelvic
viscera are in the same condition.  It goes down with the
rest.   It, and  the vagina, the bladder, the  ovaries, and
the  broad  ligaments, sink, because the  floor of the pelvis
gives way; because that muscular expansion  known as the
levator muscles, and which constitutes the floor of the pelvis,
becomes weakened, relaxed, and lengthened;  and the weak-
ened and relaxed muscles are in no worse condition, prol> 
108   Woman, and her Thirty Yeat s Pilgrimage.

ably, than the muscles of the rest of the economy.   This
condition is brought  on by old  age, by the want of proper
and healthful exercise, by  long-continued diarrhoea or pro-
fuse menstruation, by any exhausting and  enervating dis-
ease, by rheumatic  and gouty  poisons,  by chronic, long-
continued inflammation of any of the alimentary or the
menstrual organs, by prolonged  and  tedious labor, miscar-
riages, &c.   So  long, however, as the muscular system  is
not compromised, so long as it retains its  natural vigor and
tonicity, so long as the levatores ani muscles, the  floor  of
the pelvis, retain their healthful condition, and the sulcus
between the nates is  deep, and the perineum high up, there
will be no prolapsus.   It is impossible.
  We  are told  by some (West  and others) that prolapsus
uteri is caused by hypertrophy, or by an engorgement of
the neck of the womb; that from the increase of its vascu-
larity,  and the increased quantity of blood circulating in
the organ, it becomes heavier, and sinks by  its own weight,
dragging with it the  bladder and other pelvic tissues.   We
do not believe it possible for prolapsus to take place in  any
such way.  We do not believe that any amount of engorge-
ment, or hardly any amount of hypertrophy of an organ
weighing  only some  two ounces, would cause  a  descent
which would become the source of morbid sensations while
the levator muscles and vagina are in a healthy condition.
In  the early months of pregnancy, the womb,  by  its own
weight, and the superincumbent weight of the bowels press-
ing upon its  expanding fundus, becomes  depressed; yet
there are no symptoms of prolapsus.
  What, then, are the true indications of treatment of pro-
lapsus uteri ?  Not cauterization of the uterine neck, with
the internal use of alteratives, &c, to relieve its engorge-
ment,  not  the  wearing  of  supporters  or pessaries, but
searching out and removing the primary cause (if it exists)
of the weakened and relaxed  condition of the muscular tis-
sues, and leaving to or assisting Nature in restoring to their 
Symptoms.                    109
normal vigor and tonicity the muscular and general system.
This  done, each organ takes  its normal position, and  the
diseased symptoms vanish.   While  pessaries are contra-
indicated, yet there may be some few cases where  their use
cannot well be dispsnsed with.  A mechanical stay or sup-
port  of some kind, in  some few cases, may be absolutely
necessary, at first, to relieve the irritation that the mal-posi-
tion  causes;  which irritation would counteract all  effort
towards strengthening the  muscular parts.
   Another symptom  not unfrequently present is  more or
less of swelling at the lower part of the  bowels, between
the groin and the uterus on either side;  a prominent, well-
defined swelling  in some,  painful under pressure, and  the
surrounding  integuments  more  or less  tense;  while  in
others a slight puffiness only will  be observed, but which,
under pressure of the  fingers, will be found  sensitive  or
painful.  An examination "per  vaginam" will ordinarily
furnish but little evidence of any internal  tumefaction in
the direction of the ovary,  unless the swelling of that organ
be very  considerable:  but an examination "per  rectum"
will generally very readily discover the swollen ovary;  at
any rate, if the swelling be at  all prominent.  Sometimes,
when the tumefaction or swelling of the  ovary is very con-
siderable, it will be found  sunken  low down in the pelvis,
and felt resting upon the rectum, and can be  pushed from
one side to the other by the finger.
   With or without pain or swelling, there is  usually more
or less of tenderness, soreness upon pressure, in one or  the
other  groin, which is increased when  the integuments over
the inflamed organ are put  upon the stretch, as by  the
act of extending the limb  upon the pelvis, or in assuming
tin; erect position.  From  this stretching of the  integu-
ments, and pressure by the subjacent parts upon the  in-
flamed organ, many patients are  unable either to walk  or
stand. Some cannot remain in the erect position except by
placing the foot upon a stool, and by so doing flex  the limb 
 HO   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 of the affected side, and relieve the pressure caused  by the
 drawing of the integuments.  From this pressure upon the
 inflamed organ  by the  integuments, the patient stoops, or
 inclines  her  shoulders  forward, instead of holding them
 erect,  in  walking.  This is the  reason why she  cannot
 "stand up straight," as the invalid often expresses herself;
 the reason why she moves along with so much cautiousness
 of step, especially if there be inequalities in the, surface over
 which she is walking;  why she seems to move  a side  at  a
 time, something after the manner and style of an elephant;
 and why the  ascending of hills or stairs, or the lifting of
 weights, or any exertion with the arms (as the raising them
 to the head in adjusting the hair),  or any movement  or mo-
 tion that calls into play the  abdominal muscles,  causes her
 pain: and for the same reason is a deep inspiration, cough-
 ing, or vomiting, most distressing.
   Sometimes there is described an extreme superficial sensi-
 tiveness or soreness of the skin covering the lower portion
 of the bowels, and, not unfrequently, the skin covering the
 sacral bone, — so sensitive, oftentimes, that the least touch
 occasions the severest pain.
   Another symptom not unfrequently experienced is much
 irritability of  the bladder.  The patient is unable  to retain
 more  than a  small quantity of water at a time;  and the
 frequent necessity  of micturating, with the attending burn-
 ing, scalding  pain, is  the source not only of much annoy-
 ance,  but oftentimes of positive distress.  These symptoms
 not unfrequently give rise to the notion  that the bladder is
really the seat of the disease, especially when the disposi-
tion to micturate frequently continues for some little  time.
  The passage of the faeces is also sometimes attended with
much pain and tenesmus, more especially if solid matter be
present and the lower bowel much distended.  Its passage
along the bowel, pressing upon the inflamt d ovary,  causes
great sensations  of distress and prostration  and if, withal,
there  be costiveness, that demands an  expulsive effort on 
Symptoms.                    \ \ \
 the part of the  abdominal muscles, the  ruost intense and
 almost unbearable pain ;s often experien ed; and so  great
 is the suffering from the pain of defecatio 1, that the patient
 oftentimes retains the hardened mass until dislodged by the
 surgeon.
   Sexual intercourse is tolerated only under great suffering,
 and  is not  unfrequently the  source of  much moral and
 mental as well as physical distress.  The pain experienced
 is sometimes at the  entrance of the vaginal canal, but more
 generally far back.
   The vagina is not unfrequently the seat of much vascular
 excitement,  turgescence,  and sensitiveness,  and often the
 seat  of  a most tormenting and distressing itching.   The
 urethra is frequently very sensitive, and more  or less  swol-
 len, more especially at its vaginal extremity.  This point is
 often the seat of much vascular fulness and extreme sensi-
 tiveness ; and  so great is the tumefaction sometimes, that
 authors have regarded it as an outgrowth.   In this condi-
 tion of the  urethra,  there is ordinarily a frequent  desire to
 micturate, attended with burning, scalding sensations, which
 sometimes give rise  to notions that  the kidneys or bladder
 are diseased.
   Nymphomania is  said by some to be a symptom  of this
 disease : but this, in our opinion, is  very wide of the truth ;
 for there is  not only no development of sexual excitement,
 but feelings ordinarily of a directly  opposite character.
   So intimately connected  are the  ovaries with the other
 organs and  tissues of the sexual s}rstem, that it would be
 surprising if a morbid process should long continue in one or
 both ovaries, without inducing, by transmission of a morbid
 stimulus, more  or less of diseased action in the other organs
 of the pelvis.   The same liability  of neighboring  organs
 and tissues to become diseased exists in the sexual system
 as in  other parts of the economy.
  We have  seen  that a  diseased  ovury may  transmit  a
morbid stimul is to the rectum  and  bladder, and induce  a 
112   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

sensitiveness and irritability distress ing and  painful in the
extreme.   In like manner, morbid stimulus transmitted
from a  diseased ovary to the womb induces irritability of
its nervous, and congestion  and engorgement of its vascular
tissues,  an  increase of its natural secretions (leucorrhoea),
and,  not unfrequently, effusion of blood (monorrhagia, acci-
dental hemorrhage).   If the womb be not thus relieved of
its plethora by an increase of its natural secretions, or by an
effusion of blood, it becomes over-nourished  from its inor-
dinate supply of blood; and the  stimulated activity of its
organic  or nutritive nerve-system induces a state of over-
development, enlargement,  or hypertrophy as it  is termed;
by which is meant no alteration in texture  or tissue, but a
growing of the organ:  it  becomes  more than  ordinarily
developed, and  of larger size,  and  occupies  more space in
the pelvis.   The enlargement, however, is very inconsider-
able, and seldom continues after the  cause has been re-
moved.
  Instead  of over-development, or  hypertrophy, congestion
and  engorgement may be the result.  The  fundus  of the
organ becomes  somewhat enlarged, the neck considerably
swollen and sensitive, and the  lips  more open and  promi-
nent, and of a deeper red color than usual; or, as is perhaps
more frequently observed, the lips become less prominent,
in fact become lost in the swelling of the neck, and, instead
of an elliptical, a perfectly  round and shining red os uteri
presents itself.  These conditions, however,  are  extremely
variable; sometimes scarcely to be  discerned, and at other
times readily recognized by the  " touch "  and ocular ex-
amination.
  An increase of the natural secretions of the womb, known
as "the whites," or  leucorrhoza, by which the  congested
vessels  relieve  themselves, is of  most frequent occurrence.
The character  of  the discharge varies according  to the
severity of the ovarian diseas 3  and the congestive or in-
flammatory character of  the  uterine  or  vaginal  tissues
involved. 
Symptoms.
"3
   Effusion of blood, known as menorrhagia, or an inordinate
menstrual  evacuation,   is  another  and  not  uncommon
method of  relief to the congested and  engorged vessels of
the womb, induced by  morbid  stimulus  transmitted by a
diseased ovary.
   When  the plethoric or congested  state of the blood-
vessels does not become relieved as spoken of above, and is
of long persistence, the substance of the womb, or its lining
membrane, or both, are extremely liable to pass into an in-
flammatory state.   If  the morbid stimulus be transmitted
just previous to or during the menstrual  period, it  is easy
to perceive how a spasmodic constriction  of the neck, or a
congested  or inflamed  lining membrane, would, from  the
heightened action and  tumefaction of  the  tissue, preclude
the possibility of any secretion taking place:  hence reten-
tion or suppression, which condition  may last  for a longer
or shorter time,  until at last the  constriction is forced, or the
vessels  give  way, and  the congested and engorged tissue
relieves itself by an inordinate discharge, or, in other words,
by & prof use menstrual flow.   Retention and  suppression
may also be induced by the ovaries becoming so changed in
their structure, through inflammation, that  they lose their
influence over the womb and the sexual system, and transmit
no menstrual stimulus or impulse.  Retention and suppres-
sion may also occur from the congested and inflamed ovaries
drawing to themselves  the blood which they usually cause
to be impelled from the womb.
   When a spasmodic constriction of the neck is present,
or a tumefaction of the substance or lining membrane of
the womb,  with closure of its mouth,  it is readily perceived
how the retained menstrual  fluid in  the already  irritated
cavity of the womb may  stimulate its muscular  tissue to
spasmodic  contractions  for  the purpose of  expelling its
irritating contents, accompanied by a  sense of fulness in
the pelvic region, pain in the back and loins, and pair s of
an expulsive  character,  or bearing-down pains  as they are
             8 
114   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

termed;  producing, in other  words, all the symptoms of
painful menstruation.
  From the heightened action  of the morbid process  going
on  in  the  inner surface of the  womb and of its neck, a
diphtheric  exudation from  its mucous  surface  may take
place,  inducing  suppression or  painful  excretion of  the
catamenia; which excretion will be  found mingled with
paeudo-decidual membranes.
  Painful flow may also be induced, not  through any in-
flammation of the womb or its neck, or  any constriction
or false membranes, but as a simple result of the process
of morbid  ovulation.   The  menstrual  organs pass from
a physiological to  a pathological condition;  they become
swollen, congested, and inflamed, and  perhaps involve  not
only their peritoneal covering, but the fimbriated extremi-
ties of the  Fallopian tubes and surrounding  tissues.  This
form of dysmenorrhoea is more  frequent than  either of the
others, commencing with short, darting, lancinating pains
in the groins, and from that point  radiating  down the
thighs, upwards to the  back, and, in fact, in every direction.
These  pains,  with some, are but temporary;  while, with
others, nearly the whole of the menstrual  period is one of
intense  suffering,  and may be  and  generally  is accom-
panied with more or less of symptoms of hysteria, especially
if the patient be of a nervous, irritable temperament.
  Females  exhibiting symptoms that we have been describ-
ing are ordinarily sterile: if, however, pregnancy does oc-
cur, miscarriage is imminent.
  That the above uterine disturbances — hypertrophy, con-
gestion  and inflammation, leucorrhoea, and the  disturbed
menstrual  function — have  their rise  and origin in  the
ovaries, is manifest from the fact that they do not  anpear
before  puberty, and that they cease with menstrual life;
nor do they appear when the ovaries are wanting or inde-
veloped. 
Symptoms.                   115
  General Symptoms. —Under the head oe Local Symp-
toms, we have given those that  arise directly from the in-
flamed ovaries and from the neighboring organs and tissues
of the pelvis.  Under the head of General Symptoms belong
those that are observed in other parts of the body.
  It will be remembered that the effect of a  local affection
frequently becomes general.  When an organ becomes dis-
eased, it transmits a morbid stimulus to and involves circum-
jacent  organs and tissues.   It may also transmit a morbid
stimulus to and involve remote organs and tissues.
   When organs remote become involved, the morbid stimu-
lus  is first transmitted to  the spinal  cord,  and  from the
spinal cord the irritation is reflected to  the organ which be-
comes disturbed.  In disease of the menstrual organs, both
sides of the body are  not ordinarily equally affected; but
the side which  corresponds with the diseased ovary  is the
one usually  disturbed.  We have  noticed this repeatedly
when the knee-joint has become reflectively involved.  The
left ovary, like the left testicle, is, from some undefined rea-
 son, the one usually diseased; and its morbid stimulus  is
 transmitted  to organs of the same side of  the body:  hence
 the reason that the left parotid gland, the  left tonsil, the
 left breast, the  left lung, the left  knee, &c,  are ordinarily
 the organs involved, instead of  the right.
    The first of the general symptoms that we shall notice is
 pain in the  loins.  But very few patients laboring  under
 this disease  escape pain in this locality.    It  is  almost
 always present.   It is an almost never-failing symptom  of
 the  approach of the  catamenial period.  Pains  occur also
 in the dorsal and cervical regions, but  not so frequently as
 in the loins, nor so frequently in the cervical as in the dor-
 sal region. When occurring in the dorsal and cervical regie n,
 the pain is usually more acute, and combined with more con-
 siderable sensitiveness of the  skin.  In the lumbar region,
 the pain is  ordinarily of a dull, heavy character, combined
 sometimes with feelings of numbness and weakness  in  the
 lower extremities. 
 116  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   Accompanying these pains, there is generally a feeling of
 lassitude or languor, more especially when the pain is in the
 lumbar region. Sometimes,  instead of pain, a weakness only
 is experienced in the small  of the back, accompanied with
 feelings of general lassitude and languor, — an indescribable
 feeling of inertness, feebleness, and wretchedness, which no
 effort on the part of the patient is able  to shake off.
   Combined with these pains, there  is ordinarily more or
 less  superficial sensitiveness over the spine, more especially
 in the dorsal and cervical regions; and not unfrequently a
 sore and tender feeling under pressure of the fingers : which
 tenderness, when discovered by some physicians, is at once
 pronounced "spinal disease," "spinal irritation," and the
 cause of the whole array of morbid symptoms which afflict the
 patient;  and they believe they have  the very best of rea-
 sons for putting the patient  through a course  of treatment
 which comprises  moxas, setons, blisters, plasters,  &c,  to
 the spine, for the purpose of relieving a supposed irritated
 and  inflamed state of the spinal cord; but with how much
 success in relieving morbid symptoms, I leave to the scarred-
 back patients to answer.
   Some years ago, " spinal  irritation " was not only an ex-
 ceedingly prevalent, but an  exceedingly popular idea ; and
 many works on " The Spine,"  " Spinal Irritation," " Affec-
 tions of the Spinal Cord," &c, were issued, each detailing
 remarkable discoveries, wonderful cures,  &c.
  The idea of " spinal  irritation " first  suggested itself to
 some leading  genius  in the profession; and no sooner did
 he announce it than away went the fraternity pell-mell on
 the " spinal-irritation" idea, like  sheep  following the bell-
 wether.  " Spinal  disease " and " spinal irritation " were the
Alpha and Omega  of all their thoughts.  The backbone
monopolized their entire attention;  and their every patient
 (who had a backbone) was put through an examination, se-
cundum arteni, with the ice,  hot spoon, &c.;  applications to
 the spinous processes of the vertebrae; which, with sundry 
Symptoms.
117
   punches with the fingers, knuckles, brass keys, &c.; were
   quite enough generally to make the patient flinch, and the
   doctor to believe that he had, at  last, discovered the great
   source and primary seat of his patient's infirmities.   How
   absurd though, and supremely ridiculous, the idea that the
   spinal cord is to be  at all affected by any such  manipula-
   tions !  If the spinal cord could be thus easily reached, the
   most trivial every-day accidents would be sufficient  for its
   total destruction.  One might just as well think of hushing
   up a noisy congress-man by punching the dome of the cap-
   itol as to think of affecting the spinal cord in the slightest
   degree by pressing upon the long, overlapping, strong, and
   peculiarly-arranged spinous processes of the vertebrae, —an
   arrangement " got up " expressly for protecting  the  spinal
m  cord from injury of pressure and accidents.   Would one of
   these spine-punching doctors think of pressing on the skull
   to find out whether the brain was " tender" and " irritated" ?
   Not a bit of it; yet the spinal cord is more  protected with
   thicker layers of bone than the brain is.
      But pressure on the head does sometimes cause pain; and
   so also does pressure on the breast-bone, ribs, and other bony
   prominences of the body.  The pain, though, is superficial;
   and so  is the pain produced by pressure on the spinous pro-
   cesses of  the backbone;  and the ache that is so often expe-
   rienced in the small of the back and other localities  along
   the spine is an ache  of the  muscles, and not  of  the  spinal
   cord, — the same kind of an ache precisely that is often pres-
   ent in disease of the  tes;es, and so also in  disease of the
   kidneys, bladder, liver, and stomach, or in persons weak and
   debilitated after being long on the feet, or in  persons sick
   with fever.
      The  same  morbid  stimulus  emanating from the ovaries
   which affects other parts of the body is extended to and in-
   volves the muscles and other tissues in close proximity with
   the spine.
     That "spinal disease," "spinal irritation,"  may exist 
118    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

simultaneously  with  disease  of  the  ovaries  and  other
organs, is not an impossibility, by any means; but it is an
extremely rare occurrence.   Its existence, though, is not to
be ascertained by any punching of the spine, or by cold  or
hot applications ; for the spinal cord is too well protected by
thick layers of bone, strong ligaments, and thick muscles,
for  any  such manipulations to affect  it in  the slightest
degree.   Extensive disease of the cord and of the vertebrae
may exist without the slightest pain being elicited by press-
ure,  and without the slightest twinge  or ache;  and Prof.
 Velpeau has collected twenty-five  cases  of disorganization
of the medulla oblongata (upper end of spinal cord) which
produced no disturbance of nervous functions whatever.
  Pains are experienced  not only in the back  and loins,
but  radiate from the diseased menstrual organs in every
direction,—downward  to the thighs,  knees, ankles, and
feet  (and  which have  not unfrequently  been regarded as
"neuralgic" or "rheumatic," and treated as  such), and up-
ward to the iliac and hypogastric regions; to the right side
and shoulder, giving rise to notions of "liver-disease;" to
the  stomach, giving notions  of "dyspepsia;" to  the lungs,
causing  fears of " consumption :" in fact, pains radiating
from diseased ovaria may be felt, and often are, in almost
every organ and tissue of the body.   The knee-joint  espe-
cially is  not an unfrequent seat of this reflex influence; and
many cases have come under our observation whose previ-
 ous  treatment with local  applications of iodine, &c, had
 been instituted under the idea that  the joint was  the seat
 of serious disease.   All joints, large and small, are liable
 to become affected; but the hip  and knee  joints  are the
 most frequent seats of morbid sensibility,  and sometimes
 of severe pain, and are too often suspected of local disease of
 a serious character.   Sir Benjamin Brodle once  said, " I do
 not hesitate to declare, that, among the higher classes of
 society,  at least four-fifths of the female patients who  are
 commonly supposed to labor  under disease of the joints, 
Symptoms                    119
labor under hysteria, and nothing else."  Hysteria is, as we
shall see by and by, a symptom, an effect of a pathological
condition of  the  sexual system,  and  ordinarily,  as we
believe,  of  the ovaries:  in fact, we  are now describing
hysterical disturbances.
  Numbness and  pricking  sensations sometimes  take the
place of  pain in the lower extremities.   Local and general
paralysis of the lower as well as of the upper extremities,
and sometimes of an entire side of the body, is seen.  There
are also frequently experienced cramps, stiffness, and rigidity
of the muscles of both upper and  lower extremities.  The
extensor muscles, though, are less frequently involved  than
the flexors.
  Notwithstanding the pains, weakness, cramps, and other
disturbances, the patient may be able to  attend to her usual
daily avocations from  their moderation,  or by the exercise
of the will: this is true of some; while,  with others, to sit,
stand, or walk is at once  impossible, and the recumbent is
the only endurable position.
  A very frequent symptom of this disease is that which
arises from irritation of the brain and  disturbance of the
cerebral  function.   Pains in the small of the back, in the
dorsal  and cervical region,  may exist  without any disturb-
ance of  the brain, or they  may  be co-existent; but,  ordi-
narily, the head,  and  the lumbar  region  and sacrum, are
seats of much disturbance, while  the cervical and dorsal
regions escape entirely.
  The scalp is not unfrequently the seat of  acute, darting,
an d throbbing pains, and  sometimes of burning sensations,
with much superficial sensitiveness.  There are experienced,
also, sensations as if the head was enlarged and heavy, or
heavier on one side than the other,  and requiring much
effort on the part of the patient to  keep  it properly  poised.
Sometimes there is a feeling that the brain is  swollen, and
compressed within its bony cavity; and sensations of motion
in the bones of the head, as if the side-bones alternately
opened and closed. 
120   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  Headache is another common symptom.  It may be fixed
to one spot, as in the  front of the head, in the  forehead.
over the eye,  or  back under the  base of the brain: but
ordinarily, when the headache is severe, it is referred to the
top of  the head, occupying sometimes considerable space;
but, generally, the end of the  finger can  cover the aching
point.  When in this particular locality, the pain is usually
acute and most distressing, and  attended with much tender-
ness of the scalp, and followed, not unfrequently, by convul-
sions and spasms of the entire muscular system.  This pain
is seldom or  never  experienced  before  puberty  or  after
" change of life."
  Pains located in the temple, and radiating  to every por-
tion of the head, combined with much augmentation of the
senses, are not uncommon.  The  slightest noise  is repre-
sented  as being almost deafening in its character, which,
with the ringing,  singing, or a " hammering sound " in the
ears, with flashes of  light in  the eyes,  add  much to the
suffering. Instead of flashes and  intolerance  of light and
sound,  the opposite condition of obscure vision and more or
less deafness is sometimes experienced.  There  may be also
pain of the most distressing character in  the dental nerves,
acute pain and spasm in the facial muscles, which has often
been regarded as  " tic douloureux;" also twitching of the
eyelids and eyebrows.
  The mind is not unfrequently the seat of much disturb-
ance ;  and the morbid suffering to which some patients are
a prey  is most distressing.  They suffer, they dread, they
fear, they cannot  analyze their feelings, or, if the  analysis
is partially  effected  in thought, they cannot  express the
result of the process from loss of words.  Their anticipa-
tions of danger to themselves or their friends is a source of
much mental  disquietude; or, losing  their interest in their
friends around them, they become  unmindful of their com-
fort and happiness.   With  some, the mind seems vacant,
and the attention hard to arrest or rouse from  its  lethargic 
Symptoms.
121
state ;  no notice is taken of what is going on around them;
nothing attracts their attention or disturbs their equanimity:
while with  others  the merest trifles distract the senses,
arouse anger, and ebullitions of displeasure ? je dealt out to
all around.
  Unfortunately, that strange caprice, that inequality  of
taste  ?nd behavior, so often seen in woman, is commonly
attributed to temper.   We love to find excuses for the sex;
and  their  short-comings in  the  way of  equanimity, we
honestly believe, are referable,  in the great majority  of
cases, not to temper, but to influences entirely beyond their
control, — to,  in  fact,  actual  disease.   We  are  told  that
they do not regulate their actions  by reason  and principle,
and that they suffer themselves to be guided by every slight
and momentary impulse  of  inclination, which makes them
appear so variable and inconstant, that nobody can guess  by
their  behavior to-day what may  be expected from  them
to-morrow; that it is in vain for others to attempt to please
them; that they cannot, in fact, please themselves;  and
that this wretched state proceeds from excessive and ill-
judged indulgence, flattery,  &c.   Never  mind, my good
woman : justice will be done you all in good time;  and man
and the world will learn to accord to you the  meed of praise
for so much propriety of behavior when so little ought  to
have been expected.  Man will bear with your troublesome
humors, and accord to you his  sympathy.   He  will  hide
your infirmities by his silence, and redouble his diligence
to assist, oblige, and demonstrate  true affection, and exert
himself in striving to restore that health, which, but for
him, perhaps, you never wTould have parted with.
  The influence of the ovaries over the mind is displayed
in woman's artfulness  and  dissimulation.   The same is
observable among the brute creation in the skill and  cun-
ning displayed in the choice of a secret locality where they
may deposit their eggs or young; and it is  said  that the
lioness, to cover her retreat and elude pursuit, will hide her 
122   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

footprints by retracing the  ground, or brushing  there  out
with her tail.
  The perversion of some  of these peculiarities of  the
female are  often  witnessed  in an  extraordinary degree,
and is a prominent symptom of diseased  menstrual organs.
" An hysterical young female has really a marvellously small
appetite, and, to increase the wonder, refuses all food what-
ever by day, and pays secret visits to  the pantry by night.
She has  retention or partial suppression of urine; and so
she crams the vagina with stones, and drops them into  the
chamber-pot, to make people believe  she has stone in  the
bladder.   In all other respects, she  conducts  herself with
the most unaffected modesty and propriety."  Their artful-
ness, dissimulation, and the length of  time they are able to
carry on their impositions and deceptions without  detection,
is oftentimes truly marvellous, but, when discovered,  fur-
nishes most valuable testimony, and  points to the ovaries
as a seat of disease, and the cause of  those acts  for which
woman is sometimes pitilessly reproached, but which  are
by her as unconquerable as those strange longings which
are so often observable wdien the functions of the ovaries
have become suspended through pregnancy.
  Mental hallucinations and deceptive perceptions are some-
times prominent symptoms of this disease.  The  sensation
of an internal growing tumor, or the crawling or moving
about of some  reptile, are so vivid, that the patient  can
hardly get her consent to believe that they are not  realities.
  Another proof of the mysterious link which  binds  the
organs of generation to the noblest faculties of our nature
is furnished by Dr. J. Conolly, who thus expresses  himself in
the Croonian Lectures: " Bodily disease gives evident origin
to mental delusions in many instances.  Women  of various
ages, either  at the monthly periods or on the cessation of
the catamenia, and when laboring under irritation or dis-
ease of the uterus, are  liable to imagine that  an  actual fire
exists within them, that Satan  has dominion over them, or 
Symptoms.
123
that a deluge of flames is descending upon them.  In one
case, an elderly patient had for some time attributed a fixed
pain in the back to her having been seized  by the  gripe of
the Devil.   For reasons which may be readily imagined, an
irritable uterus often leads to melancholy, to self-accusation,
to religious despair, and to suicidal propensity."
   The pharynx sometimes becomes involved in this dis-
ease ; and the patient, unable to swallow either solid or fluid
matter for  days,  has excited suspicions  of  hydrophobia.
The opposite condition, of remarkable avidity for swallow-
ing, has been observed; and Dr. Graves of Dublin cites an
example in which  any attempt to  interrupt the process of
swallowing was followed by hysterical convulsions.
   The different glands of the  mouth sometimes become  in-
volved, and  pour out large quantities of saliva, as though
under the influence of mercury.  From  the intimate rela-
tion that exists between the ovaries and the salivary glands,
increased secretion of the saliva is no uncommon symptom
in  many  of the diseases peculiar to women; but the dis-
charge is ordinarily so little increased, that it does not  ar-
rest the attention, and is overlooked.  We have quite recent-
ly seen a case where the salivary glands were involved, and
from  one to three pints of  saliva were discharged daily.
The intimate alliance between the  salivary glands and the
testes, ovaries, and breasts, is seen in  the disease called
mumps, where the parotid gland becomes swollen; and after
a longer or shorter time  the testes of the male, and the
ovaria and  breasts of the female, become also involved:
they  become tender,  and sometimes  swollen  and painful.
We  have  also a familiar example of the influence of the
ovaries over the salivary glands in the  increase  of saliva,
" spitting cotton "  as it is sometimes termed, which follows
the ovarian excitement when their functions become sus-
pended through pregnancy.
  Sometimes the salivary glands, instead of being stimulat-
ed just to the  sec re ting-point, become over-stimulated, and 
 124   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 a congestion and tumefaction of their tissues occur, which
 closes the secreting orifices, and the mouth and  tongue be-
 come dry and  parched,  and the thirst excessive.   When
 this occurs,  the tonsils usually become involved and swollen.
  Other frequent symptoms of this disease are to be found
 in the affected larnyx, and  in  the  disturbed vocal  appara-
 tus and respiratory organs.  The larnyx, as we have already
 seen, is intimately connected with the ovaries  and testes.
 The influence of the testes over the larnyx is well illustrat-
 ed  in the loud neigh of  the stallion and bellow of the bull,
 as  compared with  the analogous sounds in the horse and
 the  ox.  Upon  the  influence of the  ovaries  and testes is
 due that change  which occurs in the  voice at  puberty.
 When the  ovaries are absent, the voice is husky, rough;
 and all attempts at vocal culture will prove abortive.  When
 the  ovaries  are  present, and fully developed, the voice is
 sweet and melcdious, and vocalization is susceptible of great
 cultivation.   The voice attains its purity at puberty, when
 the ovaries  are  fully developed, but retains it only during
 menstrual life.   When the ovaries begin to shrink, the voice
 begins to fail.  When the ovaries become diseased, the voice
 loses its  purity  of intonation, and becomes husky, hoarse,
 and rough.  This is observable in females sold to vice; for
 nearly all suffer from diseased menstrual organs, and have
 generally voices harsh and disagreeable.  We  have  seen
 this reflex influence of the ovaria so act on the vocal organs
 of young women as to entirely  disqualify them for singing.
 To  this cause alone has the failure of the voice been at-
 tributable in thousands of young females, and it has been
 regarded as some  affection of the vocal organs or lungs;
 and, from mistaken notions as regards the true seat  of the
disease, the  voice has been allowed to go  on from lad to
 worse, until  entirely destroyed.
  Loss of voice  for days, and sometimes  for weeks, the pa-
tient speaking only in whispers, may also arise from the
chordae vocales becoming involved. 
Symptoms.
125
  Another very frequent symptom of this disease is a dry,
hacking cough, scarce noticed perhaps by the patient herself,
but by her friends regarded as premonitory of consumption,
and is the cause of much needless alarm; and not unfrequent-
ly the physician, either through ignorance or design, fosters
the idea.  We have known patients with a simple  hacking
cough, arising from diseased menstrual organs, treated for
months and years with remedies directed to the lungs, with
a view t6 ward off what was supposed to be premonitory
symptoms of consumption.  As  may be supposed, the cough
under  such treatment continued.   There may also arise
the hard, sonorous cough; but  this is very much  less fre-
quent than the simple, dry hack.   We observe not unfre-
quently a cough  that comes on  paroxysmally, where the
patient is for hours and days entirely free from any symp-
toms  of a cough, when suddenly she is overtaken by a
paroxysm, which will continue,  in spite  of anodynes, until
she is entirely exhausted, and which  oftentimes leaves her
as suddenly as was the attack.
  Another symptom  of this disease, and not an unfrequent
one, is " spasmodic asthma," occurring ordinarily just pre-
vious to the menstrual period, but may occur at any time
during the interval.   We have known this reflective dis-
turbance to be treated for months with remedies addressed
to the lungs, and the cause not  even dreamed of.
  We often notice other kinds of oppressed breathing, from
the muscles of the respiratory apparatus becoming the seat
of the reflex action.   These  muscles become  so affected as
seemingly to require  exertion on the part of the patient in
order to breathe, and which force her every few moments to
a deep inspiration or a long-drawn sigh.   Sometimes there
is  experienced an  oppression of constriction, as though a
cord was bound tightly around the  chest.  After once in-
duced, these fits  of  asthma and  oppression  are liable to
recur upon any agitation of the mind.
  We have often seen this reflex influence simulate conges- 
 126   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 tion  and other diseases of the lungs.   We have seen it
 simulate  pneumonia  and pleurisy, and  treated as though
 those  inflammatory  conditions really  existed;   and  the
 already  nervous,  weakened, and  enervated patient  bled
 within  an inch of eternity for the purpose of relieving a
 supposed existing inflammatory affection.  And we cannot
 forbear here to remark, that ignorance and misconception
 as regards these  cases  of simulative  pneumonia and pleu-
 risy, and their treatment by blood-letting and other anti-
 phlogistic remedies, have been the cause of the total ruin of
 the  health of thousands and tens  of  thousands of females
 in every part of the country : and  far better would it have
 been for their future  health  and happiness (notwithstand-
 ing the seeming urgency of the case, notwithstanding  the
 pain, suffering, and extreme difficulty  of breathing)  had
 such a medical adviser  been  a  thousand miles  away when
 sent for; for the attack would  probably have passed  away
 after a longer or shorter time,  and the vital powers would
 not have been lowered,  nor the nervousness, weakness, and
 enervation enhanced,  by any such mischievous, pernicious,
 and  destructive mode of treatment, — a  treatment equally
 mischievous and pernicious, whether a simulative  pneumo-
 nia or pleurisy, or a true  inflammation of the lungs or pleura;
 for in the latter,  even, blood-letting is  opposed to  sound
 theory and good practice.   It may for the moment relieve
 symptoms, but has no influence whatever in shortening the
 duration or diminishing the extent  of  the  inflammatory
 affection, as has been proved by Louis, Andral, and Chomel;
 and  so, while  we gain only relief of symptoms, we sustain
 an incalculable loss by  the weakening of the vital powers
 at a  most critical  juncture, which  may  prove  most disas-
 trous.
  Blood-letting in pneumonia and  pleurisy not only  does
no good, but inflicts a  positive injury, even in the  most
robust.   If this be so, what must  be. the effect on a  ner-
vous, weakened, and enervated female ?  It does no  good, foi 
Symptoms.
127
the reason, that, after the pneumonia is once established, it
will, like  typhus-fever, small-pox, &c, run through a defi-
nite course,  notwithstanding blood-letting or any  other
medical  interference.  Prof. Todd  of London says,  " In-
ternal inflammations are  cured, not by the  ingesta admin-
istered, nor by the  egesta promoted by the drugs of  the
physician, but by a natural process as distinct and definite
as that process  itself  of  abnormal nutrition to which we
give  the  name of  inflammation."  It inflicts  a positive
injury, becauoe blood-letting lessens the  vital powers, and
lowers the  strength of the  economy, and, consequently,
impedes that process by which the exuded  and  coagulated
blood-plasma is broken up and converted into fluid again,
whereby it may be  re-absorbed into the blood and elimi-
nated  from  the  system.   Prof. Todd says,  "Inflammation
is a deranged nutrition.  Like normal nutrition, it involves
supply and waste;  and, as the latter is  considerable,  the
former will  be proportionably so.  The tendency in inflam-
mation is to the more or less  rapid formation of abnormal
products,  such as lymph and pus; and the supplies for those
formations must be  drawn from the blood  or from the tis-
sues, in both cases with the effect of more  or less exhaus-
tion of the vital force, with more or less extensive organic
disintegration. . .  .  The more this  process of inflammation
draws from the blood, the greater will be the exhaustion of
vital force, and the more the whole frame will suffer:  the
more it feeds on tissues, the greater will be the difficulty of
the reparative process.  Is it not, then, important that ade-
quate supplies should be conveyed to this process, abnormal
though it be ? and is it  not likely that the most appro-
priate supplies may be conveyed to it through the  blood, so
that the waste of tissue may be stopped,  and the tendency
to abnormal formation be checked, at  lea it,  from that
direction ? "
  It^ then, the  process of  inflammation draws upon  the
blood  for  the means of its own cure, and, by so doing, 
128    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

exhausts the vital power, and causes  the  whole frame  to
suffer,  what  must be that exhaustion when not only the
blood is  drawn upon by the  disease, but  the blood itself
drawn  out  of the system  by the lancet ?  What  must  be
the  disastrous  effects  when the lancet takes  away  that
which  the inflammation absolutely requires  for its  cure,
and,  by  so  doing, interrupts  or impedes  that process  by
which the lymph and pus are re-absorbed into the blood  to
be eliminated from the system?
  Blood-letting not  only  does positive injury, but it  is a
perfectly useless operation.  To diminish the blood in the
inflamed part constitutes one of the chief reasons for blood-
letting in pneumonia, pleurisy,' or inflammation of the  kid-
neys ;  but  we not only do not,  but  can not, by any such
operation, diminish the amount of blood  in the  inflamed
part  or surrounding tissues.  Prof. Bennett  of Edinburgh
University  says,  " Now,  it  requires to  be shown  that
draining the body of  blood can in  the  slightest degree
influence the congestion in  the inflamed part.  There the
vessels are enlarged, the  current of blood is arrested., the
corpuscles  are  closely  aggregated  together, and  distend
the vascular tube, and are in no way affected  by the arterial
current,  even when increased in its  neighborhood.   That
opening  a vein can alter this state of matters is  scarcely to
be conceived; and, if  it could,  how  would  this  assist  in
removing the exudation which has coagulated outside the
vessels ?
   "A consideration of the connection and distribution of the
large vessels in the body will still further show the little
probability there is of either general or local blood-letting,
as usually  performed,  being capable  of  influencing the
amount of blood in the part actually inflamed.  How is it
possible, for instance,  that venesection in  the  arm can
directly diminish the amount of blood  sent from the heart
by the great pulmonary artery to the lungs, by the carotids
and  vertebrals to the brain, or by the coronaries to the heart 
Symptoms.
129
itself?  In  inflammation of those organs, blood-letting, to
produce any effect, must be large, so as  to  act on the gen-
eral system  indirectly by weakening the heart's action, and
producing syncope; and this at a time when, from no nour-
ishment being taken in consequence of fever, great prostra-
tion of the vital powers is to be expected.  But, whilst  the
result may  certainly be induced  by large bleedings,  the
inflammation  in  the part is altogether unaffected.   The
exudation under such circumstances, which  requires more
blood in order that it may undergo  the necessary transfor-
mation previous to removal, is then arrested in its develop-
ment, and,  so  far  from being  rapidly removed, remains
stationary,  or dies,  in  proportion as  the economy is
exhausted.  If,  on the  other hand, small and  moderate
bleedings are practised, how can they operate, even on  the
principles of  those who advocate  them ?  These  do  not
affect the heart, or lower the force  of the  circulation, even
in the neighborhood of the inflamed part: how, then, can
they operate on  the stagnant blood in the  inflamed part
itself?
   "As to local bleeding (by leeches, cupping, &c), its sup-
posed effects are inexplicable on the supposition of drawing
blood from the inflamed internal parts.   A man has pneu-
monia or inflammation of  the  kidneys,  resulting  from
changes  in  the vessels which  are supplied direct from the
aorta, and leeches are applied to the integuments supplied
by vessels derived from the mammary or lumbar arteries.
Any direct anastomosis between the vessels on the  surface
and those in  the parts  inflamed is not to be thought of.
How, then,  does the loss  of this small amount of blood
operate  in these  important cases?  It cannot be by  any
conceivable  theory of diminishing either the  current to or
the amount  of blood in  the part.   As  in  the majority of
cases, therefore, the loss is  not large  enough  to affect  the
general  circulation, and  as anatomy prevents our belief in
the idea that it can influence the inflammation directly, it
              0 
  130   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 m\j well be asked, How can local blood-letting be of any
 benefit at all ? "
   We have been led into this digression from witnessing the
 ignorance so often displayed in the treatment of simulative
 pneumonia and pleurisy by blood-letting, &c.; a treatment
 that has consigned thousands of women to premature decay
 and old age, and subjected  them  to a multiplicity of ilis
 that have attended them to a premature grave.  Touching
 this matter, Prof. Laycock of London says, " One  bleeding
 of a highly hysterical female will not be repaired in weeks,
 and will perhaps induce months of  suffering.  I would not
 have ventured upon these remarks, had not my own  short
 experience painfully convinced me how easy it is to do with
 the  lancet that harm which prolonged  anxious attention
 will scarcely repair.  I have, therefore, resolved to err on
 the safe  side, and  not  bleed  a  female such as  I have de-
 scribed, however much the symptoms may resemble  those of
 inflammation,  unless  there  be  some  cause  so palpably
 obvious as to leave no doubt whatever of the nature of the
 case."
   To return to the  reflex disturbances having  their origin
 in disease of the ovaries, we will remark, that auscultators
 have pronounced and  believed in the existence of "cavi-
 ties " and other symptoms of consumption, when the infir-
 mity was traceable to reflex influence of the ovaria, and
 subsequent results went  to show that the  lungs were en-
 tirely healthy.
  Hiccough is another and not  very uncommon symptom
 of this disease, and  sometimes continues  without inter-
 mission for  many  days  and nights.   Romberg relates  a
 case of suppressed  menstruation causing distressing hic-
 cough, which continued unabated for a long time, notwith-
 standing the application of numerous remedies.
  Disturbances of  the  heart's  action are no  uncommon
 symptoms of this disease.  Fluttering and irregular action
of the heart are oftener complained  of than  palpitation; 
Symptoms.                   131
but the latter is  not an unfrequent and-most  distressing
symptom.  Days and months may elapse with no particular
disturbance of the  heart's action, when  suddenly,  from
some  pain or irritation  of the body, or agitation of the
mind, the most violent palpitation will  supervene, with a
sense  of suffocation, distention,  or fulness,  as  if rupture
must ensue, which not unfrequently gives rise to suspicions
vf "heart-disease."  Its  want  of  persistency, though, be-
krays. its reflex origin.
  Pains in the intercostal muscles, darting pains, and pains
occasioned by breathing,  are  frequently observable, with
superficial pains, and more or less sensitiveness of the skin
covering the chest.
  Disturbed vascular and nervous conditions of the breasts
are among the most prominent symptoms of this disease.
We have  already seen  the close relationship that exists
between these glands  and the ovaries; that it  is through
the influence of  the ovaries that  the breasts  exist  at
all.   When the  ovaries  are  absent, or in an undevel-
oped  state,  the  breasts remain  in  the same  condition.
When  the ovaries  become diseased, the breasts  become
shrunken  and flaccid.   This is true  ordinarily:  some-
times,  however,  the  morbid  influence  transmitted  from
diseased ovaria stimulates the organic or nutritive  nerve-
system of the breasts,  and induces in  them  a state  of
over-development,  enlargement,  or  hypertrophy;  which
sometimes acquires  immense  magnitude and becomes  ex-
ceedingly  burdensome, and can  be remedied only by re-
moving  that which  is  the cause of the  over-abundant
fat deposit.   Sometimes the breasts  become  exceedingly
sensitive and irritable;  so much so, that the  dress  occa-
sions  much  discomfort and pain.  Sometimes small irreg-
ular  lumps  are  formed  in the   substance  of  the  gland,
giving  rise  to  fear of  "tumor" or  "cancer."  Another
very  frsquent  symptom  is pain under one or the  other
breasts,  but generally the left  one.    Sometimes hemor- 
132    Woman, and Jur Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

rhage from  the breasts takes place;  and sometimes they
have a bruised  appearance, accompanied with more or less
sensitiveness, and  with patches of extravasation of b ood
here and there upon  them.  During the process  of n en-
struation, the ovarian  excitement not unfrequently  causes a
tingling sensation  and a turgescence and erection  of the
nipple;  also a deeper shade in the surrounding areola, and
a swelling  of its follicles.  A diseased ovary may produce
precisely the same  phenomena, and even a secretion of milk,
as sometimes occurs, independent of pregnancy, while men-
struating.   The same phenomena are also observed when
the ovarian functions are suspended through pregnancy.
  The reflex influence of the ovaria on the  liver, stomach,
and bowels, are common symptoms of this  disease.   Pain
in the region of the liver, with or without pain in the right
shoulder, is no uncommon symptom ; and when accompanied
with  more  or less of costiveness, and disturbance  of the
digestive functions, how often has it been regarded as " liver-
disease "!   When  the stomach has become the seat  of the
disturbance, we not unfrequently, often in  fact, see every
variety  of  nervous dyspepsia.  No matter  how small the
quantity of food taken, fulness and oppression after eating
are present.  In some, there is simply a sense of oppression;
while in others, loss of appetite, nausea,  and vomiting are
piesent, which greatly  aggravate the disease  and  suffer-
i\ig.   In some, there is no oppression after eating, except
certain articles of food be taken.  Some can take into the
stomach with impunity the most indigestible articles, while
some  particular and very simple article of diet will induce
paroxysms of the greatest suffering and distress.  In  some
patients laboring  under this disease, meat, even  in the
minutest quantities, no matter how covered up or disguised,
is immediately rejected.
  Another exceedingly common, and it may be said" never-
failing effect of inflammation of the menstrual  organs, and
a veryjmportant one too, is deterioration of the blood.  This 
                      Symptoms.                   133

condition  of the circulating fluid, impoverished of its red
globules, &c, has often been noted  in  hysterical  subjects,
and by not a few regarded as the cause of hysterical mani-
festations, instead of an effect of the disease.  The  blood
is  dependent for its constitution on the results of the pri-
mary digestion in the alimentary canal;  and its diseases are
oftener than  otherwise associated with  the  quality or com-
position of the digestive  fluid.'  Through the influence of
diseased ovaries over the digestive  functions, the food  is
improperly prepared for  its reception into  the blood  its
deterioration is the  consequence, and is followed by a multi-
plicity of  those ills  attendant on blood-disease.
   Nausea and vomiting are other and not unfrequent symp-
toms  of inflammation of the  ovaria.  They are  common
symptoms of pregnancy when the ovarian functions be-
come suspended; and they are common symptoms for a while
after the close of menstrual life, while the ovaries are yet
in a congested and  irritable condition.  When suppression
of the menses occurs from other causes than pregnancy or
" change of life" acting on the ovaries, nausea and vomit-
ing are common.   Cases are  on record where the excite-
ment of the ovaries consequent upon sexual congress always
produced vomiting.   Other cases are  noted where vomiting
always occurred at each menstrual period.  The same mor-
bid stimulus which  affects the pharynx, larnyx, lungs, liver,
and stomach, is  extended to  the organs and muscles  con-
cerned in  the act of vomiting.
   Another exceeding!}' common symptom of this disease
is  accumulation of gas in the intestines, the noise of which
in the stomach and bowels is audible even at distances, and
mortifying to the patient.  This, and swelling of the waist
and bowels, are almost never-failing symptoms; while un-
eas}- distention and oppression  of the stomach and bowels,
and attacks of colic, may be quite as frequent.  Tympanitic
distention of the abdomen from gas has sometimes, through
neglect of the  simple expedient of percussion, been  mis- 
134   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.
                                    m
taken  for  iropsy.   Constipation of the  bowels from  a
paralysis of their muscular fibres, and the  formation of
scybalous matter,  as well also as  diarrhoea, are other com-
mon symptoms.
  Superficial tenderness or sensitiveness of the skin  cover-
ing  the  abdomen is  sometimes  met with,  and  has not
unfrequently been regarded  as  a  case  of peritoneal in-
flammation, or  sub-acute inflammation of the bowels, and
treated as such.   Sometimes a hard and knotted surface of
the abdomen, from spasm of the  abdominal muscles, is ob-
served.
  The kidneys, in  this disease,  are always more or less
affected; their  secretion  being  either increased or dimin-
ished, more frequently the  latter.  During the excitement
of  the  ovaries at the menstrual period, the secretion  is
nearly always  diminished.  Large secretions  of  colorless
urine are of no uncommon occurrence, and total suppression
for days is  occasionally met with ; and cases are on  record
where suppression  has  been  followed  with  vomiting of
urinous fluid.
   Of the influence of diseased ovaries over the bladder, we
have already spoken under local  symptoms.  We will here
add,  that  albuminous and purulent discharges from the
bladder, and retention of urine from diminished  muscular
power of the  bladder or  a  spasmodic constriction of its
neck,  are  also frequently noticed.   Sometimes the men-
strual stimulus is communicated to  the kidneys instead  of
the uterus, and  we have  a monthly discharge of bloody
urine.  The bowels may become  affected in the same way,
and a periodical diarrhoea take  the place of the catamenia.
   Sanguineous discharges  from different parts of  the  body
 are symptomatic of this disease.  Discharges from the eyes,
 from the  ears, the  breasts,  the  roots of the  nails of the
 fingers and toes, and from  the  navel, have  been noticed.
 We  also have accounts of perspiration of blood from the
 face, arms, and limbs. 
Symptoms.
135
   Finally, what more common symptom is there of diseased
 menstrual organs  than the  loss of luxuriance of form, aid
 those fine and delicate contours which are constant objects
 of admiration ?  The rose vanishes from the cheek, the lily
 is no longer the vain rival of the forehead or the neck, the
 eyes become sunken and  dull, and  the throat no longer
 emulates the voice  of the  nightingale.   The entire figure
 becomes thin, spare, attenuated, and bony.
   The "testes muliebrum," or  the menstrual organs, have,
 as has already been remarked,  the same influence over the
 development of woman as the testes have over that of man;
 and their absence, or destruction by disease, is followed by
 the  arrest of that characteristic luxuriance of  form which
 is so much admired in woman, and by their assuming  a
 dryer texture, the  harder outline and the angular harshness
 of men.   The skin  becomes dry and  coarse, and destitute
 of  that  delicacy  and  softness which are peculiar to  the
 female sex.  Mustaches and beard not unfrequently make
 their appearance;  the rich clustering locks  that adorn  the
 head, and the  hair  on the mons veneris, fall out, and
 become sensibly diminished.  The teeth become defective;
 and the nails, irregular of growth, lose their transparencj^,
 become hard and brittle.  This condition of system is  not
 unfrequently observable in  those  aged females who have
 passed the " critical period," especially  those who have been
 deprived of sexual congress.
   The hair and the nails have an intimate connection with
 the ovaria and testes.   We have a familiar  example of the
 influence of the testes over these appendages of  the skin in
 the horns of the stag, which grow  when he becomes fit  for
 reproduction.   If the  testes be removed previous  to  this
 period, he remains forever deprived of horns.  If the testes
 are removed during the process  of  their growth, it at once
 becomes interrupted, and the horns become dry and brittle.
 So  with  the  nails when the  ovaries  and  testes become
destroyed: although their growth is not wholly  arrested, it 
136    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

is so partially; and  they  become  less regular,  more hard,
less transparent, and brittle.
  When the ovaries become compromised through disease,
we witness somewhat similar results.   The subtegumentary
t'ssue, skin, and its appendages, become similarly affected.
Sometimes,  however,  instead  of. miserable  leanness,  a
directly  opposite condition is  observable.  The  diseased
ovaria  stimulate the  organic  or  nutritive nerve-system,
inducing a deposit of fat which  lends  roundness to the
limbs, and a delicate finish and plumpness  to the  entire
form; and no matter how much may be the pain and suffer-
ing experienced  by the  patient, no matter  how  much
may be  her exhaustion,  weakness,  and  enervation,  the
roundness of  contour continues, much to the surprise of all.
In any other diseased condition than this, luxuriance of
form, and the fine and delicate contours, would quickly van-
ish : in this we have a valuable auxiliary towards forming
a correct diagnosis.   From this influence over the nutritive
nerve-system, an excessive deposit of adipose  matter some-
times takes place; and it is well known that exceedingly fat
women  are  ordinarily sterile.   They are excessively fat
through disease of the  ovaria, which is the cause of the ste-
rility.
  In disease of the ovaria, the skin loses its lifelike  fresh-
ness, transparency, its delicate tints and whiteness,  and
becomes not unfrequently of a dark leaden hue.   We have
a familiar example of  the  influence  of the ovaries on the
skin in the dark leaden hue under the eyes while the  ova-
ries are engorged and swollen during  the process of  ovula-
tion, also after the ovarian excitement nduced by sexual
congress, and so also in the dark skin w hich is frequently
observed when the functions of the ovaries are suspended
through pregnancy.  A case is on record of a young girl
of sixteen in whom the ovarian function became suspended,
and her face turned as  black as a negro's.
  The  skin  1 >ses its  smoothness and softness,  becomes 
Symptoms.                    137
rough, and is frequently the seat  f most obstinate  erup-
tions, which continue in spite of ah  remedies addressed to
it, and for reasons obvious, — the cause still operates.   Dis-
ease of the  menstrual organs sometimes manifests  itself
through the sebaceous follicles of the skin in a succession
vf boils which make their appearance.  In young girls, just
previous to the first menstrual effort, while the ovaries are
becoming aroused  to the performance  of their function,
sores in the corners  of the mouth,  in the nose  and  ears,
and successive boils, are frequent and common.
   The teeth, also, sometimes become involved in this dis-
ease, and exhibit symptoms of rapid decay.   Toothache is
not  an uncommon  symptom.   It  is said by Dr. Elliotson,
that the removal of the  boar's tusks destroys his  sexual
propensities.  In this we see the intimate relation between
the testes and the teeth, and, in the toothache of pregnancy,
the relation between the ovaries and the teeth.
   Through disease of the ovaria, offensive exhalations, of
varying intensity, are not unfrequently transferred from the
genital organs to the skin, generally to  the follicles  of the
arm-pits, and sometimes to the lungs.  In some, the exhala-
tions are not very unpleasant, while in others they are of the
most disgusting and offensive character.   We have had to
deal with  many cases of the  latter,  and have  generally
found them most obstinate cases.
   The perspiratory glands sometimes become involved, and
we have profuse and debilitating discharges of perspiration,
and  a corresponding  diminution of the secretion from the
kidneys.   These  cases have not unfrequently been taken
for the "night-sweats" of consumption,  and treated ac-
cordingly, more especially if the lungs happen also to be a
seat of the reflex action.
   Over the beauty of  woman  the  ovaries have no little
influence.   It is  their influence which makes woman  beau-
tiful.  It is through their influence, when disea ed, that hei
beauty, bloom, and  v"gor are destroyed. 
138   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  "Beauty proudly possessed  itself of the materialism of
woman, and from  that  earthly throne performs the great
mystery of earthly exaltation.  Hence comes that panorama
of beings  and things which renders time as  a page  of
eternal love.
  "Living beauty, the  highest wrought of all life  and
being, contains irresistible powers of attraction and charm.
  " When we consider the vivid  and varying  sensibility of
woman, we cannot be surprised  that  she is enabled  to se-
cure the love of intelligence, captivating the imagination,
whilst she secures affection and respect.
  " The beauty of woman smiles over all time; and never
was there a pleasant place which was not made more tolerable
when woman's smile arrived : indeed, without  this presence,
Eden itself would have been a sad  and melancholy prison
for man.   It is true, she journeyed far from Paradise;  but
it was woman's beauty that lit up the camp of  the patriarch,
and  glittered  in  the wild path of his  wanderings.  Yes,
that smile of  Sarah's, which she could not hide, rendered
her a subject of affectionate solicitude when she  approached
the court of King Abiinelech.  It was the lovely Zipporah's
beauty which saved the life of one  of the wisest lawgivers.
When  King  Hamor  saw the beautiful Dinah,  he said.
'  Ask me, and I will give all; but give me the damsel as
my wife.'  Within  the smile and  at  the shrine  of  the
beauty of the  mighty Thermatis, the immense nation  of
Egypt  bowed  down.   The  august  bearing and loveliness
of Cleopatra,  Queen of Egypt, Empress of Marc Antony's
heart and bed, and mistress of Julius Caesar, will be a prov-
erb to  all time, — unparalleled in  the luxury of her state,
splendidly endowed of mind, resistless in the charms of her
person, daring, subtle, conqueror of Octavius  Caesar by his
very suicide, sagacious  in all  things  save in the want of
control over her voluptuous passions, of a pride perfectly
matchless in its splendor, of a beauty imposing, and bcdily
graces  commanding.   Who  will ever forget the beauty of 
Symptoms.                   139
Miriam, her dancers and singers ? the peerless Mariamne,
whose loveliness subdued the  tyrant  Herod?   When this
wonderful woman was crowned, through arch and aisle came
the swelling chorus of many hundred voices, in which the
soft, full tones of  woman were most thrilling,  whilst harp,
lute,  and timbrel  joined  in the  charming concert.   The
ceiling of azure and gold, reflecting the dazzling sunlight,
looked like a canopy of glory;  and while Herod and his
men of war stood in their panoply of steel, the fairest of the
fair of Israel's children, with their thousand charms (scarcely
shaded by the dim veil) were moving like dazzling stars.
Yet all these beings of beauty, and scenes of grandeur, owed,
their  exquisiteness to the presence of the smile of the fas-
cinating  Queen Mariamne.  When she smiled, the whole
court seemed in re very and impassioned delight.
  "The companion of Nimrod was the beautiful Semiramis,
the queen of a city containing a million inhabitants, on the
walls of which city three chariots could  be driven abreast.
The hanging gardens of Babylon were amongst the  many
evidences of  her taste and power.  She caused two palaces
to be built on the banks  of the great Euphrates : one of
these palaces extended eight miles, and was communicated
with  from  the palace on  the  other side of the river by a
tunnel under its natural bed.
  " Next appears the indomitable  spirit of Nitocres; after
whom comes  the  illustrious  wife of Nebuchadnezzar, of
whom the prophet  Daniel speaks.   All  gone to  appear no
more.  The golden city forever gone.  Let us  never forget
the faithful Thisbe, who died in fond love for one to whom
she had pledged her heart.  The beautiful Esther allayed
the anger of Ahasuerus, and saved  the  life of Mordecai.
Her transcendent  beauty and lovely  smile enchained this
mighty monarch.  The warlike  Cyrus was  conquered by
the  beautiful  Tomyris.  The  lovely  Atossa, daughter of
Cyius, and Queen of Darius, won  concessions from the
greatest conqueror, which preserv3d herself and her family. 
 t^o   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.'

   "With what a brilliant host of wonderful beings are  the
pages of history painted!  Yes, the fairest  of the  fair  (in
triumph of beauty) take important  and distinguished parts
in the great drama of the world."
   The very approving and innocent complacency we all feel
in the contemplation of beauty, whether it be that of a
landscape or a flower, is a sufficient witness that the pleas-
ure which pervades our heart at the sight of human charms
was planted there by the divine  Framer of all things as a
principle of delight and social attraction.
   Let religion and morality be the foundation of the female
character.   She may then seek  to beautify the structure,
without any danger to its safety.  When a girl is instructed
in the great purposes of her existence, that she is an im-
mortal being as well as  a mortal woman, one may, without
ill impressions,  show her, that as we admire the beauty of
the rose  as well as esteem its medicinal power, so  her per-
sonal charms will be dear in the  eyes of him whose heart is
occupied by the graces of her yet  more estimable mind.
We may safely teach a well-educated girl that virtue ought
to wear an inviting aspect.
   A celebrated writer says, " First ideas are, in general, of
considerable consequence.   I should therefore  think it wise
in the female  world to take care  that their appearance
should not convey a forbidding idea to  the most superficial
observer."   Another writer says, " A prepossessing  appear-
ance is  a perpetual letter  of recommendation."   Says a
philosopher, " Reverence thyself, not only with relation  to
the mind which directs, but to  the body which  executes.
God created the body not only for  usefulness, but  adorned
it with loveliness;  and what he has  made so pleasing shall
we disesteem, and refuse  to  apply  to  its admirable  desti-
nation ? "
   Belle Brittan says,  " Beauty is  the  ineffa le grace of
Nature, the smile of God, the light of the soul, the blessed ■
est amenity of human existence.  We  all look for it, long 
Symptoms.
141
  for  it,  from the cradle to the grave."  Again she  says,
  "Beauty  of person  is  often  decried,  deprecited,  and
  spoken of as a fatal  gift; as if the  Creator  hal made a
  mistake in conferring upon a human being that enchanting
  grace  of form  which pleases every eye, and  wins every
  heart!   And yet  where is the man who would not prefer
  the  beauty of Antinous to the  riches of Croesus ? or the
  woman who would not  rather possess the fabled beauty of
  Eve than the sceptre of an empress ?   The one is a divine
  gift, the other an earthly accident.  I  have heard  an  ugly
  woman speak  disparagingly of ' belles.'   Would not that
  same ugly woman < give all her old shoes,' and  a good deal
  more, to be  the  belle of the world?  The eye loves beauty
  as the ear loves  music.  It commands  a universal homage.
  Why, then, is it not  < cultivated' ?  Why, among the eight
  hundred millions of human beings upon the earth, is beauty
  the rare exception, and  not the  general rule ?   The cause
  is as radical as the defect is universal.    The natural laws
  which produce it are  wickedly violated and utterly disre-
  garded.
   " The children of men are  conceived in sin,  born in ini-
 quity,  bred  in  disobedience,  and therefore the world  is
 peopled with deformities.  Let us, for  instance, glance at
 the women of our acquaintance.   The  majority are ugly;
 many are good-looking; a  few are handsome;  and one or
 two.are  beautiful.  Whose fault is it that all are not ?  Of
 themselves and their progenitors.   For the sins  of our fore-
 fathers   and  foremothers  the living generation are  not
 responsible.  Not one can help  being born ill shapen and
 badly constituted, with eyes asquint,   and nose 'out  of
 drawing;' but (and  this brings me to a practical point)
 we can  make  the best  of what we are.   Health, strength,
 and beauty can be cultivated as well as the faculties of the
 mind and heart."
   Woman is ever the very materialism of beauty, the tem-
ple of eternal love, the real  presence  of all  that  is lovely 
142   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

and valuable.  Of what inexpressible importance, then, is
the pointing out the causes of the destruction, and the way
of preserving the perfection, of beauty!
  Disease of the menstrual organs  has in all ages,  among
civilized nations, destroyed the bloom, beauty, vigor, ani
life of woman.  The truth of this is fully attested in every
order of society.   We have but  to turn  our eyes, and we
see on  either  side  the withering  blights of this  fell
destroyer of youth and  beauty, like a voracious worm, bur-
rowing to the home  of death  these important organs, and
preparing its victim  for months and years  of  sufferings.
  If  proper  treatment be neglected, the general  health
becomes impaired,  the constitution broken, and the patient,
dispirited, despairing, dejected, becomes, oftentimes, scarcely
recognizable.   The full and  rounded  figure  becomes, by
degrees, wasted, lean, and attenuated.   The  bright  bloom,
golden clearness, and brilliant hues, are replaced  by sallow
tints, livid and dull.   The bright, laughing eyes,  so oft
caressed, so oft  flattered, whence issued so many flashes of
love, of beauty, of joy, of jealousy,  of coquetry, and which
shone with such soft brilliancy, sometimes sparkling with
playful  malice,  at others  languishing and  half  hidden
beneath  their long,  upturned fringes, become  veiled, like
dark diamonds, with a humid  vapor, dim  and sunken, and
seem  unnaturally  large from  the dark haloes which sur-
round them.    The  lips, lately  so  vermilion, so full, and
with a color as lively and velvety as the most resplendent
flower of the earth,  and seemingly formed  but for  kisses,
smiles, and happiness, become  thin,  and of a dark  violet
hue, resembling that which  has  displaced  the delicate
transparent coloring  of the cheeks and the rosy tips  of the
slender fingers.
  The appetite soon  fails, or a craving for slate, chslk, and
other such like substances, takes the place  of the  normal
desire for food; debility and exhaustion supervene ; and
finally the constitution becomes so undermined and broken, 
Symptoms.
143
 that  one might fancy that  the bright red blood, so short
 time ago coursing freely the veins, had been changed by
 the freezing  touch  of death into a  corpse-like lividness
 which now covers the lovely features.   The heavens  of her
 soul  become  clouded; not a star glimmers  in  their wide
 horizon ;  and as she  sees the sweet cup of  life falling from
 her lips,  and beholds herself a wreck, that, in  fancy, can
 never be repaired, that  must drift on through  life,  suffer-
 ing, despairing, pitied, — drift till the  fatal shore is touched,
 and the waves of time swallow up the  broken relics  of her
 forever, — the waves  of anguish  dash high over her soul, and
 she weeps in bitterness.
   That form  how  wasted and  how  weak! that face  how
 attenuated  and pale! with those eyes that are  so sunken,
 those lips that are so thin and  dull, those  cheeks that the
 blood now never tinges, that freshness of health and happi-
 ness  may  never visit  again!   Woful,  warning figure of
 dumb sorrow  and patient pain, that was once the picture of
 love and beauty and youth, the mortal  trinity of  this world's
 worship!
   This is  no fancy:   it is reality, seen and known  by all
 medical advisers.
   M. Georget very truly remarks, " There are few who can
 see without regret their attractions fading, and the flight of
 smiles and love, and the loss of the empire of beauty.   These
 losses  are felt the more keenly,  because it is from others
 that the first knowledge of them is derived; for self-love
 makes many struggles,  and  the unwelcome  persuasion is
 only established after many mortifications."
   The preservation of the health of the female form is of no
 insignificant importance.   With  its health, we  necessarily
 maintain its symmetry and improve its beauty.
   To all young ladies especially who make personal appear-
 ance and attraction a study, this is of no insignificant con-
sideration; for who among them would not  andergo  any
treatment; any privation, subject  themselves to almost  any 
  144    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  amount of human endurance, ay, even perform a pilgrimage
  to  Mecca, could  they exchange their shrunken, thin, atten-
  uated, and bony appearance, that so much taxes  the inge-
  nuity of the dressmaker to conceal, for the full and rounded
  figure; could they exchange the  sallow tints for the bright
  bloom, golden clearness, and brilliant hues; the dim, sunken
  eye for the bright, laughing eye which shines with such soft
  brilliancy; the pale,  thin lip for the  full  vermilion lip of
  health?   How  little do they  dream that they are so fre-
  quently deprived of these personal attractions  through that
  fell destroyer of female beauty,  disease of the menstrual
  organs, and  that, to possess  or regain them, their  only
  hope  is  in a judicious  treatment directed towards reliev-
  ing an irritated, congested, and inflamed condition of those
  organs!   This is their only course:  all  others will prove
  unavailing.  All other  remedies,  concocted,  though- they
  may be, in Medea's caldron, will have no other effect than to
  exercise the faith and patience  of the credulous sufferer; for
  when  this infirmity  comes with  its pale  brow and sallow
  tints, and the gradual decay of those physical and personal
  attractions which have heretofore commanded the  flattering
  homage of society, it is folly to seek for renewal of youthful
  charms, without attacking and  dissipating the  morbid pro-
  cess that is destroying them.   This done, what do you then
  behold?   You see the health begin at once to improve.  The
  complexion recovers  its former tint.  A new deposit of fat
  gives roundness to the limbs, and the patient begins to recover
  the beauty and grace and  attraction of  her  earlier days.
  The soul at once rouses, bounds with activity, and fills with
  its conceptions a new world.  The faculties revive and ex-
  pand.   The heart glows more warmly.   The affections take
  a more  ardent tone.  All  that was  before feeble  and  in-
  decisive now assumes the firmness of  purpose.  The slum-
  bering, feeble  fires  are blown into flame; and that flame
0- stimulates, supports, pervades every action.  A new being
  takes possession; and the whole  moral and physical system
  sustains a complete revolution. 
Symptoms.
M5
  Thousands of females there are that are suffering from
more or less of the above symptoms, — some with one train of
symptoms, and some with another; and, when brought to the
attention of  their medical adviser, how little does he often-
times understand the  true nature of the case or the  true
seat of the disease !
  Without seeking advice, the patient may submit to them
for years, perhaps; but, should she at last find them so wea-
risome to mind and body as to be led to  seek  advice, she
will be, perhaps, treated for  some "disease of the womb,"
for  " falling  of  the womb," or irritation, congestion, inflam-
mation, or ulceration of that organ.
  This, in a great measure, is owing to the opinion adopted
by Hippocrates, and-still too implicitly beheved, — that  the
womb is the principal organ of the generative  system, and
that to the morbid condition of this organ are to be attribut-
ed  almost all the sufferings of woman.  Ocular inspection
and attentive manual  examination,  however, will, in most
instances, prove that the womb is not painful when touched;
nor does it present much, if any, appearance of disease.
               10 
V.
                     CAUSES.

