B. X.] THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 281 



ought to receive it will be at too great a distance. If the 

 uterus is near, and not able to retire further, it will be use- 

 less, for it will be always touched so as to refuse to open ; 

 but it ought to do this, and to be obedient to its function. 

 These things ought to be thus ordered, and if they are not, 

 the case requires attention. 



3. The catamenia also should proceed correctly, that is, if 

 the general health is good, they should last for their proper 

 time, and not come irregularly, for wher. the catamenia are 

 right, the uterus will open properly, and receive the fluids 

 of the body whenever they are secreted ; but when they 

 make their appearance too often, or not often enough, or 

 irregularly, while the rest of the body does not sympathise 

 with them, and the general health is good, we must look to 

 the uterus for the cause of their irregularity. The dul- 

 ness of the uterus prevents its being opened at the proper 

 time, so that it receives but a small portion, or rather the 

 uterus imbibes the fluid from some inflammation of the 

 parts. So that it shows that it requires attention, like the 

 eyes, the bladder, the stomach, and other parts. For all the 

 parts, when inflamed, imbibe the fluid which is secreted into 

 each place, but not such a fluid, or in so great quantities. 



4. In like manner, if the uterus secretes more than it 

 ought to do, it exhibits an inflammatory tendency, if the 

 secretion is regular but too abundant ; but if the secretion 

 is irregular, or more putrid than it should be in healthy 

 subjects, the disease is then quite manifest, for it is neces- 

 sary that some pain should show that all is not well. In a 

 healthy subject, at the commencement, and the cessation of 

 menstruation, the secretion appears white and putrid. All 

 those subjects in whom the secretion is more putrid than in 

 healthy persons, or is irregular, or too abundant, or deficient, 

 should receive attention, for this it is that prevents child- 

 bearing. But in those subjects who are only irregular, and 

 unequal in the periods of the secretion, the disease is not 

 the preventive of child-bearing, though it shows that the 

 habit of the uterus is changeable, and does not always re- 

 main the same. And this affection is sufficient to prevent 

 those persons from conception who are otherwise well dis- 

 posed towards it. It is, however, hardly a disease, but an 

 affection which may be restored without medical treatment, 

 unless it is affected by some previous fault. 



