DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN 615 



the tumor is taken by means of the galvanic cautery, 

 chromic acid, or some other escharotic. 



Fibroid tumors frequently cause profuse hemor- 

 rhage from the womb. The menses gradually grow 

 more frequent and profuse, until after a time the 

 hemorrhage becomes nearly continuous. This class 

 of tumors can usuall}^ be removed only by means of 

 a surgical operation. Occasionally, however, when 

 they develop on the inner surface of the womb, they 

 are cast off by the efforts of nature. 



Treatment.— The idea was formerly maintained, 

 that the only thing to be done for these cases was to 

 carry the patient along in some way until after the 

 completion of the change of life, when it was supposed 

 that the tumor would almost certainlj^ disappear, but 

 more recent experience shows this to be an error. 

 There are certain forms of fibroid growths of the womb 

 which do disappear in most cases at or after the men- 

 opause; but there are other forms of the disease in 

 which the growth continues, and sometimes even with 

 greater rapidity after the menopause than before. It 

 should be remarked, also, that even in the most favor- 

 able cases, the patient is often subjected for so long 

 a time to periodical losses of blood that the general 

 health is completely ruined, and sometimes the system 

 is so weakened that consumption or some other grave 

 constitutional malady supervenes, and the patient dies 

 before nature has had an opportunity to effect a cure 

 by the atrophic changes which naturally occur at the 

 menopause. The old idea that these cases should be 

 left to nature, with the employment of only palliative 

 means, is a fallacy which no scientific physician who 

 is fully abreast of the progress which has been made 

 in recent times, would for a moment tolerate. 