     THE causes of inflammation of the  menstrual organs
      are those conditiqns, incidences, or influences  which
precede it, and to the operation of which its occurrence  is
due.
  These influences  may be  internal or external.   They
may exist within the body, and sufficient of themselves to
induce the disease independently of any external influence:
for  example, a diseased neighboring organ  or tissue may
transmit a  morbid stimulus  to  and induce in the  ovaria
diseased action ; or an excess or deficiency, or diseased state,
of the blood circulating in the ovaries, may prove a stimulus
to disease.  Or these influences  may be wholly external;
for example, exposure to variable  temperatures, mechanical
influences, sensual impressions, &c.
  But internal or  external influences — a diseased neigh-
boring organ, an abnormal  state  of the blood, exposure to
variable temperatures, mechanical influences, sensual im-
pressions,  &c. — do not  always  produce  this disease,
and for the reason that the menstrual organs, from  their
healthy condition and tonicity, are able to ward off or resist
the morbid influence or stimulus.
  This power of the ovaries to resist morbid  stimulus varies
much in different females, and  at different times  in the
same female.    Whatever lessens this  power,  whatever
has the effect of lowering the healthful  conditions of those
organs, constitutes what is termed a predisposing influence
or cause.
             146 
Causes.
H7
   Besides the predisposing cause, there is also the exciting
 cause ; and the co-operation of both is generally necessary
 to induce disease, — the first, by lowering the powers of the
 system, and  lessening the  vital  powers of the menstrual
 organs to resist  morbid impressions or influences, which
 morbid impressions or influences are the exciting causes.
 Take examples.   Sensual impressions are often an exciting
 cause of this disease.   A female may have been frequently
 exposed to this cause, yet have suffered no ill effects.   The
 exciting cause was powerless to induce disease, because no
 predisposing cause had lowered the vital powers, or lessened
 the  power of the menstrual  organs to  resist  the  morbid
 stimulus of the sensual impressions.
   A female becomes subject to the evil effects of dissipation,
 late hours, loss of sleep, &c, or fatigues her body  and mind
 by excessive exertion.  The dissipation, the late hours, loss
 of sleep, the excessive exertion of the body or mind, lower
 the  power of the system, weaken, debilitate, and lessen the
 power  of  the menstrual  organs to  resist  the action of
 morbid stimulus;  but she experiences no ill effects, for the
 reason  that the predisposing cause  is powerless to induce
 disease without an exciting cause.  Let her, however, be-
 come subject to  the  exciting cause, sensual impressions,
 and  the  consequence  is inflammation  of the  menstrual
 organs.  In the first instance,  the exciting was insufficient
 to induce disease without the  predisposing; in the second
 instance, the predisposing was insufficient without the ex-
 citing cause.
   In some  cases,  however,  predisposing  causes, when  suf-
 ficiently strong, become the exciting and  only cause of the
 disease.  So also may  exciting causes, if sufficiently strong,
 induce disease when there has been no predisposition.
   As is seen, the causes of  inflammation  of  the menstrual
organs may be internal or  external, and are divided into
predisposing and exciting causes. 
148   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

                PREDISPOSING CAUSES.
  Predisposing causes are influences which lower the powers
of the system, and  lessen the  ability of the ovaries  to
resist morbid stimulus without inducing actual disease.   It
should be remembered, however, that predisposing causes,
when sufficiently strong, become exciting causes.
  We shall now direct attention to the more  important  of
the predisposing causes.
  Imperfect  Nourishment,   from  defect  either   as
regards quantity or quality of food, or from incapacity  of
the digestive powers, enfeebles the heart,  impairs the tone
of the arteries, induces an irritability of the nervous system,
and renders the ovaries and  other organs of the  economy
more  or less susceptible to the action  of morbid stimulus.
  The body is always changing.   It is  constantly under-
going a waste, and continually making a demand on the
blood for its restoration.  The muscular, nervous, bony, and
other textures of the  body, having lasted for a longer  or
shorter time, become broken down, and their  particles dis-
placed, dissolved, and  absorbed into the blood,  and by it
carried to the kidneys, skin, and other eliminating organs,
to be  thrown out from the system.
  Food is a restorative medicine,  a specific for the disease
hunger, — a  disease  caused  by a demand from  the  blood
for  the  restoration of its  failing constituents.  The con-
stituents of  the  blood  become impoverished  by reason  of
the demand made on them by the body, whose particles are
constantly wasting, and as  constantly requiring renewal,
which renewal can come only from the blood.   " The  blood
is the floating capital lying between  absorption and  nutri-
tion, — a treasury liable to continuous drafts  from the lat-
ter, and requiring, therefore, constant supplies  from the
former to keep up its efficiency." — Dr. Chambers.
  The purpose, then, of food is to supply material for the
growth  and  for the repair of the waste of  the body, to 
Causes.
149
maintain its temperature and the various functions at the
healthy  standard.   Out of the  materials of the food, the
blood  is  elaborated and all the tissues  constructed;  and
therefore it should  be of a quality which  best  suits the
powers of digestion  and the wants of the system  for nour-
ishment and  warmth.   This quality will be found to be
that which consists  in  mixed proportions and varieties of
animal and vegetable.
   Nature's aliment, milk, contains albumen, oil, sugar, and
water ; and food best suited to maintain the general health
will be found to include these four elements, each  of which
is essential, and has its proper function in the system.
   Fish, fowl,  bread  (gluten, which is vegetable  albumen),
lean of meat, milk (caseine), furnish albumen to the blood,
and are essential to  the formation of the muscular, nervous,
and other tissues of the body, with the  exception of fat.
This element, without a proper admixture  of the  others,
induces vascular fulness of the blood-vessels, and conduces
to congestion, inflammation, hemorrhage, gout, &c.   Animal
food is more  easily digested  than vegetable in many cases
of dyspepsia.   Gouty  and plethoric individuals, however,
should restrict its use.  Vegetable is more deficient in those
essential  mineral  ingredients, salt and lime, than animal
food.
   It is not essential  to the  general reader that we  should
pause here for the purpose of recapitulating the arguments
in favor of and  against the opinion, that instead of the
fibrine of the blood entering into the formation of tissues,
as has been generally supposed, it is rather the result of the
breaking-down of the same, and made up of the effete and
worn-out matter of the system, seeking its way to the dif-
ferent  glands  which  are  charged with the office of purging
the blood of all morbid materials.
  Butter, oil,  fat  of meat, &c, are essential requisites for
the formation  of the fatty textures or adipose tissues, and
other structures of the  body, and for the  maintenance of 
 150   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 animal  heat by respiration :  hence the  large consumption
 of oil by the Esquimaux  and those  living  in  the higher
 latitudes.   Without this  element, the  body shrinks, and
 loses  its smooth and pleasing outline; the skin  becomes
 shrunken, harsh, dry, husky, wrinkled, and the mucous pas-
 sages deficient in their peculiar secretion.  This (lenient in
 excess, or without a proper admixture of the others, leads to
 a superabundant deposit in the adipose tissue, and conduces
 to obesity, besides deranging the organs of digestion, and
 inducing diseases of  the skin and liver, through which the
 excess is carried off: hence boils, and other diseases of the
 sebaceous follicles, skin-diseases, bilious complaints, gout, &c.
  Fruit, vegetables, &c.,  containing saccharine matter, also
 the farinaceous  preparations, such as arrow-root,  tapioca,
 sago, and the like, which  are identical  in their  ultimate
 composition with sugar, servo as diluents  to the  two for-
 mer elements, albumen and oil; rendering them  not  only
 more acceptable to the stomach, but more easy of digestion.
 This element promotes the secretions, and purifies the blood ;
 prevents an excited circulation, feverishness, and vascular
 fulness, which might result in congestion and inflammation ;
 assists in  neutralizing and  eliminating lithic acid,  and
 prevents the occurrence of gout and gravel.
  The  last  element, water, is  requisite for reducing the
 other elements to a state of solution fitted for the formation
 of blood and other fluids of the body, and should be taken
 with each meal  to assist in  the  breaking-down and solu-
 tion of the solid parts of the  focd.
  It is not only essential that the  above elements should
 constitute the ordinary sustenance, but requisite that  they
 should be of good quality.  The gluten of badly-baked and
 heavy bread and pastry,  the fibrine  of stale and salted
meats, tainted and rancid butter and oils, weaken the func-
tions of the stomach.  Assimilation becomes imperfect, the
blood becomes badly nourished,  feebleness ensues, and the
powers of the system become lowered.   Bread and pastry 
Causes.                     15!
should not only be well baked, but the grain from which
the flour is manufactured  should  be free from impurities,
of the best quality,  and  contain more or  less bran;  for
very white and refined flour contains less  gluten, is less
nutritious, and more constipating.   Fresh  meat  is  more
nutritious, of easier digestion and  assimilation, than salted.
Meat of  young full-grown animals is more  nutritious and
easier  of digestion than that of animals older.  Beef and
pork  contain  a large proportion  of fat, mutton somewhat
less, veal still  less;  and in the flesh of fowl,  game, and
fish, there is only a small quantity.
   Excessive Nourishment. — When the appetite is pam-
pered by highly-seasoned dishes, or when it is inordinate,
and large quantities of  nutriment  are consumed, the diges-
tive organs  become  overburdened, overtasked, distended,
and irritated.   More  food is taken than  is required by the
system.   Nutrition exceeds the waste.  The  blood-vessels
become distended with  blood;  and inflammatory disorders,
hemorrhages,  plethora, apoplexy, and  gout may be  the
result,   the latter more  particularly.    Excess  of food,
more  especially if of a highly nitrogenized character, as
well also as an imperfectly-acting- digestive function, pre-
venting  the proper formation of chyme, leads  to excessive
formation of uric acid in the system, and tends powerfully
to the development of gout; which poison may, through the
monthly stimulus  transmitted from  the  ovaries, become
localized in  the fibrous tissues  of  the womb, and  those
painful  infirmities — dysmenorrhoea, irritable uterus, &c,
be lighted up.
   Excess of food, and mal-assimilation, tending to formation
of uric  acid and development of gout, may not only involve
the generative, but other organs and tissues of the economy. ^
Uric acid in excess circulating in  the blood very frequently '
gives rise to secondary dyspepsia  with its usual accompani-
ments, heart-burn, acid eructation,  distention of stomach
and bowels, tarnished,  swoUen,  and unhealthy-looking skin, 
 152    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

 sleeplessness and bad dreams, palpitation of the heart, pain
 in the side, constipated  bowels, and  a scanty secretion of
 high-colored and  acid urine, which, on cooling,  deposits
 sediments of crystallized uric acid, varying in color from a
 brick-dust red to a pale yellow.
   Wine-bibbing is injurious. It over-stimulates the stomach,
 and injures digestion.  If  food be in  good quantity,  and
 of good and nutritious  quality, it stimulates  the  stomach
 as far  as  is consistent  with healthy action.   If to  this
 stimulation be  added the  stimulus  of liquors, over-stimu-
 lation and weakening of the powers of the  stomach  and
 the system generally will be the result.
   Imperfect and excessive nourishment alike induce  symp-
 toms of vascular and  nervous irritation  and general weak-
 ness.  The powers of the  system become  lowered, feeble-
 ness  ensues, and  the  ovaries and  the different organs of the
 economy, participating in the general weakness, become less
 able to resist the action of morbid stimulus.
   Habitual indulgence of an inordinate appetite for food,
 frequent recourse to  liquors, habits  of intemperance,  late
 hours, loss of sleep (all tending to the  impairment  of the
 tone of  the digestive  and assimilating organs, impoverish-
 ment  of the blood, and debilitation of the vital  powers),
 induce decay, loss of the enduring tone of the muscular and
 other solid tissues of the body, and a condition of system
 that would, in  a young beauty, not  only lose her all her
 charms, but render  her pre-eminently susceptible  to the
 stimulus of morbid action ; and if, with this condition of
 system, this susceptibility  to disease, she becomes subject
 to continued and repeated  incitations of the nervous and
 sexual  systems, 'disease  of the menstrual  organs will
 inevitably result,  with  all its multiplied and distressing
' symptoms.
   We will let an English lady speak for us.  What  she, in
 1811, wrote to her  young lady  friends,  loses none of  its
 force from the lapse of time that  has since intervened. She 
Causes.
153
Bays, " A young beauty, were she as fair as Hebe, and ele-
gant as the Goddess of Love herself, would soon  lose these
charms by a course of immoderate eating,  drinking, and
late hours.   Some of my  readers  may start at  this idea,
and wonder how it can be  that  any lady could  be guilty
of either immoderate eating  or drinking.   But  when  I
speak  of inordinate eating, &c, I do not  mean  feasting
like a  glutton, or  drinking  to  intoxication.  My objec-
tion is not more against  the quantity than the quality
of the dishes which constitute the usual repast  of women
of fashion.  Their breakfast not  only sets forth tea, coffee,
and chocolate, but hot bread, and butter.  The last two,
when taken constantly,  are hostile to health and female
delicacy.  The heated grease, which is their principal in-
gredient, deranges the stomach.   After this meal, a long
and exhausting fast not unfrequently succeeds, from nine or
ten in the morning till six  or seven in the  evening, when
dinner  is served  up; and the half-famished beauty sits
down to sate a keen appetite  with  spiced  soups, fish, roast
and boiled  meats, game, tarts, sweetmeats, ices, fruits, &c.
How must the constitution suffer  under the digestion of
this melange I   How does the heated complexion bear wit-
ness to  the combustion  within !   And when we  consider
that the beverage  she takes to dilute this mass of food, and
assuage the consequent fever in her stomach, is not merely
water, but  Champagne, Madeira, and other wines, foreign
and domestic, you cannot wonder that I  should warn the
inexperienced creature against intemperance.
  " The  superabundance of aliment which she takes  in  at
this time is  not only destructive to  beauty,  but the period
of such repletion  is full of other dangers.   Long fasting
wastes the  powers of digestion,  and weakens the springs
of life.   In this enfeebled state, at  the  hour whc u Nature
intends you should prepare for general repose, you put your
stomach and animal spirits to  extraordinary exertion; your
vital forces are  overtasked and overloaded; and thus almost 
154  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

every complaint that distresses and  destroys  the  human
frame may be engendered.  I am fully persuaded that long
fasting, late dinners, and the excessive repletion then taken
into the stomach, with the tight pressure of stiffened stays
on the most  susceptible part of  the frame  then called into
action, and the  midnight, nay, morning hours of lingering
pleasure, are positive causes of disease ; and delicate propor-
tion gives place either to miserable leanness  or shapeless
fat; the once fair skin assumes  a pallid rigidity or a bloated
redness which the vain possessor would still  regard as the
roses of health.  To repair  these ravages  comes the aid
of padding  to  give  shape  where there is none, stays to
compress into form the chaos of flesh, and paints of all hues
to rectify the disorder of  the complexion.  But useless are
these attempts."
  No one certainly can question for a moment the truth of
the above.   Excesses, with their multiplicity of morbid ex-
citements, and in citation of the sexual system, are directly
and indirectly  among  the  leading predisposing  causes of
the disease under consideration ; and when dissipation  and
immoderation, with all their enervating and weakening  in-
fluences which exhaust the powers  of life,  have engendered
disease of the menstrual organs, let them  be abandoned, or
expect no lasting benefit from treatment, no matter how
judicious or well advised  it may be.
   Impure Air. — Confinement in ill-ventilated rooms and
crowded cities is another debilitating,  predisposing cause of
this disease.  To  the  former especially  may be imputed
many of the ills that woman is heir  to.  The  pernicious
and barbarous practice of crowding three or four, or half  a
dozen, young persons into one small  sleeping-apartment, as
is often the case in some of our boarding-schools, must  not
pass unnoticed. To this alone may be ascribed the com-
mencement of  ill health in thousands of young  women.
They breathe in a contaminated atmosphere, and take into
their system through the lungs a  poison  as deleterious in 
Causes.
155
its effects as the deadliest miasm.  They take in, in fact, a
poison substantially the  same  as the fumes of burning
charcoal, which, when inhaled, produce death.  It has been
stated that the body is always changing;  that  it is con-
stantly  undergoing a waste;  that the muscular, nervous,
bony, and other tissues of the body, after  having lasted for
a longer or shorter time,  become broken down, and  their
particles displaced, dissolved, and  absorbed  into  the  blood,
and by it carried to the lungs  and the skin,  as well as to the
kidneys, liver, and other eliminating  organs, to be thrown
out of the  system.  The quantity  thrown  off by each person
during a single night is not less than sixteen ounces.   This
may be readily verified by stepping on to  the scales in the
morning, and it will be discovered that a pound in weight
has been lost during  the night.   These sixteen  ounces of
matter  lost have been thrown out  of  the system  partly
by the  way of the lungs, and partly by  the way of the
pores.  The escaped material is made up of carbonic acid,
decayed animal matter,  or poisonous exhalations,  and  is
diffused through the air in part,  and  in  part absorbed  by
the bed-clothes.   Half an  ounce of cotton burnt  in  a room
every half-hour for eight hours would render the atmosphere
almost unendurable ; yet the sixteen ounces of cotton-smoke
are far less poisonous than sixteen ounces  of effete and worn-
out matter of  the body thrown out into  the atmosphere by
the lungs and skin.   If, then, the sixteen ounces of matter
thrown off by one person  are so pernicious to health, what
must be the deleterious effects of  breathing an  atmosphere
contaminated with the poisonous exhalations of half a dozen!
The blood becomes slowly poisoned by the inhalation  of an
excess  of  carbonic acid.   It  is insufficiently supplied with
oxygen  (which  by its contact with the matter of the  brain
generates  nerve-power) ;  and faulty  innervation, imperfect
development, impaired  physical  power,  languor,  a  pallid
cachectic complexion, diminished  secretions and  excretions,
are the consequence.   If combined with inactivity and indo-
i 
 156   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

lence,  it  conduces to the development of scrofulous  and
tuberculous matter.
   The\vant of pure  air  in our crowded cities is another
fruitful source, not only of the disease under consideration,
but of a multiplicity of other diseases.  How striking the
contrast  between  the vigorous rustic with  his  ruddy cheek
and stalwart frame, and the pale and sallow-tinted counte-
nance and faded looks of the townsman !  Compare the health-
glowing  countenance of the village  dame, and her fully-
developed figure, which tell of pure air and bracing exercise,
with the pale cheek, sunken eye, thin, bony, and elongated
figure  of the  city miss!  What is the cause  of  this vast
difference ?   None other  than the  noxious and weakening
influences of city  life, — the want  of pure air and exer-
cise, late hours and nocturnal dissipations, small  and ill-
ventilated rooms, narrow  and filthy streets, with  no open
spaces, parks, or gardens.   But what matter !   If our rooms
are small and ill-ventilated, if our streets  are  narrow  and
filthy, if we  give  but little heed  to  proper  sewerage,  and
if we have  no open  spaces or  parks, we  have plenty of
churches.  If we have no physical reformers, we have plenty
of preachers.  If we care nothing for woes too deep for tears;
nothing  for  little  children,  with  their pale  and  sickly
faces, blear-eyed, covered with eruptions, with rickety  limbs,
and scrofula written in every feature; if we care  nothing
for men  and women  weakened,  enervated, prematurely old
and haggard; if  we care nothing  for bodies of  helpless
human beings,— we give devoted attention and enthusiasm
to their souls.  If we build our tenement-houses without
any  regard to ventilation,  comfort, or health, and  locate
them in narrow and filthy streets where land  is compara-
tively cheap;  and if, to swell our monthly income for rent,
we crowd fifty or a hundred families into a single  build-
ing with no  grass-plot attached, square, or garden for  the
languishing and suffocated little  children, — do we not build
for their  reception  magnificent hospitals and asylums  which 
Causes.
1S7
make our breasts swell with pride is w. gaze on the archi-
tectural beauties of these splendid edifices?   If we do not
widen streets, or  open squares  an I par is, or build whole-
some cottages in  healthy localities for  the poor artisan, do
we not  spend thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands,
of dollars yearly in printing tracts and hiring col porters
to look after  his  spiritual  being?  What  is  the  physical
compared with  the  spiritual being !
  Six days in  the  week the poor artisan  is  entombed in
musty, airless rooms by his constant, sedentary employment.
Sunday is his only day of  respite from a monotonous life
of work.  Do we give him  (heap railway-trains to tempt
him to go out on that day from between bricks and mortar
to breathe the fresh pure air of the country ?   Do we give
him  public gardens and promenades, with  musical bands,
and various  social  amusements,  where, free  and  uninter-
rupted,  he may sing and dance, bracing lungs  and limbs,
and lighten the burden of his cares with every hearty laugh,
and lay in a stock of health  and happiness and  content
to carry him through the week ?  Not  precisely; but we
invite, nay, legislate, and indeed press upon him, to put aside
mirth and frivolity, and put on a serious cast of mind :  we
exhort him to spend his only holiday in hearing the Word,
and in reading religious books; and, if his  employment or
standing in societ}' depends on his sober and sedate deport-
ment and constant  attendance at  the house of worship, lie
is placed under a restraint most galling, the effects of which
will be destructive in the extreme.  He requires fresh  air
and exercise ; he requires amusements.  His physical being
demands it.   Any infringement on a physical law is as much
a crime as the breaking of  a  moral one.  The human  body
ought to  be  reverenced;  and the laws of health should
claim the highest place in man's  respect.   It  is as incum-
bent on him  to live a virtuous physical life  as a moral one.
The  one deserves  as great  admiration and praise as the
other. 
 158   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   What a work is here for the physical reformer!  We are
 no niggardly people.    We  spend  our   money lavishly.
 Works  of art, magnificent  buildings, churches, and monu-
 ments to the dead, attest to the truth of this; but of how
 much more value than all  the churches, monuments, or in-
 stitutions, would be the making provision  for the pl^sical
 well-being of our citizens, remodelling our old towns and
 the  poor's quarter,  widening streets, opening parks and
 gardens, which are the lungs of  a large town, and building
 for our  poor, hard-working artisans rows of well-ventilated
 and convenient cottages in healthy localities!
   The secret recesses, lanes, and alleys of all our large cities
 are the  foci  of disease ; and noxious exhalations  and cor-
 ruption riot in them at pleasure.  They require remodelling
 to admit pure air; for those who are obliged to  live in these
 localities are  gasping, languishing, and dying for  the want
 of it; are growing up withered  and stunted, or  dying  of
 scrofula and typhus.
   " Five hundred thousand people are  crowrded into  the
 tenement-houses of  this city (New York).  In  the  main,
 they are herded into apartments  of the smallest  and most
 inconvenient description, falling far  short  of  the require-
 ments  of recognized sanitary laws.   Physiologists  assert
that  each person should  have at least fifty square feet of
area, and seven hundred cubic feet  of air space.  In the
ordinary tenement-houses there  are only about fifteen feet
of ground area, and three hundred and  seventeen  cubic
 feet  of  air space to each  person.   Even  this insufficient
 supply is materially diminished, if we confine our remarks
 to the dormitories.   Considering the vitiated  atmosphere
 which the occupants of  this sort of dwellings are forced to
breathe, it is scarcely to  be  wondered at  that  scrofulous
 and  pulmonary complaints are general, and that the death-
rate  is  out  of proportion to that  of London and  other
cities.   Something, therefore, ought to be done to improve
the ventilation  of our  tenement-houses." — Sunday Times,
April 4, 18,69. 
Causes.                     159
  Want  of  Daily  Exercise. — The  want  of daily
exercise in the open air is one of the most fruitful predis-
posing causes  of this disease.   The healthy vigor of all the
functions of the body and mind, which can  only be main-
tained by  active  exercise  under the health-invigorating
stimulus of pure air and sunshine, becomes lessened  and
weakened by the torpor of indolence and  inactivity.  The
muscles are the first affected, parting with  their strength
and tonicity.  From an enervated muscular system,  the cir-
culation becomes defective and languid, and the extremities
fail to receive their necessary supply of blood:  hence cold
feet  and hands,  and dry skin, while the internal  viscera,
from an unequable circulation, are in a state  of  congestion
and engorgement:  hence  congested liver, hemorrhoids, con-
stipation,  indigestion,  &c.   Respiration  being but little
exercised, the effete matters of the blood, which should be
eliminated through the lungs, are retained in the circulation,
and thrown back for elimination upon the liver, the skin,
and  the kidneys :  hence  congestion, inflammation, indura-
tion of the liver, and deranged digestive organs, erysipelas,
and  other  diseases of the  skin,  disease of the  kidneys,
Bright's disease, dropsy,  rheumatism, gout, &c, may arise,
and for the reason that an organ through which effete mat-
ters  of the blood are  eliminated is  exceedingly prone  to
take on  inflammatory action  from over-stimulation when
forced to eliminate not  only  its own share of poisonous,
effete matters, but poisons that should be sent  out of the
system through other organs.
   After scarlet-fever, when the kidneys are suddenly called
upon to eliminate a large quantity of  morbid material from
the blood, congestion of those organs is often induced from
the excess of poison, and  the urine is diminished, and dropsy
results.   " A great accumulation  of the  elements of one
secretion, from defective action of one organ,  may so inter-
fere with  the functions of others as at length to derange
them ; for it is unreasonable  to suppose that the  kidneys 
160   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

can long eliminate  bile or other matters foreign to their
duty, as they are often called on  to  do when the  liver is
obstructed, without  embarrassing their functions, and  per-
haps endangering the integrity of their structure;  or  that
mucous membranes  can long perform the  function  of the
skin, in addition to  their own, without  injury, as they en-
deavor to do when perspiration is checked." — Henry Hunt,
M.D., London.
  We will here take the occasion  to  remark that Bright's
disease, dropsy, rheumatism, gout, &c, cannot be regarded
as diseases, — substantive diseases, — but rather symptoms
of a disease, and that  disease  a poisoned condition  of the
blood, brought about by, and inducing, faulty secretions and
excretions, or derangement and closure of one or more of
the outlets through  which decarbonized and effete matters
are sent out of the circulation ; and  requiring a treatment
directed not to the deranged  kidney or liver, but to  that
which caused the derangement, viz., poisoned blood.
   So long as the blood-poison remains to derange the func-
tion and structure of the kidney, it would be just about as
sage an undertaking to search for the philosopher's stone
in a dandy's dressing-case as to seek to cure Bright's disease
by remedies directed to the kidneys.  And why ?  Because
effects are doctored  instead of  causes,  symptoms  instead of
diseases, and names instead of things.  But it may be said'
that post-mortem  examination   reveals extensive  disease
of the kidneys, and that peculiar disorganization known as
Bright's disease.   True:  so  will  a  further examination
disclose a disease of the liver, of the skin, and of the lungs.
When blood-poison  causes death, all the  eliminating organs
will be found  to have become more  or less compromised.
While speaking of  the changes in the urine consequent on
a poisoned state of  the blood, Dr. Hunt  makes the  follow-
ing remark: " I have dwelt at this length on these points
for another reason,  viz., the prevailing habit of  attributing
changes in the urine to an erroneous action of the kidneys; 
Causes.
161
whereas the fault more frequently lies in  the  materi?.l  (the
blood) to be distilled, than in the kidneys, the apparatus of
distillation."
  When we speak of blood-disease, we mean  not to be un-
derstood, that, having traced disease back to  the blood, we
are content: we are very well aware that the blood itself
is dependent for its constitution  on the results of the
primary  digestion  in the alimentary  canal, and that its
disease is  not  unfrequently, very often,  in fact, associated
with the quality or composition  of the digestive fluid.
  The healthy vigor of all the  organs  and tissues  is only
maintained by exercise in the open air.  Without  exer-
cise, neither respiration nor circulation can fully  accomplish
the purposes which  it is intended to serve.  Without  exer-
cise, the stomach becomes weakened, the  digestive processes
changed, and the chyle poor in  quality.   Without exercise,
the blood fails to be duly propelled to all  the  capillary ves-
sels ;  and they consequently become inadequately nourished,
while others become overloaded and oppressed.  Exercise
quickens the pulsations, and causes deep inspirations: the
air rushes to every portion of the lungs, and the blood  sent
thither by the heart becomes  highly oxygenated.  After
taking in its supply of oxygen,  the  blood is  brought  back
to the heart, and by it injected into the brain, where, by
the contact of the  oxygen with the matter  of the brain,
nerve-power  or nerve-force is  generated, and  sent down
throughout the system, invigorating, strengthening, inner-
vating every muscle, every fibre and nerve, every bone, in
fact every tissue,  of  the  body.   To this nerve-power gener-
ated in the brain, every organ and tissue  owes its healthful
vigor, its strengthened and innervated condition.  Without
this  nerve-power, the organs and  tissues would die.   The
red globules of blood are the receivers of  the  oxygen in the
lungs, and the carriers of it to the brain.   If  these oxygen-
carriers are in  good numbers, in  other words, if the blood
be healthy, and rich in red  globules,  and  this condition be
             u 
162    Woman, and her Thirty  Year* Pilgrimage.

main ained by being constantly supplied by good and nutri-
tious  food  as well as properly oxygenated in the lungs
by exercise in the  open  air, an invigorating nerve-power
will be constantly  generated, and  sent down  throughout
the system, sufficient to maintain it  in perfect health.
  Indolence deranges the functions of Nature, and none
moie  than  the menstrual function.   Woman can no more
thrive  without sun, fresh air, and  exercise, than  can the
flower.  A  plant springing up under a shelter, and deprived
of exercise  occasioned by the winds  and the  stimulus of the
sun and pure air, loses its  bright  tints and  colors, pales
and droops.  So is  it with woman confining herself within
doors.   She, too, loses her bright tints  and colors,  becomes
enervated and weakened; and  the  slightest breeze of ac-
cident, the  least morbid stimulus, is sufficient  to light up
in her system  disease wherever  the susceptibility is the
greatest: and no organs throughout her economy  are so
pre-eminently susceptible to disease as the menstrual organs.
And why ?    Because  of their congestion  produced by the
process of menstruation.
  "There is a vital relation between sunshine and a vigor-
ous human  being.   Seclusion from  sunshine is one of the
greatest  misfortunes of civilized  life.    The  same  cause
which makes potato-vines white and sickly when grown in
dark cellars operates to produce the pale, sickly girls that
are reared in our parlors.   Expose either to the direct  rays
of the  sun,  and  they begin to show color,  health, and
strength." — Dr.  Dio  Lewis.
  If a young  woman would be well shaped and well con-
ditioned, and  would escape  pain  and  the doctor;  if she
would have grace and elasticity of movement, color in her
cheeks, and admirable proportion in her limbs ;  if she would
have a faultless foot and ankle, limbs of swelling proportion,
the flesh firm, and the  shape such  as no sculptor could
improve, — she must avail herself of sunshine,  and use due
exercise on  foot.   Three, four, five, or six miles a day is not 
Causes.
163
any too much exercise for a woman in nspectable  health.
Horseback-riding is an excellent auxiliary, as it gives much
the same motion, with double the animation, in consequence
of the change of air and variation of objects.  Carriage-
exercise is too lazy an exercise to do much good, unless the
female is an absolute invalid, and walking  too fatiguing,
and horseback-riding out of the question.
   Morning country air is the finest bracer to the  nerves,
and the  surest brightener to  the complexion.   Then every
thing  around — the gardens  covered  with flowers,  resem-
bling one  gigantic bouquet;  the  air  embalmed, saturated,
with the odors of thousands of flowers; the rolling sheet of
green meadows and cornfields ; the lawns and green hedge-
rows sparkling  like diamonds with  dew; the  checkered
squares  of cultivation;   glittering  brooks; high elms and
maples, with leaves green and transparent in the sunlight,
and trembling to  the  slightest breathings  of the wind;
vines  bending under their  delicious  burdens; verdant
meadows checkered with groups of cattle ; and birds of  all
kinds warbling, and fluttering from branch to branch, and
vying  with each other  in their happy choruses — speaks
peace to the heart, and awakens  piety and  contentment.
The air rings with joy.   All Nature  is rejoicing.   Under
such stimulus, such influences, such inhalations, perfumes,
and sweet emanations of Nature,  and shut out from  the
fallacious glitter of a false and malicious world, can exer-
cise  promote other than  generous aspirations,  elevation  of
soul, calm and  proud serenity of mind,  healthful looks,
cheerful  mien, and  hardy and invigorated frames ?
  The salutary benefit produced by pure air as experienced
in exercise out of doors, rides and drives in the country, is
universally  acknowledged.  But pure, free air is not any
the less essential to the maintenance of the general  health
than is a variety of its qualities: hence those living  inland
should avail themselves  of the benefit to be derived from
the air of the seacoast; those on the seacoast, from  the air 
164   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

of the  inland;  and those in the valleys, from the air of the
mountains.  To obtain the  greatest amount of good from
the variety of its qualities, travelling alternately by sea and
by land should  be adopted.
  Excessive Exertion  of  the Mind. — As  with the
body, so with the mind, — due exercise and activity, with
variety of excitement and relaxation, contribute to its well-
being.   But when the kind  and amount of mental  exercise,
or its long continuance, exceed what the strength can bear
or rest recruit, the animal functions become exhausted and
lose their balance.
   One of the earliest, and perhaps most frequent, predispos-
ing  causes of the  disease  under  consideration is the fa-
tiguing mental  labor of educational discipline and  culture.
From false and fatal notions that  mental  endowments are
matters of  the highest importance, and most worthy objects
of ambition,  the endowments which are  merely  physical
are entirely overlooked, or regarded as matters of secondary
importance.   Formerly  it  was  the custom to look upon
physical strength as the highest excellence ; and exercise by
games, feats of agility and strength, were instituted, which
called  into play all  the  muscles of the  body.   But the
march of  civilization has decided that such endowments
are  matters  of small importance.   It has decided  that
young girls, as soon as possible after  leaving the  arms of
the nurse,  must be equipped  for exhibition  in the parlor,
and taught that the sun and fresh  air are institutions got
up expressly for vegetables,  tanned skin, and freckles.
   Mind  has been, and will probably long continue to be.
elevated above  matter.   Physical excellences are things
unknown and uncared for.   Mental endowments  carry the
day.  Literary  pursuits, intellectual enjoyments, poetry, and
morality engross the attention.   Bodily  sports and exercises,
athletic  and  healthy frames, are regarded as  necessary to
pugilists and the lower orders of society,  but  beneath the
dignity of those who believe their peculiar province to be 
Causes.
165
  the cultivation of the mental powers.  Mind triumphs over
  matter;  and the great end and aim of the higher order of
  society is to cultivate the intellect, and acquire renown by
  literary  merits.  Corporeal endowments are neglected and
  despised;  and  degenerated, weak, puny,  and enervated
  frames take  the place  of manliness and vigor.  But what
  matter though  the body  is weak, provided  the  mind  is
  strong!   How rarely, though, does  true literary excellence
  and physical  insignificance unite in the same individual!
  As the physical strength declines, so does mental superiority.
  Disordered  sensations  and an unbalanced mind  follow
  quickly any infringement on physical laws.   Nor is this all:
  pale and sallow tints, jaded looks, spare and puny  frames,
  consumption,  dyspepsia, and nervous weakness, attend on
  physical  degeneracy; and the children inherit the soul and
  body  destroying  legacy.  Nature demands  that an equal
  and impartial attention  be  paid to all the faculties,  and
  that an equal interest be taken in physical as  in  mental
  culture.  No one of our powers, either mental or physical,
  can be neglected  with impunity.  The laws of the body will
 not be neglected.  They demand our attention ; and woe to
 him who offends against them !
   However powerfully the want of reverence for the human
 body  has operated  in  degrading  man,  it  has far more
 degraded woman.  To be strong and  vigorous,  to  possess
 athletic and  healthy frames, powerful muscular  develop-
 ment and keen appetites, — the best of all signs and  tests
 of health and of a well-spent physical life, — are scarcely
 thought  to belong to her province.   They are not  con-
 sidered  feminine virtues,  but rather detract from   her
 peculiar charms.
  That their  daughters  may   become women  of   talent,
 geniuses,  and objects of universal admiration, is  the  Alpha
 and Omega, the first, best, and greatest object of ambition
of many mothers of the present  age; and, ere their  daugh-
ters have learned the distinguishing characteristics between 
166   Woman, and her Thirty  Years Pilgrimage.

pap and plum-pudding, they are  hurried off to a boarding-
school, where  their  young,  tender,  soft,  and  half-grown
brains are  diligently and mercilessly racked with Latin,
algebra, astronomy, &c.   And what  is the  result ?   The
confinement, the study, the thought, the brain-work, requir-
ing and absorbing the greater  portion of the nerve-power,
none  is  left  to be  sent  down throughout  the system to
innervate and invigorate  the muscles,  skin, and  different
organs and tissues of the body.  The tone  of the muscles
becomes impaired, the circulation becomes languid, and the
blood  improperly  purified;  the  feet  and hands become
cold;  the skin dry, harsh,  husky, with scarce  any perspira-
tion.  The internal viscera become congested and  engorged
with  blood from the unequable  state of the circulation.
The biliary organs become overloaded, oppressed,  and con-
gested from plethora of their blood-vessels loaded with non-
eliminated poisons seeking  at this point  an  outlet:  in
other  words, she " gets bilious." The biliary action becomes
suspended, the alimentary organs  deranged,  and the effete
matters of the blood are  thrown  back  into  the system to
seek  an  outlet by the way of the kidneys.   The kidneys
become overloaded and oppressed :  the poisoned blood over-
stimulates and inflames them.  They fail in their function,
and cease to cast off the effete surplusage  of the  economy,
and it is thrown back again into the system.  It  seeks  an
outlet by the way of the skin; it  inflames it, and pimples
appear.  It seeks an outlet by  the lungs,  and a  cough
supervenes.  At last, the great mass of the blood  becomes
poisoned, and loses its fine and delicate crasis.  The cheeks
pale;  and the deposit of fat, which gave  roundness to the
limbs, becomes lessened, and every organ and tissue  weak-
ened  and enervated, and  every  function  perverted.  But
what  matter! the young lady must be educated.  It's only
a "little cold," and "will soon  pass off."   The idea  of
leaving school to go home  for rest and recreation is "simply
ridiculous," a " waste of valuable  time; "  and, besides, she 
-Causes.
167
must keep along with her class in astronomy and her  class
in algebra, evidences of Christianity, and political economy.
She must "finish up" her French  and her  Italian, her
Latin, her Greek,  and her German:  she  " must"  keep
along with her geography and rhetoric and history  and
natural history and arithmetic  and chemistry, music on
the piano, the harp,  and guitar.  And her vocal lessons, her
drawing and painting and embroidery, her philosophy, her
grammar, compositions, and  penmanship, must  not for a
" single  day" be omitted, — until at last the  brain has
been worked, bruised, racked, and tortured, as though it was
some  extraordinary mystical,  magical  something or other
which was exempt from the ordinary laws which govern all
other organs of the body,  and may be tasked to any degree
with  impunity: and, with body and mind completely worn
out, she falls victim to disease, passes awa}r, and ignorance
and  stupidity  attribute  the sad termination  to  " taking
cold," or some other trivial cause.
   "The  'forcing' system,  adopted in schools, or,  as  an
Albany editor  terms it, our steam and lightning mode of
teaching, is beginning to  excite some  of the  attention it
ought to receive from the philanthropical intelligence of
the period.  It gratifies arrant vanity, and it also murders.
At a  recent school examination, a boy, not more than twelve
or thirteen years of age, was put through a course of exer-
cises  in algebra.  He ' did' with great readiness perplexing
■sums which would have puzzled many a man who considers
himself a good  accountant.  But his pale, thin face, almost
destitute  of color, and traced with blue veins whose lines
were  painfully apparent, his tired expression, and the heavy
lines under his eyes, told at what cost  of physical develop-
ment his  mental powers must have been acquired.   Such
sights in schools ought never to  be  seen." — New-York
Fxpivss, March 4, 1869.
  " A feeble state of health,"  says  Dr. Leared of London,
" can  be often traced to an over-strain of the mental powers, 
168  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

— a strain daily increased amongst men by the spirit of
emulation,  fostered  and  rewarded by  the  competitive
system to an extent formerly unknown.  Accomplishments
amongst young  girls  are  made objects  of  relentless per-
severance.  In both  sexes, at a time when growth  is in-
complete, and new functions are springing into  existence,
the mental  are  developed at the  expense  of the bodily
powers.   Nutrition suffers,  because  appetite and diges-
tion are  impaired,  and the  power of the  mind  itself is
weakened."
  " Little do parents know or think," says Acton, "of what
they sacrifice  in  unnaturally  forcing the intellectual  at
the expense  of the muscular development.   Our ances-
tors  valued a  man for his muscle :  we go into  the othei
extreme; and, unfortunately, many of  the attempts of
modern  education tend only to  the development of intel-
lectual superiority, and children are  confined to the school-
room for hours, that, at  an early age, had better be passed
in the open air.
  "If such parents would read the biographies of eminent
characters who have succeeded in the highest walks of their
various  professions, they would  find that  one  of the most
necessary means  of success is a strong  constitution.   If on
this be ingrafted  superior  intellectual endowments, accom-
panied by that energy  of character which usually attends
the strong,  success in  after-life may  be nearly insured.
Such are not the youths whom we see cut  off in  the prime
of life just as they are giving promise of great distinction,
and whose parents look back with  regret, and ask them-
selves with  justice if they  have  not  been partially in-
strumental in causing these intellectual suicides."
  Exposure  to  Variable  Temperatures — is another
predisposing cause of  this disease.  The purpose of cloth
ing. as a means of preserving the health, is to maintain as
much as  possible  an  equal warmth  of  the surface  and ex-
tremities of the body.   Some of our young  ladies, though, 
Causes.
169
" don't see it" in any such light.  Fashionable and perni-
cious exposures — where the neck  and arms half denuded,
and  the feet  scarcely  more  protected, are  subjected to
frequent and sudden changes from heat  to cold, abruptly
exciting or  repressing the regular secretions  of  the skin,
roughening  its  texture  and  injuring  its  hues — are very
common predisposing causes to many serious diseases: one
of the most frequent of which  is the  disease under con-
sideration, t—disease of the menstrual organs.   The want
of proper protection of the feet from  damp is one  of the
most  fruitful  sources of this  disease; and  the same may
also be said  of the strange habit of some ladies in  the ex-
posure of their back and chest.
  Wo shall here let our English authoress speak.   Touching
the matter of style of dress, modesty, &c, she says,  " Fine
taste in apparel is.ever seen the companion of  pure morals;
while a  licentious style of dress is as  certainly the token
of a like laxity in manners  and  conduct,  and calculated
to awaken any other feelings than those of respect and love.
Virgin, bridal beauty, when she arrays herself with taste,
obeys an end of her creation ; that of increasing her charms
in the eyes  of some virtuous lover, or the husband of her
bosom.   She is  approved.  In all cases, a modest  reserve
is essential to the perfection of feminine attraction.  Even
heathen  fable inculcates this lesson.   The God of Love
himself once felt the passion he so universally excites.  But
how ?   It was  not any  one of the  unzoned  nymphs who
attended his mother's court that awakened his desire. The
gentle influence streamed on  him from charms  concealed
behind a veil.   The beauties of Psyche were  enveloped in
mystery.   It  was the  heavenly cloud of modesty.  The
sighs of love  could not remove it;  even on the  nuptial
couch it shaded her charms, and she shone the fairer through
its snowy medium.
  "Good sense should be the test of all rule, whether ancient
or modern   Whatever  is incompatible  with good sense 
170   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

must be false.  Modesty should, on the same  principle, be
the test of the propriety of all personal apparel;  for what-
ever is incompatible with her ordinances must  degrade and
betray.
  " In no case would a true friend or lover wish to discover
to the eye more of the ' form  divine' than can  be indis-
tin ;tly descried through  the  mysterious involvement of
approved and tasteful drapery.  The exposure  of the bosom
and  back,  as some  women display those  parts of theii
person, is not only repugnant to  decency, but exceedingly
disadvantageous to the charms  of nine women out of ten.
When a woman grown to the age of discretion, of her own
choice 'unveils her beauties to the sun and  moon,'  then
from  even  a Helen's  charms  the  sated  eye  turns  away
loathing.  It has discerned the licentious heart beneath the
swelling breast, and its beauties no  longer captivate.   The
libertine and the gross epicurean  may feast  his  imbruted
gaze  upon  a  form so  stripped  of decency;  for he  is a
creature whose senses are bent to the earth, and the basest
offsprings  are his banquet; but  a man of  delicacy, of
worth, turns from  the couch of sensuality, though Venus
herself reposed there, and with  celestial rapture  clasps to
his  warm  and noble  heart the unsunned bosom of the
chaste and vestal-inwrapped fair.
  " Policy, if nothing else, should direct maidens to be more
sparing of their attractions.  An unrestrained indulgence
of the eye robs the imagination of its power, and  prevents
its consequent influence on the  heart.  And if this be the
case where real beauty is exposed, how much  more subver-
sive of its aim must be the  studied display of an ordinary
or deformed figure !  The monstrous exhibitions that  some
women make of their backs is a fashion that  sets taste at
defiance.  Even with the fairest forms and finest skins it is
injurious to  the desired effect.   It  discovers a pare of the
shape, which,  if not seen  wholly (that is altogether with
the  whole of the well-shaped bust), is far from  pleasing. 
Causes.
171
The beauty of the back depends upon the general outline
seen at once, where, with a single glance, can be taken  in
the finely undulating  line,  which, gently swelling from
muscle  to muscle,  completes the perfect form.   However,
bad as the taste  is in this respect, we  must  congratulate
ourselves  that vanity has not yet trod so far  on modesty
as to make her votaries unveil themselves to the waist."
   There is much force, and not a little good hard  sense, in
what we have quoted above.   It may be proper for a lady
to betray her person to  the very  verge of  immodesty:
this is a  question  whose pros and  cons we will leave  for
others  to reconcile; but that such a costume  is conducive
to disease and  death is  as morally and physically certain
as proofs and records can make it.  We wonder that a sense
of personal comfort, aided by well-founded conviction that
the highest and noblest beauty comes only from the highest
degree of health, does not impel woman  to prefer utility
before absurd whims of fashion.
   The  protection of the feet from damp, the  arms and
chest from cold and variable temperatures, are  matters  of
no small  importance; and what is  still  of as  much if not
more consequence,  in a fitful climate like  this, is to effect-
ually protect the limbs and  the pelvic organs by  warm
drawers.   The absence  of this indispensable  vesture has
been the source of much infirmity to women.   Strange, in-
deed, is it, that woman, with the good  sense she  ordinarily
possesses, should evince  such reckless  disregard for health
as is often observable when she equips  herself on occasions
of public  exhibitions, — a gossamer dress with low neck ;
back, chest, and arms bare; the lightest slippers; the thin-
nest underclothes;  the biggest sort  of crinoline, and —
no drawers.  Is it to be wondered at that she  destroys her
health, her  beauty, or consigns  her body to  the care and
keeping of a marble slab  in  Golgotha ?  Let her bear  in
mind also what might be the serious consequences of some
momentary piercing eastern  blast,  or what might  be 
172    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

the "display,"  in  case of  accident  "by  flood or field  or
fire,"  and the  after-remembrances of the  "disaster" by
herself and others.   No fusion should be  able to strip her
of this decent  and  healthful  covering.   She should  con-
sider it as the sign of her delicacy, as the pledge of honor
to shelter her  from the gaze of unhallowed eyes, and  as
the protector against  an early  old  age, deeply-furrowed
wrinkles,  disease of  the  menstrual organs,  and chronic
pains.
   Causes which impede  or derange Functions. —
Mechanical  causes,  such  as  long-continued  pressure of
articles  of clothing,  are not unfrequent causes of disease.
One  of the most frequent is the preposterous  and baneful
practice of tight-lacing, acting  by compressing the chest
and stomach, forcing down the bowels and the womb,  pro-
ducing structural  lesion of the neck  of the latter by its
contact  with the  floor of the pelvis.   The  compression
about the chest and waist, as well also as  bands, strings,
&c,  in  the adjusting of heavy  skirts, prevents  the  free
return of blood from the pelvic organs,  which, with the
monthly   turgescence of those  organs produced by ths
process of ovulation, is liable  to induce engorgement  anc:
disease of the ovaries.
   We will let  our English  lady speak for us once more.
She says, " The bosom, which  Nature has  formed  with
exquisite symmetry in itself, and admirable adaptation  to
the parts  of the figure  to which  it is united, is, by  many
of these stays, transformed into a shape, and  transplanted
to a place, which deprives  it of its original beauty  and
harmony with the  rest of the  person.  A vile  taste in the
contriver,  and as stupid an  approval by a large majority
of women, have brought this distortion into a fashion ;  and,
in consequence,  we see not only the waist squeezed into a
circumference little  more than a common sized stove-pipe,
and  th3  bosom, by many of these ill-contrived  things,
shoved  ip to t\ 3  chin, making a sort of fleshy shelf dis- 
Causes.                     173
gusting to  the  beholder, and certainly most  incommodious
to the bearer, but we also note their announcement to the
female world, if not by drum and trumpet, by their conspic-
uous position in shop-windows by way of advertisement.
  Female  delicacy, where is thy blush when thou lookest
on such exposure of the chaste reserves of thy person! when
thou  seest the parts and  situations of thy person which
modesty bids thee conceal, thus  dragged before  the  imagi-
nation of the opposite sex!   Though nothing disrespectful
to modesty is meant by the advertisement,  still you cannot
certainly approve  of its conspicuousness.   It is the opinion
of the wisest moralists, that, rob  woman of her  delicate
reserves, and you take from her  one of the best strongholds
of her chastity;  you  deprive her  of her  sweet attractive
mysteries; you lay open to the  eye of  love the  arcana  of
her  toilet, the  infirmities of her nature; the enchantment
is broken,  and  the "bloom of young desire, the purple light
of the soul's enthusiasm," expire at the disclosure.
   Some women are  bold enough to wear  this Procrustean
garb during every stage of  pregnancy, and affirm that  it
preserves the shape without injury  to their state of increase.
However this may be with a few hardy individuals, it must,
with a very great majority, necessarily put a  degree  of
restraint upon the operations of Nature, that will produce
ill effects both  on the mother and child.   Support and con-
finement to an overstrained part are two  different things;
the one  is  beneficial, the other destructive.  Those married
women  who have longest maintained  their virgin  forms
are those,  who, in a  state of maternal increase, observed a
proper medium between a too relaxed and  a too contracted
bodice.  Nature in  these  concerns is our best guide; and,
when she  dictates to us to provide  against  the possible dis-
agreeable  consequences of any of her operations, it is well to
obey her.  But when a fastidious, and,  allow me to  say, an
indelicate  regard to personal charms would  excite you  to
brace with ribs of whalebone  the plastic mould  of your 
  174   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  unborn infant; or, when it has, in spite of these arts, burst
  its prison-house alive, you seek to deprive it of the nourish-
  ment your breast prepares, then remember that you  per-
  form not the duty of a mother, but show yourself, rather,
  egregiously guilty of wantonness and unpardonable cruelty.
    No person living can feel a more lively admiration than
  that which animates myself at the sight of a beautiful form.
  I behold in it the work of a most perfect Being, the accom-
  plishment of one of his fairest designs.  He seems to show in
  earthy mould the lovely transcript of the angels in heaven;
  she looks, she breathes of innocence and  sweet unconscious
  beauty.  But when I cast my eyes on women issuing from
  the house  of a manufacturer of  shapes, when I see the
  functions of Nature impeded by bands and ligatures, when
_  I behold the  abode of virgin modesty, the  tender mother's
  fountain of aliment for her new-born babe, thrust forward
  to the gaze of the libertine, and  when  I  observe the pains
  taken to attact his eye, I turn away — disgusted.
    Defective Cleanliness. —There are few kinds of filth
  more offensive than that excreted from the animal body
  itself; and if, as we have seen, such matters are so injurious
  when not sufficiently or properly eliminated from the body,
  it is not surprising that they continue noxious, and become
  the cause of disease, after being thrown from the system, if
  proper means be not taken to remove them.
    One of the most important means of removing impurities
  from the skin is the daily use of the tepid  bath.  This is
  of  most  powerful efficacy; and  so  also the  sea  bath:  this
  has a great effect on the  body by its  saline quality, which
  is stimulating to the skin, causing it  to  throw off all acci-
  dental impurities, and removing cutaneous obstructions.
    An intimate friend of Lady  Mary Wortley Montague
  was expostulate g with her on the extreme  dirtiness  of her
  hands, when she replied, " My hands ?  ah, if you could  only
  see D~.y feet!" 
Causes.
175
  By the use of the tepid bath, the women  of the  East
render their skins softer than that of the tenderest babes in
this  climate, and by such  means  is that health preserved
which otherwise  the  sedentary confinement of their  lives
must destroy.
  Occupation has much to do with the disease under con-
sideration — more especially if it be of a kind that gives but
little exercise, or causes excessive bodily exertion, or confines
the female to the influence of impure air.  One would sup-
pose that women employed in factories, as seamstresses, and
the like, would be more  predisposed to disease of the  men-
strual organs than others ; that the high temperature main-
tained  in manufacturing  establishments, dust, and  other
impurities with which the  atmosphere of the rooms is usu-
ally loaded, the  short space of  time allowed for physical
relaxation or mental training, &c, would promote a state of
body which would render it  pre-eminently  susceptible to
disease.  Statistics, however, according to Dr. Whitehead,
 do not verify such  a supposition.  They show, that, of those
 tasting the joys of plenty, those in easy circumstances,
 the educated female is more predisposed to this disease than
 any other.
   In females  of the  higher order of society, the approach
 of puberty is characterized by an unwonted irritability of
 temper, fretfulness, dejection of  spirits, singularity of man-
 ner,  fits of laughing and  crying, dread of evil, disturbed
 and  unrefreshing  sleep, palpitations, headache, nausea, loss
 of appetite, abdominal tumefaction  and  tenderness, espe-
 cially low down  on each side of  the abdomen, aching  in the
 loins,  pain  in the thighs  and  limbs, pricking sensations,
 numbness, a "dead feeling," and cramps in the calves of
 the legs, &c, giving most evident signs of  an engorged and
 congested state of the menstrual organs.  The predisposition
 in this class of females, according to Dr.  Whitehead, is two-
 fold.   First, inactivity.  Health rests upon a proper exer- 
 176   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 cise of all parts of the economy.  Every part of the body, bo
 it muscle, bone, or nerve, has its use.  The muscles were de-
 signed for a purpose, and their due employment is necessary
 to the harmonious working of the  economy of which they
 constitute an important portion:  hence  inactivity and  the
 non-employment of the muscles is invariably followed by ill
 consequences.   Second, the faulty system of mental train-
 ing.  The mental  faculties  in this class  are ordinarily
 called  into premature  activity,  and tasked  to  a degree
 beyond endurance;  and the mind is crowded  with a mass
 of matter, under the fictitious  denomination of accomplish-
 ments, which Nature never designed it should entertain:
 while the proper training of the physical  constitution is
 totally disregarded.  Moreover, the indulgence of a pro-
 pensity, irresistibly active at this  period of life, for reading
 novels, romances, and works similarly vicious in character,
 has likewise a  very injurious  tendency.  Witness, for  in-
 stance, the violent and often dangerous  paroxysms of hys-
 teric  emotions   occasionally  consequent  upon  the  mere
 perusal of  an   affecting  narrative, having  probably  no
 foundation save  in the  over-strained fancy  of the reader.
 These are the agencies  to which  the unlettered are entire
 strangers, or which they  experience but seldom, and only
 to a very limited degree.
  Climate is  another predisposing cause.   Women  of
 warm and tropical regions are undoubtedly more subject to
 this disease than those  of a more temperate  climate;  not
 however, as some suppose, because a tropical climate induces
 undue sexual excitement.   The warmth of man's tempera-
 ment  is quite  independent of climatorial influences.  Our
 arctic travellers have convinced us, that, in the midst of ice
which never thaws, many of the Esquimaux  tribes live in
 a state of licentiousness which cannot be surpassed by that
of the sun-burnt natives of India; and it would be difficult
to demonstrate  that unrestrained indulgence prevails to a
 greater extent among  the ignorant and semi-civilized  in- 
Causes.
177
habitants of tropical regions than among those of our own
climate,  where civilization — the intention of which is  to
deliberate upon human happiness, subdue the voice of pas-
sion, awaken the love of truth, the fear of evil, and promote
a sense of responsibility — has endeavored to restrain those
passions which outweigh all others in their effects upon the
moral and physical constitution.  If civilization has  con-
tributed in any material degree towards the  mitigation  of
that species of vice arising from  undue excitement  of the
sexual organs in any  single  direction, it  has contributed
very materially,  also, towards its propagation in others; the
truth of which is seen  on every side in the faulty physical,
moral, and mental training of the youth of the present day.
Where the ignorant and semi-civilized natives of tropical
regions experience one provocative of  sexual passion,  civil-
ization, in the multiplicity of  its  false and fatal notions  of
 physical  and mental cultivation, in its ever-increasing  com-
 plications of social  intercourse,  nurturing and  increasing
 feelings in man  to which he was  almost a  stranger in rude
 and barbarous times, has created a dozen.
    Under the influence of tropical heat, the system becomes
 enervated, the vital powers debilitated, the tone of the mus-
 cular system lessened, and a condition of system induced pre-
 eminently susceptible  to the influence of morbid  stimulus.
    The  influences of  a temperate climate, with  its sudden
 transitions from heat  to cold, are  perhaps equally as pro-
 vocative of disease as those of a tropical climate.  That
 exposure to  variable  temperatures  and sudden  transitions
 from heat to cold is a most  fruitful source  of this disease
 there can be no question.   This  is more  especially true
 among the  higher orders of society, —too much confined
 within doors by domestic  duties,  and  scarce ever ven-
 turing  out  adequately  clothed,  and particularly Vhen, on
 occasions of  public exhibitions, the light gossamer draperies
 of the evening are substituted for the heavier investments of
 the morning, and, with neck and arms half denuded, and the
12 
 178   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

feet scarcely more protected,  they rush,  at  late hours  of
the night, from heated rooms,  worn down and exhausted, to
plunge into the external air, often cold, damp, and chilly,
in a state of the greatest susceptibility to the disease under
consideration.
  As to the influence of low temperatures, we have but lit-
tle reliable testimony.  It  is said that women of Lapland
do not reach puberty till the age of eighteen or twenty, and
that then the catamenia are  not  only inconsiderable, but
recur at long  intervals, and  sometimes only during the
summer  months.   We,  however, doubt the truth of the
statement.
  Temperament. — Disease  of the menstrual organs is
observed in all temperaments, but  more commonly in the
sanguine and nervous.  The distinguishing characteristics
of the sanguine are red, auburn, or light hair; blue or brown
eyes; florid complexion; and  thin  soft skin; animal  heat
high, and pulse full  and frequent; body usually well pro-
portioned, head small, neck strong, shoulders broad, chest
large, hips solid, and stature tall, with an inclination to cor-
pulency ; with which  are usually associated an active mind,
quick conception, and ready memory, lively  and cheerful
disposition, and warm and passionate feelings.
  Disease of the menstrual organs is perhaps more particu-
larly observable in women where the nervous  temperament
is  predominant and  the susceptibility to excitement  from
external  impressions  unusually  developed, and more espe-
cially in those of a  scrofulous  habit;  in girls with  long
eyelashes and blue eyes, of fine physical formation,  with
handsome proportions,  fair, half-transparent skin,  bright
ruddy  complexions,  sleek  hair, whether  light or  dark,
dilated pupils, pinched nose, thick upper li p,  an active and
lively disposition, quick intellect,  and  precocious  under-
standing.
  The  scrofulous habit is  hereditary,  and referable  to  a
multitude of causes,—venereal  poison, gluttony, habits  of 
Causes.                     179
intemperance, indeed, to whatever has a tendency to debili-
tate the vital powers, and induce, by long-continued opera-
tion, a  cachectic state  of system.   It  may be transmitted
by either parent or both ; and although the parents may
never have experienced any symptoms of the infirmity, yet
it may nevertheless be  found fully developed in their chil-
dren, even from birth, indicating its presence by an inflam-
matory thickening and  redness of the  eyelids, swelling of
the cervical glands, &c, and by great delicacy of constitution.
In young girls of scrofulous habits, mesenteric deposit or
tuberculous peritonitis,  complicated with a swollen state of
the menstrual organs, and adhesions cf the uterine append-
ages, are not at  all uncommon.  With this condition of sys-
tem it is readily to be perceived that the period  of puberty
will be one of no little danger, and may well be anticipated
with much  apprehension;  for, when  the ovaries  become
aroused by the process of ovulation, diseased  action  may
become awakened in these morbidly-disposed organs that
would otherwise have  remained dormant, or disappeared
entirely through the process of growth and mature develop-
ment.   Or, if this period be passed, what may be the influ-
ence of the application  of the  new and novel stimulus  of
sexual intercourse to these morbidly-disposed organs, should
marriage  be  consummated!  and how imminent  would  be
miscarriage should conception happen to occur!  or what
might be  the consequences if the womb should  happen to
be bound  down by adhesions which preclude the possibility
of its expanding!
   Among other predisposing causes to this disease  may be
mentioned any circumstance that has the power of lowering
the vital powers and producing a weakened condition of the
body, — attacks of acute disease, miasmatic poisons, eruptive
disorders,  depressing mental excitement, exhausting  diet,
profuse  loss  of  blood at the menstrual period,  perniciois
habits and practices, &c. 
180   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

                  EXCITING  CAUSES.

