LITERARY NOTICES. 



2 43 



rest for women" in just' the condition in 

 which she found it. 



The third section, occupying fifty pages, 

 is a review of the various theories of men- 

 struation, and shows considerable research. 



The next section is devoted to what the 

 author calls experimental research upon six 

 persons in the form of daily tabulated state- 

 ments of pulse, temperature, dynamics, and 

 the excretion of urea, before, after, and dur- 

 ing ovulation. The general results to be 

 gathered from the tables are, that excretion 

 of urea is increased previous to the haemor- 

 rhage over the usual amount, although there 

 were many exceptions to this rule, individ- 

 ual peculiarities generally governing the 

 results. The number of cases observed, 

 however, was too small to afford conclu- 

 sions. The same objection may be made 

 against the dynamometer and temperature 

 tests. Physiological experiments of this 

 nature always require a sufficient number 

 of subjects to reduce individual peculiari- 

 ties and accidental conditions to a minimum 

 in the mean results. The state of the cir- 

 culation is given a very careful study by 

 means of the sphygmograph before, during, 

 and after menstruation, from which obser- 

 vations the author concludes that there is 

 an increase in the tension of the arteries 

 seven to nine days preceding menstruation, 

 to be lowered, as a rule, a few hours after 

 the beginning of the haemorrhage, reaching 

 its minimum after its cessation. This in- 

 crease in intermenstrual arterial tension, 

 being similar to that observed in pregnan- 

 cy, leads the author to this remarkable con- 

 clusion " that in all these respects the in- 

 termenstrual, and especially the premen- 

 strual, period represents a pregnancy in 

 miniature." From the facts gathered in 

 this experimental chapter, " it should fol- 

 low," the author says, " that reproduction 

 in the human female is not intermittent, 

 but incessant ; not periodical, but rhyth- 

 mic ; not dependent on the volitions of ani- 

 mal life, but as involuntary and inevitable 

 as are all the phenomena of nutritive life." 

 From what we know of the author, we be- 

 lieve the phraseology of the above will be 

 materially altered in the next edition. Aside 

 from the unscientific use of words, and the 

 strained meaning put upon the word rhyth- 

 mic, the author confounds reproduction 



with the conditions essential to reproduc- 

 tion. It conflicts also with reasoning to 

 which this is designed to be the natural 

 conclusion. For instance, on page 98, 

 speaking of the Graafian vesicles, she says 

 that, " as the process of their development 

 is gradual, the periods of rupture are ne- 

 cessarily intermittent ; " and, as if to pre- 

 clude all idea of rhythmic action, she says, 

 further, it " is one of the most irregular of 

 physiological phenomena." 



We shall end our notice by a few re- 

 marks on the conclusions with which the 

 author closes the book. 



Menstrual pain, instead of being the re- 

 sult of want of rest, depends upon 1. " Im- 

 perfect power of resistance in the nerve- 

 centres." This presupposes an inherent 

 tendency to pain in all women during this 

 act, its expression depending on the power 

 of repression, although this alternative is 

 evaded by the author. 2. Organic defects ; 

 and, lastly, acquired pain, which may depend 

 upon conditions common to both sexes in 

 the genesis of disease ; upon causes mainly 

 due to parturition, and thus peculiar to 

 women ; or " from two causes, very much 

 more frequently operative in women than 

 men, namely, ill-arranged work and celi- 

 bacy." Whether this work is " ill-ar- 

 ranged " with reference to time or not, the 

 author does not inform us. The conclusion 

 is natural that this ill-arrangement is due 

 to the need of intervals of rest, since 

 work and rest are natural antitheses. The 

 evil effects of celibacy are insisted upon in 

 several places. The author even rises to 

 the heights of impassioned prose, when she 

 says that "many others never obtain the 

 opportunity to bear a single child, for 

 which, nevertheless, every fibre of their 

 physical and moral being is yearning." 

 While we cannot express ourselves so poet- 

 ically, we concur in the idea ; but it is not 

 a little singular that, since the motive of the 

 book is to demonstrate woman's capacity 

 for continuous work during certain periods, 

 the derangements due to matrimony re- 

 ceive no attention. The fifth and last 

 conclusion is that " there is nothing in the 

 nature of menstruation to imply the neces- 

 sity, or even the desirability, of rest for 

 women whose nutrition is really normal." 

 Yet, upon the previous page, in speaking 



