DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN 619 



body consists of a kidney which, with its attachments, 

 has become loosened from its usual position at the back 

 of the abdominal cavity. Owing to this fact, the tumor 

 is sometimes known as floating kidney. A radical cure 

 cannot be effected, either by surgical means or medical 

 treatment, but great relief will be afforded the patient 

 by the wearing of a proper abdominal supporter. 



A condition known as movable kidney, in which the 

 mobility of the organ is less than in floating kidney, is 

 very common among civilized women. It is found, in 

 fact, in fully twenty-five per cent of all adult women 

 whose mode of dressing has been in accordance with 

 the conventional usage of civilized women. This con- 

 dition of the kidney is often more painful than floating 

 kidney. The measures of treatment required are the 

 same, though an operation is seldom needed. The res- 

 toration of the tone of the abdominal muscles by proper 

 exercise, and the application of massage and electricity, 

 will usually effect a cure, or, at any rate, relieve the 

 patient from the distress due to the drag upon the 

 sjTnpathetic nerve consequent upon the pendant con- 

 dition of the kidney, which receives branches from the 

 solar plexus and other portions of the great sympa- 

 thetic. The writer has often seen the kidney drawn 

 up into place at once by placing the patient in a cor- 

 rect standing or sitting poise, the abdominal muscles 

 being well drawn in. 



Relaxed Abdomen.— The relaxed condition of the 

 abdominal wall frequently present in women who have 

 borne a number of children, and in which the abdomi- 

 nal walls have been greatly distended during preg- 

 nancy, is often not only a source of great inconvenience, 

 but a cause of serious disease. The abdominal walls 

 normally support themselves in position ; but when thus 