  The exciting causes of inflammation of the menstrual
organs have been by most medical writers ascribed  to acci-
dents, such as blows, or falls on the feet, knees, or sacrum,
to horseback riding, or long and fatiguing walks during or
immediately after the  menstrual period, to  great muscular
effort, &c.   There are,  however,  exciting  causes of  far
greater frequency than any of these, and certainly of very
much greater importance;  and it is  well  that we should
understand them.  The first that will occupy our attention,
and which are by far the most frequent and most important,
are, —
  Mental  Emotions. — So  intimately connected as is
the body with the mind, it is not surprising that whatever
affects one affects both.
  Mental emotions are capable of producing not only func-
tional disturbances, but organic changes.   Sudden mental
perturbation, fright, joy, &c,  cause  irregular action  and
palpitation of the heart, which organ is remarkably suscep-
tible to strong mental emotions.  This susceptibility is  also
observed in other parts  of the  body.   The alimentary and
menstrual organs,  and the natural orifices of the body, such
as the throat, the anus, and the neck of  the bladder, are
especially affected.
  The controlling power of the emotions over the nerves
is seen when the  aching tooth suddenly subsides through
terror caused by preparations  made for its extraction:  the
emotion of fear renders the nerve insensible to  the irrita-
tion of the atmospheric air, or to the irritation of fragments
of food.
   The controlling power of the emotions over the  muscles
 is familiar to all, as, for example, the influence of grief, joy,
 &c, over the muscles of the face, as seen  in the  thousand
 varied expressions of the countenance; the contraction of
 the arms and limbs when o 3 surrenders himself up to the 
Causes.
i3i
 impulse of passion; and as is seen also in the conduct of irri-
 table persons, who pace up and down the room when in a fit
 of passion.   Fear and rage make  the heart beat violently,
 make one gasp for breath, producing a choking sensation in
 the throat, and take awTay the voice.  Their power over the
 muscles of respiration is also familiar.   It is witnessed in
 the deep inspiration which precedes a sigh or an expression
 of surprise.
   Over the secretions their controlling power is also seen.
 The  flow of  tears from anger, joy,  or grief, the flow  of
 urine through fright, are  familiar examples.  Every physi-
 cian well knows how grief, or a fit of anger, may so change
 the nurse's milk as to render it  totally unfit for nourish-
 ment, which causes, not unfrequently, attacks of diarrhoea
 in the child.
   Emotions of the mind produce changes also in blood-
 vessels, as is seen by their influence over  the capillary
 blood-vessels of the face in the blush of shame or anger, and
 the pallor of fear or hatred.
   They produce changes  also in  glands.   In  maternal
 emotions, the  blood is  directed to  the breasts, and induces
 a state of congestion and erection of the nipples.  In sexual
 excitement, the blood  is  directed to the ovaries  of the
 female  and testes  of  the male, inducing  a  state of tur-
 gescence in the clitoris and in the  male sexual organ.
   Thus we see that  emotions of the mind are  capable  of
 producing  changes in  nerve, muscular fibre, and blood-ves-
 sels ;  and they are, when of  a strong and cumulative char-
 acter, sufficient of themselves to so work a change  in the
 circulation or nutrition of a part as to excite in that part
 inflammatory action.
  Mental emotions affect those  organs that are connected
 with  the upper or inter-cranial portion  of the spinal cord.
 These organs  are the  eyes, face, neck, the thoracic -viscera,
and stomach.   The  motor nerves of these organs  are  in
connection with  the inter-cranial | "rtion of the spinal cord 
182    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.
or the medulla oblongata.  The lower animals express theii
emotions by the eyes, ears, and neck.  Grinning in the dog
denotes rage; in the horse, amiability.
   Mental emotions, however, move particularly affect organs
that are connected with the lower portion of the spinal cord,
— the  kidneys, bladder,  rectum,  and more especially  the
sexual  organs.  The lower animals express emotions by the
caudal  extremity.  The dog  wags his tail from delight; the
lion lashes his from  rage.   The erected tail of the cat ex-
presses fear;  of the dog, confidence and courage.   Cabanis
gives an instance of the effect of jealousy producing priapism.
Many experience paralysis of the bladder when they attempt
to pass  urine in the presence of  others.   Fear causes  the
urine to flow, and " sudden defecation as a  consequence  of
terror does not much improve  the position of a naughty
school-boy."   Mental  agitation  sometimes  excites spas-
modic  stricture of the urethra.   Suspense or anxiety will
check  uterine action.  Sexual  emotions  affect the  ovaries
and clitoris in the female, and the testes and the organ  of
intromission in the male.
   We  now see how  mental emotions may affect the sexual
system.  The menstrual  organs are especially susceptible
to the  influence of excitement of the  passions,  and their
disorders are oftener traceable to this  source than
to any other.
   The most common emotion in the female  sex is terror,
but the most violent is the  erotic passion ;. and  when it
manifests its gigantic power in its exaggerated intensity,
sending the heated blood in  burning  course  through  the
veins, lashing into  fury the entire community of organs,
and driving from the conscience of woman  the last vestige
of worship, honor, respect, love, modesty, purity, and from
her cheek the faculty to blush, how can  it be other than the
most powerful agent in all the commotions of her system ?
   When the erotic passion  is  experienced in any strong
degree, and is of a continuous and cumulative  character. 
Causes.
183
and  cannot be  tranquillized, and  its force  discharged or
expended by its natural and legitimate s itisfaction, as in
those unmarried and  chaste, its deleterious effects are made
manifest through an exaltation of the vascular and ner-
vous condition of the sensitive ovaries, which is especially
prone to terminate in an inflammatory state, for the reason
that the susceptibility  of  the ovaries to take on diseased
action is very much increased by  the  monthly process of
ovulation, which process,  as  we have  already  seen, is in
itself " almost a disease."
   The ovaries in erotic passion sustain the full shock of the
commotion.   If of a continuous and cumulative character,
their nerves  become highly  exalted.   Increased capillary
action ensues, and  blood is summoned  to  the organs in
increased quantity,  and retained  in  them.  The  ovaries
become  swollen" and  highly  sensitive.   Congestion  and
inflammation supervene, and the diseased organs transmit
morbid  influences  which  may seriously affect  the  entire
body.
   Touching the capability of mental emotions to produce
not  only functional  disturbances, but  organic changes,
Robert B. Carter of London says, " Emotion is  a force ade-.
quate to the production  of very  serious  disorders in the
human  frame,  acting  upon  the  muscular, vascular,  and
secreting organs, and causing various  derangements both
of their structure and functions; the proclivity to  this
influence being greatly increased by the operation of all
debilitating  agents, whether local or general,  and by all
circumstances tending to make individual parts  the subjects
of attention."  He also adds that " these derangements are
much more common in the female than in the male ;  woman
not only being more prone to emotions, but  also more fre-
quently under the necessity of endeavoring to conceal them."
   One of the most frequent provocatives of  passional emo-
tions in  the young female  is to be found in the fascinating
and exciting pleasures of the festive gathering. 
184   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  We know, that, with the mass,  dancing is regarded with
particular complacency.  We  are told that it carries with
it a banquet alike  for taste and feeling; that all  nations
have deemed it a salubrious, decorous, and beautiful exer-
cise, or rather  happy pastime and celebration  of festivity;
that gay countenances are seen,  and hilarity  in every
step, and delightful  converse  communicated;  that  it  is
the pastime of Nature;  that  we  find it in  courts,  and
meet with  it on the  village green; that  in days of yore,
in the most polite  eras of Greece  and Rome, and of the
chivalrous ages, it was a favorite  amusement with the first
ranks of men; that  kings  and  heroes  and  unbearded
youth alike mingled in the graceful  exercise.  We know all
this: we know, too, that it may be a beautiful exercise, and
perhaps  an  innocent, rational, and  elegant amusement of
youth.   But — note the orgies of a ball-room.   View the
yet ingenuous  maiden successively  the property of every
man in the room.  View her with arms mutually intwined,
bosom to bosom, heart to heart, and the facilities thus  pre-
sented for personal contamination.  View the blaze  of light
that enchants,  confounds,  bewilders her senses; the  ex-
hilarating  sounds  of music;  the  dazzling  novelty;  the
glittering of jewels;  the  perfumes which  spread  abroad
their rich odors; the mirrors reflecting a thousand  flaming
lights;  the general joy that  thrills through her  frame;
the heated blood that flows in  burning course  through her
veins;  the pride of excellence in  the display of graceful
attitudes, in the rapidity of motion,  in the accuracy of step ;
the natural vanity  of emulation;  the exultation of hum-
bling a  rival;  the  applause  of  contending adorers.   What
are all  these but  morbid excitants?  Where is the bar-
rier that can  oppose the  influence  of  morbid stimulus
when the susceptibilities of  the skin and  mucous mem-
branes are increased to their utmost, and the nervous system
and sexual organs  aroused by such  prurient incitations?
But this is not  all.   With  heart  and mind thus prepared, 
Causes.
185
what ravages may not the passions commit!  The smooth,
guileful tongue of seduction, which employs the purest and
most burning  language, the most ingenious  fascinations,
and which soothes and cradles into a slumber of visions like
the  intoxicating perfumes of opium, may prevail at such
a moment; or if virtue still make  a stand, yet  how may
its  power be insulted, or be weakened by the open attacks
of  the profligate,—by him who  seizes  the  opportunity
of  closest contact  to  communicate  infection  that  may
spread with fearful rapidity!  How futile the declaration
which would persuade that the ball-room  is a place  of in-
nocent relaxation, pleasure, and healthful exercise !   False,
fatal notions of  mental and  physical cultivation !   Actions
from which the modest female would shrink alarmed in any
other  place are  here tolerated, are necessary.  The timid
eye of chastity is closed, and all the meek reserve of  virgin
purity lost.  The eyes are panders  to the  soul, and every
sense  is excited.   Intemperate wishes fill the  bosom, and
excited thoughts take possession of the mind.  There is
nothing  in them, perhaps, sufficiently criminal  to  alarm
the  conscience, nor is there  enough  to satisfy  the morbid
curiosity  that  has been aroused, — a curiosity  vast  in its
energies, conquering judgment,  and, like a deceitful  light
upon a rocky coast  to lure some night-wildered vessel to de-
struction, hurrying on its victim until she stands on a verge
whose awful height is hidden from  her view by the thick
mist of passion that surrounds her.   There may be a con-
sciousness of wrong;  but there is also energy of the  senses,
— an energy which is of no transient nature, but cumulative
in character.   A strange and  hitherto unknown feeling
thrills through  her frame.   The  heart swells ani  beats
tumultuously.  Her breathings are accelerated, voice tremu-
lous, face flushed; and her eyes, trembling in suffusion, betray
what her heart  labors to conceal.   She has imbibed the
poison which now infects her senses.   It has eaten its way,
has penetrated into the innermost recesses, like  a  corrosive 
 186   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

menstruum, whose  impressions she will  never be able to
efface.  Never before has her heart throbbed;  never  has a
blush risen to her cheek; never has her  eye  veiled itself;
and never before has she tried to fly from an overpowering
thought.  Her heart, hitherto so pure, has become tarnished.
Passion circulates through her veins, beats in her heart, and
consumes her.  It is  her master. It carries the  day :  honor,
respect, love,  modesty,  every thing, holds its  tongue ;  for
passion  is  speaking.  Intoxicated,  frenzied,  fascinated,
madly in love, her reason is lost amidst the transports  of
desire, against which the utmost strength  of human nature
becomes utterly powerless.  Reason is limited ; and no un-
derstanding can command itself at all  times and upon  all
occasions.   The senses,  enchanted  and bewildered, are
wrought up to the highest pitch of delirious ecstasy.   The
voice  of  Nature is  speaking  within her:  how long will
she escape immolation  upon the  altar of  desire ?   That
imperious instinct implanted  within  her  by  the divine
Framer has  become aroused:  how long  will  she triumph
over herself?   If she succumbs, how will she resist after
her fall ?  How will she  be able  to withstand the  power
of impulses triumphing over her weakness, and armed with
the dangerous weapons of past pleasures ?   Nature  never
sleeps, and always labors to carry its point, that desire may
be satisfied, the  mind tranquillized, and the  regular action
of vital organs restored.   " Appetite is  a part of our sub-
stance.  Virtue  is only a piece of inlaid work, which re-
quires an equal temperature to prevent it from warping."
  Nature has  given to all a certain quota of passion. Desire
is  a law of Nature, — a great  principle implanted deeply
within the constitution as a guaranty for  the  perpetuation
of the species  upon the surface of the  earth.  To destroy
the passions would be annihilation    They can, though,  be
regulated.  The accomplishment of this task with the many
is  admissible; with  a few,  it is a question whether  they
possess the  power.   Children  born  o" parents with dis- 
Causes.
187
ordered amativeness inherit passional activities and organic
excitabilities.  In them passion is augmented.  It manifests
its gigantic power in exaggerated intensity;  and fierce will
be the struggle of desire when its fires are once lighted.
   Fortunate, indeed, are they, who, notwithstanding the
might and dominion of the  aphrodisiac power, have  that
elevation of mind, that peaceful  consciousness of the pres-
ence  of  virtue, which curbs all  passion whilst it bays all
temptation; who, though lashed  into fury by the  intensity
of passion,  have yet the  power of governing their  own
actions   If their struggle be painful,  so,  too, will  their
triumph be glorious.  Modesty, that most charming  of at-
tributes, directs and governs  them.  Their  honor, respect,
delicacy, religion, and their duty to themselves, remain in-
tact.   They deposit  in no one's hands the whole happiness
of their  life.  They intrust no  one with  their honor  and
their repose, and they render no one the  absolute sovereign
of their  destiny.  There  is no sacrifice  of  duty, of fears,
or of pride.  Possessing the substance as well as the show
of virtue, they retain not only their own respect  towards
themselves, but augment the esteem, and confirm and render
more permanent the love, of him they  would not lose.
They experience  no  faithlessness, suffer from no indifference,
coldness,  or inconstancy.    They can husband their affec-
tions, and calmly canvass  in what manner man's love should
be managed to make it lasting.   They parcel out their fond-
ness,  but do not heap it upon  him to leave a cloyed satiety
upon the mind.  They keep  in  reserve stores of novelty
yet unexhausted, and  gratifications yet untasted.   They
manage man's affection  with judgment, moderate their own
with discretion, and  maintain  their sway without exposing
or abusing  it.  Coyness  never  created  inconstancy;  but
passion lessens by use.  Man enjoys that whicb is before
him ; but, when nothing more is possible, all that is attained
is  insipid.   Such  is the  nature of man, that  ingratitude is
the reward 0" woman's favors.  Eager in pursuit, but luke- 
 188   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

 warm  in possession; curiosity  excites, desire  impels,  and
 hope sustains him.   lie is never satisfied till  possession is
 absolute,  easy,  and uninterrupted.  Compliance, though,
 engenders indifference,  and renders the most bewitching
 charms of no effect.  Possession  weakens, nay, frequently
 extinguishes, the fondest, the most tender passion.  Nought
 has been  left him  to desire.   Nothing has been reserved
 to amuse expectations.   Curiosity  is satisfied.   The en-
 chantment is broken; and " the bloom of young desire, the
 purple light of the soul's enthusiasm," languishes, expires.
 Apathy  succeeds passion.  Disgust pursues desire.   Wo-
 man's empire lost is never regained.
          " She sets, like stars which fall, to rise no more."

 Anxieties and cares are but the purchase of pleasure.
   Let woman recognize the force of this philosophy, and
 she is safe.  She will be insensible to flattery, deaf to the
 voice of  adulation,  and  undeceived  by fair  speeches.
 Doubts will never be removed, fears will never be dissipated,
 nor will resistance ever grow faint.  If she would retain him
 who was at first a captive to her charms, let her  leave him
 always something to desire; recollecting that no charms,
 however  seductive, can  continue to transport with delight
 when they no  longer stimulate curiosity or desire.   The
 last draught of pleasure  taken, with nothing left to sparkle
 in the cup, impetuous vivacity and ardor give way to apathy
 and  indifference.   Politeness lessens,  and civilities  cease.
 Selfishness demanded all, and nought is left which  can
 renovate  the power of  charming.   With  the stores  of
 novelty exhausted,  every gratification  tasted, and curiosity
 satisfied, ingratitude turns away in cloyed satiety to seek
 either new conquests, or a more stable fidelity where felicity
 and  honor can  be  more safely reposed.   Disappointment
 and  mortification  follow complacency.    Selfishness  and
 brutality turn away from their instrument of pleasure when
possession is consummated 11 the  expense of truth, honor, 
Causes.                     189
and happiness; and innocence, betrayed by delusion, sinks
into the grave in ignominy or frantic wretchedness.
  Unfortunate, indeed, are they who inherit passsional ac-
tivities and organic excitabilities which hurry them down
the stream of pleasure to  swift destruction.   With the
emotions animated, the warmth enkindled, the senses awak-
ened, the mind inflamed, and the  desires  excited,  conflict
will not be declined, and the citadel must fall under proper
generalship   It  requires but  a master's  hand.    Nature
demands.  Reason is limited.
  Who shall say that the festive assembly, with its fetid,
suffocating atmosphere, loaded  with disease  reeking  from
a thousand lungs; that protracted  vigils sacrificed at the
shrine of folly, luxury, and  fashion; that  heated imagina-
tions, intemperate wishes, excited thoughts, which enchant
the senses, with the following morning's clouded spirits and
haggard looks, with the mind dejected with recollections of
the last night's follies, and body enervated by its excesses,
— who  shall say that  these foster  healthy looks, cheerful
mien, contented and healthful minds, and hardy  and vigor-
ous frames, the only foundation  upon which we can expect
to erect a superstructure beautiful in all its detail and pro-
portion ?   Does Nature second  the idea ?  Can the con-
stitution long bear the fatigues of such excitements ?   Who
shall  say  (and  this brings us  to the practical point)
that there is  in  these no morbid stimulus to the  disease
under consideration?   What part  of  the  economy  can be
more  affected ?  Each emotion has  its own distinct action
upon  the system.  As we have  already seen, the blood in
erotic excitement is directed to the sexual system ;  and when
it is experienced in any strong  degree, and is of  a continu-
ous and cumulative character, and  cannot be tranquillized
and  its  force discharged or expended by its natural and
legitimate  satisfaction, as in  those  unmarried and chaste,
it has the  effect of inducing an exaltation of the vascular
and nervous condition of the ovaries, which condition  ordi- 
190   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

narily terminates, oris exceedingly prone to terminate, in in-
flammation.  Of what incalculable importance, then, since
it is almost a moral  certainty that  subsequent disease w ill
supervene from these morbid impressions stamped on these
highly sensitive organs,  that  heed  should  be given  to
such and similar  causes, which tend only to  light up a
disease that will soon sooner or  later enervate, weaken, and
exhaust the powers  of life,  and render woman the victim
of a multiciplicity of mental, moral, and physical sufferings
that may attend her to the grave !
  Parents, guardians, mothers, you have seen the  effects,
but you have  been  totally unconscious  of the  cause.   To
acquaint you with  these causes, we have  undertaken the
arduous, and, to us, awkward task.
  To  every mother we would address ourself.  We would
conjure you to mark well, how, in this age, the physical being
is  comparatively neglected,  it3 wants made subservient  to
false and  fatal notions of mental  cultivation, or forgotten
amid the fascinating pleasures of sensual existence. Disease,
often generated in early life by a vicious physical education,
entails years  of mental, moral,  and  physical  suffering.
With you there rests responsibility.  You have an  arduous
task before you, of not only seeing that the physical  con-
stitution receives  that attention and  consideration which
are so much demanded, but which, alas ! are so  much  neg-
lected, but also in bending and  shaping  the youthful mind
of your daughter.   Let the  dictates of  wisdom  continually
flow from your lips, or  the  voice of her nature will prove
stronger than yours.  Your perpetual vigilance is demanded
to  check the  opening  roots of vice and error, to exter-
minate  them,  to  plant in  their place  a  growth  of surer
omen,  of lovelier  aspect.  You may well  tremble as she
approaches  the confines of  society, — that world of which
we entertain such  glittering  ideas,  but  which  is, when one
sees it closer, false, gloomy, and  malicious;  and you  may
well proceed with fearful caution in the road that leads her 
Causes.                     iqj
 to the knowledge of life and  its thousand snares, discrep-
 ancies, pains, and sufferings.   The  hope of your declining
 years depends  on  how you fulfil this  arduous task.   Her
 own prosperity, health, and  happiness rest  upon it; and
 according to your effort and success is she to prove a living
 stream of comfort and delight, possessing healthy looks, a
 contented and  healthful mind, and a hardy and vigorous
 frame, enabling her to fulfil the great purposes of her exist-
 ence ; or she is to roll through the road of life a poor,
 unsubstantial shadow, trembling at the slightest breeze of
 accident, and  the  victim  of  a thousand  ills to which her
 tenement is subject.  Ask you a guidance for the manage-
 ment of youth ?  We append a few hints here, and more
 hereafter.
   Let the Mind be occupied.—Let the young woman
 learn to render herself capable of occupying her mind with
 objects worthy of attention.  Let her busy herself in securing
 those attainments necessary to a proud and enviable intel-
 lectual standing in society.   Let her mind be filled with the
 study of  arithmetic,  grammar, geography, history, natural
 philosophy, the various branches of natural history, and with
 whatever employs the exercise of the memory.  It shuts out
 thoughts which it is desirable to avoid.  Let there be within
 the pale of her acquisitions, music, poetry, painting, and the
 fine arts.   Let her perfect  herself in the study of the lan-
 guages, in  reading books  of  genius, in the  improvement
 and exercise of her many accomplishments.  Let her learn
 the art of managing a house :  its influence on human happi-
 ness has seldom been properly portrayed.   Among the dig-
 nities of physics and metaphysics, writers have forgotten it.
 Socrates and Xenophon set  them the  example:  few, how-
 ever,  have followed their meritorious  exertions;  and igno-
 rance  and vanity have been left to consume valuable time
in the acquisition of things confessedly of no use, while that
knowledge which contributes greatly to the prosperity and
happiness of man  has been wholly excluded, or regarded 
192    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

as a matter of secondary importance.   Knowledge which
domestic life demands has given way to fashionable levities,
utility to accomplishments ; and those acquisitions necessary
to the prudent management of domestic concerns are forgot-
ten amid the multiplicity of ornamental absurdities.   Do-
mestic prudence and discreet economy are things unknown,
and not thought of; and bankruptcy, ruin, and disgrace fol-
low closely on the heels of abundant affluence and  exalted
stations.   All occupations which employ the mind are so
many countermines to temptation.   They dissipate the pas-
sions ; they lay hold of  the attention, and fix it; they turn
aside the thoughts from ideas too alluring.   Ennui is wo-
man's greatest enemy : it is her destroyer.   It powerfully
awakens imagination and increases sensibility.  It fosters
the emotions and languishings of love, and renders her an
easy prey to the despoiler's art.
  Active  Exercise is also demanded:  it  is a powerful
diversion of the thoughts  from improper channels.  Indo-
lence engenders sexual congestion, and increases sensibility.
Exercise calls the blood to the muscles and  organs of mo-
tion, develops vigorous bodies,  and retards  puberty.   It
dissipates sexual congestion, and decreases sensibility.   Its
value as a temperer of the passions  was- well known  to the
ancients: their poets tell us that Diana,  the daughter of
Jupiter, obtaining permission from  her  father to live in
perpetual celibacy, withdrew herself to the  hills  and the
woods,  that she might  shun the  society of men, and escape
provocatives of desire. That she  might also  extinguish
woman's predominant  characteristic, sensibility, she devot-
ed herself  to the excessive  bodily exercise and fatigue of
hunting.  From this we  are taught that active exercise
among the hills and woods is a preservative of chastity, and
that idleness and great cities are enemies to virtue.
  Jupiter permitted Diana to take with her, as attendants,
eighty  nymphs, all of whom, like herself, abjured  the  use
of marriage.   Among the number was the young and beau- 
                        Causes.                    193

tiful Calisto, daughter of  Lycaon, king of Arcadia; but
who, once falling asleep, was surprised by her seducer, and
forced to capitulate.  Calisto preserved her integrity whilst
she was employed; but,  giving  herself to rest and  sleep,
lost it.   Exercise is a preserver of modesty; fatigue  dissi-
pates erotic sensibility; idleness  is the mother of wanton-
ness.
   Atalanta was another attendant on Diana, and so swift
in running, that no man could match  her.   She was the
first to overtake  and wound  the Caledonian boar.   Her
beauty gained her many admirers, and she was importuned
of men.   She at length listens to  them, and leaves Diana,
the hills and woods; gives up  the  chase, exercise, and em-
ployment ; and is finally overcome by Hippomenes, in Cy-
bele's temple.
   iEgisthus, king of Argos, being asked the cause  of his
adultery with Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's  wife, answers,
that he tens idle, — "desidiosus erat."
   Prurient Books, Passion-stirring Pictures, Paint-
ings, Statues, &c, are  highly  dangerous.  They provoke
flights  of  vivid  fancy, and  arouse impulses of desire, and
yearnings after unknown gratifications.  The eyes are the
windows  of the  soul; through  them sensibility becomes
exaggerated and judgment conquered.   While King  David
was walking on the housetop,  in the  city of Jerusalem,  he
espied Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing.   The eye
saw, and the energy of the  senses  became aroused; the
beauty  of her figure ;_*iiamed, and passion consumed him.
Intoxicated and lashed into fury by the intensity of inter-
nal movements, his reason became lost amidst the transports
of desire;  he  demanded a  surrender of the  citadel, and it
fell under a king's eloquence (2 Sam. ii. 2, &c).
   When King Abimelech saw Sarah, Abraham's wife, pas-
sion was enkindled, and the  voice of God only restrained
him from doing violence (Gen. xx. 2, &c).
   When  Helen looked upon  Paris, desire roused her from
              13 
194   Woman, and her TJiirty Years' Pilgrimage.

supineness, and she confessed she was ravished with admi-
ration at the beauty of his countenance, and that she could
not be satisfied with gazing on him.
  Job made a covenant with  his  eyes (Job xxxi. 1), and
prayed  God, as  David did, " Turn  away mine eyes from
beholding vanity " (Ps. cxix, 37).
  Look well to her  Associates. — A  frail companion
is a mortal poison to the  best constituted heart.   Vice loves
company; and a woman who has once succumbed thinks to
screen herself, in a measure, by leading others into the same
snare.   Novices are her victims; stealthily  she  approaches,
and ingeniously and cunningly wends her way to the heart.
She looks deep into it;  she discovers there a curiosity vast
in its energies.  She sees, also, exaggerated conjectures and
sentiments;  intimacy  is formed, mutual  confidences  are
reposed,  and secret thoughts interchanged.  Interested in
bringing her to the  same level with herself, her generosity
in disclosing to youthful imagination most absurd exagger-
ations  is commensurate with the attention that  she suc-
ceeds  in  fixing.  With a smooth, guileful tongue, she  pic-
tures visions of felicity which no human power can  bestow.
She arouses  a morbid  curiosity which  provokes flights of
vivid fancy,  and  vitiates youthful  imagination.   But  for
Venus, her own sister Helen would never have  engaged in
an affair of gallantry with Paris, king of Troy.  Venus had
succumbed to Mars, and,  wishing to bring her sister to her
own level, inflamed  Helen's imagination with  exaggerated
pictures  of felicity,  and  led her to break faith with integ-
rity.  Indulgence, though, never gives the pleasure it prom-
ises.   Helen experienced the truth of  this, and in sorrow
and in  contrition returned to  wisdom's  ways.  Love in
itself,  already too alluring, obtains new vigor by contagion,
and danger is imminent.   But if the barriers raised up by
modesty are not easily surmounted, and virtue  still makes
a stand, what ravages may not the passions commit on the
sensitive ovaries which sustain the full shock of the commo- 
Causes.
195
tion!   We repeat, Look well to her associates; turn away
her eyes from beholding vanity; let there be due exercise
on foot,  even to  fatigue, if  sensibility be  great;  let  the
mind be  occupied.   If  it  be  not  employed, the  senses
will.
  Early Marriage is another exciting cause of this dis-
ease.   In newly-married women, inflammation of the men-
strual organs sometimes occurs as the effect of the new and
novel stimulus, — sexual intercourse.  The first exercise of
this faculty causes some remarkable changes in women.
  Habitual indulgence of an inordinate use of this stimulus
also engenders disease.   Its effects are similar to those of
abstinence.   It causes weakness, nervous irritability, loss of
appetite, impaired digestion, hypochondria, and mental irres-
olution and enfeeblement.  It debilitates the vital  powers,
impoverishes the blood, induces decay and loss  of  the  en-
during tone of the muscular and other solid tissues of  the
body, over-excites the nervous and sexual systems,  and in-
duces general nervousness, faintness, languor, and disease of
the ovaries.  In man, it  induces a weakness  of the  genital
organs, and establishes involuntary seminal discharges, which
reduce the patient to the last  degree of wretchedness.   It
effeminates the  mind, impairs  the power of thought, and
unstrings the nerves.  Women lose their beauty and force
of character.   Their sight and hearing also sometimes grad-
ually fail.   The  eyes become weak,  and unable to  endure
the light, and the ears affected with buzzing and other  un-
natural sensations.   The brain, also, sometimes becomes
affected, memory  and the faculty of thinking become  im-
paired,  and  sometimes  a state of stupidity and   mental
degradation ensues.
  That we may clearly see how the most deleterious effects
may arise from ill-regulated desires and extravagant indul-
gences  in an act tlnxt  is  accompanied  by a universal
excitement of the whole  body, terminating in  a kind of
slight  convulsive,  comatose, and ecstatic  state, it is neces- 
196   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

sary that we understand in what the act of copulation con-
sists.   It is thus described by Carpenter : —
  " When  impelled by sexual excitement, the  male seeks
intercourse with the female:  the erectile tissue of the genital
organs becomes turgid  with blood, and the surface acquires
a much increased sensibility.  This  is especially acute in
the glans penis.   By the friction of the glans  against the
rugose walls of the vagina,  the excitement is increased;
and the impression  which is thus produced at last becomes
so strong, that it calls forth, through  the medium of the
spinal cord, a reflex  contraction of the muscular fibres  of
the vasa deferentia  and of the muscles which surround the
vesicular seminales  and prostate gland.  These  receptacles
discharge their contents into  the urethra, from which  they
are expelled with some degree of force, and with a  kind of
convulsive  action, by its compressor muscles."
  The physiological explanation of the pleasure attendant
on the sexual act is  explained by Kobelt  as follows : " Ac-
cumulation of blood causes, whenever it occurs in the body,
a gradual augmentation of sensibility; but in this case the
glans penis, in passing from  a non-erect state  to the con-
dition of complete turgescence, becomes the seat of a com-
pletely  new and specific  sensibility, up to this moment
dormant. All the attendant phenomena re-act on  the nervous
centres.  From this it  appears, that in addition to the nerves
of general  sensibility, which fulfil their functions in a state
of repose, and also during erection,  although  in  a different
manner, there must be in the glans penis  special nerves  of
pleasure, the particular action of which does not take place,
except under the  indispensable  condition of  a state  of
orgasm of the glands.   Moreover, the orgasm once over, the
nerves return to their former state  of inaction, and  remain
unaffected  under all  ulterior excitement.  They are then
in the same condition as the  rest of the generative ap-
paratus: their irritability ceases  with  the  consummation
of the act;  and, together with this irritability, the venereal 
Causes.
197
appetite ceases also, to be repeated, and to bring about the
same series of phenomena, at each new excitation."
  During the act of copulation, the  elastic  contraction of
the vulva closes tightly on the penis, which, with the clitoris,
is supplied with highly sensitive nerves.   By friction of the
glans penis against  the latter and  the rugose walls of the
vagina, excitement is increased ;  and the  senses, enchanted
and bewildered,  are wrought up to  the  highest pitch of
delirious ecstasy, followed,  however, at the moment of ejacu-
lation, by slight muscular spasms, and terminating with feel-
ings of languor and fatigue.
  " Coition," says Ryan, " has been  compared  to a fit of
epilepsy, to an electrical shock:  it entirely engages the mind
and the body;  we neither hear nor  see ; the soul is absorbed
in love; and some persons  have lost their  lives in this crisis.
It  is for  this  reason  that sexual  intercourse has  proved
mortal  after severe wounds, hemorrhages, &c.; and, when •
too often repeated, injures the economy. .  .  .  The abuse of
enjoyment enervates the body,  destroys  the  memory,  ex-
tinguishes the imagination, degrades  the  soul, and renders
us stupid.  Thus, idiots, who abuse this function, are exces-
sively  lascivious; and eunuchs  are  remarkably deficient in
genius: they want the organs which are destined to secrete
the semen, and this  plunges the mind as  well as  the body
into a languor  and debility almost  infantine.  It has also
been observed that mental  exaltation  and madness do  not
manifest themselves before the age of puberty, nor in old
age, but in adult age especially, by the retention of the
sperm, or ovarian fluid; and hence castration and pregnancy
have radically cured maniacs."
  Touching  this matter, Acton remarks,  "From the risks
which  animals will run to enjoy the  gratification, and  the
recklessness with which even the wildest male will approach
the  tame  female when  in heat, it  would  seem  that  no
pleasure is equal to this.
  There is every reason to believe that it is the mere and 
 198   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 simple action of emission which gives  the  pleasurable sen-
 sations in animals which (like many birds) have no  intro-
 mittent organ.   This pleasurable sensation, however, is  of
 momentary duration; like  a  battery,  it exhausts itself in
 a  shock.  Such, however, is the intensity of the nervous
 excitement while it lasts, that it is well  for human nature
 it is momentary, or  much  more mischief would probably
 result from repeated acts than ordinarily happens.  . . .  Even
 in the healthiest and strongest  person, a feeling of fatigue
 immediately follows."
   This nervous orgasm is very powerfully exhibited in some
 animals.   The buck rabbit,  for instance, after each sexual
 act, falls on his side, the whites of his eyes  turn up, and his
 hind legs are spasmodically agitated.  The causes of this
 and the corresponding phenomena in other animals is the
 nervous shock which particularly affects the spinal cord.
   The way in which  this shock affects a  healthy man is,
 generally, to make him languid and drowsy for a time.
   This temporary depression has not escaped the observation
 of the ancients, who have remarked, " Laeta veniere Venus
 tristis abire solet;" and again, " Post coitum omne animal
 triste, nisi gallus qui cantat."   So serious, indeed, is the
 paroxysm of the  nervous system produced  by the sexual
 spasm, that its immediate*  effect is  always attended with
 danger;  and men have died  in the act, just  as insects perish
 so soon as the fecundating office has been performed. Every
 now and  then we learn  that men  are  found  dead on the
 night of their wedding; and  it is  not so very uncommon
to hear of inquests on men found dead  in houses of ill-fame
without any marks of ill-usage  or poison.  The cause has
been, doubtless, the sudden  nervous  shock  overpowering a
feeble or  diseased frame.   However exceptional these  cases
are, they are warnings, and should  serve to show that the
 act which may  destroy the  weak should not  be tan: pered
with even by the strong.  . .  .  There are some men in vhom
 a sort of epileptiform orgasm  takes place  every time con- 
Causes.
199
nection is indulged in.   Napoleon I. is said to havs  been
subject to epilepsy, when, relaxing from his great labors, he
indulged in sexual intercourse.   No doubt can exist that
deaths which have occurred in houses of evil repute, as well
as on the marriage couch, have arisen from this cause act-
ing upon highly susceptible organizations. Entomological
works abound with cases in which the male dies  after the
act of copulation.  The following, which reads almost like
a romance, may be explained, perhaps, by this, epileptiform
attack killing the male  insect.  It is a brief history of the
establishment and growth of a  colony of termite ants, as
related by Burmeister.
   " At the termination  of  the hot season, the young males
and females quit the nest,  and appear upon the surface of
the earth, where they swarm in innumerable hosts, and pair.
The busied workers then convey a chosen male and female
back  into the  dwelling,  and  imprison them in the central
royal cell, the entrances to which they decrease  and guard.
Through these  apertures  the imprisoned pair receive the
nutriment they require.   The male now, as among all other
insects, speedily dies after the impregnation of the female
has been effected ; but the female from this period begins
to swell enormously, from the development of  her  countless
eggs: and, by the  time she is  ready to  commence laying,
her abdomen is about fifteen hundred or two thousand times
larger than all the rest  of her body."
   Of course, such epileptic attack is  only the rare exception.
In a young, healthy, fully-developed adult, the shock which
the nervous system receives is recovered from  immediately.
Ejaculation is in him a healthy function, from which he rallies
directly;  and the act may be repeated, in some men, at in-
conceivably short intervals.  In other instances,  however,
the act is followed by intense depression; and it is a day
or two  before the system rallies.   In  such  instances,  I
believe, it will generally be found that the frame has  been
shaken  by great excesses, and then each act of insemination
produces effects far different from their natural ones. 
20O   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   M. Parise has  truly remarked, that " if the pleasurable
moments, as well as the torments, which attend love, lasted,
there would be no human force capable of supporting them,
unless our actual condition  were changed."   And  Acton
tells  us, that  "a kind  of natural  safeguard  is  provided
against the nervous exhaustion consequent on such tremen-
dous excitement by the rapid diminution  of the sensation
during  successive  acts of copulation.   Indeed,  in persons
who repeat coitus frequently during  the  same night, the
pleasurable sensation will diminish so rapidly, that the act
at last will not be attended with any.  This  pleasure, in
fact, seems in its own way to be subject to the  same laws
which apply to our other gratifications."
   Parise also says, that the " semen is life itself under a
fluid form,—the vital principle, condensed and percepti-
ble. . .  .  Its importance  is demonstrated by the fact that
the smallest  quantity contains life  and activity, and can
communicate it;  that its presence and its secretion impress
the organization with an extra quantity of force and energy,
whereas repeated loss of it enervates and rapidly wears out
the body.  Nothing costs  the economy so much as the pro-
duction of semen, and its forced ejaculation.  It has been
calculated that an ounce of semen was equivalent to forty
ounces of blood, or ten ounces of blood to each ejaculation ;
it being estimated that a healthy man ejaculates some two
drachms or a quarter of an ounce."   According  to  Bichat,
the secretion of sperm is in an inverse  proportion  to  the
secretion of fat; and we at once see the reason : semen is the
essence  of the whole  individual.  Hence Fernel has said
"'totus homo semen est.'   It is the balm of life,—one of
its best  and most powerful stimulants."
   Carpenter  tells us, that  "feelings of pleasure or pain
are connected with particular sensations, which cannot (for
the most part, at least) be explained upon any other princi-
ple than that of the necessary association of those feelings,
by  an original  law  of our  nature,  with the sensation in 
Causes.                     20 i
question.  As  a general rule, it may be stated that the
violent excitement of any sensation is disagreeable, even
when the same sensation, in a moderate degree, may be the
source of extreme pleasure."   To which Acton remarks, " By
this merciful provision, Nature herself dictates that excesses
must not  be committed.  The  frequent  complaint heard
from persons who have committed excesses, that they expe-
rience no more pleasure in the act, is the best evidence we
can have that Nature's laws have been infringed."
   Touching the effects of  excess, Acton remarks,  "None,
perhaps, but medical men, can know at all  (and they can
know but a fraction) of the misery and suffering caused by
ill-regulated desires  and  extravagant indulgences among
married people.  .  . . Too frequent emissions  of the life-
giving fluid,  and too frequent sexual excitement of  the ner-
vous system is, as we have seen, in itself most  destruc-
tive.  Whether it  occurs in married or unmarried people,
has little, if any thing, to do with the result.   The mar-
ried man who  thinks, that, because he  is a married man,
he can commit no excess, however often the act of sexual
congress is repeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously
as  the  debauchee,  who acts  on the same principle  in his
indulgences; perhaps  more  certainly, from  his ignorance,
and from  his not taking those precautions,  and following
those rules, which  a career of vice is apt to teach  a man.
Many a man has, until he married, lived a most continent
life: so has' his  wife.  But,  as  soon  as they  are wedded,
intercourse is  indulged  in night after night, neither party
having  any idea that this is an excess which  the system of
neither can bear, and which, to the man, at least, is simple
ruin.  The practice is continued  till health is  impaired,
sometimes  permanently;  and, when a patient  is  at last
obliged to seek medical advice, he is thunderstruck at learn-
ing that his sufferings arise from such a cause as this.  Peo-
ple often appear to  think that connection may be repeated
just as  frequently, and almost as often, as meals may.  Till 
202  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

they are told, the  idea never enters their heads that they
have been guilty of great and  almost criminal excess; nor
is this to be wondered at, as such a cause of disease is sel-
dom hinted at by the medical man they consult."
  Excess  not only compromises the menstrual organs, dis-
turbing the catamenia, but involves  other of the reproduc-
tive organs.   Inflammation and  ulceration of the cervix
uteri, and congestion and inflammation of the vagina, are
both frequent  and common, and are  frequently followed
by  hemorrhages, leucorrhoea, &c.; and from the  bond of
sympathy which exists between the ovaries, the womb, and
the mammary  glands,  the  breasts often become  involved
in the general disturbance, and  exhibit points of hardness
or induration.
  These diseased  symptoms are  more especially observ- '
able in women  in whom voluptuousness predominates.  In
women of calmer temperaments, whose placid features an-
nounce a gentler and more passive love, marriage very gen-
erally adds to  the  force  of their  physical charms;  but in
the impassioned, freshness disappears, and flaccidity succeeds
to elasticity.   How striking, oftentimes, is the change in
her appearance in a few short months !  Recall the gay-lit
countenance,  the ruddy and prominent cheek, the sparkling
and lively eye, the plump and  well-filled neck.  Compare
her then  and now,—how great the change!   The lustre
of her eye has become dimmed; the feet that were small,
even to a  fault, puffy; the ankles that were so beautifully
turned, swollen and ill shaped;  the hands that might  have
been the  envy of a queen,  thin and bony; the neck that
once was so plump and so well filled,  a bundle of cords;
lips once so vermilion and full,  pale, thin, and livid; teeth
that were  as  white  as pearls, yellow  and dingy; and voice
that once touched  chords that oscillated  the very heart,
broken and husky.  The glory  of that beauty which  once
fascinated the beholder has departed;  decayed health and
spirits are all that is left to her.   The great purposes of her 
Causes.
203
existence (the  ends of marriage) are thwarted.   She is a
victim  of sterility from disease  of  the menstrual  organs.
She cultivates a barren soil that will produce, with all her
tilth, no harvest; for what good purpose  can it  serve to
water the leaves when the plant is decayed, and withered at
the root ?  This  is more especially the sequel of the culpa-
ble and inordinate exercise  of intercourse, as seen in women
in every respect unfortunate.   The menstrual organs of  fe-
males sold to vice are seldom without some morbid lesion.
   It has been  already observed, that  " if the pleasurable
moments, as well  as  the  torments, which attend love, last-
ed, there would be no  human force  capable of supporting
them;" and it is well, that, in  the  human being, the  act
should  last but  a short time, — some  few minutes.   As
regards the duration of  the  act, we find  every degree
of constitutional  difference, not only among human beings
but  among animals.  In man,  erection lasts but  a short
time.   The greatest  difference, however, is  observed in this
particular: with some, consummation of the act takes place
in a few minutes; while with others  ejaculation  can  be
deferred  for hours, very much,  however, to their serious
injury.   Among  animals, great  difference is observed:  we
are told that " the coitus in the kangaroo, and, probably, in
other marsupials, is  of  long  duration;  and the scrotum,
during  that  act,  disappears, and seems  to be  partially  in-
verted  during the forcible  retraction of the testes against
the marsupial bones."  The act of copulation in the moth
of the  silk-worm is  also of  long  duration.   " The male
is the  smaller and darker of the two, and as soon as he
leaves the aurelia, or grub state, he U ready for the act;  he
then vibrates his wings with a very singular, humming noise,
and goes  round  and  round  the female; the tails are then
approximated:  copulation takes  place,  and lasts for days.
As soon as the sexes separate, the same process is repeated,
and sexual congress again occurs.  It would almost seem as
if the short life of these  insects  was  passed in copulation. 
204   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

The female moths die first; but the males, although sur-
viving the females,  are  dull, and can  hardly move, being
apparently thoroughly exhausted with  their reproductive
duties."
  In the dog, we also observe prolonged copulation.  After
the penis is introduced into the vagina, it swells, and becomes
suddenly enlarged.   The vagina closes tightly on and com-
presses it, arresting and holding it in situ for a long time,
or during the secretion and ejaculation of the semen.   The
dog is furnished with no receptacle (vesicul® seminales),
as  man  is, for  holding  the semen after  being secreted:
hence secretion takes place only during copulation, drop by
drop, instead of being injected at once into the female.
  Cold-blooded animals, as lizards, serpents, &c, have a slow
copulation, and remain  several  days in it; they are in a
state of stupor and insensibility; they neither eat nor stir
during the time.  The female frog is obliged to carry about
her husband for a long time on her  back.   He is provided
by Nature, at the period  of reproduction, with an enlarged
thumb, which enables him to keep his hold, past the power
of the female to shake him off.
  In  some classes of animals, copulation takes place with
wonderful celerity;  so quickly, in fact, that, at one time, it
was stated that the  coitus of stags  had not been observed
even by the oldest keepers.   Prof. Owen tells us, however,
that it has been observed in Richmond Park, in  the follow-
ing way:  " The buck will be seen to scrape hollows two
or three feet deep, in certain  portions of the park; to these
places he leads the does.  One by one, they place themselves
in these hollows; the buck drives away all other bucks from
the neighborhood;  then, with a rush, mounts the doe.  In
an instant, the act is accomplished, and  the  female  retires,
to be replaced by another."
  In fishes, no copulation at all takes place; but the female
deposits her spawn in favorable places, and the male, pass-
ing over it, fecundates the ova  by eniLting those immense 
Causes.
205
quantities of milt which everybody m.i^t have noticed in the
soft-roed mackerel or herring.
  Venereal excesses ordinarily occur through ignorance and
imprudence,  rather  than from  any  confirmed sensuality.
There is nothing, perhaps, in which constitutions differ more
than  in the  amount of  sexual exercise  they can severally
bear.   In men, we  find a very marked  difference  in this
respect: while one  individual will suffer for days  from  a
single effort, another will not evince  the least sign of de-
pression, although the  act is repeated several  consecutive
times, or several  consecutive nights.   In this 'respect, we
find every degree of difference, from  those of exceedingly
erotic temperament and powerful  frame, like  the extreme
case of  a Greek mentioned by M. Lallemand, who, for years,
indulged in sexual connection, on an average, fourteen times
a day, to those who  are  injured by indulging oftener  than
once  or twice a week.
   No part of sexual intercourse differs more widely in differ-
ent subjects than repetition of the act.   In animals we
find every degree of difference; we are told, that " the ram
has been supposed  to  repeat the  act from fifty to eighty
times in the course of one night.   A cock copulates with
twenty or  thirty hens in a  short time.   The stallion is, or
rather  ought to be, always  limited to a certain number of
mares; but,  as  he takes his mounts  during a  limited time
(two or three months), the act is  necessarily repeated very
often, and at short  intervals.  .   .   .  While, on the  one
hand, the ram and the goat can copulate  so frequently as to
excite our astonishment, among other creatures one  copula-
tive act soems to satisfy all  the requirements of nature for
a very long period.  Thus, for instance, in certain birds.
coitus is only requisite once in a season.   In many parts of
the country, where old women keep but one turkey-hen, she
is  sent  distances to the cock only once in  a season, 3 et all
the eggs she lays during the  year are fertile ones.   In such
cases, all the  eggs  must be impregnated  at  once, or the 
205   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

spermatozoa  be hoarded up  in  the cloaca till they are re-
quired." — Acton.
   We are also told, that, among bees, copulation takes place
once for all;  that when the queen-bee takes  her wedding-
flight, in fine, warm weather  (copulation  never takes place
in the hive),  she makes her selection of a male bee  (drone),
and the act takes place in  the air.  It is very quickly com-
pleted, whereas other  insects may  remain days united  in
copidation.   When the queen  returns to the hive, after
this single copulative  act, her seminal receptacle  is filled
with male semen, which supply is sufficient for life,  and she
can, for four or  five  years, lay male or female eggs at will.
   Among men, we  find  a  wide  constitutional difference  as
regards repetition of the act.   As previously stated, one
individual will  suffer for days from a single coitus, while
others evince not the slightest depression from a dozen con-
secutive acts.
  " The lengths to which some married people go are perfectly
astonishing.  I lately  saw  a married medical man who told
me, that, for fourteen years, he believed he had never allowed
a night to pass without having had connection.  The con-
trast between such a case as  this, where  an  individual for
fourteen  years  has  resisted this drain on the system, and
that of a man who is, as  many are, prostrated for  twenty-
four hours by one nocturnal  emission, is most striking." —
Acton.  Cabrol reports cases  of men, in  his Alphab. Ana-
tom. Observ.  17, who performed the reproductive function
forty times in one night, and forty-eight times in two nights;
and Flavius  Vopiscus tell us  that Proculus, a Roman gen-
eral, deflowered ten prisoners  of  war in one night.  " Procu-
lus Metiano affini S. D. centum  ex  Sarmatia virgenes cepti.
Ex his  una  nocte  decern  iniui; omnes  tatem, quod in me
erat, mulieres intra  dies quindecem reddi."
   Ancient nations,  sensible of the expediency of regulating,
to some extent, sexual indulgences, enacted  ordinances for
the purpose.  The IV flowing (says Acton) is a freely-trans-
lated extract  from the  "Uxor Hebraica" of John Selden. 
Causes.
207
  " They would have the conjugal debt paid regularly by
the husband, in proportion to the energy unused in  his vo-
cation.  According to the Mischna, a man was allowed one or
two weeks' leave of absence, on the score of religious vows of
abstinence.   Law-students were exempt.   A weekly debt
was imposed upon artificers, but a daily one upon vigorous
young husbands having  no  occupation.   Donkey-drivers,
employed in transporting merchandise, &c, were liable once
a week;  camel-drivers, a calling entailing  much labor  and
travelling, once in thirty days; sailors, once (at any time)
in six months.   This is according to the  Rabbi Eliezer."
Mottray states, in  his  " Travels,"  " that the Turkish  law
obliges  husbands to cohabit with their wives once a week,
and that, if they neglect to do so, the wife can lodge a com-
plaint before a magistrate."
  Dr. Acton expresses  the  opinion, that " sexual congress
ought not to take place more frequently than once in seven
or ten days;  and,  when  my opinion is asked  by patients
whose natural desires are strong, I  advise those wishing to
control their passion, to indulge in intercourse twice  on the
same night.  I have noticed, that, in many persons, a single
intercourse  does  not effectually empty the vasa  deferentia,
and that, within the next twenty-four hours, strong sexual
feelings again arise ; whereas, if sexual intercourse is repeat-
ed on the same night, the patient is able so to restrain his
feelings, that ten days or a fortnight may elapse  without the
recurrence of desire."
  Jeremy Taylor, in his " Rules and Exercise of Holy Liv-
ing," devotes a chapter to " Rules for Married Persons; or,
Matrimonial Chastity."   A few extracts  here  will not be
out of place : —
  " In their permissions  and license, they must be sure to
observe the order of Nature and the ends of God.  He is an
ill husband that uses his wife as a man  treats a harlot,
having no other  end but pleasure.   Concerning which our
best rule  is, that although in  this, as in eating and drink- 
208    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

ing, there is  an appetite  to  be satisfied, which  cannot be'
done without pleasing  that  desire,  yet,  since that desire
and satisfaction were intended by Nature for other ends, they
should never be  separate from those  ends,  but  always be
joined with all or one of these ends, — with a desire of chil-
dren, or to a void fornication, or to lighten and ease the cares
and sadness of household affairs, or to endear each other ;
but never with a purpose, either in act  or desire, to separate
the sensuality from these ends which hallow it.
   " Married persons must keep such modesty and decency of
treating  each other, that  they never force themselves  into
high and violent  lusts with arts  and unbecoming devices;
always remembering that those mixtures are  most innocent
which  are  most simple and most natural, most orderly and
most safe.  It is the duty of matrimonial chastity to be re-
strained  and  temperate  in the use of their lawful pleasures ;
concerning which,  although  no universal  rule can antece-
dently be given to all persons, any more than to all bodies
one  proportion of meat and drink, yet married persons are
to estimate the degree of their license  according to the fol-
lowing propositions : 1. That it be moderate, so as to  con-
sist with health.   2.  That it be so ordered as not to be too
expensive of time, that precious opportunity of working out
our salvation.  3.  That, when duty is demanded, it be always
paid (so far as in our power and election)  according to the
foregoing measures.  4. That it be with a temperate  affec-
tion, without violent transporting desires or too sensual appli-
cations ; concerning which, a man is to make judgment by
proportion to other actions, and the severities of his religion,
and the sentences of sober  and wise  persons;  always re-
membering that marriage  is a  provision  for supply of the
natural necessities  of the body, not  for  the artificial and
procured appetites of the mind.   And it is a sad truth that
many married persons, thinking that the flood-gates  of lib-
erty are set wide open, without measures or restraints  (so
they sail  in the channel),  have  felt  the final rewards of 
Causes.                    209
intemperance  and lust by their unlawful  using  of lawful
permissions.   Only let each of them be temperate, an i both
of them be modest.  Socrates was wont to say that those
women  to whom Nature hath not been indulgent in good
features and colors should make it up  themselves with ex-
cellent  manners; and those who were beautiful and comely
should  be  careful that so fair a body be not polluted wit h
unhandsome usages.  To which Plutarch adds,  that a wife,
if she be unhandsome, should consider how extremely ugly
she would be if she wanted modesty; but,  if she  be hand-
some, let her  think how  gracious that beauty would be  if
she superadds chastity."
   Excess has, ordinarily,  a  less  deleterious influence on
those who take plenty of exercise in  the open air  than
on those who are confined within doors, or those who are
indolent,  or  whose  mental  powers  are  severely taxed:
therefore, the student is more liable to become affected by
slight excess  than one who follows healthier pursuits;  and
he who  indulges  in immoderate  drinking  or  smoking  is
more prone to become  affected than one of more temperate
habits.
   Excesses occur, not unfrequently, in unequal constitutions,
from a desire to please, and not to appear deficient either  in
vigor or sensibility; and the husband exhausts  the wife,
or the wife the husband,  which is dangerous,  both physi-
cally and morally, and ruinous and destructive in  the ex-
treme.   Each  should have a careful consideration  for the
health and happiness of the other, and, under no considera-
tion, demand or permit a partner of life to  overtask his  or
her energies for their own gratification.
   Neither women nor any of the female animals secrete  or
lose  semen during copulation, or any thing analogous to it.
Their ejaculations consist simply of vaginal mucus and  epi-
theleal scales.   ''Nevertheless, as an effect of long-contin-
ued and often-repeated sexual shocks, women may, feeble as
their sexual tendencies are,  compared with man's,  become
             14 
210   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

subject to epileptiform  attacks  and various nervous affec-
tions."— Acton.
  Excess has, ordinarily, a less deleterious influence  on fe-
males  than  on males.   The spermatic  fluid  of the male,
and  the  vaginal of the  female, are not only supplied  in
very different proportions, but that of the male is the most
important; for it imparts life, and great languor follows its
effusion.  But the vaginal ejaculation of the female  is un-
prolific, and  scarcely diminishes sensibility;  nor is  it fol-
lowed by that prostration which results from the discharge
of the male sexual element.
  " If the reason be inquired, why one sex is  more insatia-
ble than  the other, the answer is, Because the one dispenses
less vitality than the other.   It is now universally admitted
by physiologists, that there is no supply of feminine seminal
fluid during the act of reproduction, but a germ in the ovary
is impregnated (?) though there may be a more or loss abun-
dant secretion of fluid  from the membrane and subjacent
glands of the vagina and uterus;  but the sensibility remains
vivid after the effusion  of this fluid, while  the emission
of the male  is followed  by an  immediate abatement  of
amorous  impulse :  in  fine, the conformation of  the  sexes
enables the female always to receive, and  never, according
to the expression of Salomon, to be satisfied (' os vulva3 num-
quam dicit, sufficit');  and  therefore  sexual  enjoyment  is
considered more delicious and  protracted in one sex  than
the other.
   " If we consider that the  other sex have the nervous sys-
tem much more sensitive than ours, the skin finer and  more
delicate,  that their feelings are more acute, their mamma)
the  seat of vivid  sensibility, from uterine sympathy, the
nipples erected during intercourse, \vq must agree with De-
lignac, ' that their enjoyment is more intense and extended
through the whole economy than in man;  and that coition
or impregnation generally excites in them a universal tre-
mor in all parts of the body.' " — Ryan. 
Causes.
211
  As regards the  test which every married  man should
apply in his own case, Lallemand says,  " When connection
is followed by a  joyous feeling, a blen etre general, as well
as fresh vigor; when the head feels more free and easy, the
body more elastic and lighter;  when a greater disposition
to exercise or intellectual labor arises, and the genital organs
evince an increase of vigor and activity, — we may infer that
an imperious want has been satisfied within the limits neces-
sary for health.   The happy influence which all the organs
experience is similar to that which follows the accomplish-
ment of every function necessary to the  economy."
  " How serious, how vital, an act, so to speak, that of copu-
lation is, appears from, the marked  changes which  accom-
pany its  performance in the lower animals.  Whether any
corresponding alterations occur in man we have no means
of knowing; but we observe, that,  in  the rutting  season,
buck-venison is strong, lean, and ill favored.  At this time,
we  are  told, the flesh becomes  soft and  flabby; the hair
looks ' unkind;' and, in birds, the feathers, after the season
of breeding, are in a ruffled state, and  drop;  the hprns  of
stags fall  off, and  the blood  is  occupied  in supplying the
consequent demand for new osseous matter.
  " It is before the spawning season has passed that we prefer
the herring; and it is only while it  is  filled with roe, that
we care to eat the mackerel;  a spent salmon is  not fit food
for man; and, at this period,  the vivid  colors  of the trout,
all fishermen  are aware, entirely disappear, and they retire,
exhausted and impoverished, until the vital forces are re-
gained." — Acton.
  Excess combines with it other disastrous effects; it sets
happiness at hazard, it jeopardizes conjugal felicity.   Youth-
ful  impetuosity  and ardor unrestrained,  like  fiery steeds
confessing no master, pursue their way until exhaustion
stops career.   Charmed with the exercise  of a new faculty,
they deliver themselves up to  its enchanting ecstasies, and
resolve not to quit the bowl  without  a surfeit.   With  no 
212    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

restraint of reason, or government of prudence, the affec-
tions  unhusbauded, and prodigal  in fondness, they expend
at once what would, properly managed, have  maintained a
passion for life.   Vehemence subsides, and apathy takes its
place; they seek, but in vain, for those charms with which
they had formerly been so much enamored ;  excessive use
lessens  the  transports of  delight, and satiety follows quick
on the heels of inordinate indulgence.   Prodigality charms
for the moment, but  surfeits;  frugality heightens the taste,
and prolongs pleasure.  The art of managing pleasures con-
sists in being sparing of them.   Repletion calls for a change;
other essentials are demanded, which will supply the place
of those that have produced satiety.   Possession absolute,
free, and uninterrupted, and the novelty gone, life becomes
vapid and bitter,  unless there be other materials for mutual
entertainment.   A well-stored mind, and an accumulated
fund  for reflection and delightful converse, or a capability
of occupying the thoughts with objects worthy of attention,
are necessary.  Without  these, naught is  left which  can
renovate the power of  charming; and insipidity on the one
hand, and desire  for variety on the other, are imminent.
Farewell,  then, conjugal  felicity!   Inquietudes, jealousies,
quarrels, inconstancy, and infidelity will be your destroyers.
  Beauty is no safeguard. Beauty is  captivating;  but its
reign is limited.   Beauty commands admiration;  admira-
tion, though, is short lived.   Jason's" admiration for Medea
was beyond description;  y.et  possession dissipated  it,  and
he repudiated her.  Indifference pursues  admiration.  The
same  set of features,  however beautiful, soon tire; like a
fine picture, they soon wear}'.  A cultivated  mind never
tires.
   Goodnature, although desirable and essential, is no  safe-
guard.  It is a most admirable quality, but good for nothing
alone; and,  besides, it won't keep: it  changes its  nature,
and becomes sour by long standing, or wholly insipid.   An
eternal sameness, unspiced by  any of those little shortcoin- 
Causes.
213
ings in the way of equanimity,—pic ues, pouts,  caprices,
jealousies, quarrels, and reconciliations, becomes exceedingly
tiresome.   Variety, we are told, is the spice of life;  and the
want of seasoning in this respect, although rare in the sex,
when it does become  an exception to the general rule, en-
genders wearisomeness  and indifference.   It gives  no sort
of chance for a quarrel, and none of  those enchanting sen-
sations which are called up  by reconciliation.  " She is  so
reasonable,  so  gentle, that she  deprives  one even of the
liberty of squabbling with  her; and that liberty is some-
times so great a pleasure !
   " Place in her stead a woman lively, uncertain, froward,
but these only to a certain degree.   The  scene  is shifted:
the lover (or the husband) meets the same person with all
the charms of variety.  Caprice is the salt of gallantry, that
preserves it from corrupting.  Inquietudes, jealousies,  quar-
rels, piques, and reconciliations are, if not the  diet, at least
the  exercise, of love.  Enchanting variety!  that  fills and
occupies the sensible heart  more charmingly than all the
regularity of deportment and tedious sameness of what are
deemed the better characters."
   A little change of  temper occasionally is not without its
good effects: in  fact, is  absolutely  necessary.  It arouses
man  from supinencss;  it creates doubts, uneasiness, agita-
tion.   He reflects, struggles, but is  finally conquered, and
would conciliate.   He redoubles his diligence to please,
oblige, and demonstrate true affection; and  thus, amid the
tempests  and convulsions of love, its chains are strength-
ened.
   We are no advocate for that constant irregularity, or those
ebullitions of temper, which  end in any thing like a "jolly
old row," or which lead to a preliminary smash of crockery
sufficient  to macadamize the way to a divorce; but  that
variety in equanimity which  prevents man from  growing
weary through constant  regularity  or tedious sameness  is
a preservative of conjugal felicity. 
214   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  Rochefoucauld tells us, that " it is more difficult for a man
to be faithful to his mistress when he is favored than when
he is ill treated by her."
  " Our  aunts  and grandmothers always tell  us that men
are a sort  of animal; that, if they are constant, it is only
when they  are ill used.   It was a kind of paradox  I could
never believe; but experience has shown me the truth of it."
— Lady M. W. Montague (Letters).
  11 The  rigors  of mistresses are troublesome; but facility,
to say  truth, is more  so.  'Si  qua volet regnare diu  con-
temnat amantem.'" — Ovid. Amor, Montaigne.
                         " Prythce, tarry;
         You men will never tarry.
         0 foolish Cressid ! I might have still held off,
         And then you would have tarried."
                                       Troilus and Cressida.

  If good nature be woman's only dower,  indifference and
contempt are not far distant.
  Good sense is no safeguard, — an estimable quality, truly,
but, by itself, a most dangerous weapon ; and, skilfully wield-
ed, can be made to pierce with sarcasms so adroitly guarded,
that, while they are keenly felt, one cannot, with  propriety,
complain of them.  The  more good  sense,  penetration, and
knowledge  of  the  world one  possesses, uncombined with
other good  qualities, the more  dangerous  it becomes.   It
wounds sensibility; quarrels and reconciliations follow each
other in quick succession, until, at  last,  conjugal  felicity
emerges  into continual dissensions, increasing aversion, in-
difference, contempt.
  Good nature, though,  combined with good sense, docility
of character, and ease of manners, forms a  chain strong and
binding.   United, they fail not to engender and preserve
esteem  ;  and, where esteem is, love is permanent.
  To retain undiminished regard and admiration, to be per-
manently agreeable, mental  excellence (we do not say men-
tal superiority) is indispensable :  without this, the most be- 
Causes.
215
witching dbarms, after possession is absolute and the novel-
ty passed, are of no effect; and the loveliest form is ungra-
cious and even tiresome.  Possessing this attribute conjoined
with gentleness of character, compliant, reasonable, and con-
tented disposition, woman is the  greatest blessing  and the
most valuable possession that Heaven, in this life, can bestow.
She is one of the queens in the garden of life;  she  is wor-
shipped ;  she inspires man to excellence and to fidelity; she
makes his pleasures permanent;  she softens all his cares, and
sweetens  the bitterness of life.   Together they tread the
pathway  of life;  each  enlivening  and embellishing the
other's world.   They understand the looks of each,  and
mutually comply with each other's designs.   They acquire
a similarity of tastes,  while  they enjoy  a community of
pleasures.
   How important, then (and this brings us to the practical
point), that, in mental culture,  the  young woman should
possess, with her varied accomplishments, those solid attain-
ments so  absolutely necessary for her happiness in after-life,
— necessary, that she may not only possess the art of securing
a suitable companion, but of preserving him.  Within the
pale of her  acquisitions, nothing should  escape her which
will lend fertility to imagination, or charm to conversation,
by which  the  sluggishness of human nature may be en-
livened, and hours agreeably occupied which would other-
wise hang heavy.  Is she deficient in imagination, let her
read Milton, Akenside,  and  Burke ; if deficient in taste,
let her read the best English poets, such as Gray and Gold-
smith,  Pope and Thomson,  Cowper and Coleridge, Scott
and Wordsworth ; if deficient in the power of reason, let
her read Chillingworth, Bacon,  and Locke; and Junius
and Fox, if  deficient in vigor of style:  in fine, she should
possess that mixture  of solid and agreeable qualities which
only can preserve a  constant  tenor of  approbation and
esteem.
   It may not be unacceptable to the reader  if we  give  at 
216   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

this point the views of a distinguished writer  as to the
choice of a wife.  Any advice  as  to what sort of a person
a man should marry is  in many, if not most  cases,  quite
superfluous ; but there  may be those to whom the few  hints
thrown out  by Dr. Acton would  prove  acceptable.  These
hints are "not so much the  kind of a wife  they should
choose, as the kind they should not."   He remarks : —
  " First as to age :  I  think there should always be an in-
terval of  about ten years between a man of mature age and
his  wife.   Women age  much more rapidly than men; and,
as the peculiar functions of matrimony should cease in both
partners about the same time,  some such interval as this is
evidently  desirable.    Still,  if a  man will  marry young,
there are so many causes of unhappiness from his marrying
a mere child of fifteen or sixteen, that it would  be well in
such cases to seek  a  companion somewhat nearer his own
age.
  " As to health : every man should be  very careful, and
note every  characteristic about  any  woman who attracts
him, which may seem as an indication of this primary re-
quisite, or of its absence.  The existence of insanity or con-
sumption in her family, to any serious extent, should  warn
him, for his  own sake and the sake of the children he might
have, not to run the terrible risk of manying her.
  " No girl, it may safely be said, who  has been  habitually
ailing during her girlhood, will make  a  good wife : nay, I
would carry the rule further, and warn my prudent readers
that pale women, with  colorless faces and waxy skins, even
if they are tolerably healthy themselves, very seldom  have
healthy children.   So important is it to select  for a future
partner for  life, and mother  of children, a  woman of un-
doubted health, that  I would go one  step further still, and
urge any man who consulted  me on  such  a subject,  if he
were free to choose, to select a  country wife, especially  if he
be necessarily  a dweller in a large town.   The children of
parents who are both Londoners, for instance, are especially 
                         Causes.                    217

hard to rear, — so hard, that some lay it down as a rule, that,
after three generations, every family that has  uninterrupt-
edly been born, lived, and  died  in  town, becomes entirely
extinct.
   " Closely connected with the question of health is that of
education and past history.  It is, however, always un-
necessary to urge  men to avoid, if possible, a vulgar or bad-
tempered mother-in-law.   But it should not be forgotten,
in the natural desire  to escape unpleasant relations, that a
member of a large family will, prima facie, make a health-
ier and  sweeter-tempered wife than an only child.   As to
intellect, accomplishments, and fortune, men  need little ad-
vice.   Literary  women are not  likely to  be much sought
after for wives; and great accomplishments so seldom survive
the first year of married life,  that ordinary  men  are too
sensible to prefer them to a pleasant manner, a sweet temper,
and a cheerful disposition.
   "As to fortune: it is hardly my province as a medical
man to advise on this subject.   Still I would  suggest, that
if the course of life which I have pointed out as best has
been  really followed; that  is, if a young man has lived a
thoroughly continent  life in body and  mind until he is in
a position to maintain a wife, — there seems little reason, in
choosing her,  to  give the  question of fortune  any  great
weight.  Most women will spend the fortune they bring; and
the propriety of  the husband's supporting,  rather than
being  supported by, his wife,  will tend to make the home
happier.
   "As to rank and position in society: it is, of course, de-
sirable that the wife  should be as nearly as possible in the
same rank with her husband; but, if there be  a difference,
the husband ought to be  the lower.  Men can and  often do
rise from a humble origin to a social status  far above that
of their wives, however great  the disparity was  originally.
But this is very seldom the  case  as  regards women.  They
generally remain to the end socially the same as they were 
 218    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 born.  Money may do much ; but it can hardly raise a vulgar,
 low-born,  or  originally  immodest woman one  step  in the
 social scale, however great her husband's fortune and position
 may  be, or however faultless her own  married life.  She
 may, perhaps, to a certain extent, hide the traces  of her
 early training from men ; but her own sex, whom she meets
•with in the rank  of her  husband's  society, will be sure  to
 detect them at once.  I have  been often  asked, ' Shall I
 (other things equal) marry for beauty ?'   I answer, ' Yes, if
 you can get  your beauty to  accept you.'  Let ugly  people
 talk as they may about intellect and the evanescent charms
 of mere outward comeliness: some degree of beauty is, if not
 the first, certainly the second requisite,  in most cases, to a
 happy married life.  ' How exquisitely absurd to tell girls
 that beauty is of no value, dress of no use !  Beauty is of
 value : her whole prospects and happiness in life may often
 depend upon a new gown or a becoming  bonnet;  and, if she
 has  five grains of common sense,  she  will find this out.
 The  great thing  is to  teach her the just value,  and that
 there must be something better under  the  bonnet  than a
 pretty face for real  happiness.   But  never sacrifice the
 truth' (Rev. Sydney Smith). A tolerably large acquaintance
 with the domestic histories of men in  all ranks of life has
 shown me, that, next to  a good  disposition, nothing in a
 wife is so likely to insure  domestic happiness as  good  looks,
 especially if they are of a lasting  kind, not mere  bloom or
 prettiness.   We all know that good looks are the best pass-
 ports in  the world.  Even children,  the  most unprejudiced
 witnesses possible, frankly admit that  they like  so and so,
 because she or he has a nice face.  It  is unwise to  under-
 value, or pretend to undervalue, the  woman's  comeliness of
 face and form.   A woman with a good physique  starts
 with advantages that other women cannot acquire.  She  is
 spared  a thousand  and  one temptations — jealousy, ani
 other low feelings supposed to haunt occasionally the female
"breast — with which her less favored sisters have to contend. 
Causes.                     219
 Physical attractions again help to tide over many of those
 little domestic differences which will occur in married life.
 Man's sexual sense will be aroused by beauty when no other
 influence can touch him.   It would be a  curious inquiry,
 perhaps worth  pursuing,  whether,  even among the  lower
 classes, a comely-looking woman  was ever  ill used by her
 husband, except when he was drunk.  In a state of nature,
 we find that animals select the most perfect  forms for their
 mates, thus instinctively providing for the  perpetuation of
 as perfect species as possible.   It would be well in many
 respects if this example were more closely followed in human
 beings."
   To return to our subject: we will take the occasion to re-
 mark, in conclusion, that while sexual excess is capable of
 producing most serious evils, and of causing exhaustion and
 disease, — hysterical and  menorrhagic symptoms,  debility,
 sexual apathy, organic disease  of the  sexual organs, and a
 multiplicity of other ills to which the sex is liable, — yet we
 must declare, what we most sincerely believe, that the op-
 posite extreme  of abstinence and sexual disappoint-
 ment is the cause of more real disease  and misery in one
 year than sexual excesses cause in a century.  Where over-
 use of the sexual organs conduces to disease in  any single
 instance, sexual abstinence is the cause of  ill-health in
 thousands ;  and, strange as it may appear, while the former
 has, from time immemorial, been a constant theme of dec-
 lamation, the latter is never  alluded to by the moralist,
 but for the  reason, it may be  supposed, that it is contrary
 to his belief, and opposed to his religion  and to his notions
 of morality.   Still, however much it may be opposed to the
 generally-received notions of  morality,  it  is  nevertheless
 true, and capable  of demonstration, that  abstinence, with
 its never-failing attendants, — seminal weakness, hysterical
 disturbances,  and a multiplicity  of other ills  that attend
 on sexual denial, — outweigh as a thousand to one the in-
firmities induced by sexual excesses, which will now engage
our attention. 
220   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  Sexual Disappointment. — Privation of sexual stimu-
lus is another exciting cause of this disease.  It is a frequent
and common cause, — more frequent  than all  other causes
combined, and so common, that we have but to turn our eyes,
and we see its disastrous effects  on every side.   We see its
effects  in  those unmarried and chaste whose  feelings and
passions are strong.  We see its effects in its sudden denial
to those  accustomed to its  indulgence, as young widows,
and in  wives of sailors and other men who are  constantly
taken from home by their occupation. • We see its effects
in females sold to vice, when placed  in  confinement; and
we see  its effects also in those married, but where, from dis-
parity  of  years,  or from constitutional feebleness  on the
husband's part, or physical disproportion, the act is but im-
perfectly performed.
  Absolute privation in those whose  feelings and passions
are strong, and  its sudden  denial to those  accustomed to
its  use, or where  the act  is imperfectly performed, is a
fruitful and common source of a multiplicity of ills peculiar
to young women, which have been usually ascribed to  other
and more  prominent agents.
  Many there are who will start at  this declaration; but
we call on them to recollect that a large proportion of the
ills peculiar to the sex do not occur until the female arrives
at an  age when the generative  organs have a  dominant
influence  over the system.  They do not occur until the
female is  pressed by a new  want; until she is  incited by
the  "instinct of reproduction," or "desire," which desire
persists vehemently so long as the generative organs hold
this influence.  We call on them to recollect that the final
cause of  all vital action is the  reproduction of the species
and the  preservation  of the individual; that, throughout
the whole -chain of being, the power to reproduce the species
is the climax  of development;  that  man and animals  are
placed on the surface of the earth, each to reproduce their
kind;  that this  is the great end, aim, and mission here 
Causes.
221
upon the earth, " to be fruitful and multiply, and  replenish
the earth; " that many of the inferior animals and insects
die so soon as they have  performed this function:  butter-
flies, silkworms, and other insects are examples.   And we
call  on them  to recollect that  Nature never sleeps,  and
always labors to carry out her 'designs.   This done, desire
is appeased, is satisfied, — satisfied, because her designs, her
wants, her requirements, her demands, have been  complied
with.   The mind is tranquillized ; the regular action of the
vital organs is restored.
  Desire is a principle implanted deeply within  us.  It is
natural.  It is a law of Nature, and a law not to be ignored
or opposed.  Its force is  of immense  power,  which power,
if  imprisoned,  and not permitted  to  discharge or  expend
itself  through its  natural and legitimate outlet,  falls with
varying degrees of intensity upon that portion of the econ-
omy the least  able to ward off its disturbing force.  The
excited and sensitive ovaries receive the entire shock ; and an
irritation or subacute inflammation is set up in them, which
leads very frequently to profuse flow, and often to amenor-
rhcea,  chlorosis,  dysmenorrhcea,  leucorrhoea,  &c.;  and, if
the cerebro-spinal  sympathies are  called into active play,
hysteria in all its multiplied forms of headache, suffocation,
globus hystericus, spasms, convulsions, &c, often.mask the
local cause.
  Let  us inquire  into what  this force or  desire  is,  its
purposes,  the  intensity of  its power, and its  disastrous
effects when not permitted to discharge or expend itself by
its natural and legitimate outlet.   Let us see what are the
results when the immutable laws of fecundity and reproduc-
tion are perverted; when forced continence denies to the
sexual organs that for which they were designed; when it
opposes Nature, and resists her demands.
  The passions, like  the  affective  faculties and  affections,
are those  active powers which connect us with the beings
that surround us, and are  the incentives to our social con- 
222   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

