294 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



system ; and therefore that, if the stimulus arising from the 

 genitals be wanting, the whole system may fall into a torpid and 

 flaccid state, and from thence the chlorosis and retention of the 

 menses may arise. 



MIL It appears to me, therefore, that the retention of the 

 menses is to be referred to a certain state or affection of the 

 ovaria : But what is precisely the nature of this affection, or 

 what are the causes of it, I will not pretend to explain ; nor can 

 I explain in what manner that primary cause of retention is to 

 be removed. In this, therefore, as in many other cases, where 

 we cannot assign the proximate cause of diseases, our indica- 

 tions of cure must be formed for obviating and removing the 

 morbid effects or symptoms which appear. 



Mill. The effects, as has been said in M., consist in a gen- 

 eral flaccidity of the system, and consequently in a weaker action 

 of the vessels of the uterus ; so that this debility may be con- 

 sidered as the more immediate cause of the retention. This, 

 therefore, is to be cured by restoring the tone of the system in 

 general, and by exciting the action of the uterine vessels in par- 

 ticular. 



MIV. The tone of the system, in general, is to be restored 

 by exercise, and, in the beginning of the disease, by cold bath- 

 ing. At the same time, tonic medicines may be employed ; and 

 of these the chalybeates have been chiefly recommended. 



" The application of cold may, on many occasions, produce 

 a constriction in the extremities of the vessels of the uterus, 

 and prevent the flux of the menses, but I know that these ef- 

 fects are not constant, and to be apprehended only at the very 

 time when these vessels ought to yield : I have known sev- 

 eral instances of cold bathing having been continued during the 

 whole time of menstruation without any such consequences : 

 and cold bathing, considered as a tonic, may certainly be em- 

 ployed at those times when nothing depends upon the precise 

 state of the exhalents, with advantage and safety[; as I have 

 known from frequent experience, and especially in the begin- 

 ning of the emansio, before any degree of the chlorotic state 

 had taken place. For when the loss of tone has gone to a cer- 

 tain degree, I have some doubts with regard to the application 

 of such a powerful refrigerant as the cold bath. I imagine the 



