A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 517 



The same author remarks further on the results of 

 this with other causes which hirgely grow out of it: 



''It has been a matter of common observation that 

 the physical status of the women of Christendom has 

 been gradually deteriorating^ that their mental ener- 

 gies were uncertain and spasmodic; that they were 

 prematurely care-worn, wrinkled, and enervated; that 

 they became subject to a host of diseases scarcely ever 

 known to the professional men of past times, but now 

 familiar to, and the common talk of, the matrons, and 

 often, indeed, of the youngest females in the com- 

 munity. ' ' 



So prevalent are these maladies, that Michelet says 

 with truth that the present is the "age of womb dis- 

 eases.-' ' 



An Illustrative Case. —Every physician of ob- 

 servation and experience has met many cases illustra- 

 tive of the serious effects of the evil named. Many 

 years ago, when the author was acting as assistant in 

 a large dispensary in an Eastern city, a young woman 

 applied for examination and treatment. She presented 

 a great variety of nervous symptoms, prominent among 

 which were those of mild hysteria and nervous exhaus- 

 tion, together with impaired digestion and violent pal- 

 pitation of the heart. In our inquiries respecting the 

 cause of these difficulties, we learned that she had been 

 married about six months. A little careful questioning 

 elicited the fact that sexual indulgence was invariably 

 practiced every night, and often two or three times, 

 occasionally as many as four times a night. 



We had the key to her troubles at once, and ordered 

 entire continence for a month. From her subsequent 

 reports we learned that her husband would not allow 

 her to comply with the request, but that indulgence was 