duct.   By them the sexes are attracted.  Like hunger and
thirst, they are suggestive internal sensations, but of higher
cast and more formidable.   Hunger and  thirst announce
physical necessities.  Passional emotions suggest social rela-
tions.  Like  all other internal  sensations they have tho
character of pleasure or pain.  When slightly experienced,
there is only uneasiness felt. They are, however, continuous
and cumulative  in their character, and soon  increase, and
induce restlessness or inquietude ; and, when extreme, they
become desire, torment, passion  (from patior, "I  suffer").
When  being satisfied, they are, as in hunger and thirst, the
source  of pleasure ; when resisted, of pain.
  This force,  or these  internal  sensations, which become
desire, torment,  passion,  are infixed within  us for wise
purposes.
  Primitive creation of living organized matter was fash-
ioned by the hand of the Creator.  Generation  is but the
continuance of the arrangement of each organized species.
Each individual reproduces, and  was intended to reproduce,
as he  has  been produced himself.  Each  enjoys life, and
was intended to possess it for the purpose of transmitting
it to others.  They possess no isolated or independent exist-
ence ;  they do not live for themselves alone, but  for those
that are to come after them.  Nature cares not for the in-
dividual, but the species.
  Inorganic  bodies  do not engender.  They have neither
races,  families, nor species.  They do not spring from bodies
like themselves, nor do they transmit their qualities, but
always remain in the same primitive  nature.  They do not
live:  they  cannot die.   They do not reproduce, because they
are indestructible.
  Organic bodies are endowed with the power of life. They
succeed each other without ceasing.  Emanating from the
Deity, they keep up a constant succession of  ndividuals by
generation.  They reproduce because they are  destined to
die.  They reproduce,  that  their  genus,  or  kind, may be
transmitted ere they die. 
Causes.
223
  Reproduction is the  climax of development, — the great
end and aim and mission  of men and animals here upon
the surface of the earth; and Nature has, for wise purposes,
given pleasure to all  animals  for their individual propa-
gation ; has  given pleasure  to insure the  perpetuation of
the species, and prevent the earth  from  again becoming
a desolate waste.  For this reason, love is the same to all:
it conquers  all.   " Amor omnibus  idem:  omnia vincefc
amor."
  Reproduction consists  in the  growth of an ovum, or egg,
supplied or evolved by the ovary of the female.  The testes
of the male secrete a fluid, which, when placed in  contact
with the egg, or germ, fecundates or vivifies it.
  In man and  the superior animals, union of the  sexes is
necessary, that the male vitalizing fluid may be conveyed
within the appropriate organs of the  female, in  order that,
from the contact between the male sexual element  and the
ovule of the female,  a new being may result.
   To this union, man and  the superior animals  are incited
by an imperious  instinct of  reproduction, or desire, as it is
termed, — an instinct or desire  implanted deep within the
constitution  by the Creator, for  the perpetuation of the
species ; and, " for wise purposes, its gratification is attended
with  the most pleasurable  feelings  that  man or animals
can experience.";— Dunglison.
   " Behold," says the eloquent Virey, " what pomp, what
joys, what  glory, and what  magnificence  are prepared by
Nature for the marriages of  plants and animals!  How the
lion and the bull pride themselves on their strength; the
antelope, on its figure; the peacock  and swan,  on  their
plumage; the fish, on its silvery coat, and on the  splendor
of  the  gold and brilliant appearance of  its body!  How
the butterfly expands its  diamond wings ! how the flower
displays its charms to the  rays  of Aurora, enjoys in silence
and drinks the pearly drops  of  the dew!  All  is the radi-
ance of beauty in Nature; the  earth, co' ered with verdure, 
224   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

resounds with  accents of  joy, and sighs for pleasure; all
exhale love, all search for it and enjoy it:  in a word, it is
the common festival of  beings.  But in a short time the
flower fades away, and languishes on its stem; the butterfly
declines and dies; the lion and the bull, as  if fatigued by
long-contested  fights,  search for peace  and retreat;  and
man himself, overcome with languor,  retires  in  silence, full
of recollections and sadness, seeing the approach of death,
which presses its iron hand on all that breathes."
   " Nature sacrifices every thing to reproduction : it. is  for
this that we enjoy all strength, vigor, and beauty, so as to
excite us  to contribute to the procreation  of  the  species,
with which such exquisite pleasure is  associated; and it is
for this that we experience so many sweet illusions  in the
brilliant  season of our amours;  and  that we  give way to
others when our reproductive powers have failed.  In a
word, Nature always regards  the  species, and never the
individual.
   " The delightful sensations experienced by animals in the
act of reproduction cause them to perform it instinctively.
But  nobler sentiments preside over the  conjugal union of
our species.  Two souls which sympathize for each other, and
see in common the wisdom of procreating offspring like them-
selves ; two hearts which console each other in the troubles
of life, and  centuple their pleasures by the  most intimate
union; the delights of a conversation full  of tenderness; the
affectionate cares bestowed on each other during illness;  an
association of talents, qualities, riches, honors, and paternal
and  maternal love, — are  the precious  advantages which
mankind derive from conjugal union.   But, whatever may be
the superiority of  man over inferior animals in respect to
generation, we cannot conceal from ourselves, that, like the
brutes, we are  seldom influenced ,by  any  other motive in
our unions than by sexual pleasure.  It is useless for us
to deny that the  majority of marriages which are  appar-
ently based  on real love are almost  always the result of our 
Causes.
225
servile and involuntary obedience to the imperious voice
of our sexual organs.   Every  thing that presents  to our
minds the idea of vigor,  of a fine  figure,  and sufficient
ardor,  always influences  us unconsciously.   Woman can
never deny that she has a particular predilection for a fine
figure, a noble gait  and manner,  a broad chest, the head
elevated, and furnished with a luxuriant growth of hair, the
eyes full  of fire, the manners  amiable, and the gallantry
polite.  In the  same  manner, man  is always  desirous  to
meet in her whom  he selects  for his wife superior mental
and corporeal endowments, a fine graceful figure, good eyes,
and a general development." — Ryan.
  The instinct of reproduction, or desire, becomes fixed at
puberty, the period when the individual is capable of pro-
creation.
  As this epoch  approaches,  the  sexual organs undergo
changes which fit them for the performance of their appro-
priate functions.   " Nature directs all her powers of devel-
opment and vitality to those organs which she has destined
for the procreation of new beings.  All the other functions
of the body are sometimes diminished, — digestion, respira-
tion, circulation, the intellectual faculties, the  senses, the mo-
tions : in a word,  Nature seems to suspend the growth and
functions of all other parts to give a rapid development to
those intended for the perpetuation of new beings.  There is
a determination of blood to the  sexual organs; these rapidly
increase in size, secrete fluids highly excitant, which sympa-
thetically affect all parts of the body, and are intended to
prepare the organs for regeneration of the species." — Ryan.
  In the female, both the external and internal  organs
undergo a rapid enlargement.  The mons veneris and labia
become more full.  Surrounding the vagina, a deposit of fat
takes place, which gives an  elastic contraction to the vulva.
The clitoris and nymphae become more  susceptible of swell-
ing and erection, and the former especially becomes endowed
with the  most intense erotic sensibility.   The  breasts en-
              13 
 226   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 large, and the nipples acquire the power of erection.  Sensi-
 bility becomes quickened, and the energy of desire becomes
 her prominent characteristic.  " The textures of her organs
 do not lose all their original softness, or assume the strength
 of those  of her companion; her eyes become brilliant and
 expressive, and all the graces and charms of youth illumine
 her person.   Her bosom throbs with tender inquietudes, her
 character loses its infantile vivacity, her manner and tastes
 become analogous to those  of a full-grown female, her pas-
 sions become stronger and more constant, her moral and
 physical  sensibility are greater, and she feels a sentiment
 hitherto unknown to her, — the impulse  of love, the desire
 of marriage." — Ryan.
  In the male, the penis and testicles undergo a rapid
 enlargement; the latter become more depending, and se-
 crete seminal fluid, which excites to frequent erections and
 desire  for sexual  intercourse, which, if resisted, is followed
 by spontaneous emissions of seminal fluid, occurring  gener-
 ally  at night, during sexual feelings in dreams.   This latter
 is disputed, so also the statement that the presence.of semi-
 nal fluid  excites to frequent erections and a desire for sexual
 intercourse;  but  we  have the  testimony  of  Haller, who
 says, "The semen contained in the testicles  excites  the
 animal to  the venereal  act."   We  have also  other testi-
 mony.  "The accumulation of  seminal fluid,"  says  Ryan,
 " excites  strong desires."   At this period of life — puberty
—" spermatozoa  are  becoming rapidly adult, the testicles
 and  the  ducts are full of semen, the individual is  in  the
 condition of  a fish with a full  milt, or a bird or stag with
 enlarged testes.   He now instinctively seeks the society of
 women.  These things are not  so much  matters of chance
 as is generally imagined;  and the testicles maybe blama-
ble for much  of what is usually ascribed to the  heart.   In-
tercourse with females increases his excitemer t, and all is
 ready for the copulative act." — Encyclopaedia of Anatomy,
 art.  " VesicuUe Seminales." 
Causes.
227
  From this superabundance of life, a new and  imperious
want becomes developed, which compels the sexes  to ap-
proach each  other.  They draw away from companions of
former days.   The sports of infancy no longer amuse them.
An aching void in the heart demands a change, a some-
thing, they know not what;  for they cannot  analyze their
feelings.   Timidity and reserve restrains; but an unknown
power, something never  before experienced, a sympathy, a
vague undefined something, attracts and impels each to
seek fellowship with the  opposite sex.   Extravagant imagi-
nation casts a halo around and shuts out all else save them-
selves.  They hold their little counsels, the  beginning of
their history, the first page of their mutual life.  Restraints
of timidity and  reserve insensibly give way  to confidence.
Confidence engenders friendship, and friendship ripens into
tender and vivid sentiment.  Each now beholds in the other
all possible excellences, which, in turn, give way to intoxicat-
ing dreams of beauty and perfection; and each becomes in
the estimation of the other an absolute divinity.  Their
minds are passing  through preparations;  they  are  pro-
gressing, and ere long will awaken to accurate notions of
an affection which is to be the principal affair of life.
  " What delightful reflections are offered to the  study of
a moral and philosophic mind by the innocent  amours of two
young persons, who know no other  motive for their actions
than the pure inspirations of Nature  and the heart!  The
strictest chastity presides at their first  interviews: a word,
a glance, a whisper, the  pressure of a  trembling hand, is
now the  enjoyment  of happiness.   They do  not approach
each other but with a respectful fear; they dissemble to-
wards each other the nature of the sentiments which agi-
tate them; they think ' unutterable things.' "
  This stage of existence lasts not long.  Shadowy delinea-
tions begin to unfold themselves, and their respective posi-
tions begin to be understood.  At last, young desire throws
aside its disguises, and the passions begin to whisper with 
228   Woman, and her  Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

many silver notes.  The youth becomes by degrees uneasy,
restless, fiery, and desperate at control.  The new want pro-
duces in him " a mixture of audacity and timidity; of au-
dacity, because he knows that all his organs are animated
with an unknown vigor;  of timidity, because the nature of
his desires astonishes him, as  defiance to them  disconcerts
him.  In the young  girl, this  want gives rise to a sentiment
of modesty  or virgin shame, of which she was  heretofore
ignorant, which may be regarded as  the hidden expression
of her desires,- or the involuntary sign of her  secret im-
pressions." — Cabanis.    She becomes  all timidity;  but
her thoughts  are  active,  and imagination paints in  the
brightest tints and colors. The heart admits her into  its
secret counsels,  and interior movements  rouse  her from
supineness.  The voice of Nature is  speaking within her.
That imperious instinct implanted deep in her constitution
has become aroused.   A presentment of generation and  its
pleasures has  unfolded itself; and a  predilective  instinct
leads  her to aspire  after  strength, vigor, and impetuosity,
and to regard with contempt  the effeminate, impotent, and
castrated;  for  Nature has, for  the purpose  of  obtaining
strong and  vigorous progeny,  assigned  to  strength  the
preference in  the love of the female.   She would barter
love for physical power; and she  calls to her aid"those pecu-
liar characteristics of woman, coquetry and modesty, which,
though opposed in their first or immediate effects, contribute
to one great end.   She  redoubles her diligence to please
and attract,  and avails herself of all the innocent artifices
of her sex.   Defects are concealed.  Charms are  enhanced.
She cultivates every  agreeable art, and avails herself of the
resources of dress to improve  and announce her taste.  She
would seduce and subjugate the stronger, as Venus did the
god of war,  by the charms of beauty and grace.
  Rousseau correctly perceived the relations of coquetry to
the constitution of women, and  regarded it as one of the
happiest affections.   Painting it  even among birds, he says, 
Causes.                     229
" Step by step the white dove follows her well beloved, and
flees from him directly he returns.   If he  remain inactive,
she arouses him with gentle taps of her beak; if he return,
she pursues him; if he defend himself, a little flight of six
steps attracts him again;  the innocence of Nature contrives
these allurements and  this  gentle  resistance with an art
that the most skilful coquetry can scarcely equal."
  In relation to the female, " Modesty restrains the maiden
from yielding precipitately to tender feelings, and compels
her love to assume that form by which Nature  has taught
her  so  universally to  express it; to present it  under the
mask of friendship, gratitude, and a thousand other guises.
  "In relation to the lover, it is  remarkable that the  first
affections are presented to him  under  the  appearance of
estrangement.  The maiden  flies that she may be pursued
by him, and his love is kept alive by modesty.   It has been
observed by  all  physiologists, that  this disposition is not
only necessary  but indispensable for the  continuation of the
human  race.
  "Thus, even modesty is a means of attraction with which
Nature inspires  females.   But those who declaim  against
this know nothing of Nature.  Every separation, every ob-
stacle, renders desire only more urgent;  and Nature appears
to have accomplished this in the  only way possible among
beings endowed with sensibility and locomotion." — Walker.
  Nature, ever on the alert, employs many devices to bring
the  sexes  together.    The  wonderful   design  evinced by
means  of  a  phosphorescent light,  as  is the  case  with
luminous insects, is thus alluded  to by Kirby and Spence.
" The glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is  an insect resem-
bling a caterpillar; its light proceeds  from a pale-colored
patch that terminates  the under side of the abdomen.  It
is, indeed, the perfect female of a winged beetle, from which
it is altogether so different, that nothing  but actual observa-
tion could have inferred the fact of their being the different
sexes of the same insect.   The object of the light appears 
230   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

to be to attract the male, since it  is most brilliant in the
female; and  in  some species, if not all, is present only  in
the season when the sexes are destined  to meet, and strik-
ingly more vivid at the  very moment when the meeting
takes place.   The torch which the wingless female, doomed
to crawl upon the grass, lights up at the approach of night,
is a beacon which unerringly guides  the vagrant male  to
her ' love-illumined form,' however obscure the place of her
abode."
  Touching the changes  wrought by puberty, let us refer
to Carpenter, and others.  He says, "At this epoch, a con-
siderable change takes place in the bodily constitution; the
sexual organs undergo a much increased development; vari-
ous parts of the surface, especially the  chin  and pubes,
become covered with hair;  the larnyx enlarges,  and  the
voice  becomes lower in pitch, as well as rougher and more
powerful; and  new feelings  and desires are awakened in
the mind.
  "To the use of the sexual organs for the continuance of
his race, man is prompted by powerful instinctive desire,
which he shares with  the lower animals.   This  instinct,
like other propensities, is  excited by sensations, and these
may either originate in  the  sexual organs  themselves, or
may be excited  through the organs of  special sense.  Thus
in man it is  most powerfully aroused  by impressions con-
veyed  through  the sight or touch ; but in many animals
the auditory and olfactory organs communicate impressions
which have an equal power." — Physiology.
  " From the moment," says Lallemand, " that  the  evolu-
tion of the generative organs commences, the testicles  act,
if the texture is not  accidentally destroyed; and they  will
continue to secrete up to a very advanced  age.   It is true
that the secretion may be diminished by the absence of all
excitement, direct or indirect, by the momentary feebleness
of the economy, or by the action of special medicines;  but
it never entirely ceases from puberty to  old age." 
Causes.                     231
  " Now begins," says Acton, " the trial which every healthy
boy must encounter, and come out victorious, if he is to be
all that he can and ought to be.   The child should know
nothing of this trial, and ought never to be  disturbed with
one sexual feeling or thought.  But with puberty a very
different state of things arises ; a new power is present to
be exercised, a new want to be satisfied."
  The energy  of  desire persists vehemently during youth
and adult age, but disappears in advanced life.
  During the youth and adult age of woman, sensibility is
her predominant characteristic.  Age, however, destroys the
energy of desire;  reflection takes its place; and the mind
increases in clearness, and the judgment becomes perfected.
  During youth, " both sexes,"  says Ryan, " should  act in
strict accordance with the precepts of religion and  morals,
as errors committed now are too  often irretrievable.  The
tender sex, which  are the objects of the most ardent fire of
zealous adoration,  and who burn themselves with the same
flame, must never yield to the slightest immodest advances,
or their ruin and  degradation  are  inevitable.  The usual
result of impertinent familiarity,  of illicit or  anticipated
love,  is disgust, desertion, and indelible disgrace.  A virtu-
ous and firm resolution is the  only safeguard, and a fixed
determination not to  remain alone, or beyond the hearing
of others, with him who has captivated the heart."
  Desire, then, is law, — a law of God, implanted deep
within the constitution, by the divine Framer of all thing?,
as a guaranty for the continued existence of the species, or
their perpetuation upon the surface of the earth.
  When complied with, it becomes  the source of pleasure.
When resisted, it becomes uneasiness, restlessness, torment,
pain, passion;  for it is cumulative  in its  character, and its
disturbing force- is of immense power, capable of influen-
cing  the whole  physical,  intellectual,  and  psychological
nature of the subject of  it.   "The pleasure which Nature
joins to sexual union is an  attraction so  imperious and ty- 
232   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

rannical  as to be required as powerfully as any other want;
and the  inferior  animals  are impelled to it by an instinct
even stronger than  life;  ' in furias ignesque ruunt,  amor
omnibus  idem.' " — Ryan.
  Desire, then, is intense.   It is also universal, determina-
tive, and capable, in its exaggerated intensity, of lashing into
fury the  entire community of organs.   The latter is strik-
ingly exhibited in those  animals in which generation can
only be effected at particular periods of the year, or whilst
they are  in heat, — the rutting season: they are agitated
and restless, and their cries and  accents announce  their
wants.   It is exhibited in those ebullitions displayed by the
boar, the stag, the  bull,  and the stallion; the latter espe-
cially, — gentle, tractable, caressable, and  controllable when
uninfluenced by intricacies of situation, but high-mettled and
savagely proud, pawing the earth with impatient foot, neigh-
ing with outstretched and inflamed  nostrils, ardent, jealous,
and impatient of restraint,  when reigning as sultan over
the sultanas of his own species.
  The  force of desire is exhibited  in  the mewing  of cats,
the lowing of  quadrupeds, and the  cackling  of birds after
they have laid their  eggs.   These are familiar examples  of
solicitation of  animals to reproduction.  It is also exhibited
in  the risks which  animals — and not  only animals, but
men — will run to enjoy the gratification, and in the  reck-
lessness with which even the wildest male will approach the
tame female when in heat.  It is exhibited in the  risk which
the young male spider runs in essaying to perform the great
act for the  conservation  of the species.   " The young and
inexperienced male," say3 Owen, — " always the smallest
and weakest of the sexes,  —has been  known  to  fall a vic-
tim, and pay the forfeit of his life, for his too rash proposals.
The more practised suitor advances with many precautions,
carefully^ feels  about with his long legs, his outstretched
palpi much agitated.   The female indicates acquiescence by
raising her  fore feet from the web, when the male  rapidly 
Causes.                     233
advances.  His palpi are extended to their utmost, and a drop
of clear liquid  ejected from the tip of each clavate  end,
where it remains attached ;  the tips themselves immediately
coming  in contact with a transverse fleshy kind of teat, or
tubercle, protruded by the female from the base of the under
side of  the abdomen.   After consummation, the  male is
sometimes obliged to save himself by a precipitate retreat.
The ordinary savage  instincts  of the  female (etiam  in
amoribus saiva) are apt to return ; and she has been known
to sacrifice  and devour  her too long  tarrying  or dallying
spouse."
   The force of desire is exhibited  in  the extreme  torture
willingly suffered that the gratification may be tasted.   All
are familiar with  the  caterwaulings which  frequently take
place at night in the  streets and back yards;  but it may
not  be  generally  understood that those  cries  are elicited
through pain during the act of copulation;  from, in fact,
actual torture to the  she-cat.  The intromitting  organ  of
the young tom-cat has retroverted callous papilla? attached to
the glans, which sharp spinous elevations  cause the greatest
pain to the female in the withdrawings of the organ during
the copulative act.   The same is the case, to a much greater
extent,  in the guinea-pig; and we are told that intense pain
occurs from the same in the leopard, tiger, and the lion.   We
are also told, that when the queen-bee returns to the hive
from her wedding-flight, after the single copulative act, the
external orifice of her sexual apparatus  stands open, from
the  torn and  bleeding  male copulative  organ remaining
sticking in  the vagina, and partly protruding  from  it.
"This eunuchism," says  Siebold, "not unfrequently occurs
in other insects, as in the beetles."
   It is  exhibited in the frog, where sexual stimulus induces
a state  of tetanic  insensibility.   It is  exhibited when this
power becomes exaggerated into satyriasis in the male, and
erotomania in  the female ;  when  men  commit  rapes  upon
little children and aged women; when women iuvite famil- 
234    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

iarity, and seek personal contact under every pretext; when
in their plays and  rompings  their embraces  are full  cf
warmth, and their kisses humid with passion; when they lose
all sense of delicacy, inviting men to sexual commerce  by
words and gestures and with passionate tears.  It is exhibit-
ed when the  sexual  impulse incites to quarrels and dissen-
sions among men;  to duels, actions for divorce, murder, and
even to sanguinary wars.   " Nam fuit ante Helenam .  .  .
teterrima belli causa." — Horace.
  The force of sexual impulse is also  exemplified  in  its
power over even the saints.   To conquer it, St. Benedict
threw himself among thorns,  and St. Peter of Alcantara
cast himself into a frozen pool.   St. Paul tells us, that " there
was given me a sting of my flesh, an  angel  of Satan  to
buffet me  (_! Cor.  xii. 7).  For which thing, thrice  I be-
sought the Lord that it might depart from me."
  " The excited appetite for sexual gratification," says Lay-
cock, " is as urgent as that for food  under the stimulus of
hunger.   In  both  cases, we find the natural ferocity and
timidity of animals towards man  and each other increased
and diminished with a force  and uniformity truly remark-
able.
  "The desperate combats of the males, especially of gre-
garious  animals, at  the  breeding seasons, is well known.
Hunters and destroyers of vermin frequently make use of
the generative odors as an irresistible  lure of animals to
their capture and destruction.   By this  means, the house-
breaker silences and tames the most ferocious  house-dog.
The love of offspring acts with equal  force on  the female.
The timid hare will attack the eagle  in  defence of its lev-
eret.  Instances illustrative of the force of this sexual fac-
ulty might be  drawn from the history  of every species of
animal.
  " These,  and other mental changes  consequent upon  the
generative impulse, do not take place  simultaneously.  The
war among the males of gregarious animals terminates with 
Causes.                    235
 the  business  of conception, and before  the birth of the
 young : at this time, the female,  so far from being bold and
 quarrelsome, is most timid and cautious."
   " The passion of love," says Ryan, " is  as inherent in
 mankind  as the function of digestion or respiration, and
 must be gratified as well as other wants. . . . When it is
 established  at puberty, as it is in almost all persons, it must
 be gratified, and human interventions or lawrs cannot restrain
 or extinguish it, except in a very few, if in any instances."
   The  universality of this power  is exhibited  throughout
 all Nature.   It is exhibited, as has already been remarked,
 in " the flight of the pigeon, the migration of the  swallow,
 the annual  arrival on our  coasts of the  shad, the  herring,
 the salmon, and the cod,  .  .  .  the annual  rush  into the
 American rivers  of  the different tribes of migratory fishes
 that force their way from the ocean into the  mouths of our
 rivers, and,  ascending as near as they may towards the head-
 waters, find,  at  length, the suitable places for depositing
 their spawn. ... In the  spawning season,  the salmon in
 the Oregon rivers are so  abundant as actually to check, in
-a degree, the currents  of the  streams. .  . .  Thousands of
 millions of herring come from  the shores of Spitzbergen
 and  the  Greenland ice.   They  divide  into  two  immense
 streams; one of which proceeds downwards near the coasts of
 Europe, and the other by way of  Labrador, and so  south,
 until their  instinct teaches them the time  is at hand for
 securing  the  reproductive product.  Now, this  vast migra-
 tion through  many hundred leagues of trackless  ocean is
 compelled by an instinctive force, which is a part of, or at
 least attached to, the reproductive force.  . .  .  That instinc-
 tive force it is which causes them to ascend to the  shallows
 where the sun's vivifying light, and where the lessened tem-
 perature  of waters, at  the proper season, may  perfect the
 evolution and exclusion of the embryo fishes.
   " In all the bony  fishes, the male is destitute of any copu-
 lative apparatus; and hence his only function  is to  follow 
236   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

the female, in order to shed his fecundating secretion over
the places where her germs are deposited: and his voyage of
hundreds of leagues is  a compulsatory one, under the stim-
ulation  of that great reproductive  life-force ('instinct of
reproduction' or 'desire').  Once a year, he returns from
his distant feeding-grounds, 'in number numberless' to per-
form this great act for the conservation of the genus.
   "In like manner, the herds of buffalo on the Western prai-
ries, ten thousand in a herd, wander from the internal prov-
inces  to the banks of the  Saskatchawan, annually repeat-
ing the  same scene ;  and so it is with the  moose, the elk,
the deer, bear, wolf, fox, and marten ;  it is so with the sau-
rians, the  chelonians, the ophidians, with every animal, and
every vegetable." — Meigs.  And thus we  see that  the
aphrodisiac force, the  " instinct of reproduction " or " de-
sire," is a power intense, determinative, governing, and uni-
versal.
   Touching the force and effect of this power, we will quote
from Lallemand, Acton, Ryan, Walker, and others.
   "There is," says Lallemand, "a constant state of orgasm
and erotic  pre-occupation, accompanied with  agitation, dis-
quiet, and malaise,  and undefinable derangement of  all the
functions.  This state of  distress  is  seen  particularly  in
young men who have arrived  at puberty, and whose inno-
cence has been preserved from any unfortunate initiation.
Their disposition becomes soured, impatient, and sad ; they
fall into a  state of  melancholy or misanthropy ; sometimes
become  disgusted  with  life;  are disposed  to  shed tears
without any cause;  they seek  solitude in  order to  dream
about the  great mystery which absorbs them,  about those
great unknown passions which cause  their blood to boil;
they are at the same  time restless and apathetic, agitated
and drowsy; their head is in a state  of fermentation, and,
nevertheless, weighed down by a sort of habitual headache.
A spontaneous emission, or escape, which  causes this state
of plethora to  cease, is  a true and  salutary crisis, which 
Causes.                     237
for the moment re-establishes the equilibrium of the econ-
omy."
  " It  is a  matter of every-day practice," says Acton, " to
hear patients complain that a  state of continence, after a
certain  time,  produces a  most  irritable condition of the
nervous system;  so that the individual  is unable to settle
his mind to any thing; study becomes impossible ;  the  stu-
dent cannot sit still;  sedentary  occupations are unbearable,
and sexual  ideas intrude  perpetually on the  patient's
thoughts."
  As to the struggle  which widowers, or those married men
to whom access  to their wives  is forbidden, experience, as
well also as the  sufferings of widows and neglected wives,
let  us  refer to the testimony of Acton, expressed  and im-
plied.   He says, —
  " My friend Dr.----is constantly attending, for serious
diseases of the womb, the wives of clergymen, as well as of
dissenting  ministers; in whose  cases, for months  together,
marital intercourse is necessarily forbidden.  He  tells me
that he has often been surprised at the amount of sexual
suffering — the  result of their  compulsory celibacy — en-
dured by the husbands of some of  his patients, — men in
every other relation of life most determined and energetic.
Indeed, it is not wonderful that it should be so, if we con-
sider the position of such  men, who for  years may  have
indulged with moderation the  sex-passion, as we have de-
scribed it, untrained  to mortification in the shape of food
or exercise, or marital intercourse; the secretion  of perfect
semen going,on  in obedience to the healthy  regime of a
married  man's existence: conceive them, reined  up  sud-
denly,  as it were, and bidden  to do battle with  their in-
stincts.  Religion and morality prevent them, more  than
others,  from  having   sexual intercourse with  strange  wo-
men ; intense ignorance on  the subject of sex-passion in
general, as well as misapprehension  of the effects of disease
of the generative organs, only  aggravate their  suffering: 
238  Woman, and her  Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

conceive  all this, and it is not difficult to believe that affec-
tions of the brain may supervene."
  "It is  a fact," says Dr. Ryan, "that the genital function
is as imperious in the human species, at a  certain period of
life, as the  digestive, but ought to be exerted at all times
with moderation, to preserve health and procreate healthful
new beings.  It is well known that rigid continence is sel-
dom observed about the age of puberty, and for years after-
wards, by the male sex, as the accumulation of the seminal
fluid in its  receptacles will  excite the whole of the genital
organs during waking and sleeping, and often terminate by
spontaneous and  involuntary emissions.   These,  when fre-
quent, as well as  all venereal excesses, disorder  the mind
and body,  induce sadness, ennui,  disgust of  life,  extreme
lowness  of spirits,  melancholy, and even loss of  reason;
whilst natural sexual enjoyment  excites  and exhilarates
vitality,  and improves the mental faculties and corporeal
functions."
   Walker tells us, that an ecclesiastic mentioned  by Buf-
fon forwarded  him  a  memoir  describing the torments of
his celibacy, and the various sensations and  ideas  experi-
enced by him during an erotic delirium of six months' dura-
tion.  " This ecclesiastic, Mons. M----,  presented  all  the
attributes of a sanguine temperament, the premature devel-
opment of  which commenced at the age of  eleven.  Pater-
nal despotism,  the  direction of his studies and affections,
superstitious habits, Pythagorean  regimen,  fastings, and
macerations, were  all  employed  to  change, to  stifle,  or
rather to mutilate Nature.
   "At the age of thirty-two, being then bound by a vow
of eternal celibacy, he began to feel  the  action  of the re-
productive  organs in a more lively manner; and his health
was injured.  At this period, he says in his own account,
'My  forced continence produced through all my  senses a
sensibility, or rather an irritation, I had  never before felt.
I fixed my looks on two females, who made so strong  an 
Causes.
239-
impression on my eyes, and, through them, on my imagina-
tion, that they appeared to me illuminated, and glittering
with a fire, like electric sparks.   I retired speedily, thinking
it was an illusion of the Devil.  Some days  afterwards, I
suddenly felt  a  contraction and violent tension in all  my
limbs, accompanied by  a  frightful  convulsive  movement,
similar to that which follows an  attack of  epilepsy.  This
state  was  succeeded by delirium.   My  imagination was
next assailed with a host of obscene images, suggested by
the desire  of Nature.   These chimeras were soon followed
by warlike  ardors, in which  I seized the  four  bed-posts,
made them into a bundle, and hurled them against my bed-
room  door with such force as to drive it off  its  hinges.  In
the course of my delirium, I drew plans and compartments
on the floor of my room; and so exact was  my eye, and so
steady my hand, that, without any instrument, I  traced
them with  perfect accuracy.  I was again seized with mar-
tial fury, and imagined mj'self  successively Achilles, Caesar,
and Henry IV.   A short  time afterwards, I  declared I
would marry, and thought I saw before me women of  every
nation and of every color.  I  at first selected a  certain
number,  corresponding  with the number of  the different
nations I  had conquered;  and it  appeared to me that I
should marry each  of these women  according  to the rites
and customs  of her nation.   There  was  one whom  I  re-
garded as  queen over the  rest.   This was a young lady I
had seen some days before the commencement of my dis-
ease.   I  was  at  this moment desperately  amorous;  I  ex-
pressed my desires aloud in the most energetic manner,  yet
I had never in all my life read any romance or tale of love;
I  had never  embraced,  never even  saluted,  a woman; I
spoke, however, very indecently to every one, without  re-
flecting upon my sacred character;  and I  was quite sur-
prised that my relations found fault with my proposals, and
condemned  my  conduct.  This state was  followed  by a
tolerably tranquil sleep, during which I experienced noth- 
 240   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 ing but pleasure.  Returning reason brought all my woes:
 I reflected upon the cause; I recognized it;  and, without
 daring to combat it, I  exclaimed with Job? " Cur data lux
 misero." '"
  Bnffon also cites an instance  of an ecclesiastic whom he
 knew, who, in despair for violating the duties of his condi-
 tion  so  frequently, performed the operation of Origen on
 himself.
  Long before, St. Augustine had said, " Dura  sunt prselia
 castitatis; ubi quotidiana pugna, ibi rara victoria;"  and
 Montaigne observes, that "those of whom  St. Augustine
 speaks have experienced  a wonderful  notion of temptation
 and  nudity, in making it a  question ' whether women at
 the general judgment  will be raised in their own sex, or
 rather in ours, so that they may not tempt us again in that
 holy state.' "
  St. Jerome describes  a still more vivid picture of his own
 experience.   " Oh, how often have  I, when settled in the
 desert, in that  vast solitude,  which, burned  up by  solar
 heat, affords to monks a horrid habitation, — how often have
 I imagined  myself to  be, for  a moment, in the midst of
 Roman  delights!  But I sat alone,  because  I was filled
 with bitterness.   My deformed members abhorred the sack
 investing them, and my squalid skin endured the thirst of
^Ethiopic  flesh.   Daily tears,  daily groans; and if at  any
time urgent  sleep oppressed me  in  spite of repugnance, I
slid  my  scarcely adhering bones down upon the naked
ground.  Of food and drink I will not speak.  ... I there-
fore, — I, who, for fear of hell, had condemned myself to
such  imprisonment, the companion only of scorpions  and
wild  beasts, did  often,  in  imagination, find myself amidst
choirs of maidens!   Pallid was  I with  fastings, and in a
frigid body my mind  burned with desires ;  the  flesh  being
dead before  the man,  the fires  of lust  boiled up alone."
And this is the confession of  a father of the Christian
Church!   Man, he just to feebler powers! 
Causes.
241
   In other cases, if free from monomania, man falls a vic-
 tim to acute diseases, — apoplexies in particular.
   The state of woman under similar circumstances is not
 less severe.  If love acquire a determined character in one
 whose nervous system  is  at all  excitable,  the state  of
 virginity,  at variance,  as  after  puberty it  is, with the
 impulses  and intentions of  Nature, becomes  one of  great
 suffering.
   A  stronger  feeling of duty,  and the  emotions  of fear,
 may lead her for a time to withstand the powerful impulse
 of Nature; but that power  is unceasingly operating.  Im-
 agination is constantly filled with pictures of the happiness
 for which she longs;  desire at  last  bursts  through the
 restraints of reason.   If she then redouble her efforts, and,
 by increasing  attention and  unrelaxed resolve, stifle the
 voice of Nature,  this struggle immerses her in languor and
 melancholy.   Such a state must finally Irecome morbid.
   Martin  Luther, the  great German  reformer, proclaimed
 that chastity was impracticable, that it was opposed to the
 command of God, " Go forth and multiply," and to the laws
 of Nature; and that all who pretended  to it were hypocrites.
 " It is no more possible," he  observes,  " to live without wo-
 man than it is  to live without eating and drinking.  When
 Eve was brought before Adam, he, full of the Holy Spirit,
 gave her the most beautiful and  glorious of all names:  he
 called her  Eve,   that  is,  ' the  mother of all  mankind.'
 Mark, he  did not  call her  his wife, but the mother of  all
 living men.  This is the glory, the most precious ornament,
 of  women."  The  author of the Reformation  also  " con-
 demned the  natural  modesty and coyness of women, and
 held that such rebellion against the laws of God and rights
 of husbands should be punished."   He repeated the  advice,
 " If Sarah  refuse, take Hagar."   He furthermore  says,
 " For my part,  I confess that I cannot  oppose the man who
may wish to marry several wives; and that I do  not think
such plurality contrary to the Holy Scriptures." — Memoirs
             16 
242   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

of Luther, written by himself, translated and arranged by
M.  Michelet, 1836.
   Walker  tells  us  that "absolute continence consists in
abstaining, owing generally to religious notions, from indul-
gences in love, although the  individual feels the strongest
desire  for them ; and, in general, it  is  attended with the
most deplorable results.   In such cases, the  effects vary ; but
tbey generally are  inordinate desires, taciturnity,  morose-
ness, determination of the blood to the head, lassitude, and
disgust at every thing abstracting the mind  from the pre-
vailing passion, incapability  of  averting attention  from
voluptuous images,  and  partial madness,  succeeded by
general insanity, and terminated by death."
  The effects  of abstinence  on  brutes is  the same as on
man.   Dr. Alfred Holloway,  member of the  Royal  College
of Surgeons, England, tells us " that hydrophobia, or dog
madness, is not caused by hot weather, or the  seasons, or
want  of water, but simply because there  are so few  sluts
kept.   Where  dogs wander  free, as  in Turkey  and  Aus-
tralia, the disease of hydrophobia is totally unknown. What
makes the matter worse is that sluts are taxed double  what
dogs are."  The doctor also  says " that all  the carnivora,
when confined away from their mates, are subject to hydro-
phobia."
  " On the whole," says Acton, " I am of the opinion,  that,
as  applied to adults,  the academical laws  which  enforce
celibacy are not beneficial.  I think that the different col-
leges would do well (at any rate, partially)  to abandon this
vestige of monastic institutions, and  not step in and pre-
vent a man of intelligence marrying when he  ha3 arrived
at adult age.
  " It has been my lot to investigate  the causes  of several
instances of clerical scandal;  and I  have reason for believ-
ing that the seeds of  vice may have been  sown  in  days
when a man forbidden to marry, because he would  lose his
fellowship, and no longer feeling any  incentive to exertion, 
Causes.
243
has been led away by his passions to indulge in a course
of illicit intercourse, which  he might have escaped, if, like
others, he could have married. . .  . Just  in  proportion to
the degree of uneasiness caused by the  presence of an ex-
cess of semen in the organs is the relief experienced after
its  natural, or,  so to speak, legitimate  emission.  As  has
been already said, regular and moderate sexual intercourse
is, on the whole, of advantage to the system at large;  but
the mere  excitement of the sexual  feelings, when not  fol-
lowed  by  the  result which it  should  produce,  is,  as  has
already been said, an  unmitigated evil.   I believe  that
much suffering and many ailments arise, in a great meas-
ure, from the repeated and long-continued excitement of the
passions  while the patient is unable to gratify them.  I
could mention many instances where I have traced  serious
affections and very great suffering to this cause.  I remem-
ber one very painful case, in which the  patient's wife — to
whom he was p'assionately attached — was the real cause of
serious  illness  in  her husband, by obstinately refusing to
allow marital intercourse,  for  fear of  having  any more
children (she had had several), although she otherwise kept
up  the semblance of  familiarity and  affection, and  thus
added very greatly to his sufferings."
   Cabanis says, "In general, women  support excess more
easily, and privations with more  difficulty; at  least, these
privations, when they  are  not absolutely voluntary, have,
ordinarily, for women, especially in a state  of solitude and
indolence, inconveniences which they have but rarely for
men."
  The truth of  this is fully attested by the lamentable  fre-
quency of hypochondria, convulsions, and  madness among
those who live in the  cloister under  a vow of perpetual
chastity, — the baneful  results of  so anti-social and unnat-
ural a mode of existence.
  Nature, however, never sleeps;  and few there are, even
in  the  cloister,  who can withstand her powerful influences. 
244   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

A Neapolitan princess, ex-Benedictine Henrietta Caracciolo
di Fori no. in her book entitled " The Mysteries of the Nea-
politan Cloister," " a book which has passed through several
editions" (" New-York Observer,"  October,  1864), says,
" A monastery contains  all  the vices of a city without its
advantages or virtues.   By resigning her flowing locks  to
the scissors, and by taking the vows of chastity, poverty, and
obedience, a woman does not change her character; the only
difference being, that, amidst the moral stagnation of the
cloister, her virtues remain without legitimate exercise, while
her frailties or her vices are nourished and developed by the
continual struggle of a soured and rebellious spirit, at war
with its cruel destiny."   The Princess  Caracciolo also as-
sures us that " the frenzied passion of the nuns for priests
and monks  passes all belief; and that the jealousies and
bickerings of the convent mainly originate  in the perpet-
ual competition of the young nuns to secure  the  monopoly
of a young and captivating confessor."
  Deny Nature as we  may,  repress her promptings as we
will, she will not be appeased.   If we insanely  war upon
her, and subdue her, we do  so at our own cost:  every tri-
umph over Nature is destructive to the victor.
  Health, the source of all happiness, rests upon a proper
and moderate exercise of all the organs and functions  of
the body.  Every part, be it flesh, bone, nerve, the arms, the
legs, the eye, or the sexual  organs,  has  its  use.   The eye
demands light;  the  limbs, motion; the intellect, reflection;
and our appetites and  passions, their normal  gratification :
else will they infallibly become  enfeebled  and  diseased.
Each was designed  for a purpose; and their due  exercise
is necessary to the  harmonious workings of  the economy.
The sexual organs are subject to precisely the same laws as
other organs of the bod}T, and their normal exercise is just
as necessary.   They cannot be neglected without becoming
enfeebled;  in fact,  they suffer the same injurious conse-
quences  that follow excessive use.  In proof of this, let us 
                         Causes.                     245

point to the fact, that a state of complete inaction  of the
sexual organs, as in those who have maintained a strict mo-
nastic life, is attended  not  only with involuntary emissions
of the  seminal  fluid, but, not unfrequently, by a shrunken
and flabby state of the intromitting organ, and disappear-
ance of those erections, which, when vigorous,  are  a sign
of power in the organ; and a softened and atrophied state
of the  testicles, with a shrinking of the internal spermatic
organs.
   That these  things are so, — disagreeable though they
may be, and disputed  by Acton, — we  have abundance of
testimony.  Time and space permit us to refer only  to two
or three writers of celebrity, in  support  of  the truth of
what we have stated.  Ryan says, "A habitude of chastity
is another opponent of erection, such as characterized the
ancient fathers of the desert, and those, who, by fasting and
other forms of church discipline, generally, but not always,
extinguish  certain desires  implanted  by Nature, but, in
their opinion,  contrary to that purity which should  distin-
guish those  who have made vows of  chastity.   The  sexual
organs  of such persons decay, like  all other organs whose
functions are not exerted."   Dr. Gall observed  in his Lec-
tures, that " such clergymen of the Roman-Catholic Church
as were  considered  in  the  odor of sanctity were remarka-
ble for atrophy  of  the  genital  organs."   Nor is this  all:
restless and dissatisfied, the unhappy patient loses his  seren-
ity and active  vigor of mind;  becomes nervouSj irritable,
and  dyspeptic; he is unable to fix his attention  on objects
he wishes to study;  his intellect, formerly vivid  and elastic,
becomes turbid and sluggish; he is morbidly shy and bash-
ful, avoids the society  of his friends,  and seeks' solitude.
These,  and a  multiplicity  of other ills,  are the punish-
ments imposed by Nature for the sin of disuse of the genital
organs.
  We are taught by the moralist, that self-denial  is our
chief duty with regard to our passions and appetites; that 
246   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

to mortify the flesh by self-denial in the gratification of the
natural sexual impulse is a  grand merit, and deserving  of
great admiration and praise;  that the spiritual part of our
being is vastly of more  importance than the animal: and
he calls upon us to exalt  the moral and intellectual over
sexual enjoyments, to check  sexual  appetites, and  to find
happiness in the so-called  higher aims.  Nature, however,
demands,  that all our organs  and functions, our passions
and appetites, have their due  exercise and normal gratifica-
tion.  She demands that all her laws be  complied with;
she demands that the  human  body be reverenced, and that
the laws of health claim the highest place in  man's re-
spect ; she recognizes no spiritual part, nor allows any exal-
tation of  the  moral over the sexual  enjoyments,  or any
departure  from her plan with  impunity.
  Even Dr.  Acton is constrained to admit the truth of this.
Speaking  of  ill-health  produced by continence, he says,
"Of course, this  state of health may arise from other causes.
But  those many instances  in which debility does undoubt-
edly follow from this cause (continence) serve to  show that
a man cannot with impunity disobey natural laws.  Sexual
excitement is intended to be followed by sexual gratifica-
tion ; and the pent-up feelings, both physical and mental,
will pretty certainly revenge themselves on both  mind and
body, in a way equally unexpected and distinctive."
  From time immemorial, the moralist has painted in all its
horrors the evil of excessive use or abuse of  the  sexual or-
gans ; but  no words of warning have ever come from  his lips
as to the equally destructive and pernicious exercise  of
self-denial and  abstinence.   Virtue  and self-denial  have
been  by him unconditionally praised ; they  have been the
Alpha and Omega, the first,  best, and chief points in  all
his exhortations; and spermatorrhcea, the most miserable
disease to which man is liable, has  been left to establish
itself with  all its enervating, weakening,  body-and-soul-
destroying effects, and hurry to  a premature grave thou- 
Causes.
247
sands and tens of thousands of the most promising youths
of the country.
  Rousseau is supposed to have been  a sufferer from  this
infirmity;  and so,  also, Pascal.  M. Lallemand met with
several instances  of the disease  among Roman-Catholic
priests, who rigidly adhered to the vows of celibacy;  and
we  are told that Sir Isaac Newton was also a victim.  He
"is said to have lived a life of strict sexual abstinence,
which produced, before death, a total atrophy of the testi-
cles ;  showing the natural sin which had been committed.
It is  certain, that  his  matchless intellect declined after
middle age;  and  it is even  said, I know not  with what
truth, that he almost lost his mind late in life.   It  is a  dis-
ease whose progress is greatly favored by study; and, as
no human brain can withstand it, we may well believe  that
very many cases of premature natural decay have been owing
to it.   No man is safe from a greater or less degree of sem-
inal weakness, who does not exercise his genital organs, or
reproductive  part,  as  duly as the brain, stomach, or  any
other organ." — Elements of  Physical, Sexual, and Nat-
ural Religion.
  Involuntary emissions  of the seminal fluid  occur at  pu-
berty,  when an increased supply of blood and nervous influ-
ence is sent to the sexual organs, awakening sexual desires,
which become very powerful; and  these emissions are a
sign that  the  sexual organs are fully matured, and a sign,
too, and a warning, that  sexual exercise is required.   If
this warning pass unheeded, and the demand.of Nature be
not complied with, spermatorrhoea is imminent; and, once
established, the mental and bodily powers begin  to decline,
the constitution  becomes  undermined  and  broken,  and
gloomy hypochondria  a  constant  attendant; until, at  last,
worn down in body and  mind, the unhappy a: id miserable
patient, through ignorance of the  great  sexu; 1 laws, sinks
into the grave a victim of mistaken  ideas c :* his duty to
himself. 
248   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  What  is the cause of spermatorrhcea?  Continence, and
n6thing else.   What is its true remedy ?  Sexual  exercise.
This is the one and only remedy: all else will prove of no
avail.  All effort towards effecting a cure with drugs, or
any other remedy, so long as Nature and Nature's  laws are
opposed and  trampled  on, will prove futile.  A moderate
(but not an immoderate) indulgence in sexual intercourse
is the one and only great physiological remedy.   This, com-
bined with active exercise and amusements  in the  open air,
cold bathing,  with the  mind  free,  and not overtasked, are
the true  indications of  treatment; and, if  adopted, bodily
vigor and manly bearing, a vivid  and elastic intellect, will
take the place of lassitude and nervous weakness, melan-
choly, and impotency.
  Even Acton is constrained, although  distasteful to him,
to say that, " Some there are, indeed, generally weak and un-
healthy subjects, who cannot remain content without becom-
ing subject to nocturnal emissions.  When these are fre-
quent, the  sufferer may be, intellectually, in a worse plight
than if he were married, and occasionally indulged in sexual
intercourse. . . .  Men  studying at the universities come to
me, complaining, that, although living a continent life, they
have become such victims of emissions, that they are unable
to pursue, for any length of time, hard or continuous intel-
lectual work; their memories  fail them, and their  health is
impaired.  Under  appropriate  treatment,  the health  is
rapidly regained, and the intellectual powers restored; but it
does appear from these cases that celibacy is not unattended
with danger  to  exceptional temperaments."   He  further-
more says, and  very truly, that  " it  is, we  see, the rule,
that all men, old and young, who have led  a continent life,
as long as they give themselves up to study (but it must be
severe and prolonged),  and take  proper exercise  (it must,
though, be laborious and fatiguing),  will not be  troubled
with  strong  desires."   He adds, and  with much  truth,'
" Nevertheless, when the  great mental  exertion necessary 
Causes.                     249
to obtain a fellowship is over, the sexual feelings will often
re-appear with redoubled force ; and then real distress, and
even illness,  may ensue.   Self-control is followed by noc-
turnal emissions,  which may so increase in frequency  as
seriously to impair the health; while the evil  results  are
set down to  previous  hard work, and the patient is sup-
posed  to labor under indigestion, heart-disease, general
debility,  &c.
   " The  whole being of man cries out, at  this period of his
life (adult age), for,  not the indiscriminate indulgence, but
the regulated use, of his matured  sexual  powers. . . . The
marriage-state is the best and most natural cure for sexual
sufferings of many a human being.  It is in itself a state
conducive, when well regulated, not only to increased hap-
piness, but to long life. .  . .  My advice  to all young men
above twenty-five, who are in good health, is, to marry as
soon as  circumstances permit  them  to  maintain a wife.
Every thing tends to prove that the moderate gratification
of sex-passion in married  life  is generally followed by the
happiest consequences  to the individual;  and no wonder, for
he is but carrying out the imposing command of the Creator
in the  first chapter of Genesis, — ' Be fruitful and multiply,
and replenish the earth,' — in the way appointed by  the
Almighty himself."
   Those who may object to our views on the score of their
being  opposed  to the commonly-entertained  notions  of
morality are  at  liberty to  reject them.  As  we  believe, so
we write, and shrink not  from what we conceive to be our
duty,—of asserting the sacredness of the bodily laws  in
opposition  to all  preconceptions.    The  doctrine  may  be
opposed by a host of prejudices, shaking as it does the very
foundation of the theoretical  morality between the sexes;
but we call on all who would  rigorously enforce  abstinence
or chastity on him who is wasting from the  surface of the
earth from its effects, to mark well our declaration, that a
moderate indulgence in sexual intercourse is the only natural 
250   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

remedy for  spermatorrhoea, and the only remedy that will
rescue the miserable sufferer from what is worse than death.
The principles of physical religion  enjoin  due exercise of
all  parts  of the body.   The wants of our animal  nature
demand an  equal  and impartial attention with  the other
wants of the economy.
  Touching these  matters, a distinguished London writer
remarks, that " chastity is considered one of the greatest of
all virtues in woman, and in man too, though in his case
it is practically less regarded.  We have no longer volun-
tary nuns; but of involuntary ones there are myriads, — far
more,  in reality, than ever existed in any Roman-Catholic
country.   Millions of  women pass a great  part  of their
sexual lives, and immense numbers pass the whole, in total
sexual abstinence, without any of the enjoyments of  sexual
pleasures, or the happiness of  a mother's  affections.  For
all  this incredible  self-denial, which causes more anguish
and disease than any mind can  conceive, they have for their .
reward the barren praise of chastity.  But if we  examine
earnestly, and  without prejudice,  the real nature of this
quality, which is so highly prized, we shall discover  in it a
totally different meaning.
  " Chastity, or complete sexual abstinence, so far from being
a virtue,  is invariably a great natural sin.  We are short-
sighted beings,  full of errors and false theories; but Nature
is  absolutely unerring; and it is only by consulting her,
that we can  gain a true knowledge of our virtues and vices.
If we attend to Nature, we shall find that all our  organs
are subject to the  same law of  health, — the  great  law of
normal and sufficient exercise.   There is  no organ  in  our
body,  nor any faculty in our mind, which, to be healthy  (or,
in other words,  virtuous), does not require its due  share of
appropriate exercise.   The sexual organs are subject to this
law exactly as all  others;  and, whatever  theories we form
about them, Nature  invariably rewards or punishes  them,
according as the conditions of their hea'th are observed. 
Causes.
251
 She cares not for our  moral code.  Marriage has nothing
 sacred in her eyes: with or without marriage, she gives her *
 seal of  approbation to the  sexually virtuous  man or woman
 in a healthy and vigorous state of  the  sexual organs  and
.appetites; while she punishes the  erring by physical  and
 moral sufferings. .  .  .
   " For suffering woman, no one has yet raised his voice ; no
 one has applied to her case the only  true and  scientific
 remedy, which is the keystone of female therapeutics, and
 without which all treatment or prevention of female disease
 is a vanity and a delusion.   The great mass of female sexual
 diseases, even more than those of men, arise from sexual
 enfeeblement consequent on the want of a healthy and suf-
 ficient  exercise for this important part of the system.  From
 the want of this, the green-sickness, menstrual irregularities,
 hysterical affections without number, proceed; and it is
 utter vanity to expect to cure, and, still more, to prevent, these
 miserable diseases without going to  the  root of the matter.
 It is a certain and indubitable fact, that unless we can supply
 to the female organs  their proper natural stimulus, and a
 healthy and natural  amount of exercise, female disease will
 spring  up on every side around  us, and* all  medical  ap-
 pliances will be ■powerless against the hydra."
   The sexual organs  are not only designed  for the propa-
 gation  of the species, but  they afford, as has already been
 remarked, a natural and legitimate outlet for erotic passion,
 in its varying degrees  of intensity, to discharge or expend
 itself;  which imprisoned  power,  if retained,  as  in those
 chaste and unmarried, falls upon the excited and  sensitive
ovaries.   These organs  receive the entire shock, and suffer,
in consequence,  in the  highest degree.   They become dis-
eased, and transmit morbid influences that affect the whole
body, and are the punishments imposed by Nature for the
sin of disregarding the  great law of  normal  sexual  exercise
and gratification.
  The sexual organs also afford  an  outlet for accumulated 
252   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

secretions, which form in large quantity under .the stimulus
of  erotic impulse, and which, like  the fc^tretion  of tears
from emotions of grief, or the secretion of saliva under  the
influence of appetizing odors, afford relief to the emotional
congestion, but  which, if retained,  are  absorbed  into  the
circulation, and pass off through unnatural channels, pro-
ducing derangements of health which are  usually ascribed
to the influence of other and more evident agents.   Among
the derangements thus produced may be mentioned herpetic
eruptions, and other  diseases' of the  skin, offensive  exhala-
tions of varying intensity from the follicles of  the arm-pits.
These exhalations are most powerful in individuals who have
strong sexual powers or are continent.  " The  ancients said
of a man who abstained from venery  that he smelt like
a  he-goat.    Very offensive  exhalations from the  genital
organs are  occasionally transferred to the axillae.   Areta3S
says, that the froth on  the lips of men affected with satyri*
asis is not unlike the smell of a goat under the influence of
the oestrus veneris." — Prof Laycock.
   Thus we see that desire is a part of our nature, a force, au
instinct, a great principle deeply implanted within us as a
guaranty for the perpetuation of the species on the  surface
of the earth.   It is cumulative in its  character, and becomes
a force of immense power, — a power intense, determinative,
governing,  against which the  utmost strength of human
nature becomes utterly powerless.  It conquers judgment,
and triumphs over  honor,  respect,  and modesty.   It in-
toxicates,  frenzies,  fascinates,  enchants,  bewilders.  It
penetrates into the innermost recesses, and consumes.  It
makes of man a brute,  bestial  and   repulsive.   It drives
from the conscience of woman  the last vestige of worship,
respect, love, modesty, purity, and from her cheek the faculty
to blush.  It prompts her to immolation upon  the  altar of
pleasure; and except judgment  bid passion   be  humble,
except there be the power to  act, and a nind to  regulate
that power by decrees of wisdom, the sen es are taken foi 
                         Causes.                     253

guides,  folly for  a helpmate;  and the victim  dances in
fetters, wears them with impatient  anguish, and will endure
them no longer than till opportunity offers when they can
be exchanged for the ignominious ones of vice.  It makes
her too  wanton for restraint, and so inflames her, that  no
law, human or  divine, can hold her within bounds.  It is
the most powerful agent in all the commotions of her system,
— an agent, which, if long imprisoned and pent up within
the constitution, and not allowed  to discharge or expend
itself through  its legitimate  channels, the sexual organs,
cannot  fail to prove  highly injurious  to the  sensitive
ovaries.  It irritates them.  Their nerves become highly
exalted.   Increased capillary action ensues; and the blood
is  summoned to   and retained in them.   They  become
swollen,  and  highly  sensitive;  congestion  and inflam-
mation  supervene ;  and  the diseased  ovaries  transmit
morbid  influences which may seriously affect  the  whole
body.
  Desire is natural, and, like hunger, must be  appeased, or
Nature  revolts.    " Gratification  or disease inevitably  fol-
lows." — Walker.  If we  insanely war against  her,  and
subdue her, we do so at an overwhelming sacrifice. Triumph
is destructive to the victor.  Honor is saved ; but health is
lost.  Respect and modesty are preserved;  but amenorrhcea,
chlorosis,  profuse  and painful  menstruation,  and  hysteria
in all its multiplied forms of headache, suffocation, globus
hystericus,  spasms, convulsions,  &c,  with signs of pre-
mature  decay, supervene, — a poor requital,  certainly, for
that brightest jewel in woman's casket, continence.
  Touching this  matter, Prof. Meigs says,  " That force
(desire), you will  not den}'-, is capable of influencing the
whole physical, intellectual, and psychological nc ure of the
subject of it; and, if even the  conscience and  the  free-will
must be admitted to  be subject to morbid modifications,
what hardness do  you find in admitting likewise that morbid
modifications, of a power so intense, so universal, so  deter- 
254   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

minative, of the whole constitution, might  be capable of
exhibiting itself in any or all the parts  of the constitution
in the strange and so-called incomprehensible phenomena
of hysterical paroxysm ? "
  Again:  he says, " The whole spinal cord vibrates under
the tension of the  vital forces, roused to excitement by the
reproductive and aphrodisiac power.  Cries, sobs, peals of
immoderate laughter, tears  in floods, stolid  silence, perfect
cataphora, spasm tonic  and clonic,  tetanoid closure of the
jaws, the most extraordinary rhythmical movements of the
symmetrical halves  of the body (zygozoar spasm), rigid
opisthotonos, sudden enormous meteorisms, profound coma,
excessive secretion  of limpid urine ; all followed suddenly
by  the profoundest calm of the constitution, and a feeling
of the sweetest complacency and amiability, — such  are the
symptoms which leap  as  it were out  of profound repose,
with a sudden and startling exaggeration."
  Pliny says, " Multa  morborum genera primo coitu sol-
vuntur, primoque feminarium mense."
  Tilt says, " We are persuaded that the  want  of  the ap-
propriate stimulus to the  ovaries, which  should promote
healthy aqtion, is  often the cause of their becoming the
seat of morbid affections."
  Prof. Ashivell says, " The ovaries are subject  to  excite-
ment before and during menstruation.  The state of the
Graafian vesicles, too, is liable to  sudden change, not  only
as a natural result of conception, but from ungratified sex-
ual feeling."
   Walker  says, "Marriage ought, then, to  succeed the
celibacy of earlier  life."
  Harvey says that " many birds, insects, and fishes produce
eggs without the intervention of the male,  and that these
are infecund;  that such animals are often affected with dis-
ease, and perish."   He also tells  us that  "the  human
female,  if deprived too long of the rights of Venus, may
become affected with hysteria or nymphomania." 
c>ll<
                          Causes.                     255

   -5«#>n  says,  "Marriage  is  man's  natural  state  after
 puberty.  This  is,  therefore,  the period when the  female,
 pressed by a new want, and excited to employ her faculties,
 should renounce that inexperience in love which was becom-
 ing in tianquil youth."
   Karnes says, "I  have often been tempted to find  fault
 with  Providence in bringing so early to perfection the
 carnal appetite, while man, still in early youth, has acquired
 no degree of prudence nor self-command.   It rages, indeed,
 the most when young men should be employed in acquiring
 knowledge, and in fitting themselves for living comfortably
 in the world.  I have set this  thought in various lights;
 but I now perceive  that the censure is without foundation.
 The early ripeness of this appetite proves it to be the inten-
 tion of Providence that people should  early settle in matri-
 mony.  In that state, the appetite is abundantly moderate,
 and  gives no obstruction to education.  It never becomes
 unruly, till one, forgetting the  matrimonial tie, wanders
 from object to object.  It is pride and luxury that  dictate
 late marriages : industry never fails to  afford the means of
 living comfortably, provided men confine themselves to the
 demand of Nature."
   Walker says, "As to young women,  more especially, it is
 certain  that  the  happiest effects  must result  (from early
 marriage) to those of an  erotic temperament, excited by
 diet, inactivity, and every thing that can stimulate  desire.
 When  hysterism  especially is caused  by unsatisfied  love,
 the  advice of Hippocrates is  as  applicable as  ever: 'E^o
 autor sum ut  virgines hoc  malo (chlorosi) laborantes. quam
 celerrime cum viris conjugantur, iisqua  cohabitent; si enim
 conceperint, convalescent.'"
   Hufeland says, " Nervous and hysterical women are often
 cured by marriage."
   Prof. Lanzoni gives  the case  of a widow of thirty-one,
who, after the death of her husband, was subject to  attacks
of epilepsy twice a month.  " After she had for some time 
256   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

followed  medical  advice without  benefit, I  advised  her to
marry a second time.   The widow followed my advice, and
made choice of a  young and loving husband;  and the epi-
leptic attacks disappeared, and never returned."
  On which Walker remarks, "In these epileptic convul-
sions of young women, women neglected, &c, many authors
have not hesitated to recommend what is  contrary to our
notions of propriety.  And to those that object, F. Hoffman
distinctly says, ' I am aware that we ought not to do ill to
produce good;  but this is my answer: Of two evils equally
inevitable, it is our duty to choose the least:  others will
perhaps add — and the least painful.'  The same means, we
are told, has often cured uterine cholics and  nervous  disor-
ders.  It is evident that the cure of nymphomania must
consist in marriage.
  " The fact that  such diseases are the result of continence
is Nature's declaration that marriage is the  sole method of
curing them; and Pinel justly exclaims, ' What can be done
by medical  art, which always looks at human nature inde-
pendently of social institutions, if the  immutable laws of
fecundity and reproduction are perverted ?'
  " When,  therefore, a young marriageable maiden exhibits
symptoms of the  approach of any of  these diseases, she
should, if possible, be united to the object of her affections.
Such symptoms then speedily disappear;  health and happi-
ness take their place; and there is preserved to  her family
and to society  a being who may be one  of their most amia-
ble and valuable members.
  " There are,  indeed, young girls, observes a medical writer,
' sufficiently artful to counterfeit hysteric epilepsy and other
affections for which the}' have heard marriage recommended
as the only remedy, in the hope of being inducted into that
state.'   But, if they employ such a subterfuge, is  it not
proof of  the intensity of their desires, sufficient  to give us
cause to fear, that, in yielding to the transports of their pas- 
Causes.
257
sion, they may shortly experience in reality the trouble and
disorder they have counterfeited for the moment ?
  " Independently of morbid affections which marriage re-
moves, it augments the energy of the  sanguineous  system ;
the distended  arteries carry warmth and animation through-
out the body; the muscles become  more vigorous, the walk
freer, the voice  firmer, the  demeanor unembarrased:  in
short, the sanguine temperament predominates.
   " Of the greater chances of longevity possessed by married
people, sufficient reason may be found in desires at once
gratified and rendered moderate,  in the  activity  required
for the support of a family, in regular occupations, in the
certainty of  ever having a friend  and  confidant, in the
endearing attention lavished upon each other, and in mu-
tual succors during every affliction and infirmity.
   " It must not, however, be forgotten, that manifest as may
be the impulses of Nature, and great as may be  the  desire
 of complying with  her wishes, several causes may oppose
 these, and neglect of them may still more surely prove fatal
 to the health or life of the maiden.
   " Marriage would, for instance,  be deeply injurious before
 the young woman is in condition to perform its functions.
 In our climate, young girls who are married before the age
 of twenty to twenty-five are ill adapted to sustain the crises
 of pregnancy, delivery, and suckling; beauty departs;  en-
 feeblement and nervous affections ensue; and these impede
 the general growth.   The limbs, consequently, are shorter;
 and, though the body is less affected as to development, the
 breaking-up  is greater."
   Touching  the disastrous  effects of  continence, and  the
 diseases  thereby engendered,  Walker says, '-Chlorosis is
 frequently the  first  malady  that makes  its appearance.
 The  catamenia, too, are frequently  suppressed,  occur at
 irregular periods, or are complicated  by painful symptoms,
 — the consequences  of the irritability of the reproductive
 organs (ovaries), produced by privation and inactivity.
               17 
258  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  " The  stomach frequently becomes unable to retain any
substance, however light.  The nervous  susceptibility 0 ften
affects the heart; its  movements, either by fits or perma-
nently, becoming quick, irregular,  and  strong, and consti-
tuting palpitation.  Frequently, also, this nervous predomi-
nance is felt  throughout the organization; and syncopes
form the prelude to what are called vapors (hysteria) : some-
times, likewise,  girls  fall into  profound melancholy, and
abandon themselves to despair.
  "If marriage be not permitted  to  terminate this  state,
injury fatal to life may be its consequence.
  " In the extravagance of passion, suicide may be perpe-
trated.  More frequently occur a general perversion  of sen-
sibility,  and all the degrees of hysterism, especially if the
maiden  has strong tendency to love, nurtured by good liv-
ing, an easy, sedentary life, the reading of fashionable novels,
or exciting conversations with the other sex, while she  is
still kept under the eyes of  a vigilant superintendent.
  " An  attack of  hysteria is generally characterized by
yawning; stretching;  a variable state of mind, or extrava-
gant caprices; tears and laughter without cause ; fluttering
and palpitation,  with  urgent flatulence; rumbling in the
belly; a flow of limpid urine; a feeling as if a ball (globus
hystericus) were rolling about in the abdomen, ascending to
the stomach and fauces, and there causing a sense of strangu-
lation, as well as of oppression about the chest, and difficulty
of respiration, fainting, loss of sensation, motion, and speech,
death-like coldness of the extremities,  or of  the body gener-
ally ; also muscular rigidity, and convulsive  movements; the
patient twisting the body, striking herself, and tearing the
breast;  and this followed by a degree of coma, stupor, and
apparent sleep;  but  consciousness  by  degrees returning,
amidst  sobs, sighs, and tears.
  " Hysterical epilepsy may take place, the paroxysms  of
which are sometimes  preceded by dimness of sight, vertigi-
nous confusion, pain of the head, ringing in the ears, flatu- 
Causes.                     259
lence of the stomach and bowels, palpitation of the heart,
and, occasionally, of the aura epileptica, or feeling as if cold
air, commencing  in  some part of the  extremities, directed
its course up to the head.  During the  fit, the  patient falls
upon the ground, and rolls thereon ;  the muscles of the face
are distorted;  the tongue is thrust  out of the mouth, and
often bitten;  the eyes  turn in  their  orbits;  she cries or
shrieks, emitting a foaming saliva;  and she struggles with
such violence that several persons are required to hold her.
The belly is tense and grumbling; there are frequent  eruc-
tations ;  and the  excretions, particularly the  urinary, are
passed involuntarily.  After a time  more or less consider-
able, the  patient  gradually  recover?, with  yawning and a
sense of lassitude, scarcely answers,  and is ignorant of what
has occurred to her."   (Hysterical  manifestations  will be
considered more fully in future pages.)
   " These effects, we are told, have been observed in canary-
birds, which sing continually, if, when separated from their
females, they can see them without being able to reach them,
and never cease till  their distress is  terminated by an attack
of epilepsy.
   " Other affections, as catalepsies, ecstasies, &c, frequently
depend on the reproductive organs;  and in Roman-Catholic
countries,  in former times, half-insane  devotees were found
among old maids thus affected, who  became, in consequence,
the fitting instruments  of the artful propagators  of ridicu-
lous creeds.
   " In some cases, the dominant passion interferes with the
operations of intellect, and produces insanity.   It has been
already observed, that no one becomes insane before puberty,
and that  the period of the greatest reproductive ardor is that
of the highest mental excitement.
   " Accordingly,  many  j'oung women become  insane from
erotic  excitement, or from the love  even  of the  beings of
their own imaginations;  for it is  justly  observed, ' Such
are the wants of the heart in women,  that they are caught 
260   Woman, and her Thirty Yeai r' Pilgrimage.

by and attach themselves to chimeras, when  the  reality is
wanting to their sensibility.'
  " The worst disease resulting from thi< cause (continence)
is  nymphomania, or  furor uterinus.   The  women  whom
celibacy renders most liable to it have been  observed to be
of small stature, and to have  somewhat bold  features, the
skin dark,  the  complexion ruddy, the  mammae quickly
developed, the sensibility great, and the catamenia consider-
able.
  " The very commencement of puberty is generally the time
when the disease of  which furor uterinus is the aggravated
form begins  to arise out of the temperament just described,
and  from various ac<jidental  causes,  as  loose reading or
conversation, obscene  paintings  or engravings,  and  bad
example  arising from close intercourse  with  dissolute
persons.
  " In persons suffering from this disease  (nymphomania),
says Dr.  M. Good, ' There is  often, at first, some  degree
of melancholy, with frequent sighings; but the eyes roll in
wanton glances, the cheeks are flushed, the bosom heaves,
and  every  gesture  exhibits the lurking desire, and is en-
kindled by  the distressing flame that burns  within. . .  .
The disease  is-strikingly marked by the movements of the
body, and the salacious appearance of  the countenance, and
even the language that proceeds from the lips.   They, in-
deed, use the most lascivious language and  gestures, even
invite men without distinction, and abuse them if they repel
their advances.'
  " The diseases also of the matrix (womb)  and mamma;
occur chiefly amongst  unmarried females.  Old maids are
especially liable to these diseases, because their organs have
not  fulfilled their functions.   Scirrhous indurations and
cancers often form in these parts, especially at  the final
cessation of the  catamenia.   Hydatids  also  form in the
matrix or ovaries, so as to resemble pregnancy ''
  Sufficient has, we think, been adduced to support our 
Causes.
261
position ; and we repeat the declaration, that absolute priva-
tion in those whose feelings and passions are  strong, and
its  sudden denial to those  accustomed to its use, or where
the act is imperfectly performed, is a fruitful and  common
source of a multiplicity of ills peculiar to women, but which
have been  usually ascribed to other and more prominent
agents.  To  this cause, and to this cause alone, we sincerely
believe,  are  very many  of  the ills of  young unmarried
females attributable.  Amenorrhcea, chlorosis, profuse and
painful menstruation, leucorrhoea,  and hysteria in  all its
multiplied  forms of headache, suffocation, spasms, convul-
sions, premature decay, &c, are oftener referable to privation
of sexual stimulus  in 3'oung, vigorous, unmarried females
than to any other cause.
  Whether it is natural that privation should be a  cause of
disease, our readers must now decide  for themselves.   Our
views have been given, and our belief is easily arrived at.
That it is a cause, — at any rate in these days of improper
physical, moral, and mental training;  in these days when
the cultivation of the mental powers, of the sentiments and
passions,  the refinements,  indulgences,  luxuries,  and the
character of  social  intercourse ; in these days when the
want of light, pure air, proper food, and  healthful  exercise
in the open air;  when the uninterrupted rounds of excite-
ment consequent upon balls, parties, the opera,  &c, with
the liability to cold imposed  by these amusements;  when
protracted  vigils sacrificed at the  shrine of folly, luxury,
and fashion,  — contribute only to break down and weaken
the powers of the system, and render the ovaries, already pre-
eminently  disposed to disease by the monthly act  of ovula-
tion, incapable of warding off the deleterious influences of
inordinate  desire incited by the  influence  of luxury, in-
dolence, sentimental reading, the perusal  of prurient books,
passion-stirring pictures, statues, &c, obtruding their seduc-
tions on the youthful imagination, and provoking flights of
vivid fancy, and arousing impulses of desire, and yearnings 
262   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

after unknown gratifications, — we believe there can  be no
question.
  When the want of light,  pure  air,  proper food, and
healthful exercise, has lowered  the  powers of the  system,
and with it the capability of the ovaries to ward off morbid
stimulus;  when  luxury,  indolence, sentiment?!  reading,
close proximity to the opposite sex,  and intricacy of situation,
incite to unknown  gratifications, — the impulse of  desire
must be gratified, or Nature revolts.   The impulse, the force
of which we have already seen, must have vent through its
legitimate and  natural outlet,  or the ovaries receive the
entire shock.  Gratification or disease — one or the other —
inevitably follow.   There is no escape.
  Continence, then, engenders disease.  Disease demands
judicious  application of remedies.   But what avail rem-
edies  while  the  cause is still operating ?  What is the
cause ?  Continence.  Intercourse, only, has the power of
removing  it.  Desire then is  satisfied,  the mind  is tran-
quillized, the regular action of the vital  powers  restored,
and morbid symptoms vanish like the dew before the  rising
sun.  This is the only remedy.   All else will prove of no
avail.
  How overwhelmingly  important,  then,  that correct
NOTIONS  SHOULD BE ENTERTAINED AS  REGARDS  PHYS-
ICAL,  MENTAL,  AND MORAL  TRAINING ! -- A  PHYSICAL
TRAINING, THAT THE OVARIES MAY BY  THEIR STRENGTH
AND TONICITY  WITHSTAND  THE  PROMPTINGS OF DESIRE
without  its proving A stimulus  to  disease ; a men-
tal and moral, that the young woman may be the arbiter of
her own happiness,  as far as human beings can be so, and
that she may walk in uprightness, and prove a living stream
of comfort and delight.
   Marriage late in Life is  not  an  unfrequent cause
of the disease under consideration.  The ovaries, having
been debarred their proper stimulus when they most needed
it, become somewhat accustomed to the privation: when the 
w.. ...A".                     2UJ
 stimulus is at last presented, it over-excites, and engenders
 a morbid impression.
   "Change of  Life" is another cause of this disease.
 The periodical congestion of the ovaries which  has lasted
 for so many years does  not always, nor commonly, subside
 at once.  It generally continues for a longer or shorter time
 after the menstrual  flow has ceased.   The ovaries, not being
 relieved,  as they have been accustomed, by the flow, become
 engorged, and liable to inflammatory action if this condition
 be not warded off by appropriate treatment.
   This crisis in female life is particularly dangerous,  both
 to those  involuntary  nuns of  a society  overstocked  writh
 women who have impatiently  borne the burden  of their
 virginity, and also those who have given  themselves up to
 excesses of sexual indulgence.

