54 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



woman, in fact, suffering from uterine colic. This rhythmical 

 contraction is beautifully displayed at the time of labour, which 

 occurs at the tenth month (lunar) of gestation. Labour is, there- 

 fore, the ordinary monthly rhythmical contraction, exaggerated 

 by the presence of the foetus, which, about this time, owing to a 

 combination of circumstances needless to discuss, begins to act 

 as a foreign body. In like manner the suppressed monthly 

 rhythm occurs during the months of lactation, though it is for the 

 most part entirely overlooked by the woman. In regard to the 

 post-menstrual period of life : for the first few years perhaps all 

 women experience some monthly symptoms, and a large number 

 will acknowledge this, if asked ; but the rhythm, in all pro- 

 bability, continues for many years to come. I am, indeed, not 

 at all sure that it ceases before death. Upon very careful 

 inquiry, evidence of post-climacteric menstrual rhythm can be 

 obtained, in a fair sprinkling of cases, up to sixty, but I have 

 distinctly traced the rhythm past seventy. The woman will 

 complain of backache, or flushes, or a curious headache, or she 

 will grow dark under the eyes ; and sometimes the symptoms are 

 highly interesting, and not infrequently different to those she 

 was wont to experience when the periods were actually upon her. 

 Although by far the larger proportion of women — at all events, 

 among hospital and infirmary patients — will deny any monthly 

 indication after sixty, yet I imagine that this is due to the fact 

 that they do not themselves recognize the rhythm, although 

 they actually experience it. 



Does the male sex undergo any monthly rhythm, akin to 

 menstruation ? This question cannot at present be scientifically 

 answered, but it is worthy of investigation, although, perhaps, 

 to many, such a supposition may appear fanciful. I have known 

 several cases of disease, which have exhibited a monthly rhythm. 

 They have mostly been nervous cases. One medical man, who 

 suffered from monthly migraine, was in the habit of speaking 

 of them as his " monthlies;" and I have met with a case of 

 monthly-bleeding piles in an elderly gentleman ; and it is a 

 very interesting fact that, when, at the age of sixty-six, the 

 hasmorrhagic flux became irregular, this gentleman experienced 

 many of the symptoms which women complain of at the 

 climacteric — he became emotional, and, among other things, 



