ACTION OF THE FEMALE. 961 



Human female the sexual feeling becomes stronger at that epoch; and it is 

 quite certain that there is a greater aptitude for Conception immediately before 

 and after menstruation than there is at any intermediate period. Observations 

 to this effect were made by Hippocrates, and were confirmed by Boerhaave and 

 Haller; indeed coitus immediately after menstruation appears to have been fre- 

 quently recommended as a cure for sterility, and to have proved successful. It 

 is well known that, among many of the lower animals, the ova are entirely ex- 

 truded by the female, before the spermatic fluid of the male reaches them ; and 

 that even in Birds, this occasionally takes place. This question has been made 

 the subject of special inquiry by M. Raciborski; who affirms that the exceptions 

 to the rule that conception occurs immediately before or after, or during men- 

 struation are not more than 6 or 7 per cent. Indeed, in his latest work on 

 this subject, 1 he gives the details of 15 cases, in which the date of conception 

 could be accurately fixed, and the time of the last appearance of the catamenia 

 was also known; and in all but one of them, the correspondence between the 

 two periods was very close. Even in the exceptional case, the catamenia made 

 their appearance shortly after the coitus; which took place at about the middle 

 of the interval between the two regular periods. When conception occurs 

 immediately before the menstrual period, the catamenia sometimes appear, and 

 sometimes are absent; if they appear, their duration is generally less than 

 usual. The fact that conception often takes place immediately before the last 

 appearance of the catamenia (and not after it, as commonly imagined), is one 

 well known to practical men. Numerous cases have been collected by Mr. 

 Girdwood, Dr. Robert Lee, MM. Grendrin, Negrier, Raciborski, and others, in 

 which the menstrual period was evidently connected with the maturation and 

 discharge of ova; but the most complete observations yet made upon this sub- 

 ject are those of Dr. Ritchie (loc. cit.). He states that about the period of 

 puberty a marked change usually takes place in the mode in which the ovisacs 

 discharge their contents; but that this change does not necessarily occur simul- 

 taneously with the first appeaiffcnce of the catamenia; as, in some cases, the 

 conditions which obtain in the period before puberty are extended into that of 

 menstruation. The ovaries now receive a much larger supply of blood ; and 

 the ovisacs show a great increase in bulk and vascularity ; so that, when they 

 appear at the surface of the ovary, they present themselves as pisiform turgid 

 elevations; and the discharge of their contents leaves a much larger cicatrix, 

 and is accompanied by an effusion of blood into their cavity, with other subse- 

 quent changes, to be presently described. It would appear, however, that 

 although such a discharge takes place most frequently at the menstrual period, 

 yet the two occurrences are not necessarily coexistent; for menstruation 

 may take place without any such rupture; whilst, on the other hand, the 

 maturation and discharge of mature ova may occur in the intervals of men- 

 struation, and even at periods of life when that function is not taking place. 

 Perhaps the most correct general statement on the subject would be this : that 

 there is a periodic return of Ovarian excitement, which tends to the maturation 

 and extrusion of ovules, though it may not always reach that point ; whilst 

 there is also a periodic turgescence of the vessels of the lining membrane of 

 the Uterus which tends to the production of a decidual membrane ; but that 

 these two periods, though usually coincident, are not necessarily so; and that 

 either change may occur without the concurrence of the other. 



967. The duration of the period of aptitude for procreation, as marked by 

 the persistence of the Catamenia, is more limited in Women than in Men, 

 usually terminating at about the 45th year; it is sometimes prolonged, how- 

 ever, for ten or even fifteen years further; but cases are rare in which women 



1 "Sur la Ponte des Mammiferes," Paris, 1844. 



61 