                    MORAL CAUSES.

   There  are certain other exciting causes of this disease,
 which, for  want of  a  better name, have been called moral
 causes.  They are not tangible, it is true ;  but they are too
 important to be passed  over in silence.   When influences
 tend  to exaggerate the  impulse of unsatisfied  desires, —
 desires, which,  though  natural  in  themselves, have  been
 pampered  by  bodily  and  mental inactivity, and unduly
 excited by thoughts, books, pictures, conversation, and close
 intercourse with dissolute persons — burning desires, which,
 though new and  unanticipated,  yet need  little interpreta-
 tion, and are so urgent and imperious, that if not quenched
 by their natural and legitimate satisfaction, and the organs
 which prompt such desires relieved of the accumulated fluids
 by which they  are placed in a state of turgescence, — Na-
 ture and  instinct  are  not slow  in pointing out  means of
 gratification and  relief,  that are ruinous  and destructive
to the constitution, impairing the nervous system,  and the
general strength and tonicity of the muscular tissues. 
264    Woman, and her i;w.j  ~ „■*.,*  1- ngr

   As soon as puberty is accomplished, instinct leads youth
to satisfy desire; and if no object is cast in the way, and
they are unchecked by timidity or other considerations, they
fall into that solitary indulgence which ruins more constitu-
tions than enters into the conception of  the uninstructed.
   The habit is not confined to any one or particular class.
It is adopted in all ranks of society, and its pernicious  and
destructive  influences are seen on  every side in the weak-
ened and enervated, worn-out  and broken constitutions that
surround us.  It  is ordinarily contracted at  puberty, when
an increased supply of blood and nervous influence is sent
to the sexual organs, which awakens sexual desires that be-
come very powerful.  Once formed,  the habit  increases; and
the more it is indulged in, the less  likely is it  to  be aban-
doned.   Totally unconscious  of  the  consequences  it may
lead to, the unhappy victim surrenders herself or himself to
an increasing indulgence, until, at last, it becomes master
of the individual, and almost irresistible.
  The extent to which the practice  may be carried is almost
incredible.   M. Lallemand tells us, that  some of his patients
confessed that they had been in the habit of indulging in
it from ten to twenty times daily, and, too, for a long period
of time.
  Health consists, as we have  already  seen,  in a due per-
formance  of the  function  of  all the organs  of the body.
We have also seen that  any undue exercise of a part, as in
venereal excesses, is sure to lead  to  a  disturbance in the
economy.   If, then, from an extravagance in  or an undue
exercise of  an  allotted  or  allowed  privilege, an  inflamma-
toxj action is induced in the menstrual  organs, with physi-
cal weakness, and a multiplicity of other ills v hich arise
from an impaired nervous power and disordered circulation,
how much more severe must be the consequences that arise
from an unnatural  exhaustion which  transpires from  an
absolute stretch of an overwrought imagination; from, in
fact, ideal pleasures!  The roses vanish from the cheeks; 
Causes.                     265
pale and sallow tints take  the  place  of brilliant hues; the
skin becomes rough ; the eyes become dull, and surrounded
by  a livid circle, and  the lips colorless.   Weakened and
enervated, the unhappy victim becomes prematurely old and
haggard.  The imagination becomes perverted, and irreso-
lution, timidity, and shyness become increased to an alarm-
ing degree.   In the male, if the depravity be not  arrested,
nocturnal emissions supervene, following which, in  the fur-
ther progress of the  complaint, diurnal involuntary seminal
loss takes place, until, at last, the constant  and fatal drain
induces an  utter exhaustion  of  the vital  powers.    The
countenance  becomes waxy and pale, the frame  emaciated,
the  sight weakened, the whole nervous  system enfeebled
and  unstrung, and his woes in the depths of his  physical
impotency and agony too  deep for tears.   In the femala,
local affections of the organs of reproduction ensue, — acrid
leucorrhoea,  ulcerations of the vulvo-uterine canal, falling
and various  diseases of the womb, and last, but not least,
subacute inflammation of the ovaries.  She loses her seren-
ity and active vigor of mind.   Her intellect, formerly  vivid .
and elastic, becomes turbid  and sluggish.   She is unable to
fix the attention on objects she wishes to study; and mental
insignificance takes the place  of literary excellence, until,
at last, as  sometimes occurs, nymphomania, or furor uteri-
nus, supervenes, which may terminate life amid delirium and
convulsion.
  We will here introduce  the opinions and experience of
others touching this matter.  It is a subject  of vast impor-
tance, and a painful one; but it must not be passed over in
silence.  A vice so wide spread and so deplorable should be
held fairly up to view; and if, by so doing, it be  the means
of saving even  one human being from its soul-and-body-
destroying influences, or  of  rolling  aside  in any  single
instance the curtain  of  blindness which covers its  besotted
victims, we shall be repaid for our labor.
  " My own opinion is," says Acton, " that it is not so  easy 
266    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

a matter to give uj  the practice:  when  once the vile habit
becomes confirmed,  the young libertine often becomes but  a
debauched old man.   I have known lads and men of strong
energy  of will, who have,  by their own confession, failed,
until they were aided by other remedies, which I shall here-
after describe.  Want of resolution is, of course, one cause
of failure; and, where there is  hereditary predisposition to
strong sexual excitement, the task is often too great without
good counsels and sound medical advice.
  " If the struggle is severe for a youth to extricate himself
from these vicious propensities,  experience teaches  me that
it  is very doubtful, if,  when the  practice  has been  much
indulged in, the physical frame  will ever be wholly  built up
again: the haggard expression, the sunken eye, the long,
cadaverous-looking  countenance, the downcast  look, which
seems to arise from the dread of looking a fellow-creature
in the face, may be  carried  to the grave.  I admit that care
and attention may do much in  remedying  the intellectual
wreck which we notice in such youths.   If  we can save the
mind at all in the  severer forms, we shall do well;  but, for
a series  of years, the intellectual faculties are enfeebled.  . . .
With Lallemand, I could speak of the many of high  intel-
lectual attainments, and the foul blot which has been  made
on the  virgin page of  youth;  of shocks from which  the
youth's  nervous system will never, in my Opinion, be able
to rally;  of  maladies  engendered, which  no  after-course
of treatment can altogether cure, although surgery may
do much to alleviate symptoms  as they arise."
  Touching the mental anguish  arising from  the horror
and remorse  which the patient experiences, Tissot says,
" When the veil is removed, the picture  of  their conduct is
brought before them in all its hideousness; they find them-
selves guilty of a crime of  which  divine justice wishes  not
to supersede the penalty, and which it punishes by death ;
of a crime reputed as a great crime even by heathens."
  The  distress cannot be  alleviated by the sympathy of 
Causes.                     267
others.   Shame obliges the patient to  hide  his crime  from
every one, till some unbearable torment force a revelation.
Many, indeed, die because they have not been able to  mus-
ter courage to reveal the cause  of their misery.  I  often
receive  letters  saying,  "I would rather die than appear
before you after such an avowal."
   Feeling that he must be held in detestation by society if
his disgrace were known, the idea pursues him incessantly.
" It appears to me," says one of my correspondents,  " that
every one reads in my face the infamous cause of my dis-
ease, and this idea renders society unbearable; and, what is
most frightful, I have no pretext of justification or motive
for consolation."
   " That insanity is a consequence  of  this habit," says
Acton, " is now beyond a doubt.  The connection  between
insanity and extravagant sexual  desire is alarmingly close,
as appears from many modern investigations, especially with
regard to the central portion of the  cerebellum."  Deslandes
has remarked, that, " in proportion  as  the intellect  becomes
enfeebled, the generative sensibility is augmented."
   As regards  the class  of persons  affected, "It might
be expected,"  says Dr. Ritchie, "that these cases  would
chiefly occur in members of families of strict religious edu-
cation.   Experience supports  this expectation;  and facts
also show, that those who from  this  cause  become insane
have  generally, to all  appearance,  been of strictly  moral
life, and recognized as persons who paid much attention to
the forms  of religion.   As  will be afterwards more fully
stated,  it is frequently  observed,  especially in  the   acute
attack resulting from this cause, that religion forms a noted
subject of conversation or delusion."
   "This destructive habit," says Dr. Ryan, "is, unfor-
tunately, too common in  many schools, colleges, and  in  all
places in which a number of youths or  unmarried persons
are congregated.   ' It is  the contagion of scholars.'   How
necessary, then, it is for parents, and those who have the 
268    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

guardianship and instruction of youth, to preserve  them
from contamination, and to watch  them  closely!   They
ought never to leave them alone, or in  company with  older
children, companions, or servants.  What  a responsibility
is  imposed upon  instructors, who really possess  the  most
powerful influence over the welfare of a large portion of the
present and future generations !   They ought never to  allow
two children, even of a tender  age, to sleep in  the  same
bed, but  prevent  it without assigning  any reason; or two
scholars to remain too much together, or to be constantly
in company with  each other in lonely  situations.   In  fine,
parents, or those who have the charge of children, ought to
observe most carefully the  changes in the  physiognomy,
which result from the baneful, unmanly, and inhuman  habit
under consideration.
   " Every effort should be made to suppress this unnatural,
sinful,  and degrading vice.  The best means of prevention
are moral restraint, and physical  exertion taken to fatigue,
amusements in  the open air, active employment, moderation
in diet, temperance in drink, and a proper  use  of sedatives
at bedtime.  The  perusal of all immoral works, and the
inspection of immodest pictures, should be avoided.   But,
of all means, religion is the most effectual (?) in restraining
and correcting thjs vicious habit."
   " On the  whole," says Dr. Acton, " I  am disposed to think,
that, in .most public schools, the feeling is  strongly against
these vile practices.  Still, even now  and then,  facts leak
out,  which  show, that,  even in these establishments, evil
influences sometimes find their way;  and the destructive
habit  may take  root,  and become common.  In private
schools, however, which are, to a great extent, free from the
control of that healthy public  opinion, that,  even among
boys, has so salutary an effect, there is too much reason to
fear that this  scourge  of  our youth prevails to  an extent
which will  not be known with  any  certainty,  till,  years
hence, the  sufferers from  early  vice  are  seeking medical
relief,  too often, alas ! in vain." 
Causes.                    269
  Even undu? incitation of the sexual system from conver-
sations on love, close proximity to the opposite sex, improper
books, pictures, &c, without any  manipulation or interroga-
tion of the secret sources of pleasure, is most deleterious,
and a cause, very frequently, of the disease under considera-
tion.  " If, as we  are told, birds lay eggs  under the in-
fluence of impressions calculated to promote certain feelings,
without the congress  of the male bird, may we not justly
infer that certain feelings of the mind are, in women, suf-
ficient to stimulate the organs of ovulation ?  We see the
influence  of such modes  of excitation on man, — that  they
promote the secretion of seminal  fluids ; and we may there-
fore infer that they produce on woman an analogous effect.
When wre consider how much of the lifetime of woman is
occupied by the various  phases  of the  generative  process,
and how terrible is often the conflict within her  between
the headlong impulse of passion  and the  dictates  of duty;
we may well understand how such a conflict must re-act on
the organs of the sexual  economy in  the  unimpregnated
female,  and principally  on the   menstrual organs, the ac-
knowledged centres of the sexual system; causing an orgasm,
which, if often repeated, may be productive of inflammation
of those organs, and characterized by the development of
hysteria." — Tilt.
   Although a delicate matter to  touch  upon, it is  of  vital
importance, being, in our estimation, a very frequent  cause
of the disease  that we are considering.
   Let girls advancing to womanhood be told of habits and
practices that  fail not to lay the foundation of multiplied
ills.  Let mothers descend from their austere pedestal, and
close up the  distance between mother and  daughter, and
make her a friend and companion, that youth may profit by
the experience and  advice  of maturer years.  Let her be
warned against this destructive  habit,  and  let her be in-
structed in the laws  of her sexual nature.  Leave her not
to her own devices, in utter ignorance of the way to guide 
270   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

this  new power, which, at  puberty, sways, and was meant
to sway, the whole being more absolutely than  almost any
other feeling.  Make no mystery of the sexual  part of hei
frame, its  promptings,  and  their power;  its diseases, and
how induced.  Let her learn  to  reverence  and study the
laws of her sexual economy, which, if forgotten, return  on
her own head.  Hide not from her the great purpose of her
existence, — the ends of marriage, — and how this purpose
is thwarted, and herself laid prostrate in powers of body and
fnind, a victim of irritable complaints, and a martyr to
pain and suffering, that may prove the  curse  and bane  of
her  entire existence;  and  that,  if practices which have
entailed a disease that has wrecked the fair vessel of female
charms are persisted in, it is not in the power of ^Esculapius
himself to refit the shattered  bark, or of  the Sirens, with
all their songs and wiles, to conjure its  battered sides from
the rocks,  and make it  ride  the seas in gallant trim again.
  We have said, that, when once formed, the habit increases;
that it becomes master of the  individual,  and almost irre-
sistible.
  Is there any cure ?  Can the depravity be arrested, and
the body and mind restored to its normal condition ?
  Why was the  indulgence adopted ?  What induced it,
but the overpowering want  of  natural sexual exercise ? and
so long as this cause is still operating, so long as no natural
outlet be  given for the passions, how little benefit can be
even hoped from any medical or surgical interference !  The
true and only remedy (for it is the great physiological one)
consists in conforming  to the universal law of normal sexual
exercise, as much required by  the  sexual as any other part
of the economy.  Indeed, what more rational and  effective
remedy, what  more natural and  obvious remedy,  can be
suggested for either sex, for checking unnatural indulgence,
than the supply of the  normal gratification, which, had it
been attainable, solitary indulgence would never have been
resorted to, nor bodily  and mental disease  induced!  Lan 
Causes.                    271
guishing Nature demands her natural sexual stimulus.   If
denied, she revolts, and,  as a just punishment, prompts to
practices ruinous and destructive in the  extreme.   If com-
plied with, she is satisfied;  pernicious habits become aban-
doned, and  exhaustion and debility gradually disappear;
nervous weakness  fades  away; gloomy hypochondria and
mental confusion vanish ; health, spirits, and self-confidence
return ; and the unhappy sufferer once more takes  pleasure
in the society of mankind.
   Well aware are we, that ignorance and superstition, in-
fluenced by the common moral prejudices on these  matters,
will cry out loudly against any such doctrine; but we call
on them to bear witness to the declaration, that clear and
demonstrable laws of normal exercise of every part of the
economy  will ere  long  be recognized  and obeyed;  and,
until  recognized and complied with,  suffering humanity
must go down to the grave, as they long have done, with
ample reason for cursing the wisdom, the religion,  and the
common sense of  those who  would deny them  the  only
remedy that has the power of saving them.  The doctrine
is a true one, and the world must ere long admit it. What
says a distinguished writer?  "I know the host of preju-
dices that will oppose the recognition of sexual intercourse
as the great remedy in sexual enfeeblement in  women; but
I am absolutely  certain, too, that it will be recognized.  It
is in vain that we strive against the decrees of Nature; we
may exhaust ourselves in forming unnatural theories, and
in forbidding  any attempt to compare  them with natural
laws ; we may be content that the subject should  continue
shrouded  in mystery, and that  young women  should  be
racked  and  tortured by  innumerable diseases, rather than
allow the  least departure from our prejudiced schemes; we
may persecute and  anathematize  all those  poets,  philoso-
phers, and physicians, who, horror-struck at  the amount of
sexual misery, endeavor to find a new path out of the laby-
rinth : but not one  jot, not one iota, does Nature move for 
272   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

all our vehemence;  and she will force us at last, exhausted
by our sufferings, to confess our errors, and recognize her
infallibility.  I do not see how any man of common sense,
far  less a scientific  physician, can fail to see  that  Nature
intended that the sexual organs should be used as soon as
they are fully developed.  The sexual passions are  strong-
est  at that time;  and  we might  foresee, with certainty,
that, if the natural  intentions be defeated, disease and mis-
ery must result.  It is  clear, too, that, for diseases  arising
from  such  a cause, the  natural  and obvious remedy is to
supply the normal  exercise; the want of which  occasions
the disorder.  In the case of genital enfeeblement in man,
M.  Lallemand  has  shown  clearly by  the results of his
treatment, as well as by his general reasoning, that sexual
exercise is the true,  natural, and  efficient remedy; and his
views have been adopted by a great many of the  most en-
lightened medical men  in this country (Europe),  and must
eventually be accepted by all, however much they are op-
posed by Christian prejudices." — Social Science.
  Touching this matter,  Walker says,  " When  all  the
thoughts of a young man begin to be occupied by the desire
of pleasure, every hour  that passes adds to desire; almost
every individual of the opposite sex seems fascinating to
him;  his heart palpitates when they approach; and  a flame
seems to fly through all his members.   Even during the
night, the physical condition of the  external organ necessary
to reproduction annoys him; and his sleep is often disturbed.
Gratification or disease inevitably follows.  Of the young
woman, however modified her affections,  the same  is true."
  For the benefit of those for whom we are writing, we
will  introduce  here suggestions  for guidance,  made  by
Ryan  and  Walker.   "It  is important  to state," says Dr.
Ryan, "that the  baneful habit  of exciting  the  organs
under consideration  often arises from disease,  or a  morbid
state  of remote  tissues,  at an age when  amorous impulse
cannot exist; and this self-abuse is  too often continued until
* 
Causes.                     273
 the adult age.   Infants  at the  breast, whose sexual organs
 are so imperfectly developed, and who can  have no sexual
 desire whatever,  often  contract  the habit  of  frequently
 touching these parts.  This apparent phenomenon is  easily
 explained by physiology.  The  sexual organs are lined  by
 a mucous membrane similar to  that which  covers the lips,
 throat, intestine, and lungs;  and irritation  in any point of
 this membrane may derange every part of the body, which
 is covered or lined by a continuation of it.  There  are few
 infants who do  not suffer from  irritation in some  part  of
 this membrane, induced by numerous causes, as teething,
 improper food, or cold;  and the effect will  be irritation or
 inflammation  in  the  eyes, ears,  nostrils,  throat, lungs,
 stomach, and  bowels, and also  in the genital passages, as
 every one of these parts is covered by mucous membrane.
 But the  habit of touching the  genital organs, acquired in
 infancy,  often continues to the  age of puberty, when these
 parts become more  developed and highly sensitive, and ren-
 der  it almost inevitable.  In other,  and, unfortunately, in
 most cases, this habit is  learned from example or intuition;
 more  especially by allowing  grown  persons or adults  to
 sleep with children, or by the depravity of some who have
 the  care of children and youth, as servants, ushers, or tu-
 tors in schools or families, or those contaminated by it."
   Walker says, " At puberty, life is superabundant;  that
 superabundance is employed in  the  reproduction of itself;
 and, in so doing, the passions  and  the will  are engaged.
 Accordingly, the habits  contracted at this age are very
 powerful, and are intimately connected with the future health
 or disease.  Hence, at this age,  the importance of


                 USEFUL GUIDANCE.

  " Every effort ought, of course, to  be  made so to direct
young persons, that they may be least exposed to the evils
that now beset them.
              18 
274   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   " Those  who  are too robust should be occasionally con-
fined to a meagre diet;  and all the exciting substances
which accelerate  precocity should be  carefully shunned;
such  as chocolate, ragouts,  meat  suppers,  and vinous or
spirituous drinks.  For the same reason, should be avoided
retention of urine and constipation, which attract the blood
towards the parts whence it is desirable to withhold it.
   " The habit of cleanliness, practised from the earliest youth,
becomes a valuable corrective at  puberty.
   " An important  subject of observation is clothing, and the
necessity of habituating young people to cold, particularly
with  regard  to  the reproductive organs.   'Trousers,' it is
observed, either very warm, or lined with woollen  stuff, are
highly  improper,  both  on account of  uncleanliness, and
consequences which it is desirable to prevent.
   " Young persons should not be permitted to  lie  on down
beds;  nor  sit  on  soft  chairs, to which rush  or wooden-
bottomed ones are  greatly preferable.   Neither should they
be  allowed to remain in bed longer than requisite, or to lie
down needlessly on couches.
   " While  the languishings of love spring up in soft repose,
strong exercise extinguishes  tender sentiments, and at the
same time  produces a revulsion  to the other organs.   The
history of the goddess of hunting is a philosophical allegory,
which expresses the great truth, that bodily exercise  extin-
guishes all violent  disposition to pleasures.   ' Otia si tollas
periere cupidinis arcus' is a sentiment that  ought  never
to be forgotten.
   " Care should even be  taken  to prevent young persons
habitually  leaning against  any thing, so as not to  have all
their muscles in action.  . . .
   " The directing  of the habits  is an important branch of
education.  Ignorant mothers know not how frightful those
habits  are which  they first  teach by tickling.   It is  a
modification  of this, leading only to  degrading sensuality,
which the  effeminate Indians practise under the name of 
Causes.                     275
'shampooing,' — a kind of pressing and kneading  of  the
naked body when they come  from the bath, which is per-
formed by the delicate  hands of females instructed in  the
operation, and which leaves those subjected to it in a state
of voluptuous debility inconsistent with all manly faculties.
This  was practised by  degenerate Romans, among whom
women, on quitting the  bath, were shampooed by slaves for
the avowed purpose, that, by means of the sympathy be-
tween the skin and the reproductive  organs, certain  in^
fluences might be excited.  And it is the beginning of this
art that senseless mothers and servants practise when they
tickle children.
   " It is the duty of such persons, on the contrary, even to
prevent children from sitting with their knees crossed (a
position  particularly injurious), and  from playing at such
games as riding  upon sticks, see-sawing, striding across  the
edge  of a chair,  or over the knees.
   " The back, also,  and spinal  marrow, should  never be
directly exposed to the fire, as that has a powerful influence
on the  reproductive system.   The best means of warmth
is exercise ; and even  additional  clothing,  which may be
thrown aside when no longer requisite, is preferable to fires.
   " As  to  flowers, their odor causes a  shock to the  sense
of smell, which  infuses  throughout the  body a voluptuous
feeling.
   " In regard to particular pursuits, the guide should choose
those best adapted to the young person's taste.  Sedentary
professions, requiring more skill than strength, should be left
to women,  who would perfectly  succeed  in  them; while a
vast number of  vigorous men must then be employed  in
labors more worthy of them.
   " Cold ablutions  diminish the  sensibility, which  must
otherwise do mischief; and swimming and exercise in cold
water are remarkably useful.
   " If a young person gives unequivocal  signs of excessive
sensibility, all books depicting exaggerated sentiments must 
276   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

be withheld.   The reading of fashionable novels is sure to
falsify  the judgment of  the young by the  most absurd
exaggerations, to render  their duties distasteful, and even
to predispose to disease.
  "' The  classics,' observes Friedlander, ' can  be given
them only in extracts, if  we are desirous that they should
meet with nothing that we deem obscene.'
  " Even the study of the fine arts may render the imagina-
tion too active.  Of these, drawing  is the least  objection-
able ;  and music, being in the  language of passion, is  the
most dangerous, especially music of  the  more impassioned
and voluptuous nature.
  " A better means of discouraging the passions is the cul-
tivation of  the  intellectual faculties.   Great advantages
would  result to a young girl  from the study  of history,
geography, and  the various  branches of natural history;
pursuits which at once dissipate the passions, and are useful
to rural economy, and many of the arts of industry.
  "For the  sake, indeed, of the powerful influence which
maternal education has on progeny, all the faculties with
which  reasoning, calculation, the  mechanical and  various
positive sciences, are associated, should be in  some degree
employed;  and  on such  subjects habitual exercise of  the
memory would  usefully  engage much valuable  time, and
prevent all injurious use  of it.
  " In fine, every occupation of the mind likely to produce
or foster emotions ought to be proscribed.
  " On the important subject of example, it need scarcely be
said, that young persons are sure  to  observe and interpret
any loose joke or  indecent language that coarse-minded
people utter before them.
  " Not less carefully ought the example of improper conduct
to be guarded against.  Several young persons should never
he suffered to sleep together in one bed, nor  even  in close
vicinity of domestics.
  "For  similar reasons,  education  in boarding-schools is 
Causes
277
highly dangerous,  especially at this  period.   Intimacies
spring up  between  pupils nearly of  the  same  age:  they
repose confidence in each other as to their  secret thoughts;
and they  endeavor to  verify the  conjectures they  have
formed.  Meanwhile, some other friend in the confidence
of this tugend-bund, who has returned home, and seen the
world, visits the unfortunates  still remaining  at  school,
when a speedy disclosure takes place of all her discoveries
made as  to the subjects they have so often discussed; and,
to show that her generosity is commensurate with her new
importance, she  occasionally supplies  those  works whose
amorous  pages have been  kindly made known to them by
the most positive interdiction of teachers.   Hence the bar-
riers  raised up by modesty are surmounted, and  depraved
habits contracted.
   " But though a boarding-school is a hot-bed of vice to all
who have reached puberty, that is far  from being the  time
for introduction  to  the  world and to  the other sex;  and
retirement among elder female relatives is then the wisest
mode of life.  Theatres should  be  carefully  avoided, par-
ticularly representations in which the  softer passions are
excited, or seductive music is the principal portion.
   "When, in spite of the  best management, a young girl
exhibits change or irregularity of character, becomes  subject
to sighs and tears, of which no cause  is apparent, and be-
takes herself  to  solitude, then muscular exercise  sufficient
to produce slight fatigue,  agreeable society,  and powerful
diversions, are means that must be adopted.
   " It is  equally foolish and dangerous in parents, and oth-
ers charged with the education of girls, to try to conceal from
them all  knowledge as to the results of the  position in which
they are  placed by the circumstance of nubility; for  girls,
in spite of watchful vigilance and every obstacle, are  soon
enabled by natural instinct and  by unremitting observation
to  instruct themselves  in  those false  notions which are
most  likely to be followed  by fatal results. 
 278    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   " Love, assuredly, such as it is described in the mischie-
 vous  trash called fashionable novels, or even as artificial so-
 ciety often presents it, is at utter variance with the plan of
 Nature.  It is denaturalized and factitiously exalted by the
 obstacles which  it encounters  from prejudices  relative to
 birth, rank,  and fortune, and by the want of employment
 and of  objects of  real  interest  among the  easy classes.
 Without such  obstacles, love might  produce  happiness
 instead  of  delirium;  might  be the  embellisher, not  the
 occupier, the consoler, not the  arbiter, of life.
   " To the youth, the argument may well be employed, that
 it is his interest to  restrain his desires, even though he may
 be capable of reproduction; that he must learn to  earn  the
 means  of living, before he  increase  the number of those
 requiring it; and  that,  moreover, his  sole object in  the
 world is not  to find  food  and procreate his species without
 leaving  any trace  of honorable advancement  behind him.
 Finally, other sentiments may be awakened, — ambition,
 dignity, and the universal respect of his fellow-men.
   " So, also,  it is the duty of  her  guide, when the maiden
 has reached a certain age, to  explain  to her the general
 nature of the sexual relations to which she is  destined; to
 put her upon her guard  against the disguises which pas-
 sion assumes, and the stratagems it employs; to place it, on
 the contrary, before her in the character it must  assume in
 marriage; to make  her aware of the modifications that pos-
 session produces in  the ardor of mankind, and the certainty
 of its  being eventually calm and moderate; and to teach  her
 to control her affections  till  they are in accordance with
 those  proprieties upon which the conduct of life-is  made to
 depend.
  Unluckily, experience too often presents obstacles to unions
passionately desired.  In such a case, if the maiden cannot
be united to the object of her attachment, the nervous sys-
tem must be  weakened, and the muscular system  strength-
ened,  by a more active mode of life, — by long walks, and as 
Causes.
279
 much bodily exercise as possil le; beginning always by gen-
 tle tasks, and  gradually imposing upon herself others that
 in a greater degree exercise the organs.
   "There  are, however, youths  and maidens whose  tem-
 peraments  are,  on the contrary, lively,  fickle, and inca-
 pable of attachment,  and with whom, consequently, means
 of a  directly opposite tendency must be  employed; all
 those,  in  short,  which  are deprecated  in  the  former
 case."

   In preceding  pages, we have given what we conceive to
 be the most frequent exciting causes of inflammation of the
 menstrual organs.
   Among the least frequent exciting causes may be men-
 tioned, falls on the feet, knees, or upon the sacrum; horse-
 back riding; dancing;  long and  fatiguing walks during or
 immediately after the menstrual period;  great  muscular
 effort, as in lifting or cariying heavy weights.  We have
 known the  exercising with  dumb-bells to bring on  this dis-
 ease.  Tight  dresses,  corsets, and  the various bands and
 strings around the waist, are  all occasional exciting causes.
 A first confinement, especially when there is a disproportion
 between the child's head and  the  pelvis of the mother, and
 over-lactation,  are other occasional causes.
   Retention and suppression  of the menses are occasional
 exciting causes.   Both, as we have seen, are prominent
 sequences of this disease:  they may also be causes.   Oc-
 clusion by  the hymeneal  membrane, or  of the  uterine
 aperture; or a blocking-up of the  passage  of the vagina
 from the presence of tumors;  gluing together of the mouth
 of the womb after difficult parturition, or from imprudent
 cauterization of its internal surface, by which its opposing
 surfaces in healing become grown  together, — these  become
 causes, by bringing about retention; there being  no exit
for the secretion that has taken place.  The womb, oviducts,
and menstrual  organs become oppressed by the presence of 
280   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

the pent-up fluid;  congestion and inflammation follow, and
can only be relieved by means that will open  a passage for
the free exit of the menstrual fluid. .
  Occlusion may also take place from  sudden application
of cold, producing inflammatory tumefaction, or a  spas-
modic contraction of the mouth of the womb.
  We have known very foolish young women to immerse
their feet  in  cold water, or bathe their person, for the pur-
pose of bringing about a cessation of the flow, that they
might join in some festive gathering,—a proceeding fraught
with great danger; for the sudden arrest of a discharge of
what was to have been secreted is liable to induce an engorge-
ment  of the  entire sexual system, and may result in an
active congestion or  inflammation, and serious disturbance
of the nervous system.
  Stimulating  injections to  the internal  surface  of the
womb,  astringent  injections  for the  purpose of stopping
flooding in parturient women,  or of relieving profuse  cata-
menia, have sometimes proved exciting causes of this disease.
Chronic inflammation of the womb from retention of  acrid
fluids, or ulceration of its neck, are  also, sometimes, causes.
Displacement, retroversion of the womb (this organ falling
over, and pressing  upon the menstrual organs), is said to be
an exciting cause; so, also, the use  of pessaries, and of
certain medicinal  agents that  have  an especial  influence
over the sexual organs,'such  as savin,  cantharides, ergot,
tansy, &c.; also gonorrhceal and syphilitic virus:  these lat-
ter affect the  menstrual organs by the virus passing through
the womb and  oviducts, and lighting up inflammation of
the organs by its actual contact with them ; or by the virus
causing inflammatory action in  the vagina and womb, and
extending  to the  ovaries, either through  sympathy, or by
continuity of tissue.

  We  have  already seen that an  inflammatory  condition
of the menstrual organs cannot long  continue without en- 
Causes.
281
tailing other infirmities or disorders.  The nerves, whose
office is to carry sensibility and action between organs and
parts, must receive and transmit from the  inflamed  ovary
impressions  which  must  necessarily produce  extraordi-
nary and varied phenomena, according as they act on dif-
ferent  organizations, which phenomena  give  type  to the
disease.   We have  seen, that, in  some, inflammation of
the  menstrual organs  produces retention  or suppression
of the menses;  in others, profuse flow; in others, painful
flow, &c, according to the organization acted upon. 
VI.
              AMENORRHCEAL  TYPE.

    THIS  type is characterized by an absence of the men-
     strual flow at that period of life  at which  its occur-
rence is naturally expected.
  The  menses may have never appeared:  the female has
reached the years of womanhood, but is still a child.  This
form is designated as  the amenorrhea of retention,  or
" emansio  mensium."
  The menses may have appeared, and, for a longer or shorter
time, observed their periodicitjr, but, from some  cause  in-
dependent of pregnancy, become suspended or  suppressed.
This form is designated as the amenorrhea of suppression,
or " suppressio mensium."
  We have seen that  the ovaries  are of a spongy, erectile,
and vascular tissue; and  that  during the  later  days of  the
ripening process, or maturing of the Graafian cell and germ,
the vital processes of the organ, undergoing ovulation, be-
come greatly enhanced.   The nerves  are in a highly exalted
condition.   The  entire organ is engorged, swollen, red, sen-
sitive, painful, and not unlike the swollen and sensitive gum
over a  growing  tooth.   The swelling follicle, like a small
nut, protruding from the  ovary, rises up rapidly,  and its sides
become more and more thinned from  progressive absorption,
until  at last  the ovule  bursts from its prison-house, and
falls into the oviduct.
  We have seen that  the ovaries are subject to a repetition
of  this vital process  every twenty-eight days;  a process,
which, although  a physiological one, approaches to  the very
                                         282 
Amenorrhccal Type.
283
boundary - line  of a  pathological condition; a  process to
which  no other organ  in  the economy  is  subjected,  ard
which is in itself  " almost a disease."
   Bearing in mind the almost diseased condition into which
the  ovaries  are brought by the  process  of ovulation, it is
very readily to be perceived how the vascular and nervous
exaltation of these organs may — under the influence of
morbid stimulus;  exposure to variable temperatures;  violent
moral and mental perturbation, as sudden joy, grief,  anger,
fear, &c.; disease of  an infectious or specific nature; the
heat-generating influences of over-feeding and over-clothing,
as seen among those tasting the joys of plenty, whereby the
susceptibilities of  the skin  and  mucous membrane are in-
creased  to their utmost; undue  excitement of the nervous
and sexual system, from the perusal "of prurient  books, pas-
sion-stirring pictures,  statues, novels, the lascivious  polka,
theatres, &c, and last,  but not least,  the baneful practice
among girls of interrogating the  secret sources of pleasure
which lie hidden within them — become still further height-
ened, until they reach a point where the physiological process
passes into a state of disease, and where  each of  the  above
manifestations become greatly intensified; where the men-
strual organs become still more congested and engorged with
blood, more swollen, more red, more  painful, more sensitive,
the  nerves  in a still  higher exalted condition;  with more
heat, more pain on pressure, an intermittent or permanent,
deep-seated, and severe  pain in the  iliac  regions, which is
aggravated if the  patient attempts to rise, or even straighten
the limb upon the pelvis; with pains radiating to the loins
and down the thighs, and upwards, to the small of the  back;
with or without more or  less of fever, hot skin, quick  pulse,
and a slight puffiness or well-defined swelling in the iliac
regions.   Thus we see that the  vital process of  ovulation,
under the influence of  morbid stimulus, becomes heightened
until a pathological condition is induced, and that pathologi-
cal  condition, an  increased vasculari ty and nervous exalta-
tion of the menstrual organs. 
 284   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   Sc intimately connected as is the  uterus with the ovaries,
 it is  natural to suppose, that while  such great and  impor-
 tant changes are transpiring in the ovaries; that while the
 vital  processes of  these organs are becoming greatly  en-
 hanced, and the nerves are in a highly exalted condition;
 that while, under the influence of a  morbid stimulus, ovula-
 tion is passing from a physiological  process into a state of
 disease, — a stimulus or influence must necessarily be trans-
 mitted from the ovaries to the uterus, which  must  induce
 in that organ certain changes  and modifications.  Such is
 the case.   Instead of a physiological, a pathological  stimu-
 lus is transmitted to the uterus,  and  an exaggeration of its
 vital functions induced.   There  is an increased irritability
 of its nervous, and an engorgement of its vascular tissue;
 which state cannot long remain without  inducing a highly
 congested or inflamed condition of  the  substance  of the
 uterus, or its lining membrane, or both, and a tumefaction
 of its tissues, which precludes the possibility of any secre-
 tion taking place.   In  other words,  the  tissues become so
 swollen, that secretion is impossible.   This occurring, reten-
 tion of the menstrual flow is the result, providing the dis-
 eased action under the  influence of morbid stimulus  be  set
up in the  menstrual organs just previous to the establish-
 ment of the flow; or suppression, if  the diseased action be
 set up during the flow.
  This inflammatory tumefaction may last for a longer or
 shorter time, until, as is often witnessed, a watery exudation,
 or leucorrhceal discharge, relieves the distended capillary
 vessels, or until the vessels become broken from the force of
 distension, and the congested and engorged tissues become
relieved by an inordinate discharge of blood : in other words,
 a profuse menstrual discharge, or menorrhagia.
  Tumefaction in  a congested or inflamed tissue is caused
by the enlargement of the  capillary vessels, but chiefly by
the effusion from them, and will be  therefore  proportioned
 to the amount of these.  In serous membranes, the vessels, 
Amenorrh&al Type.               285
 being comparatively few, admit of but little enlargement;
 and the effusions, not being retained by complexity of struc-
 ture, soon overflow externally,  and chiefly  accumulate  in
 the most dependent parts, producing what is termed dropsy.
 But mucous membranes are  more vascular and complex  in
 structure; hence  the enlargement of  the capillary vessels
 early, causes much thickening, which, with the swelling due
 to interstitial effusion in the  sub-mucous tissue, always  in-
 duces considerable tumefaction.
   Retention or suppression, induced under the influence of
 a morbid stimulus acting upon and lighting up  diseased
 action in  the menstrual organs, as  we have indicated above,
 may be said to be of no uncommon  occurrence.  Inflam-
 mation of the  menstrual organs may, however,  induce  re-
 tention and  suppression  in  other ways.   The menstrual
 organs may become so  congested and  engorged with blood
 as to draw to themselves the blood they usually cause to be
 propelled  from  the uterus;  or, under the influence  of a
 morbid stimulus, the vascularity of the menstrual organs
 may  be still  further heightened, and  they may become so
 swollen, engorged, inflamed, or disorganized,  that they lose
 their governing influence over the sexual system, and, failing
 to transmit the  menstrual stimulus  or  influence  to  the
 womb, it  eliminates no blood; or, from the heightened ac-
 tion, the  ovaries may  pass into disintegration,  or become
 atrophied, and,their influence forever afterwards suspended.
  Retention  or suppression  consequent upon a congested
 or engorged  condition  of the ovaria  is by no  means  an
 unfrequent occurrence:  in fact, we believe  that  suppres-
 sion is ordinarity, and  retention not unfrequently, induced
 by inflammation of the  menstrual  organs.
  Amenorrhoea of retention occurs also from other causes,
 and these  will now occupy our attention.
  We have seen that  woman becomes endowed with the
power of perpetuating the species  at that  period when the
ovaries attain their full growth and development.   Men- 
286   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

struation is the external manifestation or evidence of their
having  reached that  period, and  of  their  capability of
bringing to maturity germs which  need  only to be  fecun-
dated to become developed into new beings.   Menstruation
is therefore a secondary phenomenon, a consequence  of the
maturing  and extrication of the germ from the Graafian
cell of the ovary, which is the capital phenomenon.   When
the Graafian cell arrives at its full development, menstrua-
tion commences.  When, from progressive absorption, the
sides  of the cell containing the  germ become so thinned
as to become broken by the advancing  ovule, menstruation
ceases.
  It will now be readily perceived that non-appearance of
the discharge at the usual age does  not always, nor gener-
ally, indicate disease.   Cases are frequently met with where
the discharge occurs late in life, and for the reason that the
ovaries have not reached  their proper growth and develop-
ment, and are incapable of  bringing  to  maturity germs.
If germs are not matured and extricated from the  ovary,
which is the capital phenomenon, the secondary phenome-
non, that is, menstruation, is impossible.
  The full  development of the  ovaries,  and the external
manifestation of their capability to  mature germs, i.e., the
phenomenon of menstruation, occurs in this climate, ordina-
rily, between the fourteenth and fifteenth year of age.  It
however follows no fixed  rule.  Being  governed by consti-
tutional and other peculiarities, it occurs in some earlier, in
others later: in fact, oscillates between the ages of eleven
or twelve, and twenty.
  Bearing in  mind the variation as regards time of the
appearance of  the menstrual flow, we shall not regard its
non-appearance at the age of fourteen or fifteen as indica-
tive of a  pathological condition, unless  symptoms  of ill-
health are manifest.  The absence of the flow in. otherwise
healthy young women is usually associated with the absence
of some other  signs of puberty, indicating a  general tardy 
Amenorrhceal Type.                287
 sexual development.   If, however, the age  of seventeen or
 eighteen is reached, and the catamenia do  not  make their
 appearance, the  delay is ordinarily  attended with promi-
 nent symptoms of local or general disease.
   Amenorrhoea of retention may be said to occur ordinarily
 from  a want of  a proper growth and development of the
 menstrual organs.  This form of amenorrhoea is often seen
 in young girls whose occupation confines them much within
 doors.  Bereft of the health-invigorating influence of the
 sun, fresh air, and exercise, the  ovaries,  in common with
 other organs and tissues of the  body, become tardily devel-
 oped.
   This form of amenorrhoea is also seen in young girls who
 are kept within  doors, and subjected to prolonged mental
 exertion.
   False and  fatal are those notions which proscribe  all
 active exercise, vigorous and exhilarating sports  and games
 in the open air.   False and fatal is  the idea  that bodily
 strength, physical courage and activity, belong  only to  the
 male sex; that these  are unfeminine, and detract from wo-
 man's peculiar charms; and that her  especial province is to
 be quiet,  gentle, amiable, timid, delicate, and to keep within
 doors, that the sun and fresh air may not disturb or tarnish
 the whiteness of  her hands  or complexion.
   In most  of our boarding-schools,  the  management  of
 young girls is exceedingly erroneous.   The strength is not
 developed by proper sports and exercises.  Physical endow-
 ments are things untaught and uncared for, and  all exercise
 is limited to a formal  walk.  And what is the consequence ?
 The young woman grows up feeble and delicate; and pale
 and sallow tints,  jaded looks, spare and puny frames, dys-
pepsia, nervous weakness, amenorrhoea, and consumption are
the punishments imposed by Nature for disregarding the uni-
versal  law of normal  exercise.  The  crippling idea, too, of
"female decorum, binds her like an invisible chain whenever
she moves, and prevents her from daring to th ink, feel, or 
 288   Woman, and her Thirty Years  Pilgrimage.

 act freely and impulsively.   She must not do this; she must
 not study that; she has nothing to do with a knowledge of
 her own  frame or its laws; she  may not read  the works,
 nor acquire the knowledge, that  is open to  men ; she  must
 not sport, nor play boisterously, nor go out  unattended, nor
 in the evening walk alone in  the streets, nor  travel alone,
 nor make use of the thousand and one privileges which are
 open to the more fortunate sex:" hence the body and  mind
 grow up  weak, the strength is not developed; she is fee-
 ble and  delicate; and, through  the mischievous idea that
 timidity  is an amiable trait in  woman, it is cultivated  until
 it terminates in a nervousness and  timidity which induces
 attacks of hysteria on the slightest occasions for alarm.
  The great  law  of exercise of every part applies equally
 to females as to males.  The two natures are  built on the
 same original model.  Superior bodily strength and nervous
 power  are as  indispensably requisite in woman as in man;
 and for the double reason that true literary excellence and
 physical  insignificance never yet united in the same  indi-
 vidual ; and that, in elevating their bodily powers, they do
 so not  for themselves alone, but for their future offspring.
 Pale and sickly mothers beget pale and sickly children.
  Impure air, preventing proper growth  and development,
 also brings about the same condition of system.  The girl
 grows up from childhood to womanhood, and arrives at the
 age when the ovaries ordinarily assume  their power over
the sexual system; but from confinement within doors, and
want of  exercise, conjoined with impure air,  not only of
crowded  cities, but of small, ill-ventilated sleeping apart-
ments, nerve-power has been but scantily developed, and so
scantily sent  down from the brain throughout the system,
that the ovaries, in common with other organs  and tissues
of the  economy, have failed to receive the  requisite enerva-
tion to their  full  development.  The  circulation is feeble,
and the  frame  delicate: the growth has become stunted-
From the languid circulation, the pulse is feeble, and easily 
Amenorrhceal Type.
289
 excited;  the extremities  and skin are dry and harsh,  or
 cold and clammy; and the face pale and sallow.   From the
 unequable distribution of the blood throughout the econo-
 my, the internal vessels and viscera become engorged, and
 torpor  and derangement of the chylopoetic viscera super-
 vene.   The liver becomes torpid; the evacuations unhealthy;
 the bowels  costive,  with  a constant  rumbling of flatus;
 urine scanty and high colored;  tongue loaded with  thick
 yellow  fur ; and the breath offensive.
   Early hours, active exercise -in the open air, regularity  of
 meals,  plain, nutritious food,  with attention paid to the
 bowels, are the principal indications of treatment.
   When the powers of the system are still more enfeebled;
 the blood still more  impoverished; the blood-globules still
 fewer in number, and, consequently, still less nerve-power
 generated in the brain for  the nourishment not only of the
 different organs and  tissues of the body but of the  blood
 itself;  the torpor and derangement of the digestive organs
 still more enhanced, — we have that peculiar condition of sys-
 tem known  as  the " green-sickness," or chlorosis, which
 is characterized by a  dark, leaden-colored ring beneath the
 eyes, and a pallor of  face of a  peculiar sallow  color with a
 greenish tinge.   The circulation  is languid and excitable,
 with  palpitation and irregular  action of the heart; the
 skin and  extremities  cold  and clammy; the liver very tor-
 pid ; the powers of digestion almost suspended ; the bowels
 obstinately costive;  evacuations unhealthy;  tongue  foul;
 bad taste  in  the mouth, and  breath  fetid.   The  appetite
 fails entirely, or exhibits an abnormal or unnatural craving
 for slate,  chalk, and  other such like articles of food;  and
 hysteria in  all  its multiplied forms, with depression of
 spirits and melancholy, ensues.  The  powers of the  mind
 become impaired, memory and concentrativeness fade: in
short, there is not a function or faculty of the body or  mind
which is not  more or less  interfered with:  all of them are
enfeebled.
              19 
 290   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

   This condition of  the  system signifies  an impoverished
 state of the blood, — impoverished of its red globules, the
 oxygen-carriers to the brain.  Nerve-power is  imperfectly
 generated, or generated in much too  limited quantities for
 the wants  of the system.  The digestive  and assimilative
 apparatus — the brain and the heart — are imperfectly nour-
 ished  and stimulated;  and  the various functions of tho
 economy go on from bad to worse.
   Chlorosis essentially  consists in a  watery state of the
 blood.   The red globules are  wanting, which  causes the
 death-like  pallor,  the great  debility  and  exhaustion, and
 the arrest of the catamenial and fecal secretions.
   From the absence of red globules, the blood becomes  thin,
 and, transuding the  coats of the weakened blood-vessels,
 causes dropsy of the limbs and  other parts  of the body.
   The true indications of treatment are  obvious, — a treat-
ment that will restore, build up, and strengthen the powers
of the  system, — a treatment that will increase the blood-
globules, and by doing so send more  oxygen into the brain
to be generated into nerve-power, and sent down  through-
out the system  to nourish and stimulate the digestive and
assimilative organs,— the brain, the heart, and all the organs
and tissues of  the body.
   As has already been remarked, a frequent cause of  non-
development of the menstrual organs is the prolonged men-
tal exertion to which  young girls are subject while engaged
in educational pursuits.   The  thinking  organ consumes
more than its share of nerve-power, and but little is left  to
be sent to nourish and  invigorate the  ovaries and other
organs and tissues : hence their tardy development.  We
have  seen also, that, until  the ovaries are matured, no
amount of effort, attention,  industry, cultivated  patience,
application, or perseverance in educational pursuits, will
secure  those attainments necessary to  a proud and enviable
intellectual standing in society.  All effort will prove futile;
for it is through the influence of these all-important organs 
Amenorrh&al Type.
291
that new life  and vigor  are given to every organ and tissue
of the body.   By their influence over the brain, elements of
genius  burst  forth; the  mind  expands, and becomes  pos-
sessed  of  faculties  susceptible of  great  culture.   How
important, then, that parents  should properly appreciate
the importance of this fact, and not subject the tender and
half-grown brains of their daughters to  tasks that will not
only  not advance them  in their laudable aspirations, but
defeat the great purposes of their existence, and lay the
foundation of multiplied ills, whose effects upon  the  mind
will prove most disastrous !
   Far be it from us to proscribe the liberal cultivation of
the female  mind.   Let   the  young woman  be taught the
essential requisites  of a  female, and the necessary accom-
plishments of a rational  being  and a Christian.  Then let
her, if she chooses, aspire to  attainments beyond the nur-
sery,  the kitchen,  and the parlor.   Let her enter the arena,
and  contend  with  man  in  intellectual  pre-eminence.
Within  the pale of her acquisitions, let  there be painting
and the finer arts;  let  her  aspire to  emulate  Raphael,
Angelo, Correggio,  Murillo,  and  Titian.   Let  there be
poetry;  it blends  fact with imagination; it stirs the dor-
mant life of the heart, and gives spiritual life in  foretaste.
Let there be music; it elevates  the  heart with dignity, and
exhilarates, and causes it to  beat  with gladness; it  com-
mands  alike  the  tears  of sympathy  and the smiles  of
delight.  Let there be, if she will,  Latin, French, German,
algebra, natural philosophy.  Let  there  be chemistry: let
her, if she will, push forward  organic  analysis.  Let there
be anatomy and physiology: let her be  unwearied in her
researches concerning development  and the structure of tis-
sues, and exhaust and concentrate all the resources of mod-
ern science in order  to elucidate organic laws.  Let there
be astronomy :  let her learn to view with ecstatic pleasure
the wisdom, grandeur, and sublimity displayed in  the crea-
tion and sustaining of God's vast  empire;  let her mind 
292   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

soar, as on angelic pinions, amid the  grandeur and beauty
of the mighty systems which  shine forth, each in its  own
glory,  throughout the-infinity of space; let  her learn  to
view with wonder and amazement, in all directions, clus-
tered  constellations,  systems, and  nebulae, burning stars,
wheeling worlds, and dashing comets, which encompass the
heavens.   Let her,  if she  will, become an  eloquent  and
impetuous orator, an intrepid caviller, a specious sophist.
Nature does not deny her  the common privileges of her
children,  nor does she disunite her from human kind by
any disparity of mind which leaves her no hope of equality.
Nature  will, though, if  her  laws are disobeyed
and trampled on, deny her the realization of  her
aspirations.
  We protest not so much against  the kind or the  multi-
plicity of her acquirements as to the  period of life  chosen
for the laborious task, — a period which should be occupied,
not in  the fatiguing mental labor of educational discipline
and culture,  but  in  perfecting  the  physical being,
that a hardy and vigorous frame, with a healthful mind,
may form that foundation  upon which  only may we hope
to erect  a superstructure beautiful  in  all its  detail  and
proportion.
  Another  cause  of non-development of  the  menstrual
organs, and tardy appearance  of the catamenia, lies  in the
rapid increase of stature.  We frequently see young  girls
at this period take a sudden and rapid start in their growth,
and they are said to have " outgrown themselves." The de-
mand on the nerve-power for the  purpose of effecting the
rapid increase of stature leaves but  little for the develop-
ment of the ovaries : the increase of stature absorbs it.
  Whether  nerve-power is  scantily developed, or whether
it is absorbed  by other organs, the ovaries fail  to receive
their needful supply.  They become imperfectly nourished,
and consequently tardily developed ; and, as we have already
seen, until they are fully developed they are  incapable  of 
Amenorrhozal Type.              293
transmitting the menstrual stimulus or impulse, in other
words, incapable of maturing  germs: and  no flow takes
place.                      •       ^
  Besides the above-mentioned causes  of non-development
of the ovaries, the occurrence,  just previous  to puberty, of
any disease  which more or less compromises the blood, such
as intermittent  and  scarlet fevers,  measles, &c,  has the
effect of  retarding the growth and development  of the
ovaries, and consequently the appearance of the flow.
  As the  great  majority of cases  of retention occur from
the want of proper growth and development of the ovaries,
a treatment is demanded that  has in view the building-up
and strengthening the powers of the system.
  It is the want of tone and strength in the different organs
and  tissues  of the body, the  want  of proper growth  and
development of the menstrual  organs, that is the cause of
the non-appearance of the flow, and  not, as is  supposed by
most mothers and not a few physicians, that its non-appear-
ance is the cause of the general tardy development and ill-
health.  Let the tonicity of the muscular fibre, the general
health, be restored, and the  ovaries, with the other organs
and  tissues  of the economy, properly nourished and  devel-
oped by proper  diet,  pure  air, and  exercise, and the flow
will  take place independent of any application of remedies
to "bringon" the menses, providing there be no mal-forma-
tion or  mechanical obstruction  to the flow.   Menstruation
is but a sign of a more important process going  on deeper
in the  organism, — a sign which  ordinarily appears, and
indicates that the  ovaries have become developed, and capa-
ble of bringing  to maturity germs.  Menstruation is  not,
however, indispensable to the full development of the  sex-
ual powers.   The  maturing of the  germ and the oviposit
may take place  independent  of the menstrual flow,  and-
does so during pregnancy  and lactation.  Instances have
been met with where pregnancy has occurred previous to
the menstrual flow.   Such instances, however, are exceed-
ingly rare. 
294   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  Sometimes, instead of the  menstrual flow, a leucorrhoeal
discharge takes  its place,  but with all the relief of the
natural flow, and should  be regarded as a physiological
instead of a diseased process.
  The quantity  of blood  eliminated  during the  flow de-
pends on the menstrual  stimulus.   If the impulse or stimu-
lus  be slight, the flow will be  limited, and consist of but
little else than mucus, and epithelium corpuscles.
  As the patient's strength increases, and the powers of the
system. become sufficiently established, a change gradually
creeps over her, and  other  symptoms begin  to develop
themselves.  The ovaries during the ripening of the Graa-
fian cell  and germ become swollen and highly congested;
blood-vessels that were  before  invisible to  the  naked eye
now rise  into view, interlacing each other in  great profusion
over the  whole surface  of the organ,  but more especially
surrounding the swelling follicle, which, like  a  small nut,
protrudes from the organ.   The nerves, too,  are in a highly
exalted condition, and the entire  organ becomes engorged,
swollen,  red, sensitive, painful, and not unlike the swollen
and sensitive gum over a growing tooth.  What, a little
time ago, was a case of mere atony, debility, and torpor, now
begins to exhibit evidences of congestive  action.  The  en-
tire system sympathizes with the local hyperaemia;  the head
aches  and throbs; languor and heaviness are experienced;
the face  becomes flushed;  there is more or less of constric-
tion in the throat, about the thyroid gland;  and the patient
begins to feel more or less pain or sensitiveness in the iliac
region, with a puffiness, swelling, or a stiffness of the in-
teguments covering those parts.  There is also pain in  the
back and loins, extending around the  pelvis and down  the
thighs, with a sense of  weight in the pelvis, from the swol-
len and  vascular condition of the uterus; and burning sen-
sations  along  the  vagina.    The countenance becomes
covered  with a peculiar dark shade: this is especially observ-
able  underneath the eyes.  The cutaneous perspiration has 
Amenorrhceal Type.               295
a faint and sickly odor, and the breasts  often enlarge and
become painful.   Many more symptoms  there may be and
generally are, which go to make up the " too plethoric " con-
dition of system of some writers, but which, as we see, have
their rise and origin in the local hyperemia occasioned by the
maturing of the Graafian cell and germ.   These symptoms
continue for a longer or shorter period, until the catamenial
flow sets in, and the ovule bursts from its cell;  when the
multiplied  symptoms vanish.   Instead of the catamenial
flow, a leucorrhoeal discharge  sometimes takes place, and
the various symptoms subside, to return again in four or five
or more weeks.
  The true indications of treatment in this condition of the
system  do  not consist in "remedies  directed  to a " too ple-
thoric " condition, but an  antiphlogistic treatment directed
towards the congested and swollen menstrual organs.
  Retention occurs also  from  scrofulous, tuberculous, and
other constitutional diseases, which impoverish the blood,
and debilitate, enervate, and exhaust the powers of life.
  Retention may also occur from malformation or congeni-
tal  deficiency of the genital organs.   When the ovaries are
absent, or persistently remain in; the same undeveloped con-
dition which they present in infancy or early childhood, the
infirmity is irremedial: menstruation and  conception are
impossible.   The uterus  may  be incompletely developed,
rudimentary, or  entirely wanting.   The vagina may be
wanting entirely, or end in a cul-de-sac,  or blind pouch.
These malformations are beyond the reach of surgical inter-
ference, and, happily, of exceedingly rare occurrence.
  When the ovaries are absent, the female experiences no
periodical occurrence of symptoms appertaining to the men-
ses ; but if the ovaries be present, though there be neither
womb, vagina, or external genital organs, she is  liable to
periodical attacks of pain in the  back and loins, and other
evidences of the performance of the ovarian function.  Dr.
Elliotson relates a case in point.   " A young woman," he 
 296   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 says, " consulted me for amenorrhoea.  She had never men-
 struated, and yet had violent pains every month.  I strongly
 suspected there  was some organic  disease,  and wished to
 obtain permission  to  examine; but to this she would net
 consent, and did not return to me for a considerable period.
 She informed me, when she again consulted me, that she had
 been married for a year, but had  never menstruated.  I
 then thought I must have  been wrong, and  that there was
 no organic cause.  I asked if she was happy with  her hus-
 band, and from  her answer concluded that sexual inter-
 course went on.  The  husband afterwards came to me, and
 stated that he had  not encountered  any impediment to con-
 nection, but that he gave her violent pain at the time.  I
 afterwards was permitted to examine, and then found there
 was no vagina;  the part on opening the labia being as flat
 as the palm of my  hand.  She had  most excruciating pain
 in the pelvis every month: there was every symptom of
 menstruation, except the discharge.   At my desire she was
 examined by Mr. Henry Cline, who plunged a lancet be-
 tween  the labia, but  found nothing.  She  went on with
 these monthly pains, which she had experienced ever since
 puberty; and  her  life was  rendered utterly wretched.  I
 begged Mr. Cline to make another attempt;  and he put in
 a bistoury as far as he dared to go, but found nothing.  Every
 sort of examination was afterwards made,  and no  uterus
 could  be discovered.  She remained several years in this
 situation,  when  her husband died; and  she has  married
 again.   Though there is no uterus,  it was evident from the
 appearance of the mammae, and other circumstances, that the
 separate ovaries  had been fully  developed."  Mr. Girdwood
had a similar case : " The patient was twenty-five years of
 age, and had been married two years, though she had never
menstruated.   Every month there  was great pain  in the
region of the  pelvis, which lasted for several days, and then
went off without  any menstrual discharge taking place.
 The mammae  and external sexual organs were fully devel- 
Amenorrhozal Type.               297
oped.  On examination, not the slightest trace of a body
like the uterus existed."  Cases of like character are  men-
tioned by Hawkins, Beck, and others.
  The absence of both ovaries is exceedingly rare, and,
when this deficiency exists, sexual appetite has no existence,
and there is, ordinarily, a want of proper development of the
other sexual organs.
  The development of the body is unaffected by the absence
of the uterus :  the health may be perfect.   Not so, however,
with the non-development of the ovaries, as we have already
shown in previous pages.   The  external generative organs
may be in a perfectly natural condition, yet the womb may
be absent, and the vagina found terminating  in a cul-de-
sac.
   Retention of the  menses sometimes occurs from closure
of the  outlet,  either at the  os uteri, or from imperforate
hymen; from blocking up  of the passage of the vagina by
tumors, or from its  adherent  sides; from glueing together
of the  mouth of the womb; from severe cauterization,  &c.
In these cases, the exit of  the secretion being cut off, an op-
pression of the entire sexual system occurs; and congestion
and inflammation may supervene unless relief be obtained
by means that give  free flow to  the pent-up fluid.
   Whenever mechanical obstruction exists to the free flow
 of the menstrual fluid, the quantity secreted  is  much  less
 than  in  the  natural  condition.  Tliis diminution in  the
 amount secreted, with the activity of the absorbent vessels,
 prevents ordinarily the occurrence of a fatal termination.
 There are cases recorded, however, where the pent-up fluid
 has forced its way through  the Fallopian tubes  into the
 abdominal cavity, terminating in fatal peritonitis.
   Cases  are  also recorded of very narrow vaginal canals,
 rendering transmission of the menses slow  and difficult,
 and  complete coition  impossible,  but  which,  nevertheless,
 underwent a natural cure  during parturition.
   Amenorrhoea  of  suppression may occur from disease of 
298   Woman, and her Thirty Years  Pilgrimage.

