OOPHORECTOMY AND THE METABOLISM 35 



facts which afford evidence contributory to the view Other evi- 

 that the ovaries are concerned in promoting calcium cemfngSew 

 excretion. During pregnancy and for at least the first that ovaries 

 few months of lactation the function of the ovaries is in calcium 

 in abeyance in regard to menstruation, and at these e3 

 times first the foetus and then the mammary glands 

 utilize all the available calcium ; indeed, the mother's 

 calcareous tissues are sometimes drawn upon to her 

 detriment. 



Menstruation in the human female, according to my 

 views, is a function under the control of the ovarian and 

 other internal secretions whereby the subject excretes, 

 more or less regularly, the superabundance of chemical 

 products that she delivers to her child when she is 

 pregnant or is secreting milk. In both of these circum- 

 stances menstruation is normally absent. I have found 

 that menstrual discharge may contain a quantity of 

 calcium as much as thirty times greater than that found 

 in the systemic blood. 1 



With regard to the mammary secretion, although 

 it is so intimately connected with the genital functions, 

 it is in reality of subsidiary importance ; that is to 

 say, the secretion of milk is produced by a special 

 arrangement of the general metabolism in response 

 to various hormones connected with the necessities 

 of the occasion. In women there is sometimes no 

 response. Lactation is one of the side-issues, and the 

 metabolic processes connected with the production of 

 milk are comparable with those which provide for the 

 building up of the foetus in the uterus. The mammary 

 secretion will, however, be discussed at some length later. 

 Again osteomalacia, to which, also, attention will again 

 be directed, has often been cured by the removal of the 

 ovaries ; and this result indicates the production of a 

 condition of calcium retention in the tissues. My experi- 

 ments are, therefore, supported by clinical observations. 



1 Bell, W. Blair, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. (Obstet. and Gyncecol. Sect.), 

 1911, voi iv, p. 234 ; Joum. Pathol and Bacterial, 1914, vol, xviii, 

 p. 462. 



