109 [EMM. 
ting lymph of blood from the common mass deter- 
mined to this part, by which alteration it is 
deprived of its susceptibility of coagulation, is 
owing to ** some peculiar mode of arterial action,” 
similar to the alteration which takes place in the 
blood from the presence in the system of scurvy, 
yellow fever and small pox, &c. or death from a 
blow on the stomach. Hence he infers that as 
‘*the same effect” (the eradicating of coagulating 
susceptibility) ** is produced by the uterine arteries 
during the menstrual process, this process may, 
with much propriety, be termed a secretory pro- 
cess.” Without at this moment stating my own 
views of the menstrual blood, (for blood [ still 
believe it) in reference to the secretory process by 
which it is supposed to be engendered, I beg here to 
deprecate this mode of reasoning on the cause of 
a physiological healthy and natural function, by 
unnatural (or morbid) physiological results, which 
owe their institution to an extraneous cause inimi- 
cal to healthy function,—to a cause absolutely 
morbid, as the effects which follow that cause. It 
appears to me a mode of false reasoning, for its 
data have no relevancy to the point at issue; - 
however correct the inference from the insulated 
facts pertaining to the diseased condition spoken 
of, may be. ‘That small pox, scurvy, yellow fever 
and a blow on the belly, are followed by an 
anomalous, and surely a morbid change in the co- 
agulating property of the blood, proves certainly 
that diseased action can have that effect: but I 
apprehend can never prove, that, because a similar 
unsusceptibility te coagulate pertains to menstrual 
blood, it is hence a secretion. Such an inference 
would lead, and pursuing it does lead, to refering 
a morbid acting power in the vessels of the uterus, 
similar to the morbid acting power of scurvy, &c. 