some one or more of the sexual organs,  the  most frequent
of which is  sub-acute or chronic inflammation of the ova-
ries.  Of this form we  have already spoken in the early
part of this chapter, and it need not here be  repeated.
  Suppression, like retention, may occur  from consumption,
scrofula,  and  other constitutional disease; all diseases,  in
fact, which impoverish the blood, and debilitate and exhaust
the  powers of the system.  Errors  in  diet,  impure air,
mental and moral  perturbation, anxiety,  disappointment,
watchfulness,  fatigue, fevers, local inflammatory affections,
and diseases of an infectious or of a specific nature, conduce
to bring about a condition of system that results in sup*
pression.
  Suppression, and so also chlorosis, may occur from the
pernicious habit of solitary indulgence.  It over-excites, and
induces  an engorged condition of the vessels of the ovaries.
The habit is just as common among young women as young
men.  The same violent sexual  passions exist equally  in
both; and, when  the  proper and  natural gratification is
denied,  it is quite certain that an unnatural  one will  be
very frequently resorted to.
  Suppression and chlorosis may also occur from ungratified
sexual longings.  It should be  borne in mind that every
secretion has its natural  and appropriate stimulus: for in-
stance, the flow  of saliva is promoted by the  stimulus  of
appetizing odors, or of food in the mouth ;  that of the bile
by  the substances passing through  the  alimentary canal;
that of the gastric juice  by the presence of  food  in the
stomach.  It should also be borne in mind that sexual con-
gress is the only natural stimulus to the ovaries, from which
organs the menstrual impulse is communicated to the womb,
through which the catamenial secretion is evolved.
  Under the head  of sexual  disappointment, we have
already and at considerable length  spoken of the force  of
" desire."   We have seen  that  it is a principle  implanted
deeply within us, and for wise purposes;  that it is natural, 
Amenorrhaal Type.
299
a law of Nature, and a  law not  to  be  ignored  or opposed;
that its force is  of immense power,  which power, if impris-
oned,  and not  permitted to discharge or expend itself
through its natural and legitimate outlet, falls with varying
degrees of intensity upon the excited and sensitive ovaries,
inducing  in them an irritation or sub-acute inflammation,
which leads to suppression and chlorosis, besides  a multitude
of other ills peculiar to the sex: and we shall, instead  of
extending our remarks,  introduce here the views of a dis-
tinguished writer.   He  says,  "Ungratified sexual long-
ings are generally connected with some love-affair in which
there has been  disappointment or  delay.  The poor girl's
whole being is absorbed in the one passion, and she pines
away,  refusing  consolation  from  her  well-meaning but
ignorant friends.  It is in vain that they seek to divert her
by tenderness or varied amusements : it is love,  not  friend-
ship, that the mind seeks at that  age, and without which
it knows neither rest nor peace.   There is no class of human
griefs  which has been to  me a greater cause  of sadness
than  those  endured by the young  unmarried  females
amongst us.   People in  general have no idea of the im-
mense numbers  of women who pass a  single life in this
country (England).  According to the classified returns  of
the population, made lately, although the number of young
men and  young women  between the years  of  fifteen and
thirty-five is in  the  country nearly equal, in the towns  of
England there  are 230,912  more women than men.   In
London alone there are 72,312 more women.   In Scotland
the case  is  the same.   In Edinburgh,  there  are  15,550
more  women than men;  a  larger proportion than in any
other town in the  kingdom.  When we think of  this, and
consider, moreover, the  great number  of men who  do not
marry,  but  either live  in  sexual  abstinence,  or  content
themselves with  the society of girls of the town, and the
very large proportion of either sex who are unable to marry
till  late in life,  from inability to support a family, we shall 
300   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

be able to  form  some slight  conception of the misery en-
dured by the female sex from  ungratified sexual desires,
want  of love and  all the joys of  a family.   How often,
alas!  do we see young blooming girls, full of life and hope,
entering on their womanhood, and year after year passing
over them without  any outlet for the strongest passions and
affections of their nature !  Their beautiful natural  gayety
and enjoyment of life soon droop; they become uneasy, dis-
contented,  unnatural; the bloom  fades from their  cheeks,
and the laugh from their lips ; fretfulness and capriciousness
succeed to the buoyant, sunny disposition ;  and hysteria and
the gloomy train of sexual diseases — chlorosis, amenorrhoea,
or dysmenorrhcea — claim them as their prey.
   " Why do we shut our eyes to these things, or steel our
hearts to such  realities ?   Is  there one among us who does
not know  from  experience the universal strength of the
sexual passions, and the tortures attendant on their con-
stant  and systematic denial ?   Who can bear to see  their
life passing away uncheered  by the  sweetest of  human
pleasures ; to see their fellows around them enjoying advan-
tages  and  blessings of which  they are deprived, without
a  feeling  of deep-seated discontent,  envy,  jealousy, and
despair rankling in  their breast ?   On woman, too, it  is
especially  hard;  for  she  is,  from  our unfortunate social
arrangement, far more wholly dependent on love than  man.
There are  many other  pleasures open  to man, from which
woman, and especially unmarried  woman, who has so  little
liberty, is  debarred.  Truly,  of all the slow  and wasting
tortures that  ever were  endured  by humanity, there  is
scarcely any more painful to contemplate than those en-
dured by myriads  of women  who pass their lives amongst
us.  The halo passes from their lives, the short-lived dream
of romance and poetic  love fades  into the dull reality of  a
monotonous and unfulfilled existence, and the iron eats into
their  soul."
   In   speaking  of remedies,  the same writer  says,  "A 
Amenorrhceal Type.               301
remedy far more essential, in  the  great  majority of chlo-
rotic cases, than any medical means, is one that obtains, at
most, but a slight and passing allusion in medical  works.
It is sexual intercourse, the direct and healthy exercise  of
that part  of the system whose enfeeblement and disorder
is so frequently at the root of the general disease."
   Andral,  the celebrated  French  physician, says, "All
lowering remedies do harm in chlorosis;  but it frequently
happens, that, by stimulating  the  nervous system  by  the
physical and moral emotions of matrimony, the anaemia  (or
bloodlessness)  is removed, and the whole train of diseased
action vanishes."
   Tilt says,   "We  are persuaded that  the want  of  the
appropriate stimulus to  the ovaries, which should promote
healthy action, is  often the cause of their becoming the
seat of morbid affections."
   Prof. Ashwell says,  "Marriage is frequently curative
 of chlorosis;  but as its prospect is in  general far  distant,
 and, besides,  as it is scarcely a proper subject for the medi-
 cal man's discussion, it calls only  for a passing  allusion:"
 to which  the  author of "Social  Science" very correctly
 replies, " But it is  assuredly  the  part  of the true physi-
 cian to seek  in every case the safest and  most energetic
 means for the recovery of his patient, and to make  that
 known, whatever social obstacles may stand in the way of
 its adoption.   Had M.  Lallemand thus  refrained  from
 pointing  out  the  true and natural  remedy for  spermator-
 rhoea,  and from recommending it  to his unhappy patients,
 many  a one who owes to him his restoration to health  and
 happiness would now be  the  tenant  of a  mad-house, or
 wallowing in  depths of seminal wretchedness, a torment to
 himself and to all around  him.  Chlorosis and hysteria in
 the female are diseases quite analogous to spermatorrhoea in
 the  male. Both are a general enfeeblement and  prostra-
 tion of the  system, connected with genital  enfeeblement.
 Now,  in man, we have already seen, that the only real natu- 
 302   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 ral cure for spermatorrhoea (without which,  in  almost all
 cases, the  disease lasts indefinitely, causing its own insuffer-
 able miseries) is a proper, healthy exercise  of the sexual
 organs, and a healthy outlet for the sexual  emotions and
 passions.   Spermatorrhcea may be perhaps checked in some
 cases by instrumental means, such as nitrate  of silver, &c.;
 but this is not sufficient to give  permanent vigor to the
 organs, nor to correct thoroughly the diseased and morbid
 state of the mind; which can be done alone  by the grand
 natural means of appropriate exercise.   In woman, the case
 is just the same; her nature languishes for the want of the
 natural stimulus to be imparted only through these organs;
 her mind  and her feelings become morbid from  the  same
 cause: and the only true and permanent remedy is a proper
• amount of sexual exercise.   This would give an appropriate
 stimulus to her system, satisfy the natural passions which
 consume her strength,  and give to her  mind the natural,
 healthy, sexual feelings, instead of the morbid, sickly  sense
 of  shame  and sexual timidity which overwhelm her.  Sex-
 ual intercourse is particularly necessary when chlorosis has
 been caused by masturbation ; for here there is not only a
 natural habit to be established, but an unnatural one to be
 eradicated, and this in  both sexes is sometimes  a difficult
 matter.  Indeed, there  is  no  means which  can  be relied
 upon, in either sex, for checking the habit of  masturbation,
 except the supply  of the normal gratification.  Were such
 gratifications attainable, masturbation would  rarely, if ever,
 be  resorted to; and one of the most prevalent  causes of
 bodily and mental decay would be extirpated."
   The same writer adds, that, in woman, " the sexual organs
 are early developed, and powerful  sexual appetites roused ;
 she is liable to sexual enfeeblement and  derangement  con-
 sequent on the non-exercise of  her sexual organs; and can
 any philosophical  mind infer  otherwise than tha  a proper
 exercise is the treatment required for her cure ?   Nay, we
 find, that, in the chance cases in which marriage has come 
Amcnorrhceal Type.
303
to the succor of these unfortunates, it has generally proved
curative; and we may be satisfied, that, if the sexual means
were duly used (which is frequently by no means the case
in marriage,  over-indulgence  producing  exhaustion and
satiety, instead of re-invigoration), along with other means
of bracing the health, very few cases  of chlorosis, or the
allied  affections, could  resist  it.  The fact is,  there are
few men, who, on  calmly considering  the  subject,  would
fail to  see that a  due amount of sexual intercourse is one
great thing needed to preserve and restore the health in the
youth  of both sexes; and  it is  a common  remark among
men, on seeing a girl languid  and sickly, that what she
needs  is venereal gratification.   It is impossible to avoid
the conclusion, that the natural exercise is the great means
without which it is absolutely impossible to  prevent or cure
an immense amount of  disease  and misery.  When once
we have  clearly recognized this grand truth, — certainly
one of the most important which the  physician or the
moral  philosopher can apprehend at the present day, —we
shall be in a fitter position for reasoning upon the possibility
of procuring for every human being this  great essential of
health, happiness, or virtue.
  "There is a great deal of erroneous  feeling attaching to
the subject of sexual desires in woman.  To  have strong
sexual passions is held to be rather a disgrace for a woman ;
and they are looked down  upon  as animal, sensual, coarse,
and deserving of reprobation.  The moral emotions of love
are indeed thought beautiful in her; but the physical ones
are rather held unwomanly and debasing.   This  is a  great
error.  In woman, exactly as in man, strong sexual appe-
tites are  a  very great virtue,  as they are the signs of a
vigorous frame,  healthy  sexual organs,  and a  naturally-
developed sexual disposition.  The more intense the vene-
real  appetites, and the  keener the sense  of the  normal
sexual gratifications,  provided it do not hold a diseased pro-
portion to the other parts of the constitution, the higher  is 
 304   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 the sexual virtue of the individual.   It is exactly the same
 with  the  venereal appetite as with the appetite  for food.
 If a woman be healthy, and  have a frame braced by exer-
 cise and a natural life, she will have a strong appetite and
 a keen relish for food; and it is exactly the same with sex-
 ual desires.   The  strongest appetites, and the greatest
 enjoyment in their gratification, have been fixed by Nature
 as the reward of obedience to her laws, and the preservation
 of health  by a due  exercise of all the functions, neither
 excessive  nor deficient.  The man  or woman who is  borne
 down by  a weakened and diseased  digestion will recognize
 strength of stomach and vigor of appetite to be the greatest
 of all desirable virtues for them, that which lies at the root
 of every other advantage;  and, in the  same way, he who is
 wallowing in spermatorrhoea, impotence, and sexual disgust,
 or the morbid and   chlorotic  girl, may  recognize sexual
 power and strong sexual appetites as the highest  and most
 important of all virtues for them  in their position.  Other
 virtues are in such cases a dream and a delusion to the suf-
 ferers,— unattainable, or, even if apparently attainable, of
 little  real and permanent advantage.  Instead  of  a girl
 being looked down upon for having strong  sexual passions,
 it  is one  of her  highest  virtues;  while feeble or morbid
 desires are  the sign  of a  diseased or deteriorated frame.
 Those who have the  most healthy desires are the chosen
children of Nature, whom  she thus  deems worthiest to con-
tinue our race.  In sexual diseases,  the venereal desires are
generally  deadened,  or rendered  morbid; and one of the
 best signs of restoration to health is the return of powerful
sexual feelings. .  . .
  "When the girl has been trained to the possession  of a
powerful and healthy frame, and a healthy mind, invigo-
rated by sound knowledge, for her guidance in life, puberty
will be  readily and  easily established, menstruation will
follow, and she  will enter upon womanhood with the fairest
prospect of happiness. But at this period it is absolutely 
Amenorrhea I Type.               305
requisite, in order to maintain and elevate the health, and
prevent the occurrence of sexual disease,  that  she should
have, before long, a healthy exercise  for the new organs,
and the normal gratification of the new desires.   If this be
not attainable, all our former efforts will prove in vain, and
we shall have elevated her powers only to their own destruc-
tion ; for her  mind and body will indubitably  be thrown
into  disorder by  the  workings  of the  new  physical and
moral influences.  She may, indeed, retain her health for a
time, but, gradualhy, menstruation will become irregular or
painful; she will become hysterical and nervous;  and dis-
content and unhappiness will take the place of  her former
amiability.  We  may do what we please in.the way of other
healthy influences, we may bestow every other  care on the
nurture and education of our beloved ones; but it  is abso-
lutely impossible  to make woman healthy or happy without
a  due amount of sexual enjoyment.  Irrespective of  the
question of its attainability, we  may  recognize the  indis-
putable fact, that, without  it, it is equally impossible to pre-
vent or to cure the greatest  part of  their  sexual  diseases
and unhappiness; and female therapeutics  are an  impossi-
ble science.   If  the sexual organs are to remain,  as  at
present, totally unexercised throughout  a  great part, and,
in numberless cases,  throughout the whole, of life, and  if
chastity must  continue to be regarded as the highest female
virtue, it is impossible to give woman  any real liberty; it is
impossible to give her a true and genuine education, and to
cultivate her  bodily powers  and  animal passions  as they
should be cultivated;  and it is out of human power to make
the lot of woman other than an  unhappy, a diseased, and a
degraded one, as it is at present, when vast quantities of the
sex pass their lives as involuntary nuns or as prostitutes."
   Suppression is  not  unfrequently caused  by sexual  inter
course, as  seen in recently-married females;  the  new and
novel stimulus acting upon the mind, and the mind re-acting
upon  the  body, or,  as is  more  probable,  the  novel and
             20 
 306    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 unaccustomed stimulus having  the  effect  of over-exciting,
 over-stimulating, and  inducing an  engorged state  of the
 vessels of the ovaries, and  so changing them that they do
 not  transmit the  menstrual stimulus or impulse; or, from
 over-excitation, the ovaries pass into a pathological condi-
 tion, and transmit a morbid stimulus that induces a state of
 congestion and tumefaction in the uterine  tissues, which is
 followed by suppression, and  which may, and not unfre-
 quently does, terminate in profuse flow.   This is more espe-
 cially true  when  marriage  takes place late in life :  the
 ovaries, being predisposed to disease from their being denied
 the health-invigorating influence of  a natural stimulus, and
 having  become somewhat  accustomed to  the  deprivation,
 become  over-excited and congested upon its application.
   Sudden deprivation of an accustomed sexual  stimulus, as
 experienced  by  young widows, not unfrequently induces
 congestion and engorgement of the ovarian and uterine tis-
 sues, which is followed by suppression.
   Habitual excesses,  as seen in women sold  to vice, are
 productive of the same state of congestion in the uterine
 vessels,  a congestion, though, that  is ordinarily of a more
 active character, and very quickly passes on into that stage
 where the capillary vessels  become broken from their exces-
 sive engorgement,  and immoderate and long-continued flow
 is  the result.
   When a morbid stimulus lighting  up disease  in the men-
 strual organs is followed by amenorrhoea, the diseased con-
 dition becomes  the cause, and  the  non-appearance  of the
 flow, the sequence.  If the cause be removed by appropriate
treatment, the amenorrhoea disappears.   To be appropriate,
 the treatment must be directed to  the cause, viz., the dis-
 eased menstrual organs, and not to the effect, viz., the amen-
 orrhoea.   It is not to the flow that relief is to  be ascribed,
but to the establishment of health, to the relief of the con-
 gested and engorged ovaries.  The flow is but the sign of
 their returning normal condition. 
Amenorrhea I Type.
307
   From the above, it will be seen  that we regard disap-
 pearance  of the  catamenia, ordinarily,  as the  effect of an
 inflammatory action in the menstrual  organs.  There are
 cases, however,  in  which  the  suppression becomes  the
 cause not  only of  inflammation of  the menstrual organs,
 but of the entire  sexual  system.   A  not  uncommon in-
 stance is the morbid  stimulus  of application  of cold, as
 cold  or wet feet, producing  inflammatory tumefaction, or
 spasmodic contraction  of the mouth of the womb, arresting
 a discharge of what was to have been secreted  or excreted,
 and inducing an engorgement, active  congestion, and inflam-
 mation of the  entire sexual system, and most serious dis-
 turbances  of the  entire nervous system.   Very serious
 disturbances, however, from suppression in this  manner,
 are not very common:  a few slight symptoms may  manifest
 themselves, but, generally, soon vanish; and the next men-
 strual period occurs at its regular time.
   There is another important consideration  connected with
 this subject, in the gouty and rheumatic effect of amenor-
 rhoea upon the different organs and tissues of the economy.
 The monthly excretion of some  half-dozen or more ounces
 of catamenial fluid is of no small importance in the depura-
 tion of the blood.  When the flow becomes more or  less sup-
 pressed, and purification of the blood is thrown upon other
 emunctories  of the economy, it  is invariably followed by a
 class  of symptoms which show no little  disturbance of the
 circulation.  Observation  has shown, that  when,  through
 retention  or suppression of the menstrual flow, depuration
 of the blood has become  suspended  through this  channel,
 the liver ordinarily endeavors to  take upon itself the duty
 of not  only eliminating the  effete  matters of the blood
 which it is accustomed to eliminate, but also those  that
 should have been eliminated by the uterine membrane.  In
performing this double  duty, the liver is exceedingly prone
to become,  through excess of the poisonous and effete mat-'
ters of  the blood, over-stimulated, congested, and inflamed. 
308    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

The liver, like the kidneys, when called upon to eliminate
more than its due share of the effete and poisonous matters
of the blood, becomes ordinarily the seat of more or less of
congestion,  and  even  inflammation, attended,  generally,
with nausea, loss of appetite, languor, drowsiness, disturbed
sleep, headache, pain, and sense  of  distention of the  abdo-
men and right  side of  the  body,  with  yellowness of tho
skin, &c, — that condition of system known as " bilious;"
which  condition,  when  connected with suppression of the
menstrual flow, gives rise to gouty and rheumatic symptoms
in females, which of late years have arrested the attention
of the profession.
   Sometimes the  skin and the lungs take up this elimina-
tion, partially or wholly,  and the  unfortunate female  emits
an odor extremely mortifying to herself, and almost unbear-
able to her friends around her.  We recently saw a patient
laboring under this infirmity; and, surprising to  say, her
medical adviser was treating  her for " catarrh."
   When the lungs take an active part in this  extra  elimi-
nation, the patient  is liable to attacks of difficult breathing,
pain and tightness across the lower part of the chest, with
swollen and livid features, and other symptoms of pulmo-
nary congestion.
   If the skin becomes an active  agent  of the  elimination,
the patient  is liable to a  variety of  eruptive and cutaneous
diseases.
   In conclusion, we will  repeat, that the catamenial flow is
an external manifestation, implying that  the  ovaries have
become developed, and capable of maturing and eliminating
ova.   Maturation and oviposit may be performed without
this external manifestation, as is evidenced by conception
taking place previous to  any appearance of the flow.   These
instances, however, are very  rare, and, when  menstruation
has not taken place before marriage, sterility is ordinarily
-the  result.   Delay  of  marriage should  be recommended
wheie menstruation has  not occurred, — a delay, at  any 
a
                  Amenorrhazal Type.               309

rate, until the cause of the amenorrhoea can be investigated;
for it may be possible that  the  non-appearance  of the  flow
may depend  upon some congenital malformation, such as
absence of the vagina, or its  imperfect formation,  which
would prove a bar to sexual intercourse.  The n: ortification
of an investigation would fall far short of the distress which
would be  entailed upon all parties, if a woman with some
important malformation of her sexual organs weie to con-
tract marriage. 
VII.
               MENORRHAGIC TYPE.

     THIS type is characterized by an inordinate menstrual
      evacuation, either as regards quantity, its long dura-
tion, or its frequent return.
  When a woman menstruates her  usual quantity, be  it
much or little, the discharge is normal.   When she  dis-
charges more than this, it is menorrhagia.   A woman may
discharge twelve or twenty ounces, and  the evacuation be
normal; while another may discharge only five or six ounces,
which constitutes menorrhagia, for the reason that it is more
than her usual quantity.
  When the quantity discharged  has become more than
usual, it ordinarily not only increases still further as regards
quantity, but its  duration becomes gradually lengthened,
and recurs at shorter intervals.
  When inordinate as to quantity, the discharge is more or
less  clotted, for the reason that  its  passage through the
vaginal canal is so rapid, that  it fails to become mixed with,
and  acted upon, and  dissolved by, the acid mucus of the
vagina.
  While we are inclined to the belief that the menstrual
fluid is a true secretion from the inner surface of the uterus,
we believe that it differs but very slightly from blood circu-
lating in blood-vessels.    That it is a true secretion would
seem evident from the  fact  that an injection sent  into
the  arteries  of  the  uterus  readily transudes  through its
lining membrane; and we have the testimony of many dis-
tinguished medical observers who have, in cases of inversion
              310 
Mcnorrhagic Type.
3H
of the uterus, seen the fluid distilling from it-; lining  mem-
brane.  It is, however, a matter of much controversy, whether
the fluid is blood or a secretion.
  While we are inclined to the belief that the fluid  in  its
normal state is a true secretion, but  differing in no  impor-
tant particulars from the blood which circulates in the blood-
vessels, yet we do not believe an inordinate or menorrhagic
evacuation to be the  result of an inordinate secretion, but
rather  a discharge of true blood from congested and en-
gorged vessels that have  become broken from the force of
distention.
  We have already  seen, how, under the  influence  of the
morbid stimulus  of  exposure  to variable  temperatures,
undue excitement of  the  nervous and sexual system, &c,
the ovaries may pass  from a physiological to a pathological
condition.   No organ in a pathological condition can trans-
mit a physiological stimulus.
  We have seen that the pathological  stimulus transmitted
by the diseased ovaries to the uterus induces in that  organ
certain changes and modifications.  We have seen that the
morbid stimulus acting upon  the irritability of the uterus,
disturbing the normal condition of its nervous and vascular
tissues, very rapidly induces a highly  congested or inflam-
matory condition, and a  tumefaction of the tissues, which
preclude the possibility of any secretion taking place.  We
have  also seen that this tumefaction may continue  until, the
distended capillary vessels become relieved by a watery exu-
dation, or leucorrhoeal discharge, or  it may continue until
the  engorged  and over-distended vessels become broken
from  the force of the distention,  and relieved by an inordi-
nate  discharge of blood, which, in professional language, is
called menorrhagia.   Menorrhagia, like  the watery exuda-
tion, is the resolution of a previous turgescence of the blood-
vessels.
  Accompanying the flow, there  is usually more or less of a
sense of fulness in the pelvic  region, pain in the  back and 
312    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

loins, shooting, darting pains running down the thighs, ten-
derness and pain low down in the bowels or. each  side, with
heat, swelling of the parts, &c.   These accompaniments are
well  marked in some, obscure in others.
  We  conceive menorrhagia to be, ordinarily, the effect of
a pathological condition of the menstrual organs, inducing
undue  uterine congestion and tumefaction, which terminates
in over-distention and rupture  of  the capillary  vessels.
That an  undue excitement, irritation, or inflammation of
the menstrual organs will be found, if properly sought for,
in the  great majority of cases of profuse flow, we unhesitat-
ingly believe.
  That menorrhagia may occur from an anaemic state of
the system, where the blood, thin, dilute, watery, and defi-
cient in its red particles, oozes away in  consequence of the
atonic  state of the solids  (Prof. Bedford), may not be safe,
perhaps, to deny.   Such a condition, however, we  believe to
be extremely rare, and far less frequent than is supposed by
some writers.
  A profuse flow does not  always  occur in the weak and
debilitated, but very  often  in  those  of  the  very opposite
condition;  and we are  taught  also (by Prof. Meigs) to  be-
lieve that menorrhagia occurs sometimes from the "strong
injecting force of  the heart  transcending  the resisting
powers of healthy tissues."
  Notwithstanding the high sources from which these ideas
emanate, we hesitate  to  adopt  them.   We  believe  that
menorrhagia  always presupposes congestion;  and  conges-
tion, a morbid stimulus or irritation.
  That there  is in women  subject to menorrhagia, or any
other exhausting or debilitating influence, more or less of an
anaemic state of system, a thin, dilute, watery bTcod, and  a
consequent weakened and enervated  condition  not only of
the tissues  of the womb, but of the entire  system, there is
no doubt;  and it is because of this very condition that the
menstrual organs, so pre-eminently 'disposed to disease, be- 
Menorrhagia  Type.               313
come lowered in their vital powers, and unable  to ward  off
the persistence of morbid  stimulus to which they may be
subjected, succumb, pass into a pathological state, and trans-
mit a  morbid stimulus'that  induces  the  excessive uterine
congestion which terminates in profuse flow.   Or, from  the
weakened and enervated condition of the  system, the mus-
cular floor and other tissues of the pelvis lose their tonicity,
become relaxed,  and  a sinking of  the  womb and  other
organs of the pelvis  takes  place, which  induces irritability
and engorgement in their tissues, and a consequent exces-
sive flow.
   Those living in luxury and indolence, where the powers
of life have  become enervated and weakened from the want
of the natural stimulus of sunshine, fresh air, and exercise,
are exceedingly prone  to  menorrhagia; not,  however,  be-
cause of any " weakness," not because of any flaccid, feeble,
or adynamic state of the womb, which allows the blood to
flow passively away,  but because the  powers of the system
have become lessened, and the ovaries and uterus, and other
organs of the body, participating in the general enervation
and weakness, more  easily  succumb to the influence of mor-
bid stimulus.
   We have  seen how pre-eminently disposed the menstrual
organs  are  to take  on diseased  action, not only from their
spongy, erectile, and ^ascular tissue, but from  the vital tur-
gescence  to which they are subjected  every twenty-eight
days  through the process  of ovulation, — a process, which,
as we have seen, is almost a disease.  How much more liable
are they  to succumb to the influence of  morbid stimulus
when their  vital power  and  their tonicity are more or less
destroyed! how much more susceptible to the influence of
the incitations to which they are so often subjected!
   Menorrhagia  is no  uncommon  infirmity  with  females
subjected to those prurient incitations which  are produced
by thoughts, books, pictures,  &c.;  indulgences in  unlawful
contacts ; excessive libidinous sensations,  &c, — all  produ- 
314    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

cing over-excitation and over-stimulation of the  sensitive
ovaries which  are  so  very  susceptible  to  such  morbid in-
fluences.   From their over-stimulated condition, they  dis-
charge too rapidly immature eggs : hence the frequency of
the catamenia, in other words, the menorrhagia.
  As amenorrhoea,  dysmenorrhcea,  and hysteria  are ordi-
narily consequent upon insufficient stimulus  of the ovaries,
through the want of sexual intercourse, so menorrhagie
often proceeds from an inordinate use  of  this  stimulus.
Women in every way unfortunate are extremely liable to
profuse and long-continued flow, from  over-excitation  and
congestion of the menstrual organs consequent upon an in-
ordinate use of this stimulus, the  cure of which  is almost
impossible by  any means,  save  complete abandonment of
their habits.   Solitary practice is also very apt to induce
the complaint, especially when the sexual organs have been
unaccustomed  to venereal stimulus, and more especially if
the subject of  the unnatural indulgence be  of an  irritable
and  nervous temperament.   In women  married late in life,
where  the sexual organs have not only  been unaccustomed
to the  stimulus, but have become somewhat accustomed to
the  deprivation, a very moderate indulgence oftentimes in-
duces  the infirmity ;  so also those who have been brought
up  within  doors, taking little  or no  exercise, and those
wdio are habitually weak and excitable, are extremely liable
to profuse  or  long-continued flow upon  application  of the
stimulus, no matter how moderate may be the indulgence.
   Menorrhagia is common  in women of  irritable  and  ner-
vous constitutions, and will  oftentimes prove a most obstinate
symptom  to deal with,  unless  correct  ideas be entertained
of the true character and seat of the primary disease.
   Menorrhagia is exceedingly common at  that period de-
scribed as the  critical time  in the life of woman, manifesting
itself in those sudden floodings which so often  terminate
menstruation.   It manifests itself also by  its  continuance
for a long time after the usual suppression of the function. 
Menorrhagie Type.               315
This  we conceive to be in consequence of the periodical
congestion of the menstrual organs, which has lasted for so
many years,  not at once subsiding.
  The discharge is also, not unfrequently, kept up from the
great agitation of mind and nervousness that  are present.
This mental  inquietude proceeds, not unfrequently, from the
great dread of organic disease, which,  at this period of life,
is liable to occur, more  especially in those who have passed
their lives as involuntary nuns, and deprived of  the  normal
sexual stimulus.   To many of this class it must also be a
most painful thought, " that the  season  of their youth, the
last rose of their summer, is  fading; that  their sexual life
has been totally unfulfilled, and that there is no more hope
for them of a child to  gladden their  old age.   Alas that
such lives and such sad thoughts are so common  among
us !"
  Corpulent  and  indolent  women,  those who take  but
little active  out-of-door exercise, are  exceedingly prone to
this continuance of the menstrual flow.  In them there is
a greater tendency to congestion of the  ovaries, which does
not at  once subside; more especially as there  is an effort
on  the part of Nature to close up the discharge, and shut
the safety-valve  through  which  their  plethora has been
accustomed to be relieved.
  Hemorrhages occur which  are entirely unconnected with
the menstrual function, unconnected with any influence
transmitted from the ovaries, — accidental hemorrhages.
  Accidental hemorrhages of  the womb  occur from  the
presence of  hydatids, polypi,  tumors, cancer,  a detached
ovum, wounds, &c.   These, however, are, happily, of rare oc-
currence.   Ulceration of the cervix  uLeri, and abrasions,
are not unfrequent causes of uterine hemorrhage.
  Another cause of accidental hemorrhage  is to be found
in those cases, where, the  menses having long been sup-
pressed,  a  profuse  bleeding  suddenly  bursts forth, to  the
great relief not only of the  uterine tissues, but of the system 
316   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

generally ;  yet sometimes it threatens the life of the patient,
because of  its profuseness.
  Another and more frequent cause of accidental  hemor-
rhage is to be found  in  an  irritation of the tissues of the
womb  by  morbid blood.    Granular degeneration of the
kidneys and derangement  of the liver are  no unfrequent
causes of uterine hemorrhage.   From want of proper elimi-
nation of the impurities of  the blood through the kidneys
or liver, in consequence  of a pathological  condition of these
organs, the poison is  thrown back upon the system  to seek
some other outlet.  The uterus being the seat of a period-
ical congestion,  through ovulation,  tends  to localize  the
poison at  that  point, through  which secreting surface  it
seeks  to work itself  off.
  Those  subject to  accidental  hemorrhage  are ordinarily
subject also to menorrhagia; the cause of the former act-
ing as a morbid  stimulus, and lighting  up  disease in the
menstrual organs, which transmit a morbid stimulus back
again to the womb,  inducing congestion and a consequent
excessive flow.
  Accidental hemorrhages are usually readily distinguished
from menorrhagia  by the continuousness of the  flow.   In
menorrhagia, a periodicity is observable in most cases.
  Instances are  sometimes  met with of what seems like a
special susceptibility of the sexual system, in which  any
sudden perturbation, moral or mental, is followed by hem-
orrhage, lasting,  perhaps, only for a few hours, or for days,
and even passing into profuse flow.  The unaccustomed stim-
ulus of sexual intercourse,  as we have already seen, often-
times leads to suppression, which is frequently followed by
hemorrhage.
  Ordinarily, accidental hemorrhages do not  compromise
the periodical flow.   Menstruation generally  continues  to
observe its proper periods  of  return; but, the menstrual
organs becoming more or less affected, it lasts on each occa-
sion much longer than is natural. 
Menorrhagie Type.
317
  The true indications of  treatment of menorrhagia are
obvious.   If, however, from misapprehension, or incorrect
ideas as regards  the true seat of the disease;  if it be re-
garded as a case of debility, or anaemia, and treated as such,
with tonics, stimulants, astringents, &c, taking no  thought
of the pathological condition  of the  menstrual  organs,—
most disastrous consequences may result: a train of physical,
mental, and moral disturbances  may be induced  by the
excessive flow, weakening and exhausting the patient, which
may terminate in dropsical effusions  and death.  Very for-
tunate is it for the patient that those who regard  the in-
firmity as one of " weakness," impoverishment, and fluidity
of the  blood, atonic  state of the system, &c, meet those
indications with  injections  of cold  water,  alum,  opiates,
&c, — remedies  admirably adapted to relieve the  ovarian
irritability. 
vm.
             DYSMEN0RRHC3AL  TYPE.

     THIS type is characterized by more or less scantiness of
      the menstrual flow, which may or may not he shreddy
 from membranous  formation, preceded by and accompanied
 with more or less of pain  in the iliac and lumbar regions,
 and, frequently, hysterical  manifestations.
   Painful menstruation is  one of the most frequent, as well
 as  one of the  most  important, infirmities  that woman is
 heir to.  It is very common, and produces much suffering.
   We have seen, that, during the process of ovulation, the
 vital processes of the ovaries become geatly enhanced; the
 nerves are in a highly exalted condition; blood-vessels that
 were before invisible to  the naked  eye now rise into view,
 interlacing  each  other in  great profusion.  The entire or-
 gan becomes swollen, red, sensitive, painful, and not unlike
 the swollen  and sensitive gum over a  growing tooth.  We
 have seen, that, under the influence of morbid stimulus, this
 vital process, which is in  itself almost a disease, becomes
 augmented,  until it reaches a point where the physiological
 process passes into a state of disease, and each of the above
 manifestations becomes greatly intensified.   The nerves are
 in  a still  higher exalted   condition,  and the  vascularity
 greatly increased.   Blood-vessels appear multiplied, and are
 more distended and turgid.    The ovaries are  more swollen,
 more red, more sensitive, more painful, with more heat, more
 pain on pressure,  and with  a slight puffiness, or swelling, in
the iliac region.   Their peritoneal covering may also become
involved, and perhaps, also, the fimbriated extremities of the
             318 
Dysmenorrhea I Type.             319
oviducts and other near tissues.  There is  an intermittent
or permanent deep-seated and severe  pain  in the  iliac  re-
gion, which  is aggravated if the patient attempts to rise,
or even straighten the  limb  upon  the pelvis.   Pains radi-
ate to the loins, down the thighs, and upwards to the small
of the back;  and there may or  may  not be more or less
fever,  hot skin, and  quick pulse, — a condition  of system,
which, in professional language,  is  termed  Dysmenorrhea,
or painful menstruation.
   Painful menstruation we conceive to be  caused, ordina-
rily, by a highly irritated,  congested, or inflamed  condi-
tion of one or both ovaries.
   Prof. Meigs  observes, " I  have met with many  samples
of very distressing pain and tenderness in the region of the
ovary, connected with painful and hysterical menstruation;
and I  deem I had good cause to suppose the ovaries were
actually in a state fit to be called  ovaritis  " [inflammation
of the ovaries].  Again : he says, " The pain of  dysmenor-
rhea is a pain felt in the hypogastric region, in either or
both of the iliac  regions, in  the tractus of the  ligamenta
rotunda, in the sacral region, in the thighs, and, very fre-
quently, in the course of the distribution of the obturator
nerves.  This pain not  unfrequently extends to the whole
belly, and is at times insupportable from its violence."
   Dr.  Rigby, in speaking of the  pain in  dysmenorrhoea,
says, " The organ (the ovary) becomes highly congested or
actually inflamed;  it  swells considerably, and  becomes
intensely sensitive.   The pain  is of  a  most  agonizing
character, and  is  frequently  attended with  severe nausea,
or obstinate  and  most  distressing  vomiting."  Again:  he
says, " The pain  may arise from violent  congestion, or  an
inflammatory  condition of the ovary, producing the most
agonizing pain which can be  imagined.   Always severe, it
is sometimes so intense as almost  to deprive  the patient  of
self-control and .consciousness, make her writhe, and even
roll about upon the bed and floor, from the extremity of her 
320   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

agony, and sometimes attended with insensibility and con-
vulsive action, like epilepsy."
  Dr. Tilt says, " J. P. Frank, a man of European celebri-
ty, when giving an account of his travels in 1806, men-
tions  that Dr. Cheston of Gloucester looked  upon painful
menstruation as produced by inflammation of the ovaries,
and that, on his return to Wilna, he (Frank)  attacked such
cases  by  an antiphlogistic  plan of  treatment, and with
much greater success than had formerly attended the exhi-
bition of stimuli."
  The pain in this form of dysmenorrhcea is exceedingly
variable in different individuals.  In some, it is merely tem-
porary, continuing but a few hours, and passing away with
the full establishment  of  the flow; while with others, the
whole time is one  of intense suffering, commencing with
short, darting,  lancinating,  and paroxysmal  pains in the
groins, and from those  points radiating  in every direction,
but becoming relieved  somewhat on the appearance of the
flow.  Besides these pains, which radiate from  the congested
and inflamed ovary, there is usually intense headache  and
disordered stomach, and the  patient distressed with more or
less nausea or vomiting.  We observe, also, very generally,
more or less symptoms of hysteria, and not  unfrequently,
if the patient is of a nervous and irritable  temperament,
hysterical symptoms of great intensity, accompanied some-
times with mania.
  Ordinarily, the pains radiating  from  the swollen ovary
precede the flow from  a few hours to two or three days;
which  demonstrates that  the pain is not caused by the
arrest of the flow, but by the engorged state of the ovary.
  As the process  of ovulation advances,  and  the ovaries
become more and more congested and engorged, the pain
continues to increase, and reaches its height just before the
menstrual discharge takes place.  This occurring,  the puf-
finess and tenderness in the  iliac region, and  the pain, usu-
ally subside; not, however, because  of the establishment of 
Dysmenorrheal Type.             321
a flow, the arrest of which was the  cause  of the  pain, but
because the inflamed and painful ovary becomes relieved in
the same manner precisely as a congested and inflamed lung
becomes relieved by opening a vein in the arm.
  With systematic writers, this  form of dysmenorrhcea is
designated as belonging  to the neuralgic variety;  but, from
the view we take  of it, it is rather a condition supervening
upon a morbid  process going on in the ovaries.   Respect-
ing  the  neuralgic variety of dysmenorrhcea, Dr. Ashwell
observes, " Dull and heavy pains in  the region of the ova-
ries, lasting for months, are the consequence of their chronic
inflammation.   I mention  the  circumstance  because they
are too often regarded as  neuralgic, and treated accordingly;
painful menstruation and sterility being their result."
  There is another form  of dysmenorrhcea, and, to properly
understand it, it is necessary that we should be  aware that
the internal cavity of the uterus is very small in proportion
to the  bulk of the organ, owing  to the thickness  of its
parietes, which almost touch internally.  A healthy uterus
is capable of containing  only some ten or fifteen  drops  of
fluid.  This close approximation is observable at two points;
at the os uteri, but more especially at the internal orifice of
the uterus, where the stricture, or co-arctation, is so great as
scarcely to allow the passage of an  instrument larger than
a silver probe, unless force be used.  This natural condition
of the parts at the internal orifice of the uterus has not
unfrequently been taken for a  diseased narrowing of the
canal.
  So intimately connected as is the uterus with the ovaries,
it must be  readily perceived, that  while  such  great and
important  changes are transpiring  in the ovaries during
the  process of  ovulation, which  we have described  above
and  elsewhere,  a stimulus or influence must necessarily be
transmitted from  the ovary to the uterus, which must in-
duce in the latter certain changes and modifications.  M.
Costi regards the modifications that occur as follows: " The
             21 
322    Woman, and her  Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

only modification of which the uterus becomes the seat con-
sists in  the turgescence or erethism of  its tissue, and, more
especially, in a considerable thickening of the mucous mem-
brane (tumefaction), — a thickening which results especially
from congestion of the blood-vessels and extreme develop-
ment of the glands that enter into  its  composition, and, in
certain subjects, plait them into more or less numerous con-
volutions."
  Bearing in mind the anatomical construction of the inter-
nal cavity of the womb, the co-arctation at its internal ori-
fice, and bearing in  mind, also, that the womb, under the
influence of  a physiological stimulus transmitted from the
ovaries to the womb  during the process of  ovulation, be-
comes the seat of a turgescence or erethism of its tissue,
and  that  its  lining membrane  is  considerably thickened
from congestion of the blood-vessels and extreme develop-
ment of the glands that enter into its composition, and so
much so in some subjects,  that the lining membrane becomes
plaited into more or less numerous  convolutions,'— bearing
these points in mind,  it is, we think, very readily to be per-
ceived, how, from the transmission  of  a  morbid instead of
a physiological stimulus from the ovaries  to the womb, a
heightened  action may supervene,  and the  congested  and
thickened condition  of the  lining  membrane  become so
intensified  and augmented, that a  complete  closure of the
cavity at the internal or at its lower orifice must of neces-
sity  take place, completely obstructing  the free  passage of
the menstrual fluid from the uterus.  It will be readily per-
ceived, also,  how the menstrual fluid, detained in the already
irritated, congested, or inflamed cavity of the womb, must
stimulate its muscular tissue to  spasmodic contractions  for
the  purpose of expelling  its irritatiug and  offending con-
tents, accompanied by a sense of fulness in the pelvic region,
with pain in  the back and  loins, — pains of an expulsive
character, and therefore well termed  bearing-down  pains;
for they resemble the  labor-like  pains of  a similar nature
by which a foetus may one day be expelled. 
Dysmcnorrheal Type.              323
  Dr. Rigby,  in  speaking of painful flow, observes,  "At
times, it would seem  as if the mere  congestion connected
with the menstrual period were sufficient to bring on the
pain; at others, the pains seem to be excited by the presence
of secreted menses in  the cavity of the uterus, and to a still
greater degree if accumulated there from the formation of co- *
agula, or from a contracted state of  the os or cervix uteri."
  This  form of dysmenorrhcea is of no unfrequent occur-
rence.
  There is another important consideration  connected with
the obstruction of the outflow of the menses  and the  spas-
modic contraction of  the uterus, and pains thereby  occa-
sioned, — a form  of dysmenorrhcea not at all unfrequent.
  We have seen, that, during the process of ovulation, the
lining membrane of the uterus is the seat of considerable
tumefaction and thickening.  Besides these, there is another
important change pointed out by  M Pouchette.  We are
told by him, that, during the process  of ovulation, the  sub-
stance  of the  uterus is  redder, softer, less compact, more
succulent, more vascular, and heavier than usual; that its
lining  membrane is  the  seat  of considerable tumefaction
and thickening, and, exhaling a coagulable material, becomes
covered with a beautiful fiocculent  exudation, which forms
the membrane decidua, — a  membrane whose openings at
the Fallopian tubes and at the cervix are always free and
permeable, permitting the  ovule  and the male  sexual ele-
ment to pass into the cavity of the  uterus.
   It will be  readily  perceived, how, from  the  heightened
action of the morbid  process  going  on in the inner surface
of the womb and of its neck, an exaggeration of this exuda-
tion may be -induced, or an exudation of more vitality and
strength, — a diphtheric exudation from the mucous surface,
closing up more or less the orifice of discharge  by the for-
mation of a false membrane,  inducing suppression,  or  an
obstruction to  the flow, and a painful d'scharge, which will
be found mingled with pseudo-decidual membranes. 
324   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  This  exudation  is recognized very generally by medical
men as  being an important  source of painful  and difficult
flow.  Some slight difference of opinion exists, however, as
to its nature and the exact manner of its formation.
  Prof.  Bedford says,  "In  dysmenorrhcea of  congestion
there is an exudation of coagulable lymph,  a diphtheric
deposit  similar to what occurs on the internal  surface of
the larynx in croup; and this coagulable lymph lines the
cavity of the uterus, forming a deciduous membrane, which,
during the menstrual crisis, is thrown  from the organ in
fragments."
  Prof.  West, however, denies that the exudation is of the
nature of  a diphtheric deposit similar to what occurs on the
internal surface  of the  larynx  in croup.  He  considers it
" merely an exaggeration of the process, which, to a  less
degree, takes place at every menstrual period."   He says,
" To regard it as a layer of plastic lymph similar to that
which is poured out in croup, at once suggests  the employ-
ment for its removal of active antiphlogistic measures, such
as experience would by no means justify.   Reasoning, how-
ever,  even independent of actual  observation to which  I
have  appealed, would  suffice  to show the fallacy of  this
opinion.   It is  utterly inconceivable  that a mucous  mem-
brane so  inflamed as  to become the  seat of deposits of
lymph should in a few days return to a perfectly healthy
condition  (?), and yet  periodically undergo the same in-
tense inflammation, issuing in the same deposit; and this
with no serious  injury to its functions, and no permanent
change of its structure."
  Dr. Oldham says, " The uterine decidua is formed under
the influence of an action going on in the oVary: so the
membranous dysmenorrhcea is not primarily an affection of
the womb, but of the ovary.   In healthy menstruation, the
congestion of  the  ovary,  the  engorgement of the womb,
the opening of the  veins on the surface of the cavity of the
womb, and the flux of blood, are all in harmony; the latter 
Dysmenorrheal Type.              325
being, so to speak, the resolution of the former,   but when
the ovaries are unduly excited, as, for instance, from the
prevalence of one or more of the numerous ways in which
sexual feelings may induce  them,  then the uterine  glands
sympathetically enlarge, the lining membrane of  the womb
becomes raised, and the body of the womb swells out.  This
change in the mucous membrane goes on during the interval
between the monthly periods; and, when the flow begins,
the new formation is cast off, and the uterus, in the  act of
detaching and expelling it, becomes the seat of painful con-
tractions."
   Prof. Virchow says, " Dysmenorrhceal exudations  are in
reality the whole surface of  the uterine mucous membrane;
in which  we  may distinguish  the glandular orifices, and,
sometimes, very large vessels even, with the naked eye.  I
have repeatedly observed this condition in the dead body,
where the loose and very vascular membrane was still par-
tially attached to the  uterine surface.  We are,  therefore,
justified in calling this membrane  the decidua menstralis."
   Dr. Rigby says, " The exudations in ovarian dysmenorrhcea
vary exceedingly, from one or two  small ragged threads to
large  pieces of membrane, sometimes being a whole cast of
the uterine  cavity; sometimes they have a stringy appear-
ance ;  generally,  however, they are  much  broken up,  and
their discharge brings great relief."
   As  regards the nature of the exudation, a  great variety
of opinions exists. We can see no reason, however, why the
exudation may not be sometimes merely an exaggeration of
the process, which, to a less degree, takes place at every men-
strual period; an exaggerated decidual membrane, as is sup-
posed by Prof. West.  Nor can we see anjr reason why, from
a heightened action, coagulable lymph may not be thrown
out, and a diphtheric deposit line the cavity of the  uterus, as
is  supposed by Prof.  Bedford.  Like other mucous mem-
branes, the uterine membrane, when inflamed,  will pour out
serous and mucous matters as well as pus and also  lymph. 
326   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  This form of dysmenorrhcea, like the preceding one, is of
no unfrequent occurrence.
  Painful flow may also  occur from sudden suppression of
the catamenia from application of cold, inducing a congest-
ed and tumefied condition of the lining membrane of the
uterus, or a spasmodic constriction at the os uteri.
  It may also occur from tardy development of the womb,
as seen in young girls in their first menstrual discharges.
  Painful menstruation may and does occur, more frequently
than is supposed by the profession generally, in females  of a
gouty and rheumatic habit.  The  pain in these cases is
undoubtedly in the muscular tissue of the uterus.   Under
the head of Amenorrhceal Type, we have spoken of the lia-
bility of  this condition  of system whenever the  menstrual
discharge becomes impeded  or suppressed.   This condition
or taint  supervening, the increased congestion and irrita-
bility of  the uterus at the menstrual periods strongly tend-
ing to localize it at that point, painful  menstruation is
imminent.   That condition known and described as "Irri-
table Uterus" where the womb, though presenting no appre-
ciable alteration, is so  tender that the slightest movement
causes intolerable pain, is no doubt, in very many instances,
attributable to this rheumatic  and  gouty condition.   By
some, irritable  uterus is attributed almost entirely to  dis-
placement.
  Dysmenorrhoeal symptoms may also arise from mechan-
ical obstructions,  the presence of coagula or of inspissated
mucus, tumors, or narrowing  of the  uterine canal from
ulceration  or  imprudent cauterizations; also  malpositions,
the most frequent of which is, perhaps, flexion  of the neck
of the womb, or doubling of the uterus upon  itself.  The
cervix uteri bent  at a  right angle  must, necessarily, inter-
fere more or less with the free evacuation  of the menstrual
flow.  The presence  of  coagula  is owing, no doubt, to im-
peded secretion.  Its flow is so slow as to allow of its co-
agulating before escaping into the vagina,  where its fi brine 
                 Dysmcnorrheal Type.              327

would  at once be  dissolved  by the  acid  vaginai  mucus.
Some of the membranous shreds thrown off with the  men-
strual fluid are probably formed of coagulated blood.
  Dysmenorrhceal symptoms said to arise from a too narrow
canal through which the catamenia has to flow have of late
years excited much  attention.   The  idea  originated with
Dr. Mackintosh of  Edinburgh, who  is said  to have  treated
man3r cases successfully by mechanical dilatation of the os
uteri with bougies.   That there may be a narrowing of the
canal, both at the os and at the internal orifice of the ute-
rus, there can scarcely be any doubt; but, in the great ma-
jority of cases,  it is  owing, we  believe,  to  an  internal
tumefaction,  chronic  thickening, or a spasmodic constric-
tion induced and kept up by a morbid  process going  on in
the  ovaries, — a  tumefaction  or thickening indicating not
mechanical dilatation, but remedies local and constitutional
directed towards  the diseased menstrual organs.  These, at
any rate, are indicated  as  a  first step  in the way of  treat-
ment, fo be followed afterwards by mechanical  dilatation if
the chronic thickening does not subside.
   We think  that  Dr. Ferguson takes a correct view of the
benefits said to  have  been  derived  from  dilatation with
bougies.   He thinks, that,  if  the  bougie  operates benefi-
cially at all, it does so, not by the dilatation it produces, but
by inducing a new  action in  the parts with which it comes
in contact.
   When the constriction arises  from ulceration of the cer-
vical canal, from imprudent cauterization, or from a nar-
row cervix from  defect of uterine  development (instances,
however, which are exceedingly rare), mechanical dilatation
is the only true method of relief.
   Painful flow may arise from  a highly irritated, inflamed,
and ulcerated condition of  the os  and cervix uteri; also
from prolapsus uteri.
   It is affirmed  by  Dr. Ferguson  that sexual intercourse 
328   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

immediately previous to the expected  menstrual flux has
excited the severest forms of the disease.
   From the above it will  be seen, that, ordinarily, the pri-
mary and the true seat of the morbid procoss known as  pain-
ful menstruation is to be sought for in the highly irritated,
congested, or  inflamed condition  of  one  or  both ovaries,
which  condition is induced under a great variety of circum-
stances : from  application of cold; from  falls upon the knees
or sacrum;  from  horseback riding, dancing, or long  and
fatiguing walks just previous to, during, or immediately after,
the menstrual  flow; from great muscular effort, as the  lift-
ing of heavy weights; from  tight dresses, corsets, and the
various bands  and strings around  the  waist, preventing a
free return  of the blood  from the pelvis; from retention
and suppression of the catamenia; from gouty and rheu-
matic habit; from solitary practices, over-exciting the  ner-
vous and sexual system ; from excessive use of the stimulus
of sexual  intercourse,  and, lastly, and more  frequently  than
from all other causes combined, from  impairment  of the
general health through want of the natural and appropriate
stimulus of the sexual organs, — sexual intercourse.  From
want of their  natural stimulus, the  sexual organs take on
an  irritable  condition, which condition, if  not soothed and
calmed by the only and great physiological remedy,—normal
exercise and gratification, — very soon emerges into a  state
of disease: in  other words, the  ovaries become congested or
inflamed.  Dr. Ashwell says, " Single women are  particu-
larly prone to it (painful  flow), and it often seems to be
associated with a tendency to strong mental emotions."
  Dysmenorrhcea is ordinarily an infirmity of young unmar-
ried females, and induced, as we believe, in the great major-
ity of cases, by sexual abstinence and ungratified sexual de-
sires, and, in too many cases, from solitary practices conse-
quent upon unsatisfied desires.  " Dysmenorrhcea," says Dr.
Ashwell, " is often cured  by marriage; "  and for the very 
Dysmenorrheal Type.              329
obvious reason, that, when the proper and natural stimulus
of the sexual organs is  applied, it elevates their functions
to the natural and typical standard  of health.   Distasteful
though the doctrine may be, yet it is as true  as holy writ,
that an equal development of A ll our organs through their
normal exercise  and  gratification is necessary.   No  one
class of virtues can be  elevated above others with impunity.
A virtuous physical life is as incumbent as a moral one,  and
normal sexual exercise as important  to our health and hap-
piness as either. 
IX.
               HYSTERICAL  TYPE.

T f^IIIS type is characterized by an  assemblage of symp-
 _!_  toms, remarkable, generally, for their capriciousness
of character, and the changeableness of their seat; manifest-
ing themselves ordinarily, but not always, in a paroxysmal
form, and simulating many serious and opposite diseases.
  As  regards  the  true  nature of hysterical phenomena, a
great variety of opinion has existed, and still  exists.  The
early fathers of medicine adopted the  idea  that  the  uterus
was an animal, and occasionally wandered up and down the
body; and  that the phenomena of hysterical  disturbances
were attributable  to these wanderings  about the  bowels,
down  the  limbs,   up  to  the  liver,  stomach,  and  throat.
Many  have adopted  the  idea  that  the  phenomena are
attributable to a  morbid  condition of the  uterine  nerves;
many, to a  morbid condition of the stomach and alimentary
canal;  some few, to congestion of the  lungs and the heart;
manjT, to a  morbid condition of the nervous system  gener-
ally,  to a  morbid condition  of the brain  and  cerebral
nerves, to  a morbid condition of the  spinal cord, to " spi-
nal irritation," disorder of the lower  portion of the spinal
cord, displacement of the uterus, " irritable uterus," ulcer-
ation of the cervix uteri, &c.
  That many of the conditions mentioned  above are often
productive  of  hj^sterical  manifestations, there  can be no
question; for,  taking  the various forms that irise  in con-
nection with their symptoms, the general appearance, con-
stitution, &c, of the patient, we have sufficient proofs that
             330 
Hysterical Type.                 331
all are not produced from one kind, but by a multitude of
causes: in fact, they are induced by any circumstance capa-
ble of  producing a peculiar  excitement of  the nervous
system.  Whatever  may be the  location of the  primary
irritation, the nervous centres are always acted  upon, and,
through these,  the  parts that are the seat of the reflex
action.
   We believe,  however, that, ordinarily,  the  disordered
manifestations arise  directly or indirectly from  disease of
the sexual system, and, generally, from disease of the ova-
ries, induced by a disordered state of the sexual  feelings.
   That these disordered manifestations are  connected with
a  weakened  and excitable  state  of the nervous  system
depending upon a similar state of the numerous and impor-
tant nerves  of the ovaries, is evident from the fact that the
peculiar manifestations  do  not  occur  before puberty, nor
after the close of menstrual life.
   Those sympathies  and the multiplicity of manifestations
which are hysterical in their character, that  supervene from
the changes produced at puberty, when the ovaries take on
the process  of ovulation; the capricious wishes  and  tastes,
or longings, during  pregnancy, when the process of ovula-
tion  is stayed, and  at "change  of  life," when  the  process
is suspended, and the organs become atrophied and shrunk-
en, — all  point  to   the  ovaries  as  the primary source of
the  peculiar nervous excitement.   So,  also, the sympathies
excited by early or late marriages, continence, sexual disap-
pointment,  excessive indulgences or venery, marriages im-
mature or physically disproportionate (all of which tend  to
light up disease in the ovaries), point to those organs as the
seat of the  hysterical  manifestations.   We observe  these
disturbances,  also, in females laboring under suppression  or
retention of  the menses, and see them oo-existent with
leucorrhoea,  dysmenorrhcea, menorrhagia, and in  those sub-
ject to miscarriage; all of which point to the ovaries.
   We have  seen, that, during the later days  of the ripening 
332    Woman, and her Thirty Years Pilgrimage.

process, or maturing of the Graafian cell  and germ, blood-
vessels which  Avere before  invisible to the naked eye rise
up into view, interlacing each other in great profusion over
the whole surface of the ovary,  more especially surrounding
the swelling follicle; that  the  nerves are in  a  highly ex-
alted condition, and the entire organ engorged, swollen, red,
and not unlike the swollen  and  sensitive gum  over a grow-
ing tooth: and Prof. Meigs very truly remarks, " If an ad-
vancing tooth  may excite such maladies as are attributed to
dentition in children, what  must be the extent  and power
of complication of the ovary in the monthly act of eliminat-
ing the ovulum!"
  All are familiar with the  irritation and disturbance occa-
sioned by dentition, and  know that spasms, convulsions,
derangement of the liver,  stomach,  and bowels, — morbid
results arising from the transmission of a morbid  stimulus
from the sensitive and swollen gums to the spinal cord, and
from  thence reflected to muscles and organs that become
involved, — constitute a fearful  outlet to human life in  chil-
dren.
  In  women, the nervous system is wonderfully susceptible;
and all local irritations are propagated with  such celerity
and intensity as to constitute, physiologically and pathologi-
cally, the great mental, moral, and physical character of her
system.  If, then, spasms, convulsions, and a multiplicity of
other derangements, are the morbid results of a swollen and
sensitive gum, what may not be the  disturbances  transmit-
ted from the swollen and sensitive ovary to the spinal  cord,
and from thence reflected to the brain, the heart, the lungs,
the stomach, the liver, the eyes, ears,  arms, legs, muscles,
indeed to every organ and  tissue of the body, in those whose
originally susceptible  nervous  system  has been rendered
more  than  naturally mobile by an injudicious system of
mental, moral, and  physical training, or by any other weak-
ening and enervating influences !
   The word "hysteria" was used by  the  earlire medical 
Hysterical Type.
333
writers to designate certain morbid  phenomena, emanating,
as was supposed, from a diseased uterus.  The term, although
an unfortunate one, is still retained, but more as a matter of
convenience, and to save the adoption of a new name, than
from any belief that the uterus is the seat of the multiplied
disorders.  A name is of but little  consequence  so  long as
true pathological conditions are understood.
  A greater misfortune than its name is, that it has been
usually classed among the so-called " nervous diseases,"  and      »
regarded as  a " nervous  derangement."  Who, for one  mo-
ment, would regard the spasms and convulsions caused by
teething  as  a  "nervous disease," a "derangement of  the
nerves " ?   No one.   Why, then, call the muscular spasms,
convulsions,  and other nervous phenomena which occur in
young women just previous to or during the process of men-
struation " nervous diseases," " neuralgias," " hysteria,"  &c,
unless we employ the terms  to cover our ignorance, or to
furnish a receptacle for those cases in which we are, through
ignorance, unable to trace effects back to causes ?
  The phenomena of hysterical paroxysms are well known.
They occur between the age  of puberty and the cessation
of the  catamenial function, or during  menstrual life, and,
ordinarily, just previous to or during  the menstrual flow,
while the ovaries are in an engorged, swollen, and sensitive
condition.  The paroxysm  lasts from five or ten minutes to
hours  and  even days.   Hysterical disturbances may  also
occur during the menstrual interval, and after " change of
life," in consequence of the morbid condition in which  the
ovaries remain.
  The higher and luxurious ranks of society are more  sub-
ject to these disturbances than the lower classes.  Improper
mental, moral, and physical training have no  little influence
in the production of these  disordered manifestations, as we
have already seen.   Touching this  matter, Prof. J. Conolly
of the  London  University very truly remarks, "Medical
philosophers declaim, and will long declaim, in vain, against 
334   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

a system of education, which, apparently solely directed to
securing an advantageous establishment  to young females,
leaves them at once artificial and  ignorant;  full of terms
of many kinds of knowledge, but wearied or disgusted with
all; trained to  subdue the feelings only so far as to  form
alliances from selfish motives, but  unprepared to be  com-
panions of intellectual men,  or to bear  the neglect which
their insipidity*, or motives as selfish as their own,'too  often
entail upon them."
   The social position of women, observes M. Georget, " ren-
ders the sex, already subjected to  peculiar ills from  their
organization, the victims  of the  most  acute  and painful
moral affections.  Their moral existence  is  entirely opposed
to their faculties; they possess  a will, and are  constantly
oppressed  by the yoke of prejudices and social arrangements
in their infancy and early life, of a  husband in their youth,
and of indifference  in  old  age.  Sensible and loving, they
must only love when the master orders them :  they are for-
ever constrained to concentrate within themselves the  most
powerful passions and the gentlest  inclinations;  to dissem-
ble their desires ; to feign a calmness  and indifference  when
an inward fire devours them, and their  whole organization
is in tumult; and to sacrifice to a  sense of duty, or rather
for the happiness of others, the happiness and tranquillity of
a whole life. . . .  The education of young women, of which
the tendency ought to be  to  repress the affective faculties,
already too prominent,  has, as  now conducted, opposite
effects.  A mother would be  in despair if her daughter did
not give early indications of  acute sensibility ; and nothing
is neglected that may endow her  with this  fatal present.
Inaction of the muscular system;  the cultivation of music;
frequent parties, balls, and public entertainments; the  un-
derstanding unemployed ; or books  perused  which  do  but
excite certain feelings, and nourish illusions contrary to the
actual state of society, — such are often the different influ-
ences to which girls are subjected at an age when the powers 
Hysterical Type.                335
of the mind  should have quite a contrary direction.   The
end  answers the  means:  one  order  of faculties  alone  is
exercised;  and this will become predominant over the rea-
soning faculties, and the cause of a host of vaporous, hys-
terical, hypochondriacal, and maniacal disorders."
   As has been remarked, hysteria was so named on account
of its supposed origin from uterine disease; but,  although
almost exclusively and universally met with in females, it
has been observed  in males, and, consequently, cannot be said
to depend  on morbid stimulus emanating from the womb
alone.  That hysterical disorders occur in male subjects, we
have the testimony of Meigs, Conolly,  Whytt, Ferriar, and
others.   Although of extremely rare occurrence in  males,
hysterical phenomena may be induced, as they are said to be
in females, sometimes, by injuries, inflammation and  disor-
ganization of the spinal cord, disease of the stomach and in-
testines,  intestinal irritation from improper diet,  depraved
secretions,  worms, flatus, acidity,  in fact,  by any circum-
stance capable  of producing  a peculiar excitement  of the
nervous system ; but we believe that  the disordered  mani-
festations  ordinarily arise,  directly or indirectly,  from an
irritable or diseased  condition  of the testes, — a  condition
induced  by  erotic  excitement, .solitary practices, vicious
sexual indulgences, by deferred marriage, celibacy,  sexual
disappointment, &c, — all tending, when the erotic passion
is experienced in  any strong degree, to produce an exalta-
tion of the vascular and nervous condition  of the  testes, in
the  same manner  as like  emotions light up disease  in the
ovaries of the female.  While the male is  almost  totally
exempt from the liability of these disordered manifestations,
the  female is exceedingly prone to them ; and this strongly-
marked  difference between the sexes is readily accounted
for in the fact that the susceptibility of the ovaries to take
on disease is very materially increased through the monthly
process of ovulation,  which process is  of  itself " almost a
disease." 
336   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

  Hysterical  manifestations are effects.   They  are  the re-
sult of reflex action.  They occur from a  derangement of
the cerebro-spinal nervous  system, induced  generally, but
not always, by a pathological condition of the  sexual system,
and ordinarily, as we believe, of the ovaries; and can only
be cured by the  removal of the morbid process which occa-
sions them.  Sir Benjamin Brodie  relates  some striking
instances in proof of the ovaries being ordinarily the source
of the infirmity; such, for example, as pressure on a sensi-
tive ovary producing the hysteric paroxysm.
  As  the swollen  and  sensitive  gum  over  an  advancing
tooth  is capable of calling into sympathy other parts, and
producing muscular spasms, diarrhoea, &c.; or as a wounded
nerve in the  foot is capable of calling into sympathy the
brain, resulting in  epilepsy: so may  disease  of  the ovaries
call into sympathy  other and distant parts of the economy,
and we have all  the multiplied symptoms of that Protean
malady which  simulates  so many  other and  sometimes
serious disorders.
  When the hysteric derangement  once becomes estab-
lished, inordinate mental or physical effort, sudden  mental
emotions, or  even  the slightest cause, sometimes is suffi-
cient to  excite  the  paroxysm.
  The various  forms  of  disease which  it  simulates,  the
capricious character of its symptoms, and the changeable-
ness of  their  seat, are  well exemplified in  a  case given by
Prof. West.   He says, " A young  woman was admitted into
the hospital a few years ago in a state of extreme suffering;
her countenance was very anxious; she lay in bed with her
knees  drawn up, dreading  the  slightest movement;  her
abdomen  was intolerant  even of the  slightest pressure.
She was reputed to have peritonitis (inflammation of the
lining membrane of the abdomen), and had been bled for
this, as well  as abundantly salivated, before her admission,
yet without relief.   But, with  all  this, her skin was perspir-
ing, and her pulse  was soft, and not increased in frequency. 
Hysterical  Type.                337
Her history  was,  that, after vague  uterine  ailments  for
months, she  was suddenly  attacked  by a violent pain in
the womb, attended  with  bearing-down efforts equal in
intensity to those  of  labor.   These subsided, but the pain
was  referred  to the bladder;  and  desire to  pass water
became very  frequent.  This, too, abated; and the next
complaint  was violent  pain in the  shoulder,  which was
encountered by active  measures for  the relief of  alleged
inflammation  of the  shoulder-joint;  and, the  pain in* the
shoulder suddenly ceasing,  the severe abdominal suffering
at once succeeded it.  A hot  hip-bath gave almost immediate
relief, though  the patient screamed when moved in order to
be placed in it; and a full dose of opium was  followed by
some  hours of quiet  sleep.   The  next  day, no pain was
complained of, except over the pubis, and this soon disap-
peared under the use  of anodynes;  and steel and good food
completed  the  cure  of a case of hysterical  peritonitis."
Such  are   the  phenomena  sometimes exhibited; but the
peculiarities  of  each individual  constitution  occasion a
great variety and irregularity in the  phenomena.
   h\  some, the manifestations  exhibited  are those of a
strictly paroxysmal character.   The  patient, without any
appreciable cause  or  premonition,  under the influence of
some  slight mental and moral perturbation, becomes  sud-
denly oppressed by a  sensation as of a ball or solid body in
some part of  the abdomen, usually in the left  iliac region,
producing a vermicular  motion of the  abdominal muscles, or
alternate elevation and depression of the abdominal sur-
face, and rising  upwards to the stomach, and  then  to the
throat, filling its entire calibre, producing the feelings called
globus hystericus, and followed sometimes by a violent fit of
laughter, alternating with  crying  and  sobbing.  After a
longer or shorter  time, the paroxysm  passes  off, and  the
patient is again apparently well.  In  some cases, the parox-
ysms are preceded by a general uneasiness and oppression,
with  a feeling  of stiffness about the throat,  headache,
              22 
338   Woman, and her Thirty Years Pilgrimage.

cramps,  great nervousness, &c, warning the patient of the
approaching attack.   In the more severe cases, tliera is
much agitation both of body and  mind;  and the patient
falls  down motionless,  or with  trunk  and limbs agitated
with strong convulsive movements, or the body so straight-
ened out and  bent backwards by muscular contractions as
to rest on the heels and back of the head, with  the  throat
projecting, and the veins of the neck  so  much  distended,
and  the face  so flushed, as to induce  fears  that apoplexy
may supervene; the breathing slow and laborious, with
nostrils  dilated; the abdomen distended and flatulent; the
heart palpitating; the vision and hearing impaired ; the eye-
lids closed and tremulous; the power  of articulation sus-
pended ; and the jaws often set.  Intermissions take place,
but followed  by renewal of the violence  of the contortion,
which continues for  a  longer or shorter time, accompanied
with sobbing  and laughing, beating of  the  breast  or the
pit of the stomach, in which situation there is often violent
pain; or she carries the fingers to her throat, as if to remove
some oppression there,  followed by a  copious secretion of
limpid  pale  urine,  fatigue, and extreme prostration, the
patient  lying trembling, and starting at the slightest noise
or the  gentlest  touch.   After such  an attack, there  is
sometimes a temporary impairment of some  of  the  volun-
tary and  involuntary  muscles.   Paralysis  of  an  arm  or
leg,  a cheek or the tongue, and sometimes of an entire side
of the body,  is seen;  also loss of voice  or hearing, sight,
taste, and smell.  Ordinarily, however, the after-symptoma
are those of extreme prostration and fatigue only.
   The  above are the  more prominent phenomena in  the
regular  form of the  complaint, — phenomena which  are
well known  to most physicians, and easily recognized, for
they are  peculiar to the affection; not so, however, .n  the
irregular  form, at least, by many  physicians, — a form
which mimics the  symptoms of various other  diseases  of
 a much  graver nature, which  generally supervene with- 
Hysterical Type.
339
 out the occurrence of any decided paroxysm.  This form
 has been and is now very imperfectly understood by many
 practitioners, and has been,  in  consequence,  met with  a
 treatment vague, injudicious, and pernicious.
   There is scarcely any organ or tissue of the economy that
 may not become so affected by this reflex action as to excite
 suspicions of serious  disorder, so closely does it  simulate
 organic disease; and in no class of cases are errors in diag-
 nosis  so  frequent.  How often have  we  seen  the  swollen
 and sensitive ovary  call into sympathy the stomach, pro-
 ducing all the symptoms  of an aggravated case of dyspep-
 sia, with  nausea, vomiting, pain,  heartburn, &c.! and  how
 often has this condition been treated for months and years
 with remedies directed towards the stomach, but all to very
 little or no purpose, and for reasons obvious, — the effect was
 treated instead  of the cause!   Often have we seen the hip
 and knee joints the seat of this reflex action that had lasted
 for months.  They had been treated as cases of serious dis-
 ease of those joints, with leeches, blisters, stimulating embro-
 cations, &c,  to  the parts, but the cause, the true seat of the
 disease, and the nature of the malady, was not even dreamed
 of by  the medical adviser!  We will call the attention of
 the reader to an observation of Sir Benjamin Brodie.  He
 says, " I do not  hesitate to declare, that, among the higher
 classes of society, at least four-fifths of the female  patients
 who are commonly supposed  to labor under disease of the
 joints  labor under hj'steria, and nothing  else."  We have
 also seen the voluntary  muscles so affected  as to become
 entirely paralyzed. Not long since we saw a lady in S----,
 Mass., who was  attacked  some twelve  months previously by
 violent neuralgic  pains and spasmodic contractions of the
 right limb, which, for several months, continued with  dif-
 ferent  degrees of violence, but which, passing away finally,
 was followed  with paralysis almost  as  complete  as that
 which  arises from compression of  the  spinal  cord.  The
patient had for months sought relief from remedies almost 
340   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

without number, but without success;  and for the reason
that remedies had been directed to the limb, and the source
of the infirmity entirely overlooked.  Sometimes the mus-
cles  become  spasmodically contracted,  lasting for  months,
either permanently, or with remissions  and renewals; and
they sometimes become the seat of most distressing neural-
gic pains,  which may become permanently located, or mi-
grate from one part to another.  Neuralgic pains are of no
uncommon occurrence, and may be  located in  any part of
the body; in the feet, calves of the limbs, knees, thighs,
and hips, giving notions of rheumatism, and disease of the
joints; in the abdominal muscles, giving rise  to suspicions
of peritonitis; in the  liver, stomach,  and right shoulder,
with obstinate sluggishness of the bowels, and a depraved
appetite, giving rise to notions of " liver-disease;"  indeed,
no organ or tissue of the body is exempt.   One of the most
frequent  localities of  this pain is  under  the  left breast.
Both breasts are not unfrequently  in a  highly  irritable
state; and  sometimes the  glands  become enlarged  and
indurated, so much so as to excite  apprehensions  of " tu-
mor " or  cancer.
  Besides spasmodic contractions  of the limbs,   we fre-
quently see spasms of the abdominal  muscles, causing ridges
or knots on the surface.  The  abdomen  is subject also, from
the same cause, to distressing  tympanitic  distention, which
induces great oppression, dyspnoea,  and  pain.  These  at-
tacks supervene, ordinarily (but not always), shortly after a
meal, lasting some  two or three hours, and then  subside,
after a large quantity of gas has been got rid of by eructa-
tion.  The accumulation of gas in the stomach and bowels,
with loud  rumblings and  sudden eructations,  and swelling
about the waist,  is of very common occurrence;  and the
excessive distention not unfrequently gives rise to notions
of dropsical  effusion.  This tympanitic  condition is owing,
probably, to partial paralysis  of the muscular coats of the
bowels. 
Hysterical  Type.
341
  The heart  not  unfrequently becomes  the seat of this
reflex  action;  and  the most violent  palpitations ensue,
which have  not unfrequently been  mistaken for "heart-
disease."  Violent and irregular action of the  heart, with
hurried and oppressed breathing, are  frequent and common.
In  some, the action of the heart is simply an  irregular
movement;  while  with others,  it beats  violently, thumping
against the ribs, and shaking the whole body.
  The lungs  are  frequently the seat of this disturbance,
and we  have the most distressing  attacks  of spasmodic
asthma:  indeed, no  organs of the body sympathize more
with  the nervous system,  under the various impressions
made upon them, than those concerned in the function  of
respiration; and the slightest causes are  oftentimes suffi-
cient to  lead  to an  irregularity  of breathing, sighing, and
sobbing, or an oppression simulating asthma.  This oppres-
sion and painful breathing  is often taken  for inflammation
of the lungs, and pleurisy, and treated as such.   The  most
frequent disturbance of the lungs is  a dry, hacking cough,
scarcely observed by the patient, but narrowly watched  by
surrounding  friends, and by them,  and not unfrequently
by  the attending  medical adviser, pronounced premonitory
symptoms of consumption;  yet there  is no evidence of any
disease of the lungs, no dyspnoea, no fever, no  quickening
of the pulse, no evidence of any catarrh of the mucous mem-
brane, no expectoration, either  purulent or mucous, nothing,
in fact,  but  a continued  hack, manifestly depending upon
sympathetic influence of the ovaries.
  Loss of voice, loss of hearing, loss of sight, partially or
entirely, with derangement  of  smelling and taste, are also
sometimes observed.   AVe have seen  many cases of partial
loss of voice and hearing, and  several cases of partial and
entire loss of sight, also perverted sensations, such as inor-
dinate thirst and hunger.   When the eyes become the seat
of this reflex action, the patient usually experiences flashes
of light, or sees objects floating about in the air, or passing 
 342    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 and repassing before her; surrounding fixtures appear to
 move or dance about, or she sees  every thing double.  A
 patient not long since came under our care, a young wo-
 man, whose  eyes  became thus affected.   To her, every
 thing appeared  double.  The needle  between her fingers;
 the seam that she was sewing; the streets, with the passing
 carriages;  and  the  trees along the  streets, — all  seemed
 double,  and  one placed  above the other.   This  condition
 continued for several months, and was succeeded by total
 blindness, at which time we first saw her.   There had been
 no pain or increased  vascularity of the eye, and the organs
 looked as though perfectly healthy.
  When the ears are affected, a rushing noise, or an inces-
 sant buzzing or ringing in the  ears, is ordinarily first
 experienced,  which is, after  a longer or shorter time, fol-
 lowed by the sense of hearing becoming more  obtuse than
 usual.   When the deafness is only partial, one ear  is ordi-
 narily much more affected than the other.
  We have known the salivary glands to become the seat
 of this reflex action, and the most profuse secretion of saliva
 kept up for weeks and months, varying in quantity from
 eight to twenty ounces per  day, and, what was most re-
 markable, without producing any emaciation, or seeming in
 the least to exhaust the powers of the system.
  One of  the most frequent of these  reflex disturbances is
 headache, which is, ordinarily, confined to  some small spot,
 as, for instance, in the top of the head, or in the  forehead,
or over one eye, or at the base of the brain, with tenderness
of the scalp, and intolerance of light and sound: ordinarily,
however, the patient  is seldom affected by both sound and
light; if she suffers from the  first, she experiences no dis-
comfort  from the latter.
  The brain and mental faculties not unfrequently become
involved, presenting symptoms of peculiar and  varied char-
acter.  Viewing every thing about  her through an unfavor-
able medium, the  patient becomes melancholy,  unhappy, 
Hysterical  Type.
343
 desponding, and her mind filled with  strange  forebodings
 and fears, if  not for herself, for  her  friends around  her.
 Sometimes distrust takes possession of her;  and she doubts
 the  good faith  and purity of motives  of every one about
 her.  At other times, she becomes fretful, capricious, and as
 changeable in her thoughts and feelings as the colors of the
 prism.   Joy  and melancholy,  hope and fear,  anger  and
 cheerfulness, trust and  distrust, mingle before her fancy in
 bewildering confusion.    Sydenham correctly and beauti-
 fully describes the temper and mental state.   He says, that,
 " upon  the least occasion, they  indulge terror, anger, jeal-
 ousy, distrust, and  other hateful passions,  and abhor joy
 and hope and cheerfulness; which, if they accidentally arise,
 as they seldom do,  quickly fly away, and yet disturb  the
 mind as the depressing passions do: so that they observe
 no mean in any thing, and are constant only to inconstancy.
 They love the same  persons extravagantly at one time, and
 soon after hate them  without  a cause : this instant they
 propose to do one  thing, and  the next, change  their mind,
 and enter upon something contrary to it, but without find-
 ing  it.   So unsettled is their mind, that they are  never at
 rest."
  Hysterical patients are very  generally subject either to
 distressing wakefulness or troublous dreams.  Their chief
 complaint, oftentimes, is their  inability to fall asleep.  Often
 they pass the entire night in a restless wakefulness,  and
 sometimes several nights in succession, with scarce an hour's
 sleep or rest, — rolling from one  side of the  bed to the
 other.
  Symptoms arising from diseased ovaries, calling into sym-
 pathy the different organs and tissues throughout the econ-
 omy, are almost numberless, the  most prominent of  which
 we  have  already given under the  head of  Symptoms, to
which we refer the reader.
  Sydenham makes  the observation, that "hysteria is  not
more remarkable for its frequency than  the numerous forms 
344   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

under which it appears, resembling part of all the distem-
pers wherewith mankind are afflicted; for, in whatever part
of the body it be seated, it immediately produces such symp-
toms as are peculiar thereto:  so that, unless a physician bo
a person of judgment and penetration, he will be mistaken,
and  suppose  such symptoms to arise from some essential
disease  of this or that particular part,  and not  from hys-
teric passion."   Ashwell very truly says,  that  "hysteria
seems to single out and affect every organ and every func-
tion which belongs to the true spinal system."
   Hysterical manifestations, as has already been  remarked,
are induced not from any single cause, but from a multiplicity
of causes.  They may  arise from irritability of the ovaries,
or their destruction; from inflammation  or obliteration of
the Fallopian  tubes; from an  under-sized, inflamed, indu-
rated, or displaced  uterus; ulceration  of its  neck; from
disease  of the bladder and  rectum, and especially from
impacted faeces.   We have several times seen the most vio-
lent paroxysms of hysteria induced  by the lower bowels
becoming distended with impacted faeces, upon the  removal
of which every trace of the disturbance disappeared.
   Injuries, inflammation, and disorganization of  the spinal
cord may produce effects resembling hysterical  phenomena,
and the same  may also be said of disease of the stomach
and intestines.  Intestinal  irritation from improper diet or
depraved secretions, worms, flatus,  acidity, &c, are all occa-
sional causes of the paroxysms,  which may be induced from
or without any sudden  mental perturbation, as  anger, fear,
grief, joy, &c.
   That   the above  conduce  to hysterical  manifestations,
whether  by inducing disease in the ovaries, or not, is  be-
yond question.  They are,  however, only occasional causes.
   That  the disturbed   manifestations are ordinarily con-
nected with a disordered state of the sexual feelings induced
by celibacy, disappointment in love, deferred marriage, early
widowhood, and sexual disappointment, is beyond all cavil 
Hysterical  Type.
345
or dispute, the truth of which is amply attested in  the fact
that they are  seldom, if ever, witnessed in women happily
married, but are both frequent and  common in the single
woman, especially if her passions are  strong;  in widows;
in barren women; in those married, but where, from physi-
cal disproportion  on  the husband's part, the venereal act is
but imperfectly performed; and in those who are indifferent
to or dislike their husbands;  in all of whom sub-acute in-
flammation of the ovaries may be suspected to exist.
   From a faulty  physical and moral education, the nervous
and sexual system  becomes weakened and excitable, and,
unable  to  ward  off  the  force of unsatisfied desires, passes
into a state of disease.   Sexual feelings are excited, but not
gratified; and Nature revolts.  The whole force of the com-
motion  falls upon the sensitive ovaries, the acknowledged
centre of the sexual  system. They receive the entire shock:
and their nerves  become morbid and irritable;  their vessels
become enlarged; the blood is impelled to and  retained in
them; and congestion and inflammation are imminent.
   We are told, that in India, among  the Hindoo women,
hysterical  manifestations are almost unknown.   We  may
see the  reason of this in  the, fact that it is  a matter of reli-
gious feeling among that people to procure a husband for the
girl as soon as menstruation first begins.   They think it  a
sin that a single  potential child should be lost.
   Hysterical disturbances are more common in the higher
orders of society : they are, however, seen in all  classes, from
the palace to the  hovel.  Among the lower classes, provoca-
tives of desire are  comparatively few; but in the upper
classes,  from the  want of necessary employment to occupy
the  mind,  from  the want  of exercise in the open air,
from novel-reading, poetry, dancing, theatricals, close prox-
imity and  fond toyings  with  the opposite sex, the sexual
feelings become  more prominently  developed,  and sexual
desires  elevated  to  the  highest  pitch,  which,  if ungrati-
fied, fail not to  light up disease in the sensitive ovaries, 
346   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

and transmit those disordered  sensations,  or an  irritation
which may, through the medium of the sympathetic chain
of nerves, compromise nearly all the  important organs of
the economy, such as the brain, the  lungs, the  heart, the
stomach, the  liver, the womb, the spinal cord, &c.; giving
notions of " general disease," — a term which so often care-
lessly falls from the  lips of medical men.   We say " care-
lessly ;"  for they know, or ought to  know, that all these
multiplied symptoms have one common origin;  and this is,
very generally,  the menstrual organs.
  How  overwhelmingly important that  correct  notions
should be entertained of an infirmity that affects so large a
proportion of womankind! — an  infirmity that Prof. Ashwell
calls "the incubus of female habit," and which Sydenham
declares to "constitute one-half of all chronic diseases."
  Unless we  properly understand these things, what  hope
is there  for suffering woman ! and what may be the quantity
of useless drugs that she takes  into the system, which will
not only do no good,  but prove most disastrous  to the con-
stitution ! Of what avail are medicines, so  long as the uni-
versal law of normal exercise and gratification are  unheeded
and uncomplied with ; so long as no natural outlet be given
to the most powerful of all  the passions; so long as the
cause of the infirmity is still operating ?
  When we  consider that the  great  majority of women
pass a large part, and an immense number the  wrhole, of
their lives without any gratification of the  sexual feelings,
or satisfaction  of  that  yearning wish  to  love and to be
loved, which is  the divinest and strongest  instinct in the
breast of young people; when we consider  who are the vic-
tims (the single, widows, and women  unhappily  married);
and when we consider  the powerful  disturbing influence
which the  systematic denial  and  disappointment of the
strongest of our natural desires must have upon a delicate
and susceptible girl, upon  her sensitive  and susceptible
ovaries, — we shall no  longer,  if we correctly understand 
Hysterical  Type.                347
Nature  and her  requirements, wonder r.t the multiplicity
of ills peculiar to women.
  Is  it possible  to  avoid  the  conclusion, that with their
natural emotions  checked and thrown back  upon  them-
selves ;  that with  the stream of feeling, which, instead of
being allowed to flow onward in its natural channel, is pent
up in the gloomy, secret caverns of the mind, causing there
a deluge and  a desolation ;  that that which  should have
been the young girl's pride and delight becomes her shame
and her torture, and that she must conceal, must studiously
repress, her eager and beautiful emotions, — is  it, we repeat,
possible to avoid the conclusion that these  are  the main
causes  and the great source of all her  ills?   Is it to be
wondered at that  Nature revolts, and lets loose tumultuous
hysterical emotions  as a just punishment  for the transgres-
sion  of her laws ?   Is it to be  wondered at that a force so
intense, so universal,  so  determinative  as the disturbing
power of ungratified sexual  -feelings is capable of influen-
cing the whole physical, intellectual, and moral nature of
 the subject of it ?   Touching the powerful  disturbing influ-
 ence which denial  of the strongest  of our natural  desires
 has  upon  the system, let us  refer once more to remarks
 made by Prof. Meigs.  He says, that "the  whole spinal
 cord vibrates under the tension of the vital  forces, roused
 to  excitement by the reproductive and aphrodisiac  power;
 cries, sobs, peals of immoderate laughter,  tears in floods,
 stolid silence, perfect cataphora, spasms tonic and clonic,
 tetanoid closure of  the jaws, the  most extraordinary rhyth-
 mical movements of the symmetrical halves of the body (zy-
 gozoar spasm), rigid opisthotonos, sudden enormous mete-
 orisms, profound coma, excessive secretion of  limpid urine;
 all followed suddenly by the profoundest calm of  the consti-
 tution, and a feeling of the sweetest  complacency and amia-
 bility—such are the symptoms which leap, as it were, out
 of profound  repose, with a sudden and startilng exaggera-
 tion."'— Disease of Females. 
348   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  "Is it the part of a wise man," says a London writer," to
refuse to see these 'facts'.'   Whatever we may be able to do
to cure or  to prevent these enormous evils, their main cause
is undeniable.  Men refuse to look at the melancholy results
of sexual  abstinence,  and rather blame the  patient  for in-
dulging in sexual feelings which cannot  be gratified.   It
may not be that their peculiar idolized  virtue should be
attended by so much misery: the fault cannot surely be  in
it, but must be in our own original sin and perverse nature.
Thus, according to the inveterate  error  of  the Christian
moralist, they lay the blame on  Nature the  all-perfect,
and hopelessly mourn over the evil  nature of man, instead
of trying to remedy their own erroneous system. .  .  .
  " The treatment of  hysteria is, as may be expected, often
very difficult.  The means usually applied are, as is readily
understood when we reflect on the general cause of the dis-
ease, and its nature, which is often more mental than bod-
ily, totally irrational,  and unsuited  to produce a radical
cure.   Dr. Ashwell acknowledges this; he  says, that few
physicians desire the treatment of hysteria;  for the  symp-
toms are  so variable, one  springing up after another, that
different remedies are successively tried and  abandoned, till
both the doctor and patient  are  worn out, and  the disease
suffered to take its course. In reality, Love is the only phy-
sician who can cure his peculiar diseases;  and it is in vain
for a medical man to expect to supply his  place.  The pas-
sions which have been repressed and  thrown into disorder
must be gratified, and  the proper healthy  stimulus given to
the sexual organs, so as to  restore their  nervous balance,
before we  can have any rational expectation of a cure.  The
mind will  thus become contented and happy, the  tumul-
tuous emotions be calmed and restored to health, and the
sexual organs will regain  their normal state.   Dr. Ashwell
says, that  marriage frequently cures hysteria; but hysterical
women often make bad nurses, having scanty and unnutri-
tious milk.  A sexual intimacy is the grand remedy in hys-
teria.  . . . 
Hysterical Type.
349
   "The  main  object of treatment in all  hysterical  cases
 should be to go to the root of the disease,  and remove the
 morbid  state of  the sexual  system and  feelings,  which
 causes the general nervous irritability.  It  is in vain that
 we treat symptom after symptom, — headache, colic, fits, or
 mental irritability, vehemence, or  caprice.   We may over-
 come  one enemy after  another, we  may load  the patient
 whether with blame or compassion; but we cannot cheat
 Nature: and, until the required remedy is applied, the radi-
 cal sexual disorder in mind and body will continue, and only
 become aggravated by continuance.
   " It is a miserable thing to see the usual  treatment of an
 hysterical girl.    Friends  and relations either laugh at or
 dislike her; for irritability,  peevishness, and often violent
 temper, are  a part of the disease; and that effeminate amia-
 bility  which is so  highly lauded in  the  female character, at
 the expense of the far  higher virtues of  force and inde-
 pendent  energy, is sadly  defaced  by stern Nature, whose
 destructive  tendencies  will  not be silenced in either sex.
 Such  unkind  and  mistaken  treatment  often aggravates
 the disease,  and pushes  it to the verge of insanity, or, fre-
 quently, into complete insanity;  for hysteria often  ends in
 this where the mind is naturally weak.   The medical man
 must  generally content himself with  treating symptoms,
 and directs  his attention chiefly  to bracing the  general
 health, and, at most, palliating the  affection.  . . .
   " Every young mind, whether in man  or woman, burns for
 romance,  love, and adventure:  these  are the  great natural
 stimuli to the  health and virtue  of youth, the pole-stars
 which  cheer  us on,  and  shed a  glory on  our every-day
 working life.   At home, among her relations, the young
 hysterical girl has,  in  many cases, a constant feeling of
 degradation; the emotions which she instinctively feels are
 the most ennobling and exalting  for her are  oldly looked
 upon  or laughed  at; her romantic  longings  are  sneered
down, and the main  springs  of her virtue  trodden in  the 
350  Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

dust.   Familiarity in the home circle far too often breed?
contempt;  and it  is very  frequently  a love-affair  that
first shows a  girl what she  can  be, and elevates  hei into
another sphere of self-respect.  In countries  such as Scot-
land, where spiritual puritanism reigns triumphant, romance
and love have  no quarter shown to them; and all the ardent
sexual aspirations meet with double discouragement.  Kind-
ness and reverence should be used  towards  the hysterical,
instead of the  contemptuous  way in which the}'- are usually
treated, so as to increase their self-respect and self-control.
A great part of the disease consists  in a sense of weakness
and want of self-confidence.  How  can a girl have confi-
dence in herself, if all around laugh at her,  and treat her
feelings as unreal !   It must never be  thought  that hys-
teria is  an unreal disease.  It is a weakened state of the
nervous system, physical and mental;  and the  physical
weakness and irritability are just as marked as  the  mental.
It is easy to laugh;  but it is rather the part of the wise and
feeling heart to reverence and to cure.
  " One great  reason of the simulation of various diseases,
and also of the vague and unreal  nature of many of the
sufferings  of which  the hysterical  complain, is,  that they
are  forbidden to disclose the real cause  of their sufferings
or of their unhappiness.  In every sexual disease, both  in
man and woman, and especially in the latter, the  miserable
necessity for concealment makes the  patient invent other
subjects of complaint; and thus sexual patients are almost
always accused  of hypochondria, and falsification or exag-
geration of symptoms.  When a man or a woman suffers,
whether in  mind or body, they must give some  reason for
it;  and  if they are forbidden,  by our unnatural ideas of pro-
priety, to speak freely of the  real  cause, they are forced into
deceit:  and  this is one cause which  greatly heightens the
miseries of all these diseases, and is a source of great  deg-
radation to the sufferer.  No diseases cause  such a feeling
of insufferable degradation as  the  sexual ones,  and, in  a 
Hysterical Type.
351
minor degree,  those of the excretory organs.   Not to be-
lieve  in an individual is one of the greatest injuries we can
do him, and is as philosophically false as it is unfeeling.  It
has been  truly and beautifully said, ' Love thy neighbor as
thyself;' but the precept, 'Believe in thy neighbor as thy-
self,'  is not  less true,  and still more needed among us.
Every man believes in himself, and knows that his nature
is true at  bottom;  that his  joys  and  his  sorrows are
real, although  his  external character may be  at  variance
with  the inner man.  But it is the part of the  moralist and
the physician to endeavor to see into this inner man, which
is always  real, and seek to make the  exterior correspond
with  it.   It is only when  the  inner man is  in harmony
with the outer, and when a person  thus lives  a  true  life,
that  there can be satisfactory happiness.  Nature always
strives to  be true, and to have a true expression; although
in our complex and imperfect society, her purpose is often
defeated.
   " If a  genital disease  co-exist with hysteria, it will be
necessary to cure it; but, in many of the functional genital
diseases, by far the most effectual cure is sexual intercourse:
and medicinal remedies will be needed chiefly in the inflam-
matory diseases, and in cases where sexual  intercourse  and
child-bearing prove insufficient.   It is important to remark,
that sexual intercourse may frequently fail thoroughly to
cure a sexual disease in woman; while child-bearing, lacta-
tion, and  the  thoroughly new world of physical and  moral
emotions which is  thus opened up to her, and which is ne-
cessary in that sex to complete the chain of the sexual func-
tions, may succeed.  The  immense impulse that  is often
given to the health of woman by child-bearing, the change
which it produces, dispelling morbid states of body and mind,
and giving a renewed freshness and vigor to both,  in those
cases where it proceeds naturally and happily, is well known.
If it be not possible to procure for hysterical  women these
great  remedies, let us not flatter ourselves that the disease 
352   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

will yield throughout  our society to any other means.  If
we  must  still  adhere to  the old  routine, to valerian or
musk,  assafcetida and  opium, to lecturing, persuading, or
upbraiding, the cure of hysterical disease is a physical and
moral impossibility.
  "As to the still more important question of the preven-
tion of this wide-spread  malady, the  same remedy which
will cure will also prevent, like all the natural  remedies.
The only possible mode of preventing  hysteria is by forti-
fying the general system by the appropriate exercise  of all
the bodily and mental powers from childhood upwards; and,
more especially, by providing for the  healthy exercise of
the sexual organs and emotions as soon  as  Nature requires
this.  If we  could  possibly  attain  this so desirable aim
throughout society, hysteria would  almost disappear,  in-
stead of being, as at present, probably the most widely spread
of all diseases, and therefore creating an enormous mass of
misery.  It is the most wide-spread of all diseases, simply
because, of all the human organs, the female genital organs
and sexual feelings are placed, at present, in  the most un-
healthy circumstances.
  "Woman's peculiar torments begin at puberty; and from
that time,  in innumerable cases, till  her marriage, she is
the constant  prey of anxiety.  Ungratified desires distract
her, endless  temptations  and excitements surround her,
marriage is for her so critical a step; and yet  she has not
the power of selection.  The fatal question, Shall she be
married at all ? gradually dawns upon  her, and the  clouds
and whirlwind of anxious and conflicting  passions darken
her sky.   If  these be not  natural and  real sufferings, and
if we are not to recognize and do all we can to remedy this
fearful state  of matters, let us  close at once  the book of
human knowledge, and give up the farce of philosophy and
philanthropy.   It is our  part to investigate diligently, and
recognize  all truths ; nor to bend what we see to a precon-
ceived  theory,  but rather to  form, if  possible, a  theory 
Hysterical Type.
353
based upon all the natural  truths.  If we  do thus in the
case before us, we will  see, that  unless we can remove the
main cause of the hysteria, namely, insufficient sexual grat-
ifications, it  is totally impossible to prevent  that  disease.
Let  us  look this truth steadily  in the face, whatever diffi-
culties it occasions us." — Elements  of Physical,  Sexual,
and Natural Religion.
   In conclusion, we repeat, that hysterical  disturbances
arise ordinarily  from  disease  of the sexual  system,  and
generally,  as we believe, from  disease  of the ovaries,  in-
duced by a disordered  state of  the sexual  feelings, conse-
quent upon ungratified desires.
              28 
X.
              LEUCORRHOEAL  TYPE.

    THIS type is characterized by an inordinate and altered
      secretion of the mucus furnished by the mucous mem-
brane lining  the  vagina and uterus.   The discharge has
been  designated by  a variety of names, — "leucorrhoea,"
" vaginal  discharge," " fluor albus,"  " sexual weakness,"
" weakness,"  " the whites," &c.
  Leucorrhoea is divided into vaginal and uterine.  In the
former, the discharge comes from the vagina; in the latter,
from the womb.  When both vagina and womb are impli-
cated, the morbid  secretion comes  from the lining mem-
brane of both  organs.   We believe  that, ordinarily, the
neck of the womb is the part most affected.
  Of all the infirmities that afflict woman, none are so com-
mon, none so  persistent,  none so intractable of cure, as " the
whites."  It  is common to  all temperaments, all classes,
and all conditions.   The physician's ingenuity  has been
taxed to its utmost.   " Old women " have been appealed  to
in vain.  Remedy  after remedy has been  sought out and
tested, but to little or no purpose.   The discharge  remains
persistent.  All effort towards a cure is a failure.   Why is
this ?  why is  not a morbid  secretion from  the mucous
membrane of the womb and vagina as amenable  to treat-
ment  as a morbid secretion from other mucous membranes'.'
why have constitutional  remedies  and local  applications
failed in relieving an irritable or congested or inflamed  or
ulcerated mucous membrane of the womb and vagina, when
they are ordinarily so speedily effectual in other parts of the
             351 
m^f^mmsigi^jgasaa
                   Leucorrheal  Type.              355

economy of similar structure?—are questions that follow
each other in quick succession.
  Leucorrhoea is an effect, a symptom supervening upon an
irritated, congested, or an  inflamed or ulcerated vaginal or
uterine mucous  membrane, and will readily yield  to appro-
priate remedies, providing that which caused this  condition
of the parts be sought out and removed, and not before.
  If  the infirmity be regarded as  a "weakness," as a gen-
eral or local debility, as it is by too many medical  men, and
treatment be instituted with reference to those  indications,
failure will be the inevitable result.
  The great secret of the inefficacy  of remedial effort lies
in the fact that the various forms  of  what is called leucor-
rhoea  are regarded as substantive diseases, as so many sepa-
rate and distinct affections, instead of symptoms and effects
of a morbid  process near  or remote; and in the  fact that
these  effects are treated instead of the cause.   The " weak-
ness " is treated, and  the " discharge" is  treated,  and the
whole catalogue of tonics and local medicaments in the
shape of stimulating  and  astringent  washes are brought to
bear  upon the case,  but to very little  or  no  purpose, for
the simple reason that the cause is still operating.
  Who would  think  of regarding expectoration as an es-
sential  malady,  and  treat  it with a view of arresting the
discharge ?   No one:  yet  the  morbid condition  of the
pulmonary tissues producing the expectoration  is  precisely
similar to the morbid condition of the  uterine  and vaginal
tissues producing the leucorrhoea.
  The healthy vagina is  constantly lubricated with mucus
to prevent cohesion of its sides, which lie in contact.   This
mucus is  thrown out upon the inner surface of its lining
membrane from  the mucous follicles which exist in great
abundance in this  tissue, more especially near the vulva.
These follicles also exist in great  abundance in the lining
membrane of the uterus,  more particularly in  the cervix.
The organization and disposal of the  mucous membrane 
 356    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 lining the canal  of the cervix is such as to afford  a very
 large extent of glandular surface for the purpose of secre-
 tion ; and it has been estimated that a well-developed virgin
 cervix uteri must contain at  least ten thousand of these
 mucous follicles.
   The  secretion from the vaginal follicles is highly acid;
 that of the cervix, alkaline;  and  their coming in  contact
 produces the curdled, opaque character of the discharge.
   When  the cervical cavity is in  a healthy  condition, the
 alkaline mucous secretion is thrown out from the folhcles  in
 just a sufficient quantity to fill up and block the passage
 from the vagina to the cavity of the fundus, or body,  of the
 womb.  At each menstrual  period, this block or plug of
 mucus is washed away by the catamenial flow.  When the
 flow ceases, the plug is again formed; and, as we have re-
 marked, just enough is  secreted to fill the  cavity without
 any flow into the vagina.   Thus  we see that the secretion
 from the mucous follicles in the  cervix uteri is periodical,
 and, like the catamenial secretion, is  due to the influence
 of the ovaries.  If no ovaries existed, no mucous plug would
 be formed.
   Under  excitement, the vaginal secretion from the follicles
 near  the  vulva is much increased.  During sexual inter-
 course, a profuse emission takes place  in  some women.  In
 the absence of excitement,  the secretion is inconsiderable.
   From the above, it is seen that just enough  secretion  is
 thrown out from the follicles in the cavity of the neck of the
 womb to  fill that cavity, or passage, without any flow into
jthe vagina, and that, in the absence of excitement,  the  se-
 cretion from the vaginal follicles  is inconsiderable; it being
 just sufficient to lubricate  the parts, and prevent cohesion
 of the sides of the vagina,  which lie in contact.
   An inordinate discharge or supersecretion  from the foDi-
 cles of the cervical cavity,  causing a constant flow of mucus
 into the  vagina, also  an inordinate flow from the vaginal
 follicles,  constitutes  what is  called  leucorrhoea, or "the 
Leucorrheal Type.
357
whites."   The follicles of the cervical cavity are the ones
ordinarily affected, and from which the flow of mucus, which
constitutes " the whites," usually emanates.
  In a healthy condition, the alkaline secretion of the cav-
ity of the neck of  the womb is congenial to and offers a
suitable medium for the passage of  the male sexual element
(the spermatozoa)  through the cervix uteri into the uterine
cavity.   But when  there  is  an  inordinate secretion, in
other words, leucorrhoea, and the  flow constant into the
vagina, there is no  formation of the mucous plug;  and the
ovule, even  if fecundated, becomes  washed out of the ute-
rus before an attachment is formed with the living  surface
of the mother,  and sterility is the result.
  When the vaginal follicles are the seat  of an  inordinate
flow, the excess of acid destroys the vitality of the sperma-
tozoa in their passage from the vagina to the cavity of the
womb; consequently no fecundation takes place, and sterility
is the result.
  What is the  cause of inordinate  follicular flow, or leucor-
rhoea?   If this be overlooked, the morbid  discharge will
baffle the skill  of all who attempt to correct  it.   All treat-
ment will prove nugatory, unless the medical adviser has
prominently in mind, first, that the menstrual organs exer-
cise, as we have already shown, a governing influence over
the rest of the sexual system; second, that these organs
are of a spongy, erectile, vascular structure, and subject
every twenty-eight days to a periodical congestion (which
is in  itself  almost  a disease), and consequently,  being pre-
eminently disposed to inflammation, very  readily pass from
a physiological state into a morbid  condition;  and, third,
that, instead of transmitting a physiological stimulus which
impels the womb and vagina to a  healthy action, the ova-
ries, when  diseased,  transmit a morbid stimulus  to these
dependent organs, which induces in them an exaggeration
of their  physiological state,  and an  altered  action  of  the
mucous membrane lining the  parts,  and an exaggerated 
358   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

discharge or super-secretion takes place, or, in lieu of this,
a congested, inflamed, and an altered  condition of the tex-
ture of these organs supervenes, with all its complicated,
multiplied,  and distressing sympathetic accompaniments.
  We witness more or less of this  condition in  the first
establishment of the catamenia.   The congested menstrual
organs transmit a morbid stimulus, which induces  an inter-
nal heat and irritation, with a sense of fulness and weight
in the lower abdomen, which becomes relieved only by  a
free discharge from the little glands in the sub-mucous tis-
sue, — in other words,  a  leucorrhoeal  discharge.   This leu-
corrhoeal flow not unfrequently occurs for several periods
before  the  true character of the menstrual fluid  is estab-
lished.   The morbid  stimulus  transmitted from  the con-
gested  and swollen ovaries  also vitiates the  secretions,
causes the bowels to become  irregular, the sleep  disturbed
and unrefreshing, with pain in the back,  loins, and head.
  Leucorrhoea occurs ordinarily in  females broken  by dis-
ease.  Whenever the vital powers become weakened, when-
ever there  is much constitutional weakness, local  disorder
becomes lighted up in that part of the system which is the
least able to  resist the influence of  morbid  stimulus.  In
females of worn-out constitutions, the local  disorder gener-
ally becomes  located in the sexual organs, and for the rea-
son that these organs are rendered pre-eminently susceptible
to the influence of morbid stimulus on account of  the  peri-
odical turgescence to which  they are  subject.   On account
of the process of ovulation, they are more prone to disease
than any other organ in  the body.
  We  believe, that, in the great majority of cases of leu-
corrhoeal discharge,  the  primary cause will be found in  a
morbid  condition of the ovaries.  We adopt this belief from
the fact that leucorrhoeal flow does not occur  when the
ovaries  are absent; and it is seldom or never present before
puberty, when the ovaries are immature  and  hold no con-
trolling influence over the womb and other sexual organs; 
Leucorrheal  Type.
359
and it very generally ceases at the close of menstrual life,
when the ovaries have  reached the full period  of their ex-
istence, and, losing their influence over the sexual system,
are no longer capable of transmitting either a physiological
or pathological stimulus to their dependent organs.
   That there are cases, comparatively few in number, how-
e^er, that  have  their rise and origin in  a congested, in-
flamed, and ulcerated mucous membrane of the womb  and
vagina, without any previous diseased condition of the men-
strual  organs, no  one can  deny;  as,  for example, from
wounds, contusions, over-distention,  long pressure, foreign
substances, venereal poisons,  excessive sexual intercourse,
the various states of  catarrh, aphthous disease,  adhesive
inflammation  and cohesion  of the nymphae,  and  that re-
bellious sort of inflammation and ulceration induced at the
superior angle of the nymphae and clitoris, and maintained
by  vicious propensities  to excite the parts by friction,
 &c, which require a  treatment directed  primarily to the
 womb  and vagina;  a treatment scientific,  correct, and
 proper  in  these cases;  a treatment,  however,  that will
 scarcely be successful, unless attention be also directed to
 the menstrual organs, for the reason that the womb and
 vagina, primarily congested and inflamed, cannot long re-
 main  so  without lighting up  disease in the  menstrual
 organs, either through sympathy or by continuity of tissue,
 and which will  inevitably re-act upon  the primary lesion.
 Herein, we take it, lies the  great  secret  of  the  difficulty
 experienced in curing those cases where extensive ulcera-
 tions  of the  womb and  vagina  go  on kindly and  rapidly
 healing, until they become reduced to a superficial size of a
 shilling-piece, and  then  break out  again to  their original
 extent in the course  of a few clays, defying all  local and
 constitutional remedies,  until the walls of the vagina be-
 come contracted to an almost  total atresia.
    Another and frequent cause of leucorrhoea, and one not
 unfrequently  overlooked, is  the gouty and rheumatic dia- 
360   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

thesis; and, so long as these conditions of system remain,
no permanent c*re need be anticipated from any local treat-
ment, or by gen.ral treatment, if it  has  not  in  view the
proper depuration of the blood.  We have already spoken
of these blood poisons,  and need not here repeat.   A gouty
and rheumatic habit is  a frequent cause of leucorrhoea; and
patients laboring under the infirmity would do well to  note
the fact.
  Constipation of the bowels is another cause of leucorrhoeal
discharge.  It induces  congestion in the uterine system by
obstructing the returning circulation.
  Leucorrhoeal discharge sometimes takes place during the
period of suckling, but  is ordinarily mild.  Sometimes, how-
ever, the discharge  is profuse and debilitating, and necessi-
tates the weaning of the child.   This done, the flow speedily
diminishes.
  Another and not  unfrequent cause of leucorrhoea is mal-
position of the womb, inducing an irritability of its tissues.
  Inflammation and  ulceration  of the cervix uteri, tu-
mors  of the vagina and uterus, polypus, worms, impaction
of a pessary,  &c, are  all  occasional  causes  of this  flow.
From the want of  proper  ablutions, discharges sometimes
occur from the vulva  of  children  and very young  girls.
The same take place  also, sometimes,  from  teething and
intestinal irritation.
  By many females, the leucorrhoeal  discharge is  regarded
as the cause of their ill-health.  By them it is supposed,
that, if the discharge could be removed, they would regain
their health and strength; little dreaming that it is  their
ill-health that  causes the discharge, and  that the leucor-
rhoeal flow is simply an effect or symptom  of some local
infirmity or general disorder.
  Leucorrhoeal discharges are sometimes of a purulent and
most acrid character; and sexual intercourse has been known
to bring on  a train of symptoms very much resembling
gonorrhoea, and leading to  much  domestic  unhappiness, 
                  Leucorrheal  Type.              361

from supposition that one party or the other had contracted
gonorrhoea from impure connection.  Notwithstanding as-
sertions to the contrary by many distinguished physicians,
the most accurate diagnosis cannot distinguish between the
two diseases. 
XI.
TERMINATION  01'  SUBACUTE  OR  CHRONIC
      INFLAMMATION OF  THE OVARIES.

    SUBACUTE inflammation of the ovaries may terminate
     in resolution, with  a  gradual subsidence  of  all local
and general symptoms; or the organs may pass  into  an
indurated, swollen, and irritable condition, which may last
for months and years.
  With this latter  condition of the  ovaries, sterility is
almost invariably the consequence.   Should  pregnancy,
however, occur, abortion would be almost inevitable.
  The ovaries may become softened, presenting the appear-
ance of pulp; or  inflammation of these organs may termi-
nate in the formation of large fibrous  tumors, or a large
quantity of  pus or water; in all  of which conditions the
power of conception is destroyed, and sterility is the result.
" Sterility is a common consequence of ovarian changes." —
Dr. Robert Lee.

                      STERILITY.
  As has been already remarked, the  divine Author of the
world has so ordained  his laws that while all living things,
both.plants and animals, seem to have a  limited existence,
yet they are, after all, as permanent as creation  itself;
that, while we are in our own persons such perishable crea-
tures, we are permanent as a genus or kind, being  kept  up
by a constant succession of new individuals.  A man who
has  given birth to  children does not wholly die at death,
but  a part of him survives ill his offspring.  Every living
             302 
Sterility.
3^3
organism has sprung from a pre-existing organism.  The
doctrine of spontaneous generation,  which held, that,  in
some cases, living beings might originate out  of  lifeless
matter,  has long  since  exploded.   Every  living  thing
springs from a parent like  itself.  Each individual repro-
duces as he has been  produced himself.
   The  male organs  of reproduction consist of the penis
and urethra, testicles, seminal vesicles, seminal ducts, pros-
tate and Cowper's glands.
   The female organs  of reproduction are the vulva,  clitoris
and nymphae, vagina, womb, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries.
   The  special organs set  apart  for  reproduction are the
ovaries  and the testicles.  The  first evolve eggs, and
the  latter elaborate  spermatozoids, which  are  the  active
agents  in  impregnation, the immediate fathers  of  us all.
After being discharged from the  male emitting organ into
the  vagina, the  spermatozoa find their way to the egg,
conjugate with it, and thus produce a fertile germ.
   The vasa deferentia and vesiculae seminales, in the male,
conduct and retain the seminal fluid containing the sperma-
tozoa.    The  Fallopian  tubes  of the  female  receive the
ovum from the ovaries, and  conduct it  to the womb. The
latter retains the egg through pregnancy.   The  penis and
vagina are chiefly connected with  sexual intercourse. The.
former serves to  conduct the seminal fluid  into  the latter
and womb.  The glans penis, and the clitoris and neighbor-
ing parts of the  female, are the seat of venereal pleasure.
   Sterility, the source of much unhappiness to women, sig-
nifies an inaptitude on the part of the female to become
impregnated.
   Women may, however, remain barren through generative
insufficiency in  the  male,  from defect  of one  or more of
the three conditions— erection, intromission, and ejaculation
of the spermatic fluid — which are necessary on the part of
the male for copulation.
   First, There may  be  deficiency or a defective develop- 
 364    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 ment of the apparatus  naturally designed for the trans-
 ference of the spermatic fluid  to  the  female organs.   A
 congenital deficiency of this organ is,  however, very rare.
 Deficiency from disease or accident, from  the  bites of ani-
 mals, from burns, wounds, or surgical operations,  is more
 common.   Its removal, however, close to the pubes, may be
 no  bar to  the  power of procreation, while the ejaculatory
 muscles retain their natural power to propel the spermatic
 fluid.  A case  is  on  record,  " of a young woman  who was
 jealous, and who concealed a  razor, with which she removed
 the penis, while in the sexual act, close  to the pubes.   The
 mutilated husband recovered, notwithstanding the hemor-
 rhage, and went to cohabit with another woman, whom he
 illegally married.  His first wife ascertained that his sec-
 ond was pregnant, expressed great sorrow for her act, and
 persuaded him  to return to her.   He did so ;  and then the
 second wife appeared before a magistrate, to swear or affiliate
 the infant to him,  of which she was pregnant."
  Diminutiveness  of the  organ, where it is otherwise vigor-
 ous, is no bar to the  power of  procreation ; nor is extraor-
 dinary thickness or length.   The respective sexual organs
 may be so disproportionate as never to be adapted  to each
 other; and the physical inconveniences may be such as to
expose the female  to great injury and danger to her health ;
 but this is no bar to  the  power of procreation.   M. Fodere
 observes, that  "the  thickness  of the penis, which excites
 great pain in some women, procures voluptuous sensations
 in others.  The vagina is capable of great dilatation, which
 may be effected by gentle  and gradual efforts, and reduced
 to a state capable of receiving the virile member.  Though
 extreme length of penis may produce contusion of the  os
 and cervix uteri, it cannot  be deemed a just  cause of im-
 potence, because, by certain precautions, the danger may be
 avoided, unless there is great difference between the age of
 the parties."
  There are penes of unusual length, but  thin, particularly 
Sterility.
3^5
at their  base,  which are  deficient  in  energy, and incom-
plete  in  erection.   Where this abnormal condition of the
erectile tissue is present, impotence is usually found to exist.
The intromiting  organ of the negro is proverbially large,
but does not proportionately increase  in size  on erection
taking place, as is the case in whites.   " Size is no sign of
vigor.    One  of  the  first characteristics  of the  perfect
athlete of classic times was unusually small though well-
shaped genital organs. • Indeed, as I have before said, a large
flaccid penis is not unfrequently a result and an indication
of  masturbation having been  indulged in to a dangerous
extent."  — Acton.
  The orifice of the urethra sometimes opens in the under
surface of the organ; but it does not signify unfruitfulness.
If, however, the orifice is placed, as  it sometimes  is, in the
perinseum, so that the emissio seminis does not reach the
vagina, impotence may be  said  to be  absolute.   In a con-
tracted state of the  prepuce, where  the urine  is voided in
drops, and the emission impeded, the patient is  impotent,
usually,  until  an operation relieves the constricted parts.
Disease  of the seminal ducts, and stricture  of the urethra,
impeding emission, are frequent causes of this infirmity;
so,  also,  priapism, where the erection is so  vigorous  as to
close  the urethra.  A case was  reported in " The Gazette
Med." 1785, "A man aged thirty-six years, of good consti-
tution, was married to  a healthful woman aged twenty-six.
Both were in good health, and extremely desirous of having
children: but  the husband could not  ejaculate on account
of the vigor of erection and rigidity of the penis; and he
was forced to retire before the consummation of the act.
This  circumstance  was the more remarkable, as he had
experienced  no difficulty with other women, and had chil-
dren by  his first wife."
   Second, The testes may be wanting,  or so defective in
structure that  no spermatic fluid  is  furnished;  or there
may  be  a  deficiency of  its elemental constituent.   The 
366   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

testes are the essential organs in the  secretion of semen;
and their absence  renders the male unfruitful, and beyond
the help of medical or surgical interference.  Absence of
the testes  in  the scrotum  does  not imply unfruitfulness.
They may be retained  in  the  abdomen, and  yet no  impo-
tence result.   In the elephant and some other animals,
and in birds and reptiles, the testicles are constantly found
in the abdomen side by side with the kidneys, and in other
parts of the body.  In cases, however, where the testes do
not descend into the scrotum, they remain  ordinar'ly un-
developed, imperfect in structure, and soft, evolving semen
containing no traces of spermatozoa.
  Deficiency  of  the  testicles is accompanied  with well-
marked  constitutional  phenomena  not  easily  mistaken.
The characteristics of the male are obliterated, and those
of the female  simulated.   The general  signs  of virility
are absent; masculine activity and vigor, a well-developed
muscular system, a strong, deep-toned voice, the beard, and
the hair on  the breasts  and pubes, are wanting.   The hair  is
usually of light color; the muscles  are  flabby and soft;
skin fine and delicate; eyes dull and heavy, with a pale,
sorrowful cast of countenance; voice sharp and squeaking,
or falsetto in quality, and stature small.  The thigh-bones
are less  arched than in man, and the haunch-bones more
spreading, like  those of  the female, and  form a pelvis of
uncommon capacity.  The cellular tissue is more abundant,
more loose, and more replete with fat.   Males thus circum-
stanced are ordinarily of dull intellect, cruel, stingy, jeal-
ous, pusillanimous,  artful,  depraved,  and great cowards.
" Cowardly and  deceitful, because they are feeble; envious
and wicked, because they are wretched."
  Congenital deficiency, or extirpation  of the  testes, al-
though it deprives the  individual of the  power of procrea-
tion, is not attended by total  extinction of venereal desire.
Extirpation does  not  prevent erection or venereal  orgasm
from taking place ; but the emission consists  of the prostate 
Sterility.                    367
fluid, the mucus of the seminal vesicles and urethra, and is
unprolific.   Eunuchs retain the power of copulation in an
imperfect manner; and this is so well  known, we  are  told,
that, in the East, the eunuchs who  have charge of the se-
raglios are deprived of all external generative organs. Local
mJul7> atrophy, scirrhus, cancer, and scrofula, affecting  both
testes, render the subject impotent; and, a:* we have already
seen, a state of complete inaction, as in those who  have
maintained a strict monastic life, is often attended by a sim-
ilar result, — the internal  spermatic organs  shrink, and be-
come inert.
   Third, Extreme obesity may also prove a source of im-
potence.  We  are told that; Martin, king of Aragon, fur-
nishes a striking example of this.  " He is stated, by his-
torians, to  have been so corpulent, that neither mechanical
contrivances nor medical  treatment could render  him any
assistance towards the accomplishment of venereal congress."
Large scrotal hernia and tumors  are  attended, sometimes,
with a similar result.
   Fourth,  One of the more common causes of impotence is
a weakness of the generative  organs, induced by too early
or excessive sexual intercourse, or from  indulgence  in the
pernicious crime of self-abuse.  " Impotence is often caused
by debility of the genital  organs, induced  by precocious
venereal enjoyments; or by the abuse of the sexual func-
tions by solitary indulgence  or masturbation.    In  these
cases, there is often want of erection, and, should a seminal
emission take place, the semen does not  possess its prolific
power." — Ryan.
   Excessive sexual intercourse is also  a frequent  cause of
want of erection and impotence.   Desire remains; but the
erector muscles of the organ do not respond, notwithstand-
ing  the mind  may be highly excited by lascivious ideas.
Burning passions consume; but the  emblem  of  manhood
lies motionless, lifeless.   The cup of life  which glittered
with gems  and gold, and hitherto filled to overflowing with 
368    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

a concentration  of all  known or imagined pleasures,  has
become  sacked,  and drained  to  the dregs.   The  cup is
empty;  and impotence  is the  spirit  which destiny  has  let
loose against the transgressor to torment him.
  The act  may be imperfectly performed, and, from exces-
sive indulgence,  the  semen may escape without the  aid of
the ejaculatory muscles; or it may be imperfect in quality,
thin, watery, and devoid of prolific power.
  Fifth, General debility — from intemperance, inordinate
and  debilitating discharges,  long-continued  debauchery,
masturbation,  long watching, great fatigue, mental  or cor-
poreal, want of nutriment, or from whatever cause induced
— is another common cause of ,the infirmity.
  An overtaxed  brain annihilates sexual  feelings.   The
student is  impotent  during any long-continued and fati-
guing mental  exertion.  When  the brain is overtaxed, the
testes do not secrete, consequently erections are not likely
to occur, or, if they occur,  they may  be imperfect.  The
same occurs when any great muscular exertion takes place.
If, however, the  reproductive organs be healthy, and have
not been abused, sexual feelings  and  powers will return as
soon as the brain or the muscles are allowed to regain their
normal  condition.  Peyrilhe reports  a case, " A mathema-
tician, profoundly occupied with  some problems which he
could not solve, was so affected when he caressed his spouse
he could not ejaculate.   His wife consulted the narrator of
this  case,  who  advised her  to  cause  an amorous,  joyous
excitement  in her husband,  and to seize  this moment to
receive  his caresses.  She  rigorously followed  the  advice,
and her husband regained his powers."
   Men who gain their bread by the sweat of their brows,
or those who during  certain periods are oppressed mentally
from  cares  and  perplexities  of life,  are  temporarily impo-
tent; but a lapse of time, or a  change in their pecuniary
matters, will bring back sexual thoughts, and the lethargy
of feeling will be followed sooner or later by ardent  feelings
and re-instated sexual powers. 
Sterility.                    369
   Excessive smoking,  inordinate use  of  alcoholic liquors,
 the  pleasures of the  table, &c,  bring about, not unfre-
 quently, a lethargy of feeling which will  continue so  long
 as these excesses are indulged in.
   Masturbation  is  another cause of  deficiency in manhy
 vigor.  It  produces not  unfrequently an indifference to-
 wards the opposite sex, which condition, if the  habit be not
 abandoned, will continue  through  life.  "The  impotence,"
 says Pinel, "caused by masturbation reduces youth to the
 nullity of old age, and is  too often  incurable."   And Acton
 tells us, that " a  youth who masturbates himself,  and  con-
 tinues the  practice  as  he grows up to manhood, generally
 evinces, even after he has arrived at the marriageable  age,
 no disposition towards the other sex.   Only his own  soli-
 tary  pleasures can  give him  any gratification:  as far as
 women are concerned, he is virtually impotent."  Touching
 a masturbator's state of feeling towards the opposite  sex,
 Lallemand says,  " Their solitary vice has a tendency to sep-
 arate those practising it from women.   At first,  of course, it
 is on the  sex that their thoughts dwell; and they embellish
 an ideal being with  all the charms of imaginary perfection.
 The  habit, however, which enslaves them little by little,
 changes and depraves the nature of their ideas,  and  at last
 leaves nothing but indifference for the very reality of which
 the image has been  so constantly evoked to aid their crim-
 inal indulgence.   At a later period, when  erection is  only
 temporary, and is too incomplete for them to  think of  sex-
 ual intercourse, they abandon themselves with fury to their
 fatal habit, notwithstanding the  almost complete flaccidity
 in which  the  erectile tissues  are left.  At this period, the
 handsomest woman only inspires these patients with  repug-
 nance and disgust;  and they ultimately acquire an instinc-
 tive  aversion, a real hatred, for the sex.   They dare not
 always let their feelings on this subject escape  them, from
 fear of  their shameful vice being suspected, or the humili-
ating condition to  which  they are  reduced  being discov-
              21 
370   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

ered; but they lose no opportunity of, as it were, revenging
themselves for the  repugnance which they  believe they
produce in women, and which, in truth, they do inspire, in
consequence of the instinctive  reciprocity of such feelings
that is inevitable.  ... In losing before the usual age  the
generative functions, man loses the  consciousness  of  his
dignity, of his essential character; because he feels himself
fallen in importance in relation to his species.  In  conse-
quence, the loss of virile power produces an  effect more
overpowering than that of honors, fortune, friends, or rela-
tives :  even the  loss of liberty is  as nothing  compared to
this internal and continual torture.  Those who suffer from
injustice  or misfortune  can accuse their  enemies, society,
chance, &c, and invent or retain the  consciousness  of  not
having deserved their lot; they have, moreover, the  conso-
lation of being able to complain, and the certainty of sym-
pathy ; but the impotent  man can  make a confidant of no
one, he can expect sympathy from no  one.  His misery is
of a sort which cannot even inspire pity; and his greatest
anxiety is to allow no one to penetrate  his dismal secret."
  Sixth, Impotence, for  the time being, may occur from
moral  causes in those of  robust  health  and perfect genital
organs, — causes which  are capable  of suspending the ac-
tion of those organs; such as strong mental emotions, or too
ardent desire, or  fear of being incapable, timidity,  shame,
surprise, jealousy,  hatred, disgust,  &c.
  " There are no facts which so evidently prove  the influ-
ence of the moral over the physical  state  of man  as the
phenomena of erection.   A lascivious  idea will arise in the
midst of our gravest meditations; the  virile organ will an-
swer to its appeal, and will  become erected, and fit  for the
function which  Nature  has confided  to  it: but  another
thought  arising will instantaneously  extinguish  with the
most frigid indifference  all  amorous transport.  This state-
ment  is  well  exemplified by  the effects  of  the  passons.
Chagrin, inquietude, and debilitating passions influence the 
Sterility.
371
whole economy; jealousy and profound meditation impede
the faculty of procreation.   Thus, at the very moment when
enjoyment is about to be commenced, too eager desire, the
excess of love, the fear of not being loved, timidity, respect,
doubt of capability, the fear of being surprised, the  shame
of excessive modesty on being in the presence of witnesses,
antipathy, the ecstasy on beholding the attractions of a
beloved or fine woman, the continence imposed by  real  and
true love, the sudden knowledge of some physical defect in
the female, aversion from filth, odor, and pre-occupation of
the mind, are  sufficient to oppose  erection, and to abate it
most suddenly.  But who can  enumerate  all  the moral
causes capable of impeding or abating erection ?   A sigh
doubtfully interpreted, a  recollection,  an equivocal word,
are sufficient to destroy the illusion, and congeal  the most
violent  passion.  A newly-married man has become sud-
denly impotent on discovering his wife to be without a
hymen, though the absence of this membrane is no proof
of unchastity; and a debauchee has as suddenly become im-
potent on finding the membrane perfect."  — Diet,  de  Sc.
Medicates.
   Hatred and disgust of the husband towards  his wife,
want of  sympathy and want of feeling, apathy, indiffer-
ence and  frigidity, may be the cause of impotence, though
he is capable of cohabiting with other women.  This is seen
in profligate men, who may be impotent with one woman,
while new and more attractive objects arouse their corporeal
energies,  and  assist the completion of the sexual  function.
All  these causes, however, are operative only for  the time
being, and very soon disappear.
   Seventh, Impotence may depend on defects of the body,
as disease of and falls and  blows on the spine, paralysis,
paralysis  of the penis, &c.  Disease of  the spinal  cord and
brain, irritation in the bladder and neighboring parts, some-
times cause  priapism or permanent erection.   Continual
erection, immoderate desire, and  erotic  delirium, sometimes 
372   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

called  satyriasis,  is  closely connected with disease of the
brain, and  is  one of the most  awful visitations  to which
humanity can be  subject.
  Male sexual vigor continues ordinarily until about the
sixty-fifth  year.   "The genital organs," says M. Virey,
" offer two states  during  life, in the young  and old, which
are the frozen zones  of existence: the intermediate state is
the torrid  zone of life.  The infant has nothing  to  give,
the old has lost  all."  " This  doctrine, however, must not
be  received,"  remarks T. E. Beatty of the Dublin Royal
College of  Surgeons, " without  limitation; for instances of
precocity as wrell  as of protracted generating power are not
wanting.   Dr. Ryan cites  some examples of children pre-
cociously developed,  even before the fourth year;  and he
alludes to a case of a boy described by M. Virey, who, at
seven years of age, was as fully developed as an adult, and
who made furious attacks on his female acquaintances, and
absolutely  deprived  one  of them of that  which she could
never regain."  The celebrated  Thomas Parr is a  striking
example of vigorous  senectitude.  We are  told that  he mar-
ried at the age of one hundred  and twenty, and was  com-
pelled  to  do  penance for  an amour in  his hundred  and
fortieth year.   De Longville,  a Frenchman, married ten
wives,  the last when  he was in  his  ninety-ninth year;  and
she  bore  him a  son  when he was  in  his hundred and
second.
  It will be  remembered that  the  ovaries,  or egg-vessels,
are twro small bodies, in size and shape like  an  almond, sit-
uated deep within the pelvis on either side of the womb,
with which they are  connected by membranous  folds, called
uterine ligaments, of about an inch  and a  half in length.
  When  divided  longitudinally, the substance  of the ova-
ries  is found  to  contain small  globular bodies, or  vesicles,
called  Graafian  vesicles or follicles, ovi-capsules, ovi-sacs,
&c.  Roederer found in the ovary of one woman thirty, and
in another, fifty,  of these vesicles or sacs; but the  number 
Sterility.
373
contained in each  ovary is, as we have  already seen, very
far beyond this.  At puberty, the ovaries  are found crowded
with vesicles, but so minule, that they are only distinguish-
able by the aid of tiigh magnifying power, excepting those
that are approaching maturity.
   These vesicles, or sacs, contain  the  ovule, or egg, which
consists of yolk, and a little cell called the germinal vesicle,
amid the yolk.  The egg of  some animals, a-, for instance,
the  fowl, is very large ; but  the  egg of the woman, when
matured, and  ready for being evolved, is invisible  to the
naked eye, and does not measure, we  are told, more than
from the fifteenth to the twentieth part of a line  in diam-
eter.   According to Bischoff, they vary from one two hun-
dred and fortieth to one  one hundred and twentieth of an
inch.
   As the Graafian vesicles with their contained egg become
matured, they  are  forced forward from  the  centre  of the
substance of the ovary to its surface, and  slightly beyond it;
the vesicle projecting like a nipple.  As the projecting vesi-
cle matures, its sides become thinned, until at last it bursts;
the egg becomes discharged, and is received into the fimbri-
ated extremity of the  Fallopian tube,  through which  it
passes into the womb.
   The  two Falloqnan  tubes, or  oviducts, open  into  the
womb at its upper angles on each side.  The other end of
these ducts has an  expanded, or bell-shaped and  fimbriated
mouth, which  floats above, and slightly in  front  of,  the
ovary, but erects,  and adapts itself  to the  surface of the
ovary at each  menstrual period, for the  purpose of receiving
the egg about to be discharged.  On quitting the ovary be-
fore  fecundation, the egg consists only of  yolk  and its ger-
minal vesicle.   In  its passage down the oviduct, it receives
a coating of albumen.   In the  fowl,  it receives a covering
of albumen, or white, and a shell.
  It has already been remarked that M. Raceborski main-
tains "as the result of his researches, first, that there exists 
 374   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 the most intimate connection between the Graafian vesicles
 and menstruation.  When the vesicles arrive at their full
 development, menstruation commences;  and, when they are
 destroyed, it ceases.  Secondly, at each menstrual period, a
 follicle projects, like a nipple, on the surface  of the ovary,
 where it afterwards bursts, without  requiring for that pur-
 pose any venereal excitement.   Thirdly, the rupture of the
 follicles  generally appears  to take place at the period when
 the menstrual discharge is  stopping;  and, fourthly, the
 ovaries do  not  act alternately,  as  has been affirmed; in
 this respect, not seeming to be under any fixed law.  In a
 more recent work, he asserts  the  doctrine that  the cata-
 menia are  but  a  secondary  phenomenon  in  menstruation
 so  called;  that the capital phenomenon is the maturation
 and periodical discharge  of ova; and hence a woman may
 give birth to several children, without ever having seen the
 catamenia." — Dunglison.
   Reproduction in the human species is the  joint product
 of the  male and female.  The female furnishes the ovule, or
 egg; the male, the fluid necessary to vitalize it.   The ovary
 secretes the ovule;  and the testes, the life-imparting fluid,
 the medium by which life is communicated from generation
 to generation.
   Ordinarily, but one  ovule is evolved and fecundated, oc-
 casionally two, three,  and four; and twins,  triplets, and
 quadruplets are brought forth.
   The quantity of spermatic fluid ejaculated has been esti-
 mated  to average  about two drachms, but varies according
 to the individual, to his extent of voluptuous excitement, and
 to the degree of previous indulgences in venereal pleasures.
  Intercourse is requisite,  that  the  vitalizing fluid of the
 male may be conveyed within the appropriate organs of the
 female, in  order that, from the  contact of the male fluid
 with the ovule, a new being may result.
  To this sexual union, the gratification of which, " for wise
purposes, is attended with the most pleasurable feelings that 
Sterility.                    375
man  or  animals can experience" (Dunglison), both  male
and female are prompted by an imperious instinct implanted
within them by the divine  Framer for the preservation of
the species.  With  the  female, these  promptings have no
existence previous to puberty.  They commence with the full
development of the ovaries, and persist vehemently during
youth and adult age, but disappear to a greater or less extent
after  " change  of life," when the  menstrual organs become
shrunken, and  no longer capable of producing germs.
   From  what has been observed in the foregoing pages, the
reader is prepared to expect that disease of the menstrual
organs is an important  and prominent cause of sterility:
such  is  the  fact.    Tilt  observes, that the conclusions at
which Neumann, Madame Boivin, and others  have arrived,
as the result of great  experience, is, that sterility gener-
ally depends upon a morbid state of  the  ovary, slowly and
insidiously developed, and giving origin to other ovarian dis-
eases; and Hufeland, the  patriarch  of German medicine,
affirms, that half  the life-time  of those subject to dysmen-
orrhcea  is devoted  to  suffering, while the  remainder is
blighted  by sterility.   Churchill says,  " If  the disease
(inflammation of the ovaries) involve the substance of both
ovaries, the power of conception (at least pro  tempore) will
be  destroyed, and sterility will be the result."  Ashwell
says,  " Dull and heavy pains in the  region of the ovary,
lasting for months, are the  consequence of chronic inflam-
mation of the ovaries.  I mention this circumstance because
they are  too often regarded as neuralgic, and treated accord-
ingly; painful  menstruation and sterility being  their re-
sult."
  We have  seen  how  exceedingly  prone the  menstrual
organs are to disease, not only from their peculiar structure,
but from the periodical  congestion to which they are sub-
ject every twenty-eight days ; and, when diseased,  it is
readily to be perceived how almost  impossible-  it is for
them  to  mature and evolve healthy ovules, and how much 
376   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

more  likely that the ovule, instead  of becoming  properly
and fully developed in the  Graafian cell,  would become
shrunken and blighted.  This is one  cause of sterility.
  Not only may and does  the Graafian cell and germ be-
come blighted, but the entire ovary may become shrunken,
atrophied, and disorganized: it may become the seat of fibrous
tumors, or become dissolved into  a large quantity of pus.
When this  occurs to  both ovaries,  sterility is  inevitable, and
beyond the reach of  remedies.
  We have seen that a period of  about  twenty-eight days
is required for the full  development  of the ovule.   Many
nervous and delicate females experience  a return  of the
menstrual flow every two  or three weeks.   Whenever this
occurs, the  ovule is prematurely extricated from the  ovary,
and perishes because of  its want  of proper growth and
development.  This is another cause  of sterility.
  The external or peritoneal coat  of the  ovary, is, as we
have seen,  a frequent  seat  of inflammatory  action;  and
adhesions form with  adjacent tissues.  These adhesions are
sometimes  of such a nature as to  draw the ovary beyond
the reach of the fimbriated extremity of the oviducts, or
Fallopian tubes, and the communication between  the two
organs is interrupted.  When this  occurs, the ovule falls into
the peritoneal sac, and perishes,—another cause of sterility.
  The diseased condition of the external coat of the ovary
may extend to  the  fimbriated extremity of the oviducts,
and both oviduct and ovary become  so glued and matted
together as to obliterate the passage, and render the duct
incapable of transmitting the ovule to the uterus;  or, from
extension of the inflammatory action to the oviducts, their
lining membrane may throw  out a thick, tenacious mucus,
filling up and  choking the passage, — other  causes  of steril-
ity.
  Dr. Caswell says,  "The adhesions which form  between
the uterus,' Fallopian tubes, and ovaries, and the surround-
ing parts, are much more productive  of serious effects than 
Sterility.
377
in any other organ of the body; and, in order to give addi-
tional importance to the study of them, I may observe that
they are not unfrequent, and are certainly one of  the most
obvious,  causes  of  sterility.  They  produce,  according  to
their situation and  mode of  attachment, either antiversion
or retroversion of the uterus;  they fix the Fallopian tubes in
situations in which  the fimbriated extremities  cannot  reach
the ovaries, or they envelop  the fimbriated extremities  in
such a manner  as  to render them quite impervious (which
is always the cause of dropsy of these  tubes),  or, lastly,
they cover the ovaries  so  completely, that impregnation is
rendered impossible." (?)
   In the foregoing  pages, we have seen that the organs  of
menstruation, being  subject to  a  periodical turgescence
through  ovulation,   and constantly vibrating between  a
quiescent and a highly excited state (alternately pale anc1
flaccid, and red  and swollen), are exceedingly liable, froir.
this unequable rate of the vital functions, to  take on dis-
eased  action, and, by the transmission of morbid stimulus
to the subsidiary organs, to induce an irritated, congested,
or inflammatory state of the womb and vagina, leucorrhoeal
discharges, &c.  This  irritated, congested, or  inflammatory
condition of the lining membrane of the womb is another
source, and, as we believe, one of the most fertile sources, of
sterility;  for, so long as diseased action is going on in this
lining membrane, it is in no  condition to afford an attach-
ment  between itself and the extricated  ovule.  The  ovule
may become fully developed, eliminated,  and  sent forward
through the oviduct into the womb, and there fecundated;
but, if the uterine membrane is in a state of  inflammation,
no mesenteric attachment will be  formed between it and
the lining surface of the womb, by which it may obtain the
nutritive fluids which are required for its growth and devel-
opment : and pregnancy will not take place.   Myriads  of
germs  are evolved and become vitalized, but pass out of the
womb, and become lost, because the congested and inflamed 
378   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

surface of the womb is in no condition to affix to itself the
ovule; and, until this attachment does occur with the living
surface of the mother, pregnancy does not exist.
  We have seen that an exaggeration of the physiological
state  of the uterus,  induced  by  disease of the menstrual
organs,  produces leucorrheal  discharges.  This is an ex-
ceedingly common cause of sterility.   M. Donne has shown
that these discharges,  whether eliminated  by the internal
surface  of  the uterus,  or the  vagina,  under certain  dis-
eased conditions, destroy the life of the spermatozoa before
they can come in contact with  the extricated ovule.
  Spermatozoa, or spermatic animalcules, are minute bodies
contained in the spermatic fluid of the  male, furnished by
the testes.   The other components  of the  spermatic fluid,
which constitute the medium in which the  spermatozoa
live, are derived, for the most part, according to the  experi-
ments of Gosselin, from the vesiculae  seminales.  To these
animalcules  are  due the vitalizing influence of the fluid;
and fecundation consists in the  direct  communication or
contact of one of these spermatozoids  with the ovule.
  If the testes  have never been compromised  by  disease,
and the male be in full health,  the  spermatozoa  exist in
great numbers.  If, however, the  testes have not descended
from  the abdomen into the scrotum, or if they have  been
seriously diseased, as from gonorrhoea or syphilis,  or from
the transference of the inflammation in mumps, but very
few or no spermatozoids exist; and  although  the  patient
may still retain sexual desires,  and  is  capable of sexual
intercourse,  yet the power of fecundation is  lost.  He  is
impotent from the absence of  spermatozoa in the  seminal
fluid.   So, also, if from excesses or  any other cause the
system becomes weakened, exhausted, and enervated, the
spermatic fluid is ordinarily wanting  in its  elemental  con-
stituent.
  Much  difference of  opinion exists as regards the  true
nature of spermatozoids.  Some suppose them to be  mere 
Sterility.
379
tubes containing the true sperm, while others consider then-
minute animated beings.   Valentin profeeses to have de-
tected their internal organization, and, consequently, their
true animal  nature; and M. Pouchet declares, that " every
mode of investigation presented to the human mind appears
to speak  in favor of the  animality  of the  spermatozoids.
Inward feeling, observation, experiment, and reflection unite
in expressing that they can be nothing  else than  animals."
By others, they are regarded as " reproductive particles, but
not animalcules."
   Spermatozoa are  discharged from their parent cells by
the bursting of  the latter, and are conveyed by the duct
leading from the testicle  into  the urethral canal, whence
they are poured into the female organs  in  the act of copu-
lation.   In  warm-blooded animals,  birds and  mammals,
they live,  or retain their  fertilizing power, but for a short
time  after  their  discharge.   In cold-blooded,  vertebrate
animals, fishes, and reptiles, and in the invertebrata, they
can live much longer, and remain active for days, and even
for months,  in the female organs, fertilizing several crops
of eggs in  succession.   Pure water  soon puts an  end to
their  motions; but in  a denser fluid, such as mucus and
urine, they can live for  some time.
   The precise spot  in  the generative  intestine where  the
contact between  the spermatozoa  and  the ovule  occurs is
also a matter of much discussion among physiologists.  By
some, it is maintained that the contact  takes place in  the
uterus; while others maintain that the spermatozoa traverse
the womb, and the whole length of the Fallopian  tubes, and
effect the  union  on  the surface of the  ovary; and others,
that the contact occurs in the Fallopian  tubes.   Nothing
has, however, been positively demonstrated on the subject.
The  general  belief appears  to  be that the  contact occurs
ordinarily in the  uterus, but  that it may and does  some-
times take place in the Fallopian tubes, and at the ovaries.
When it takes place at the ovary, and an  attachment is 
380   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

formed at  that  point,  ovarian  pregnancy occurs.  If the
contact  occurs  at this  point,  and  the  ovule afterwards
escapes the fimbria, and  falls into the peritoneal  sac, and
forms an attachment, ventral  pregnancy takes place; or
tin; contact may take place  in the oviduct, and, an attach-
ment forming there, we have  what is called interstitial
pregnancy.    Wherever and whenever the  contact  does
occur, the  germ  becomes fecundated, and then, if an at-
tachment is formed with the living surface of the mother,
pregnancy exists.
  It is a matter of  much  discussion, also, as to how the
sperm reaches the uterus, Fallopian tubes, or the ovaries,
after being deposited in  the vagina.  By some it is sup-
posed that a successful  fecundation  depends. upon the
spermatic fluid being thrown  full into the mouth of the
womb.  That this, however, is  not  necessary is evident
from the fact, that some male organs are incapable of reach-
ing the mouth of the womb from deficiency in length, and,
also, from the fact that impregnation has taken place, where,
from partial occlusion, no entrance into the vagina could be
effected.   If the secretions of  the vagina  with which the
spermatozoa are brought in contact are in  a healthy condi-
tion, they  are capable of not only living  for several  days,
but  moving  about with  much  rapidity, and readily find
their way to  the cavity of the  womb, no matter where in
the vagina  they are deposited.   We have already described,
in the first footnote  under the  head of Menstruation, a
peculiar movement which Dr. James Blundell observed in
the vagina  of the rabbit, and which he thought  served to
explain the mode of  introduction of the seminal  fluid into
the uterus.  " Prof. Wagner considers that the sperm reaches
the  ovary,  partly by ciliary motion, which begins in the
cervix uteri, partly by contraction of the tubes, and partly
by the motility of the spermatozoids; whilst Dr Carpenter
thinks it not unreasonable  to suppose that the last  is the
sole power; and that the transit of the spermatozoids from 
Sterility.
381
the vagina to the ovaries  is effected by the same kind of
action as that which causes them to traverse the field of the
microscope." — Dunglison.
   The next question that arises is, In what manner does
the sperm exert its fecundating agency on the ova ?  Phys-
iologists very generally concur with the views  of Bischoff,
who maintains, that " spermatozoids and ova are constitu-
ents of an organism, and  that a positive contact of the two
is necessary for the formation of a new being."   " Dr. Barry
has seen spermatozoids within the ova of rabbits;  and their
entrance into the ova of animals  has  been confirmed by
many observers." — Dunglison.
   Of the nature of the process by which the new individual
results from the contact of the  spermatozoid with the  ovule
we are profoundly  ignorant.   " The new being must be
stamped instantaneously,  as  by a  die.   From  the  very
moment of  the admixture of the materials at a fecundating
copulation,  the  embryo  must  have within it the  powers
necessary for its own formation, impulses communicated by
each  parent as  regards likeness, hereditary predisposition,
&c.   From that moment,  the father has no  communication
with  it, yet we know that it may resemble him in  its fea-
tures, and  predisposition  to certain morbid states; whilst
the mother, probably, exerts but a slight and indirect control
over  it afterwards,  her office being chiefly to furnish the
homunculus with a nidus in which it may work its own
formation,  and with the necessary pabulum."
   A child may resemble either parent, or both ; and it may
resemble neither the one nor the other, but may possess the
features  and general  appearance  of the mother's former
gallant or husband.   Ordinarily, however, a child bears the
impress of both parents.   It  may possess  the  likeness of
one, and the physical constitution of the other; or both may
be blended.
   A child  partakes, ordinarily, of  the  mental and physi-
cal qualities of both parents:  which the child will  have 
382    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

the most of seems to depend somewhat upon the relative
vigor and  strength  of  constitution  and  age of  its pro-
creators.
  If both parents are young, immature, and weakly, their
children  are ordinarily  weak,  puny, and  scrofulous.   On
the contrary, if both are strong and healthy, their children
will evince strength, vigor, and a harmonious proportion of
limbs and body.
  " Precocious marriages," says Aristotle, " oppose a good
generation ; for in the entire animal kingdom the fruits of
the first  signal of reproductive instinct are constantly im-
perfect, and have not any well established form.   It is also
the same with the human species;  and the proof is evident,
for precocious marriages procure small and contemptible
men."
   "21. de Fontaine, chief surgeon to the late King of Poland,
attributed to the premature unions of the  Polish  Jews the
extreme physical debility which characterizes them and their
progeny.  Motesquieu affirmed,  that the fear of military
service caused a great number of young men, almost of the
age of puberty, to enter into matrimonial connections;  that
these unions, it is true, were fertile, but that the diseases
and  misery which they produced greatly diminished the pop-
ulation of France. . . . Louis XL cohabited before the age
of fourteen with his queen, who was not twelve; and, in the
opinion of M.  Marc, his effeminate and ferocious character
depended in some degree on the exhaustion of his nascent
powers.  . .  . The ancient legislators and philosophers op-
posed early marriages.  The laws of Lycurgus enacted that
men should not  marry before the  age of thirty-seven, and
women not before the age of seventeen  years.  Xenophon
and  Plutarch explain the spirit of those laws on the grounds
that  they were  intended  to  secure  the  most vigorous off-
spring and powerful population.  .  . . Persons of strong and
sound constitutions beget healthful infants.;  while those who
make use of excessive  mental  or corporeal exertions have 
Sterility.
383
generally feeble offspring.  It is for this reason that simple,
stupid villagers generally beget infants of high physical and
moral powers;  while men of the greatest genius, who over-
exert their  mental faculties, often  engender only idiots or
pusillanimous infants. ... If the whole mind is not ab-
sorbed in  the act  of generation, the products will be feeble
and delicate, as we usually observe in  the  infants  of men
who make great mental or corporeal exertions.  The sons of
celebrated men are generally inferior to their fathers.  We
seldom, if ever, see great men  engender great  men.   The
sons  of  Socrates, Hippocrates,  Crysippus, Pericles,  Thu-
cydides,  and  Cicero, among the ancients; of Racine,  La
Fontaine, Henry  IV. of France, Napoleon, John Hunter,
Cullen, and a host of others that might be cited among the
moderns, did not equal their fathers in talent.
   " Most of the men, on the contrary, who became illustrious
by character, genius, or  valor, were the  fruit of ardent and
vigorous  or illicit love,  and the sons of parents  who were
only remarkable  for physical strength.  Many celebrated
men were  illegitimate,  and  were the  sons of  early and
ardent love, — 'fortes creantur fortibus,' — though there are
exceptions when the  strong are enfeebled or aged. ...  It
has been long observed,  that men of genius were  the first-
born, because the first love is in general the most ardent:
and  hence Asiatics  have  always  maintained that their
greatest  legislators wTere  born  of virgins, as  Zoroaster,
Confucius,  Mahomet,  Vistnou  Zacca,  &c.; and   we shall
also  presently observe  that  others  were  engendered  not
in  married  state, but by the force of love alone.   Such were
a great  number  of the heroes  of antiquity, wdio, for this
reason, were said  to be  descended from the  gods, as Her-
cules, Esculapius, Romulus,  &c.;  such,  also,  were  other
illustrious bastards, as  Homer,  Galileo,  Cardan,  Erasmus,
&c.   Even  the  poets entertained  this  opinion;  and
Shakspeare thus alludes  to  it  when  he makes  Edmund
say, — 
384   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

                           ' Why brand they us
         With base? with baseness ? bastardy? base,  base?
         Who, in the lusty stealth of Nature, take
         More composition and fierce quality
         Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
         Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
         Got 'tween asleep and wake? '

  " William the  Conqueror was named  ' The  Bastard,' as
he was the offspring of a left-handed marriage (pour un
scjour), which allowed  nobles  to  marry an  inferior for  a
certain time, but  to wed an equal for life.
  " Prolonged continence  produces analogous results to the
preceding.  The father of  Montaigne, returned after thirty-
two years  from  the wars  of Italy, was during that period
strictly continent, and begot his celebrated  son.  The father
of J. J. Rousseau returned from Constantinople after a con-
siderable absence, and brought to his spouse the reward of a
long fidelity. . .  . By a protracted continence, or a purity
of morals,  the species are improved  and  strengthened in
mind and body.   Virtuous parents concentrate all the ener-
gy of their minds in abandoning themselves to  the views of
Nature.  They engender  a posterity, by whose talents the
pride and  glory  of their progenitors will be maintained.
Thus it is,  that, after many progressive and virtuous genera-
tions, we see families ennoble themselves and flourish; but,
by  a  subsequent incontinence, they  fade  and degenerate.
The nobility of France, Spain, Portugal, and other nations,
who intermarry among themselves, so as to maintain  their
caste, have long been remarkable for the degeneracy of their
offspring, which often  leads to  adulterine bastardy.  The
Jews, who intermarry among themselves, are also remarka-
bly degenerate." — Ryan.
  " Children resemble," says Dr. Pritchard  (" Researches
into the Physical History of Mankind"), " in feature and
constitution, both parents;  but I  think more generally the
father.   In the breeding  of horses  and oxen, great impor- 
Sterility.                     385
tance is attached by experienced  propagators  to  the  male.
In sheep, it is commonly observed that black rams  beget
bhuk lambs.  In  the  human species, also, the complexion
chiefly follows that of the father;  and I believe it to be  a
general fact,  that the offspring of a black father and  a
white mother  is much darker than the progeny of a  white
father and a dark mother."
   "The surest  means," says Dr. Ryan, "by which  sound
and vigorous infants may be  engendered is a good constitu-
tion unenfeebled by excessive intellectual or corporeal exer-
tion, or any chronic disease.   It is universally admitted, that
the moral and physical disposition are transmitted by gen-
eration; and  hence we  may conclude, that healthful and
vigorous parents can alone produce healthful and vigorous
infants.   It is also generally  concluded, that diseased or
delicate  parents procreate diseased and delicate  offspring.
The  same  results  are  observed  in  plants  and animals.
Every one knows the  truth of  these  statements.  How
often do we observe a fine, a beautiful woman, of excellent
constitution, united to a small,  diminutive, aged, broken-
down, or deformed  companion,  or the reverse! and  can  it
be supposed  that the physical powers, the  sympathies, of
such individuals,  are  favorable to the proper performance
of the function of generation ?   Love cannot be  reciprocal
in such cases;  and animal  or organic impulse will  prefer
that which is more accordant with itself.   Even brutes pre-
fer males which are possessed of vigor, power, and beauty;
and this instinct is  implanted by Nature in all animals."
   In a spermatozoid and an ovule,  there is comprised the
elements  of  a new being;  and  their  coming  in contact
results in its  formation.  Each contains the rudiments of
the future man.   Each determines the contour, the tone
of the voice, the form of the head, the  shape of the nose,
the length of the fingers, the color of the skin, the hair, the
eyes, &c.  Each determines, to a greater or less  extent, the
future  growth, development, physical vigor, and diseases;
              25 
386   Woman, and her Thirty Years  Pilgrimage.

determines  whether liable  hereafter  to rickets, syphilis,
scrofula, insanity, consumption, disease of the heart, hemor-
rhoids,  cataract, amaurosis, hernia, rheumatism,  or  gout;
and each determines the mental and moral endowments, the
powers of observation,  memory, judgment, imagination, tal-
ent, skill, genius, disposition, honesty, sobriety, benevolence,
or cupidity; the emotions,  passions, desires, appetites, sel-
fishness, or  knavery.   Like produces like,  mentally  and
morally, as well as physically, modified only by subordinate
circumstances.   As are the parents, so will be the children
" The  feeble,  the  sickly,  the exhausted  with  age, and the
incompletely developed through extreme youth, marry, and,
without the least  compunction regarding the organization
which they shall transmit to their offspring, send into the
world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose  exist-
ence are tainted with disease.  If we trace such conduct to
its source, we shall find it to originate either in animal pro-
pensity, intellectual ignorance, or, more frequently, in both.
The inspiring  motives are generally mere sexual appetite,
avarice, or ambition, operating  in  the absence of all just
conceptions  of  the impending evils.   The punishment of
this offence is debility and pain transmitted to the children,
and reflected back in anxiety and  sorrow on the pjarents."
— Combe, Constitution of Man.
  That it has  pleased God  to punish the parents through
their children,  that he suffers them to fall into  the same
errors and the same wickedness, and to transmit  the same
to their children and to their children's children, is as true
as holy  writ can make  it.  We have been taught this from
time immemorial.   We are taught  this from the Bible, and
from ancient and  modern writers.   " I  the Lord thy God
am  a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon
the children unto  the  third and fourth  generations" (Ex.
xx.  5).  The ancient poets  tell us  that  Leda, the wife of
Tyndarus, broke faith with her husband, and had an affair
of gallantry with Jupiter.   Both her daughters fell  into 
Sterility.
387
the same sin, and violated their conjugal  faith to  their hus-
bands,— Helena  to Meuelaus,  and Clytemnestra to Aga-
memnon.  An evil tree brings forth evil fruits.  " A crow's
egg is no better than the crow herself."
   How  great,  then, the  responsibility of those who brin^
immortal beings into the world, and launch them forth upon
the trackless ocean of life without pilot or compass; having
bequeathed to  them their own  constitutions, their physical,
mental, and moral endowments, their diseases, their virtues
or defects, honesty or knavery, their sobriety  or  intemper-
ance !    How  great  the importance  of  early moral  and
mental training,  early teachings, discipline, warnings, and
subduings,  lest "as  the twig  is  bent the tree inclines"!
How truly is the  destiny of the new being placed in the
hands  of the mother !  What  a task has she before her,  to
so mould the character, yet undecided, that the mischief of
its inheritance  may be repaired ere its growth  and develop-
ment may determine the drunkard, the idler, the liar,.or the
thief!   How much cause have some to bless the memory of
their parents,  while others cannot without  anguish think
of the tenure  upon which they hold  a  life  they did not
covet!   The parents reap  not alone the harvest of their
habits of  indolence, gluttony, intemperance, and follies.
Their  offspring are the  inheritors  of the soul-and-body-
destroying legacy, which will be transmitted, losing none
of its  characteristics, through  several successive genera-
tions, becoming more prominently marked at  each succeed-
ing remove.  "There are too  many instances where the
debility has been inherited from the parents, and  the indi-
vidual  is a sufferer from the vices or the follies  of a genera-
tion which has  passed away." — Alfred Sinee,  London.
  What  a weight of human misery may the  delinquencies
of a single individual entail upon an  unoffending  progeny!
Nor is  this all: the delinquencies of a single individual may
bring ruin upon  nations.  The ancients  understood these
things.   Their poets tell  us, that Jupiter's  intrigue with 
 388    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

 Europa was  the  occasion of sanguinary wars between the
 Cretans and Phoenicians.  King Paris's amour with Helena
 was the cause of fitting out thousands of wTar-vessels,  and
 a ten-years' war against Troy, in  which thousands of Gre-
 cians and Trojans were slain, and  the city reduced to ashes.
 Examples of a more recent date could also  be cited, where
 intrigue has been the cause of long and bloody wars.
   How important that parents should live  in  uprightness,
 and follow the decrees of wisdom ! and how important that
 they  should  exercise the most  unrelenting discipline,  and
 search with anxious care for a correct and  judicious treat-
 ment of their bodily infirmities, that the mischief may be
 repaired ere it be entailed on their children!
   " There is no moral  difficulty," says Combe, " in  admit-
 ting the wisdom and benevolence  of  the institution  by
 which good qualities are transmitted from  parents  to chil-
 dren ; but it is frequently held as unjust to  the latter, that
 they should inherit  parental deficiencies, and so be made to
 suffer for sins which they did not  commit.   In treating of
 this difficulty, I must again refer  to the supremacy of  the
 moral sentiments as the theory of the  constitution of  the
 world.  The animal propensities are  all selfish, and  regard
 only the immediate and apparent interest of the individual;
 while  the higher sentiments delight in that which com-
 municates the greatest  quantity of enjoyments.  Now, let
 us suppose the law of hereditary descent to be abrogated
 altogether; that is to say, that each individual of the race
was at birth endowed with  fixed natural qualities, without
 the slightest reference to what parents had been or done:
this form of constitution would obviously cut off every pos-
 sibility of improvement in the race."
  To return to the causes of sterility, we will  remark, that
it  has been demonstrated by M. Donne, that spermatozoa
are capable  of living for several days after emission from
the male, providing the secretions of  the womb and vagina
 with which they are brought in contact are in a healthy 
Sterility.
389
condition;  but if these secretions be unhealthy, as  in  some
forms of leucorrhea,  they perish at once.   M. Donne ob-
serves,  " As  might  be expected, the zoosperms  (sperma-
tozoa) live  perfectly well  in  mucus  secreted by the vagina
in its normal state.  But the vaginal mucus  becomes so acid
in some circumstances, as in  cases of congestion, irritation,
or inflammation of this organ, that the  zoosperms appear
to perish  in a few seconds after  being  brought in  contact
with it.  The same effect was also produced by the vaginal
mucus secreted during pregnancy ;  this fluid exhibiting  its
acid properties in a much higher  degree of  intensity in the
gravid than in the unoccupied state of the uterus."   Hence
we see that leucorrhoeal discharges,  by their fatal  effect
upon the spermatozoa,  are most frequent causes of  sterility.
   The  above  are the most  common  causes  of  sterility.
Among other occasional causes may be mentioned absence
or any malformation of the sexual organs that prevents the
vitalizing fluid of the male from  reaching the ovule;  as
occlusion of the vagina or womb, imperfect vagina, inflam-
matory tumefaction  at  the  internal os uteri, spasmodic
closure at the cervix, ulceration of the cervix uteri, tumors
and malignant degeneration of  the uterus, and  displace-
ments, more especially flexion, of  the womb,  where it is bent
upon itself at a right angle.
   Entire  absence of the vagina is a very rare malforma-
tion.   There are, however, a few cases reported.  There is,
oftener, a narrowing of the vagina, and its calibre so dimin-
ished  as to  prevent the intromission  of the  male organ.
This, however, does not imply either impotence or  sterility.
There are cases on record where the  intromission  was im-
possible, yet pregnancy occurred.   Prof. Beatty reports a
case: "A young girl, married at the age of  sixteen, had the
vagina so narrow, that a goose-quill could scarcely enter it.
A youii"'-  and vigorous husband  had  failed in all his  at-
tempts ; and some of the faculty who were consulted de-
clared copulation impracticable.  Nevertheless, after eleven 
 390    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

 years, this  woman became pregnant without any  increase
 in  the  dimensions of the  vagina.   Her friends, of course,
 despaired of the possibility of delivery; but, about  the fifth
 month of pregnane)', the vagina began to dilate, and at the
 full time it had acquired a  size sufficient to permit  the pas-
 sage  of the  infant.   In the  celebrated Joar  of Arc,  the
 Maid of Orleans, according to  the account of t vo physicians
 who were ordered to examine  her, the  vagina was  found so
 contracted, that coition must have been impracticable."
   Impotence should be distinguished from sterility.  In the
 former,  there is a malformation of the  genital organs,  that
 prevents an intercourse that would be followed  by concep-
 tion.  In the latter, there is no bar to  copulation; but con-
 ception  does not take place.  A female may be  impotent,
 but not sterile, and sterile,  but not impotent.
   The vagina is sometimes found closed at its outer extrem-
 ity, or orifice.   This  occurs sometimes in young children,
 from  the want of proper ablutions : the parts  become in-
 flamed  and  excoriated, followed by  adhesions.   Cases  are
 recorded of complete closure of the canal, with the excep-
 tion of  a small opening at the  superior anterior part for the
 discharge of  urine.    The  vagina is  sometimes partially
 closed by a dense, resisting, thickened, and  hypertrophied
 state of the hymen, that prevents the consummation of mar-
 riage ; still,  pregnancy may occur.
   The uterus is sometimes  absent, or it may be  small, and
 in an undeveloped state.   Sterility attends  either of these
 defects.   When the lower orifice, or both the  upper orifices,
 of the uterus are closed, or  where there is a closure of  the
 oviducts, sterility will be the  consequence so long as  the
 impediments remain which  prevent the contact of the male
 sexual element with the discharged ovule.
   In women with an excess of plumpness, a want of sensi-
bility is usually  evinced.  They  are  ordinarily  cold, less
passionate, and  more unfruitful  than those of  moderate
plumpness.  " Women who are burdened with fat  usually 
Sterility.
391
do not conceive: there is an interesting relation  between
the activity of the ovaries and an absence of excessive  adi-
pose matter; and the relation is such, that the function of
those bodies is, as a general  rule, impaired  in women  who
are remarkable for  an excess of fatty  material."  — Prof.
Bedford.   We have already, under the head  of Symptoms,
given our explanation  why women burdened with fat are
usually sterile.   But there are other reasons:  superabun-
dance of fat and sterility may be, and, no doubt, are, often
produced  by errors  in  digestion,  defective  secretions,  and
morbid blood.
   Another cause of sterility is  similarity of temperament.
It has long  been observed  that  difference of temperament
— where the irritable are joined to the calm,  or the  grave to
the gay, the impassioned to the modest, or the impetuous to
the gentle — is favorable to fecundity.   Similitude in these
respects is a frequent cause of sterility.  " It is necessary,"
says M. Virey, "for a fruitful union, that there should be a
certain harmony  between the sexes,  both moral and phys-
ical ; and  this is manifested in the sympathies  of  instinct,
which, independently of beauty, make us prefer one person
to another.   The  sexes secretly wish  their  union by  a
natural impulse which  cannot be explained, and which, in
a  mixed  society, renders us  more  attentive  to  one person
than  all  the rest;  and Nature inspires us  better in  this
respect than reason.
   " This harmony consists less in similitude of temperament,
age, &c, than in diversity ;  for, if we remark, we observe a
violent, bilious man prefers a mild, modest companion, while
a passionate, impetuous  woman finds most charms in a mod-
erate, tranquil  man: so that one  may be tempered by the
other, whether they be too cold or too hot."
  Not an  unfrequent cause of sterility is marriage  between
persons closely related.   When offspring are the result of
such a marriage, they are ordinarily either deaf, blind, idi-
otic, or otherwise infirm.  Zoroaster permitted incest among 
 392    Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

 the  Persians; and we are told that either sterility or dis-
 eased offspring was the consequence, the same as we see in
 breeding in and in among animals.  Dr. Pritchard tells us,
 that "the degeneracy and even idiocy of some of the noble
 and royal  families of Spain and  Portugal, from marrying
 nieces and other near relations, is well known; and defec-
 tive brains in all cases are observed."
  Another cause of sterility is excessive voluptuousness; so,
 also, rigid chastity.  Habitual indulgence in an inordinate
 use  of the stimulus of sexual  intercourse compromises the
 menstrual organs,  debilitates the vital powers, and induces
 decay and  loss of the enduring tone of the  muscular and
 other solid  tissues  of the body.  This  is  observed  among
 licentious  women:  their excess in  this particular destroys
 fecundity;  but when  driven  to  abstinence, either by seclu-
 sion or regular  marriage, they become  fruitful.  We  are
 told, that prostitutes, who had been infertile for years, have
 become mothers after transportation to Botany Bay, when
 they became restrained by marriage.
  " Chastity," says Acton,  " augments  the  vigor  of  the
 organs and amorous  impulse, and is the surest  means of
 fecundity.   Hence those newly-married persons who have
 observed a  strict chastity before their union  procreate  im-
 mediately, and their offspring is vigorous;  while  dissipated
 or aged persons seldom have children, and,  if they have, the
 offspring seldom  arrives at the adult age.   For this  reason,
 animals which copulate at certain  times only, engender by
 one act.  But a rigid chastity enfeebles the passion of love,
and may be the cause of infertility."
  Moderation not only adds to the force of love, and renders
enjoyment  more intense, but is a surer means  of fecundity,
and generates  offspring stronger in mind and body.   Fren-
zies of love and  excessive voluptuousness induce  over-exci-
tation  of the nervous  system, and  intercourse is  attended
sometimes with a morbid passion or  spasmodic convulsions,
 which  are not only destructive to  fecundity, but succeeded 
Sterility.
393
by relaxation, loss of muscular power, and  a general weak-
ening of the powers of life.
  Touching this matter, Ryan  observes, "Repeated conju-
gal intimacy within a few hours  is unprolific, and a mere
animal gratification.   Abstinence for one or more days,  and
tolerable good health,  are necessary to most individuals for
procreation of healthful offspring.
  " According to most physiologists, morning is the best
time for reproduction; that is, after the  fatigues of the pre-
ceding clay are dissipated by repose, and when the majority
of healthful  individuals possess  most virility.  Galen well
observed,   ' labor,  food, drink, sleep,  Venus'  (labor, cibus,
potio,  somnus,  Venus),  an axiom in  perfect  accordance
with modern physiology.
  " As the hygienic precepts relative to the generative func-
tion are deeply interesting to most individuals, they may be
slightly noticed.
  " 1.  It  should never be indulged in until  there is a natu-
ral  desire and vigorous impulse, and seldom, if ever, before
adult age.
  " 2. It ought to  be avoided whenever it produces more
than temporary depression of spirits, or the least debility of
the moral, intellectual, or physical states;  also during in-
toxication, mania, and where there  is venereal or any other
disease of the sexual organs of  either party.
  " 3. It ought to be used in moderation when the individ-
ual  makes much mental or corporeal exertion,  or  during
recovery from any severe disease, and when there is a state
of debility, or when restorative aliment, &c., cannot  be  pro-
cured.
  "1.  It  ought to  be entirely abstained from during the
presence  of the menses,  the child-bed  evacuations, which
continue for nine, twelve, or more days after delivery, and
only used moderately  and occasionally  during pregnancy
and suckling..  It ought to be avoided in all painful diseases
of the generative  organs.   It  is  also particularly injurious 
 394    Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

 immediately after taking food, and until digestion is com-
 pleted, which is from two to three hours afterwards.
   "There can be no rule laid  down  as to the proper exer-
 cise of this function, as this will depend on age, habit, occu-
 pation,  situation,  climate, season, aliment, and numerous
 other moral, physical, and external influences  which  are
 capable of modifying the function."
   Self-abuse before  marriage  is  not  unfrequently not only
 the cause of aversion, nay, very frequently, of invincible
 repugnance,  to cohabitation,  but of sterility.  No matter
 how much  the  husband may strive to demonstrate true
 affection, the same unconquerable frigidity and aversion  to
 intercourse exists.  " It  appears," says  Dr. Acton, " that  at
 last nothing but the morbid excitement of the baneful prac-
 tice can give any sexual  gratification, and that the natural
 stimulus fails  to  excite any  pleasure whatever. ...  So
 ruinous is the practice  of solitary vice, both in  the one and
 other sex, that  it is carried on even in married  life, where
 no excuse can be  devised, and is actually preferred to the
 natural excitement.   Venereal  excesses engender satiety
just  as  certainly as any other excesses, and satiety  is fol-
 lowed by indifference  and disgust.   If the  unnatural ex-
 cesses of masturbation take place early in life, before the
 subjects who commit them arrive at maturity, it is not sur-
 prising  that we  meet with  women whose  possibility of
 sexual feeling,  if it  ever existed, is  now prematurely worn
 out."
  Disparity of  years is another cause of sterility.   It is a
 matter of pretty frequent observation  that  young  women
bear no  children when united to old men, and that they
often  become  mothers  on  future   marriages  with  men
younger.   Where, from  constitutional  feebleness on the
part  of  the husband,  the conjugal act is  but seldom,
and, even then, imperfectly performed, which  amounts to
almost total privation of  the natural sexual  stimulus so far
as the wife is concerned, it induces in the ovaries a state of 
Sterility.
395
irritation or subacute inflammation, which almost precludes
the  possibility of impregnation.   If, however,  pregnancy
should occur, the offspring are ordinarily weak, puny, a\\C
scrofulous.  But the consequences of this class of ill-sorted
marriages stop not here: they are usually followed by great
immorality  and  the usual results, — domestic misery, un-
happiness, and jealousy.  The sexual organs- are incentives:
they give appetite, which, like hunger, must be  appeased,
or Nature revolts.   Constitutional  feebleness is inadequate
to the task, and, in consequence, the  wife is  too often led to
debauchery, and the husband, utterly powerless of remedy-
ing the  evil, to  all the excesses of  jealousy and domestic
unhappiness.   These  marriages  ordinarily  take place on
account of pecuniary or other worldly considerations.  " The
laws of  ancient nations on  late  marriages merit notice.
In  Sparta, when a woman  brought  a fortune to an aged
and  impotent man, he was compelled  to  permit her to
choose an adjunct  to his family.  In Italy, certain ladies
stipulate  for  their cecisbeo and  ca vet ire servante,  and  in
Spain, for cortegos, or individuals with similar privileges."
  Disproportion  of the  sexual organs, and precipitation and
impetuosity  in the consummation of marriage,  are  other
causes of sterility.  "When there is great disproportion
between the  reproductive organs," says Dr.  Ryan,  " the
generative function cannot be performed.   Thus, excessive
size, thickness, or length  of  the  virile member may render
sexual intimacy excessively painful, or indeed impossible for
some time, with very young persons, or those of small stat-
ure ;  and cases have fallen  under ray own  observation  in
which marriage  could not be consummated.  Albinus re-
cords a case of divorce  against  a husband, ob penem  enor-
men ; and Plater describes a similar one.  These, however,
are  rarely causes of impotence, or solid grounds for divorce,
because a cure can be effected in most cases.
  " I have  also  been  repeatedly assured that sexual  ap-
proach had been  productive of pain for two or three  months 
396  Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

after marriage.   Infecundity was the result, in  some cases,
and sometimes inflammation  of the womb, which was  sue
ceeded by painful menstruation, barrenness, and, finally, by
cancer, or some of the many other ulcerations of the inter-
nal or external genitals."
  A few remarks by the same author, touching the consum-
mation of marriage, may not be out of place  at this point.
He says, " The consummation  of marriage ought to be ef-
fected with gentleness and moderation, and  not with unre-
strained impetuosity, as among brute animals; for, if  it is
accomplished with violence, more or less severe  pain, lacera-
tion,  effusion  of blood,  with  inflammation of the external
and internal genital organs, will be frequently induced.  . . .
Every experienced medical practitioner  is aware, that,  in
cases of female violation, more or less contusion, laceration,
hemorrhage, and inflammation are produced, more especially
in cases of very young persons, and where there is much
disproportion between the age and development of the  indi-
viduals.
   " When most of these diseases are induced, they are aggra-
vated by the frequent repetition of the cause which excited
them: it occasions  excruciating pains, and  generally pro-
duces sterility and  bad health.    I  might  narrate many
cases of this kind about which I have been consulted.  . .  .
   " There is  nothing more certain than that precipitation
and  impetuosity in the consummation  of  marriage  often
causes, in the very young,  or aged individuals,  exquisite
pain, from contusion, laceration, &c.; and these evils result
more from sensual passion  than from the legitimate object,
— the propagation of the species.   In  further support of
this opinion, I may add, that the Jews, and many ancients,
maintained that the consummation of  marriage  ought  to
be characterized by the effusion of blood; and this is gener-
ally the case: but there are many exceptions, as when leu-
corrhoea  or  other  mucous discharges are present, which
relax the external  genitals,  and destroy  the  hymen.  In 
Sterility.
397
these last cases, there may be no effusion  of blood on  the
consummation of marriage, though  the individual is a vir-
gin, — a fact well known to every scientific and  practical
obstetrician and medical practitioner.
  " It is also well known that pregnancy has occurred, and
the hymen perfect.   Again: a  woman may be  delivered,
and  such cohesion occur soon  after  as to totally impede
sexual commerce ; and, in certain cases, there will be copious
effusion  of blood.  In  fine,  the most  respectable  medical
authors  had been unable  to  determine  whether women
who had been depraved twenty or  more  years were  not
virgins, as  the presence or the absence of the hymen is  no
real proof of virginity."
  Undue exercise of the mental organs is  another fruitful
source of sterility.  The brain, from its severe  and contin-
ued application, absorbing the greater portion of the nerve-
power, deprives the menstrual organs of their proper share;
and their natural energy and healthfulness  becomes dimin-
ished.
  Women  of irritable temperament are usually sterile;  and
those, too,  who marry late  in life are ordinarily unfruitful,
more especially if the application of  the stimulus of sexual
intercourse causes over-excitation of the menstrual organs,
which have become somewhat accustomed to the deprivation
of their natural stimulus.
  Climate  has  a governing influence over fecundity.  Fe-
males of cold climates are more prolific than those  of  hot.
In Iceland, they have from fifteen to  twenty  children; in
Germany,  from six to eight; in France, from  four to five;
while in Spain two or three is the average number.  As a
rule, fecundity diminishes in proportion as we advance from
the poles to the  equator.  England,  Denmark, and Russia
have an excessive population, while the Turks, Asiatics, and
Peruvians, who inhabit a delightful climate, and are allowed
a plurality of wives, have  their empires  thinly populated.
" Man multiplies  himself," says M. Virey, " in the  United 
398   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

States of America, while he  perishes without posterity in
the neighboring possessions of Spain ; for the first is  labo-
rious without  luxury, the  second enjoys ostentation  and
idleness; the one is free, whilst the other is subjected to an
arbitrary yoke."
  Fecundity is also greater among the poorer classes  than
among the affluent.   Among the latter are the fewest chil-
dren, while among the former they are numerous.
  The seasons have  great influence on  fecundity.  "Hip-
pocrates was of the opinion that spring was the season most
favorable to conception.  Pliny termed it the genital  sea-
son (geniale tempos), when all Nature possessed ardor, and
became  pregnant of new creations.  At this season, all ani-
mals and vegetables reproduce ; animated nature is exhila-
rated ; the purity of  the air; the freshness of aliments; the
infancy  of all  Nature, which renews pleasure; the odor of
flowers; the melodious singing of birds; the voluptuous sen-
sations felt in  every organ, — all proclaim that this is the
season of reproduction.  Animals approach each other, the
germination of seeds  commences, shrubs and trees put forth
their blossoms, and there is a universal  effort to reproduce
in all bodies  endowed with life.  . . . Truly has  the  poet
sung,  'In the spring, the lands swell, and  demand the
reproductive seeds.   Then the  omnipotent father iEther
descends in fructifying showers on the bosom of his joyous
spouse   (the earth), and great himself,  mingling with her
body, nourishes all her offspring.  Then the shrubs resound
with  tuneful  birds, and  animals  reproduce  at certain
times.'" — Ryan.  The philosophical and eloquent Virey
thus discourses on the season of spring: " When the ver-
nal sun  sheds  the spirit of heat and life on the atmosphere,
the earth ferments, and covers itself with the varied produc-
tions ; the tree shoots forth its buds; the plant expands its
flowers; the benumbed insect revives and seeks its kind; the
bird calls its species on the solitary branch, and exhales its
amorous delirium in its songs;  the quadruped, whose.eye 
Sterility.
399
 sparkles its ardor, darts his glances towards his companion,
 and thrills with love:  but winter, crowned with hoar-frost,
 brings sadness  and the stillness  of death  upon the earth.
 In those  climates in  which the  fecundating heat of the
 atmosphere never ceases, the flower replaces the fruit which
 ripens and falls, the nestlings  of  birds succeed each other,
 generations  call forth  new  generations.  The year is  one
 perpetual  succession of life;  all  beings do not appear to
 exist in these happy contrarieties, but to perpetuate in  the
 bosom of pleasure.  Life passes now more  rapidly, because
 it is most consumed."
   That spring is most  favorable  to conception, and sexual
 intercourse more prolific in the months of March, April,  and
 May, and that a greater number of infants  are born in the
 months of December, January, February, and March than
 at  any other time of  the year, we have multiplied expe-
 rience to prove.  "M  Villerme" says Acton, "has found
 from criminal  statistics,  that  charges  of  rape  generally
 occur in the spring and summer mouths.  These  facts, if
 they be facts, seem almost to point to the conclusion  that
 the human male is subject to a kind of rutting season, simi-
 lar to that of the lower animals."
   Aliment also influences fecundity.  Abundance increases
 reproduction.   In years of plenty and  fertility, man  and
 beasts and insects multiply and fill the earth;  while in sea-
 sons of calamity reproduction is limited.
   From the foregoing,  it will be seen that sterility very  fre-
 quently points to the menstrual organs as the  great source
 of the infirmity.   If, however, nothing else than sterility
 particularly manifests  itself, the  infirmity receives, ordina-
 rily, little  or  no attention.   If a woman  be  sterile, it is
 regarded  as a  misfortune;  and  there  the  matter rests.
 Treatment, ordinarily, is  not thought  of, and  for  the  rea-
 son that medical men generally regard it more as an unfor-
 tunate condition  than   as  a matter  demanding remedial
attention; and, consequently, its causes and the true indica-
tions of treatment are alike unknown to too many. 
400   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  Sterility is  oftener curable than is generally supposed
A judicious  treatment  directed towards  the menstrual
organs will oftentimes effect  a cure when  all  hope is
nearly or  totally extinct; and Dr. Tilt very truly observes,
that " nothing tends so much to the honor of the profession
as the ability not only to preserve the life of individuals,
but to place them  in a position to perpetuate  their fami-
lies."
  As regards the period of the  greatest  aptitude for con-
ception, much difference of opinion exists.  Some maintain
that the aptitude is greater during menstruation; " that at
this time  there is an increase  of venereal ardor, and that
the capability of impregnation is at this time  at its  acme :
but this is not in  accordance  with exact observation." —
Dunglison.   Others maintain that the aptitude is greater
just before and  after the menstrual  period.  This  is  un-
doubtedly true.  It is equally true  that  conception  may
take  place  either  during   menstruation,  or immediately
before or after it, or at  any time during  the interval be-
tween the periods.  M. Pouchet asserts,  that  aptitude
scarcely exists  at the middle of the  interval between the
menstrual periods;  but M. Coste and  others offer numerous
facts to show that fecundation occurs in the inter-menstrual
periods.   As has been observed, impregnation may  take
place at any time; but the greatest aptitude is undoubtedly
just before and for ten  or twelve days after menstruation.
After this time, and up to two or three days before the next
menstrual period, the aptitude is very much lessened.
  As regards  some prevailing  notions, Prof. Bedford ob-
serves, '■ A general opinion  has prevailed, that  pleasurable
excitement during  intercourse is essential to a successful
fecundation.  This is an error; for it is  well known that
women in whom intercourse is not only without  the  slight-
est voluptuous sensation, but even repugnant,  become readi-
ly  impregnated.   The opinion that  pleasure is necessary
on the part of the female has more than once been cited in 
Sterility.                   401
courts of justice as proofs against the purity of a woman on
whose  person a rape, followed by  impregnation, has  been
committed.   This latter circumstance, however, is no proof
at all, either in favor of the consent, or adverse to the chas-
tity, of the female."
   Those who entertain the opposite opinion would  reply to
this, that impregnation occurred because there were periods
of reconciliation.  Walker says, " Pleasure, or, at all events,
the  absence of antipathy in the  mental nervous system,
seems  necessary to the formation  of a new being; and at
least unity or simultaneous concurrence in the vital nervous
system is evidently essential.   When,  on  the  contrary,
there is  too  great a difference of  character, and a married
pair cannot  enter even into momentary harmony, barren-
ness must be the result.
   " We are, indeed, assured  that there have been  cases in
which  antipathy, disgust, hatred, and even anger, have not
proved positive causes of sterility.   But, in these  cases,
there were periods of reconciliation.
   "Sometimes  a  difference, an  unconquerable incompati-
bility of certain points of character, may render any kind
of union  impossible  between two persons, who, when after-
wards  paired with other mates, have large families, or who
obtain these when age or custom has reduced  them to rela-
tive harmony;  and  hence couples that have been childless
for fifteen or twenty years give birth to children at a more
advanced age.
   " Upon the whole, it appears, as has  been  already said,
that the results of marriages founded solely on interest, and
accompanied either by indifference or antipathy, are domes-
tic misery,  sterility, or weak and  unhealthy children, and
numerous crimes."
   As regards the  likeness a  child may bear from the  influ-
ence of  the maternal imagination  during a  fecundating
copulation,  there  is something  strange  and inexplicable.
Where the  female  is twice married, and bears children to
              26 
402   Woman, and her Thirty  Years' Pilgrimage.

the  second  husband,  they  frequently bear unmistakable
resemblance to the first  husband.  Touching  this matter,
Prof. Dunglison says, " It has been affirmed, that the hu-
man female, when twice married, occasionally bears chil-
dren to the second  husband which  resemble  the  first  in
bodily structure and mental powers.   The  mode in which
the influence is exerted in this and similar cases is  unfath-
omable,  and the fact itself, although  indisputable, astound-
ing. Sir Edward Home thinks that it is one  of the strongest
proofs of the  effect of the mind  of  the  mother upon her
young that has ever been recorded. ' Dr. Harvey has given
two  cases  in support of the view; one of them, that of a
woman who was twice married, and had issue by both hus-
bands.   The children of the  first marriage were  five in
number; of the  second,  three.   One of  these  three, a
daughter, bears an unmistakable resemblance to her moth-
er's first husband; and, what makes the likeness the  more
striking, there  was the most marked difference between the
two husbands in their features and general appearance.'
  " It would also seem indisputable, from proofs adduced by
authors, that the offspring are sometimes, in some unaccount-
able manner, impressed with the likeness of the^rs^ gallant,
no matter how many others the female may have regarded
with particular complacency.  These phenomena have been
repeatedly observed in animals, and in some instances where
no sexual intercourse had existed." It is possible this may
throw a  ray of light upon the  heretofore  mooted question,
why the child sometimes bears so striking a  resemblance to
a next-door neighbor; that is, providing there be floating in
the mind no suspicion that the mother might deem it some-
what inexpedient for her to quarrel  with her  confidential
maid.
  " Sterility in the female may be relative only to one and
not to another male.  It is  said  that examinations among
the oldest  aborigines  of  every country render it evident,
' that their longevity has not been abridged; that the rate 
Sterility.                   403
of mortality has not increased, but that the power of con-
tinuing or procreating the species appears to have been cur-
tailed.  On further inquiry, this  curtailment of power was
not found  to  originate with  the male, so far, at least, as
could be observed;  but some startling facts disclosed in the
course of the investigation seem to confine it to the female.'
Of these, the most remarkable, according to Count Strzelccke,
is, that, whenever a union takes place between an aboriginal
female and a European male,' the native female is found to
lose  the power of conception on a renewal of intercourse
with the male of her own race, retaining only that of pro-
creating with the white man.'  Hundreds of instances," he
adds, "of  this  extraordinary  fact are  on  record in  the
writer's memoranda) all tending  to prove that sterility of
female, being relative only to one, and not to another male,
and  recurring invariably,  under  the same circumstances,
amongst the  Hurons,  Seminoles, Red  Indians, Yakies,
Mendoza  Indians, Aurocos,  South-Sea  Islanders, and  na-
tives  of New  Zealand, New  South  Wales, and  Van  Die-
men's Land, is not accidental, but follows laws as cogent,
though as mysterious, as the  rest of those  connected with
generation.
   " These statements are worthy  of attention; but they re-
quire fresh investigation  before  they can be regarded as
established, especially as they certainly  do not apply to the
negro;  repeated opportunities occurring in this country and
elsewhere to show  that the impregnation of a colored wo-
man by a white  man does not deprive her of the  power of
subsequent  procreation with an individual  of   her  own
race." — Dunglison.
   As regards the age at which females  are most  prolific, it
would appear, from the testimony given, that more women
bear  children  between  the ages of twenty-six and thirty
years than at any other period.
   As regards the circumstances which give rise  to the sex
of the offspring, nothing has been positively demonstrated 
404   Woman, and her  Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

on the subject.   It is in no respect influenced by the desire
of the parents.  It has been  attempted to show that cor-
poreal vigor of the parents has much to do with  the future
sex of their children.   Prof.  Dunglison  states, that " M.
Giron instituted a series  of experiments  on different  ani-
mals, but especially on sheep, to  discover whether a greater
number of male or female lambs may not be produced  at
the will of the agriculturist. .  . . The result would  seem to
show that the younger rams begat  females  in greater pro-
portion ;  and the  older,  males.   M.  Giron  asserts, that
females commonly predominate amongst animals that live
in a state of ' polygamy;'  and  it  is affirmed that the same
fact has been observed in Turkey and Persia in the  human
species : but statistical data are wanting.  These and other
facts have seemed, however, to  show, that, in the act of gen-
eration, it is, as a general  rule, the stronger individual that
regulates the sex of the progeny.  M. Moreau has  arrived
at this conclusion as the result of long observation.   He is
of the opinion, that, to a certain extent, a boy or girl may
be begotten  at  will by  strengthening  or weakening the
father or mother previous  to the  act of  generation ;  and he
states, that, by acting on this rule, he has seen, in numerous
instances, his advice followed by  the desired results.  '
   " From the researches  of Hofacker and Sadler, it would
appear, that, as  a  general rule,  when the mother  is older
than  the  father, fewer boys are born  than  girls, and the
same is observed where  they are of equal  age;   but the
greater  the  excess  of  age on  the part of  the  father,
the  greater will be  the ratio  of boys.   The  fact deduced
from  the observations  of  these  gentlemen has been char-
acterized by a recent writer as  'one of the most  remark-
able contributions  that have yet been made by statistics to
physiology.'"
  From the  above, it would seem that the relative vigor of
the parents determines the sex  of the child.  If the male
be of superior strength, and robust, and the female  the  op- 
Sterility.                   4° 5
posite, male  offspring  will be  in  excess.  So, also, if the
father be the mother's  senior.   But in countries  where
polygamy is  tolerated, and the vital powers  of  the male
become weakened and exhausted from being expended on
several women, females predominate. 
                         XII

                   ABORTION.

TTTE have already  seen, that when the ovule has be-
  VV   come  fully developed, and  extricated from  the
ovary, and  received into and  carried forward  by the ovi-
ducts into  the  cavity of the uterus,  and there fecundated
by contact with the male sexual element, then, if a mesen-
teric attachment is formed between it and the living surface
of the mother, pregnancy exists.
  We have also  seen, that the uterus  is intimately con-
nected with the ovaries, and that, while the  vital  processes
of these organs are becoming greatly  enhanced through
ovulation, and the nerves are in a highly exalted condition,
a stimulus  or  influence must  necessarily  be  transmitted
from the ovary to the uterus, which  must induce in that
organ certain changes and modifications.  We find that  its
substance  is  redder, softer,  less compact, more succulent,
more vascular, and  heavier than usual.   We find that  its
lining membrane is the  seat of very considerable tumefac-
tion  and thickening, and, exhaling a coagulable material,
becomes covered  with a " beautiful  flocculent  exudation,"
which forms  the  membrana decidua, which, according to
M. Pouchet, is thrown off from the tenth to the fifteenth
day afterwards, if conception does not occur.  He is  of the
opinion, that the decidua is produced  by the process  of
ovulation,   and that it  is  a pseudo-membrane " secreted
between  the  surface  of the  mucous membrane and the
epithelium."
  M.  Coste, in  speaking of the changes that  occur in the
           406 
Abortion.
407
uterus through the process of ovulation, says, "The only
modification of which the uterus becomes the  seat consists
in the turgescence or erethism of its tissue, and, more espe-
cially, in a considerable  thickening  of the  mucous mem-
brane, — a thickening which results especially  from  conges-
tion of  the  blood-vessels, and an extreme development of
the glands that enter into its composition, and, in certain
subjects, plait them into more or less  numerous  convolu-
tions."  The  openings at the Fallopian tubes, notwithstand-
ing the  exudation, and the  folds in the uterine membrane,
are always free and permeable, and permit the  ovule to pass
into the cavity of the uterus, where, becoming entangled
among the plaits, or folds, of  the convoluted mucous mem-
brane, its escape is arrested.  The opening at the cervix  is
also free and  permeable, permitting the passage of the male
sexual element into the cavity of the uterus, where, coming
in contact with the ovule, fecundation takes place.  The
ovule, after becoming arrested among the folds of the uter-
ine membrane, and partially embedded in its flocculent exu-
dation  (which afterwards  forms  the  membrana  decidua),
and fecundated, forms at that point an attachment with
the uterus;  through which attachment it draws a plenti-
ful supply  of blood from the mother for its  nourishment,
and grows apace.   The membrana decidua, then growing
up around the ovule,  completely envelops  it,  forming the
decidua reflexa, which is in reality but a part of the true
decidua.
   The womb itself now begins to grow; and, at the end of
nine months, the  little pear-shaped body has,  without  any
thinning of its walls, become a huge globular mass upwards
of a foot long, and eight or  nine inches broad, within which
lies the  infant floating in a liquid whose soft  and yielding
volume  protects its tender limbs, as well as its mother, from
injury.  At the end of pregnancy, this large, hollow mus-
cle, called the womb, begins spontaneously to  contract  and
expel its contents.  The vagina and vulva  commence at 
408   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

the same time to relax, so as to permit the passage of the
child through them.  The contractions of the womb are at
first slow and feeble, occurring at irregular intervals of from
ten to thirty minutes.   As labor progresses, however, they
increase in power and frequency until the child  is expelled.
After its expulsion, the placenta, the medium through which
the child  received its nourishment from the mother, very
soon follows;  and the womb contracts into a hard ball, and,
in a  few  days,  returns  almost completely to  its original
size.
  The duration of pregnancy in  the human female is not
absolutely fixed, but is limited, ordinarily, at about two hun-
dred  and  eighty days from the  fecundation  of the ovule.
It may, however, in particular cases, be protracted much
beyond this.  The limit to which the protraction may possi-
bly extend cannot be assigned.  There are cases on record
where it has been protracted to two hundred and ninety-
eight days, or eighteen days beyond what has been deemed
to be the average duration of pregnancy;  and this is said
to be the  longest period of any recorded case that can be
relied  on.   "The University of Heidelberg allowed the
legitimacy of a child born  at the expiration  of thirteen
months from the date of the last connubial  intercourse;
and a case was decided by the Supreme Court of Friesland,
by which  a child wras admitted to the succession,, although
it wras not born till three hundred and thirty-three  days
from  the  husband's death, or only  a few  days short of
twelve lunar months.  These  are cases of judicial philan-
thropy, and  perhaps,  we  might  add,  credulity.   Still,
although  extremely  improbable, we cannot say  that they
are impossible.  This much, however, is clear, — that real
excess over two hundred and  eighty days  is by no means
frequent;  and we think, in accordance with the  civil code
now in force  in France, that the legitimacy of  an infant
born three hundred days after dissolution of marriage may
be  contested,  although  we are  by no  means  disposed to 
Abortion.                   409
affirm, that, if the character of the woman be irreproacha-
ble, the decision should be on the side of illegitimacy.  . .  .
In the  year 1844, a case of gestation protracted to  three
hundred and  seventeen days  was  admitted in  Cambria
County, Pennsylvania; and in 1846, another of three hun-
dred  and thirteen days at  the  Lancaster Quarter Session.
The charge of the presiding judge, Ellis  Lewis, in the lat-
ter case, was sound and satisfactory.  While he  expressed
the belief that protracted gestation for the period of three
hundred and thirteen days is unusual and improbable, he
regarded it as not impossible,  but properly added, 'that
the evidence to establish the existence of such a  departure
from the usual period should be clear and free from doubt.' "
— Dunglison.
  In  computing the time,  Prof.  Meigs observes, that al-
though the full term of pregnancy extends to two hundred
and eighty days from the fecundation of the ovule, yet " it
is more prudent, in making  the calculation for the term, to
begin the computation from the  last catamenial  show: two
hundred and eighty days from this date the woman ought
to expel the child.  It is in  this  manner  that I have  made
the computation for my patients for many years  past, and,
as yet, have no reason for changing my method or habit."
  The earliest period at which  the foetus is  capable  of an
independent existence is six months.  The period generally
fixed,  however, is seven months.   "Much evidence was
brought forward  in a  case  in Scotland  to show that  it is
possible  for a  child  that was born at  the  conclusion of
twenty-four weeks of utero-gestation to  live  some months.
In that case, the presbytery decided in favor of the legitimacy
of. one born alive within twenty-five weeks after marriage."
  "When delivery takes place prior to the capability of the
child  carrying  on an  independent existence, or before the
sixth  month, abortion,  or miscarriage, is said to  have oc-
curred.   If the  child is delivered after this, and before the
full period, it is termed premature labor. 
410   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

  As to the causes which give rise to the expulsion  of the
fetus, we adopt the views of M. Berthold, Dr. Tyler Smith,
and M. Leroy; viz., "that  parturition, like menstruation,
is an ovarian phenomenon;  that the muscular excitability
of the uterus at the full period is dependent upon  the  ova-
rian excitement; and that  the supervention of the  expul-
sive contraction on the two hundred and  eightieth day, or
thereabouts, after conception, is a  reflex phenomenon,  of
which the eleventh periodical access of ovarian excitement,
corresponding to the eleventh menstrual period, is the ex-
citing cause."
  Adopting these views, and of the governing influence  of
the ovaries over the womb, and bearing in mind how prone
are  the ovaries, from their structure and their periodical
turgescence, to take on  inflammatory action, transmitting a
morbid  instead  of a physiological stimulus to the uterus,
we  are prepared to acknowledge the potency of at  least one
of the causes (and we believe it to be the  chief one) that
destroys the power of the womb to retain the foetus until it
is in a condition to  be brought forth alive, and, especially,
when we bear  in mind of how trifling a character some-
times are some of the reputed exciting  causes of  abortion,
when, at other times, falls, blows, over-exertion, fatigue, star-
vation, grief, external violence, and pernicious practices pur-
sued with  criminal intentions, and, too,  in women  of the
most delicate constitution,  fail in  any  way  to  interfere
with the well-being of the foetus, but more especially when
we  bear in mind that abortions coincide  with woman's  cata-
menial  period; that, whenever abortion does occur,  it is
ordinarily at the period of the usual menstruation;  at the
very time when these organs have been  accustomed to take
on their periodical turgescence and  congestion; and  at the
very time, of all others, when, if in a state of disease, the
ovaries  would be more  likely to transmit an  exaggerated
influence or stimulus inducing expulsive contractions of the
womb.  Dr. C. Locock  of London very truly observes, that 
Abortion.
411
" there is a tendency of the circulation  towards the uterus
every month, even during pregnancy ; and few women are
found who do not experience the symptoms occasioned by it
for the first  month or two: hence it  is that  miscarriages
are so apt to occur at those periods  at which  menstruation
would have  appeared, had not the process been interrupted
by pregnancy."
  Abortion  occurs, ordinarily, during the early months of
pregnancy, and, most generally, in those  of a nervous  and
irritable  constitution.   We believe  disease of the  ovaries
to be  one of the  most frequent causes of  abortion  and
premature labor, if, indeed, it be not  the  most  frequent.
The diseased ovary transmits to  the womb a  morbid stim-
ulus, whereby  contractions of its muscular  tissue  are  in-
duced; or the  morbid stimulus,  having been transmitted
to the womb, causes an impetus of the  uterine circulation;
and an  unusual afflux of blood  to the  lining membrane
forces the placenta, or more or less of it, from  its connection
with the uterus by an extravasation of  blood between these
two surfaces.  If considerable of the placenta becomes de-
tached, from this or any  other  cause, the foetus  dies,  and,
 after a longer or shorter time, is expelled by the muscular
 contractions of the womb.  Those of a nervous and  irri-
 table constitution, and especially those in whom  the men-
 strual stimulus is  generally vigorous, and the flow  copious,
 are extremely  liable  to  miscarriage from  this  extravasa-
 tion of   blood.    The embryo is ordinarily  expelled  very
 shortly  after its death; but sometimes it is retained for
 weeks:  and cases have been reported where it  has  been
 retained for months, passing  through various  stages of
 decomposition.
   Another cause of abortion is  the  toxicological  results of
 non-elimination of the effete matters  of the  blood, causing
 irritation of the brain, medulla oblongata, and spiual  mar-
 row, and the transmission of a morbid  stimulus to the  mus-
 cular  tissue of the womb, inducing spasmodic contraction 
412   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

of that organ, and expulsion of its contents.  It is readily
to be perceived how the gravid uterus, pressing  upon the
thoracic viscera, upon  the hepatic vessels, and upon the
renal veins, may cause  deficient oxygenation of the blood,
jaundice, constipation,  albuminuria, and retention of urine;
and we apprehend that the nausea and vomiting which  so
generally occurs in connection with pregnancy consists  as
frequently in an irritation of  the  gastro-intestinal  mucous
membrane by morbid  blood (the tendency being to work
off the poison  by that secreting surface) as from " sympa-
thetic" disturbance.   The  same  cause  may  also  operate
by causing the death  of the  foetus; the  poisonous blood
acting upon and destroying its life through the  medium of
the circulation, in the  same manner precisely as poisonous
drugs when taken  with criminal intention.
   Another, and, it may be said, not an unfrequent cause of
abortion is congenital syphilis ; indeed, so almost never fail-
ing as a cause is this contamination, that repeated abortions
go very far in establishing its presence in suspected cases
in married life.  When either parent is affected, premature
expulsion of the foetus  is imminent, more so, perhaps, when
the mother is the party contaminated.  When both parents
are affected, abortion is almost  inevitable, and occurs, ordi-
narily, about the sixth  month.   The parents may not pre-
sent any decided symptoms of ill health, or any syphilitic
manifestations: the disease  may have remained latent for
years,  and both  enjoying apparently the best of health,
but, if the  diathesis exists,  it  is sufficient to contaminate
the foetus.  Syphilis affecting the embryo may be contract-
ed by the mother either before or after conception;  but, to
be affected through the father, it must have been contracted
by him previous to conception.  When the foetus becomes
affected through  the father, the  mother is not  necessarily
contaminated;  yet the mother may become contaminated
through the foetus as well as the foetus through  the  mother.
   Unfortunately, the initiatory symptoms and distinguishing 
Abortion.
413
characteristics of true syphilis have been imperfectly under-
stood, especially by those out of the profession.  They have
been taught to believe, that,  if syphilis does not manifest
itself after a certain time  succeeding a suspicious connec-
tion, by the  appearance of one or more well-marked  and
prominent chancres of greater or less  magnitude, followed
or not, according to circumstances, by swollen groins, bu-
boes, &c, they  have escaped infection.  They do not under-
stand, that, in  the great majority of cases of true syphilis,
the initiatory symptoms are very far from being of a char-
acter likely to  arrest the attention;  that the  primary sore
or true  chancre is oftener than otherwise so insignificant,
that, in nine  cases out of ten, it will  be  regarded  as a
mere abrasion, which very frequently passes away (i.e., the
abrasion) without any  treatment  at  all.  Neither do they
understand that the large primary and multiple  sores with
over-hanging and  indurated edges, which are succeeded by
a swollen and suppurating groin, and which they have been
accustomed to  regard as syphilis, are not true syphilis, nor
followed  by any constitutional effects.  The primary sore in
true syphilis is scarcely ever  multiple, or of much  magni-
tude, or followed by a suppurating bubo, and very generally
vanishes without treatment, but to be followed in after-days
by those  constitutional disturbances  which jeopardize  life.
Because  no well-marked  and prominent   sore  manifests
itself after  a  suspicious connection,  the patient rests in
security.   If an abrasion appears,  its disappearance quiets
all apprehension.   If  constitutional symptoms afterwards
appear, he misleads his medical adviser by saying that he
has had no primary sores;  and a treatment is instituted for
some other infirmity:  the treatment  may, however,  stay
the  true  disease, but without eradicating it from the  sys-
tem, or preventing its  contaminating an unoffending  pro-
geny.   Deceived as to the  initiatory symptoms of a disease
which has long lain dormant,  marriage is contracted, whose
natural consequences prove but the perpetuation  of suffer- 
414   Woman, and her Thirty Years' Pilgrimage.

ing in other and innocent creatures.   There  are thousands
of families suffering under this infirmity, and its true char-
acter little dreamed of.   The  parents  seem healthy;  but
their children,  if brought forth alive, are poor, weak,  and
puny, emaciated, yellow,  and unhealthy; and the  medical
adviser, as if not to derogate  from  the custom which  has
become too general  with regard to such  cases, pronounces it
mesenteric disease,  or scrofula, &c, and adopts a course of
treatment, which, if suitable for the child, goes no  farther.
The parents are left undisturbed in their infirmity to trans-
mit to a future progeny a subtle, terrible poison, which will,
in spite of remedies, remain fixed in all its awful might, to
blight, wither, and destroy.
   If pregnancy occurs during lactation, abortion not unfre-
quently takes place  as  the result of irritation  transmitted
from the mammary  glands to the uterus, and produced by
tractions at the nipple by  the child in nursing: hence  the
necessity  of  weaning  the child  as  soon as pregnancy is
known to exist.
   Retroversion and prolapsus of the  uterus, ulceration  and
inflammation of its  neck, are occasional  causes of premature
expulsion of the ovum.
   Habit is spoken  of  by some writers (Prof. Bedford  and
others) as a cause of abortion, from  the fact, that,  when it
occurs once, the female is exceedingly prone to miscarry at
about the same period of gestation  as that in which  the
previous  miscarriage took place.
   Another cause of abortion, especially  in the early months
of pregnancy, is sexual intercourse, and, more particularly,
if the amative excitement on the part of  the female be
strong, or if the womb be low down, and the male violent
in his manifestations.
   All chronic diseases of the uterus and the oviducts, poly-
pi in the cavity of the womb, tumors in its walls, adhesions
between the uterus  and the surrounding tissues, impeding
its growth and expansion, are occasional causes of abortion. 
Abortion.
415
  Among other causes may be mentioned  sudden mental
perturbation, sudden violent muscular motions, as in lifting
heavy weights, running, dancing, &c, falls, blows, drastic
purgatives,  emetics,  &c.  To these,  as exciting causes,
is  the  abortion generally referred  by  many physicians;
while general debility, excessive  plethora,  and irritability
of the nervous system, are  regarded  as the  predisposing
causes.   Whatever may be the cause, the expulsive force is
the same: the contraction of the uterus destroys the attach-
ment which exists between the ovum and the living surface
of the mother, the embryo dies, and is expelled.
THE END. 
 
 
 
 


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