440 



GENERATION. 



has given to it the name of menses or men- 

 struation : the Greek word catamenia is also 

 employed to denote it by medical men, and 

 the English expressions of " the illness" or 

 " the courses" are those in most common use 

 among the vulgar. 



The menstrual flow of blood lasts usually 

 for about five days, beginning and leaving 

 off gradually, and being in greatest quantity 

 towards the middle of the period. The in- 

 terval is thus generally about twenty-three days. 

 The discharge in general takes place slowly, or 

 drop by drop. 



The menstrual flow of blood is preceded in 

 most women by some symptoms of fever, a 

 quicker and fuller pulse than usual, languor, 

 headach, pains in the back, and frequently in 

 the hypogastria or region of the ovaries, and 

 by many other symptoms of general derange- 

 ment of the functions, particularly in weak or 

 unhealthy women. In young women upon 

 the occasion of the first appearance of the 

 menses all these symptoms are frequently more 

 strongly marked. 



Menstruation may be regarded as the most 

 certain sign of the arrival of puberty, and of 

 the fitness of the human female for marriage, 

 as there are very few instances on record in 

 which conception has taken place before the 

 occurrence of the menstrual discharge. It 

 continues for the whole of that period of life 

 during which women are capable of bearing 

 children; and after this, when it ceases, a 

 considerable change in the female constitution 

 ensues : the " change of life " or " critical 

 period " is said to have arrived, from the liabi- 

 lity there then is to the conversion of the 

 plethoric state, previously relieved by men- 

 struation, into some morbid affection either of 

 the sexual or other organs of the body. 



During menstruation, the uterus, vagina, 

 ovaries, and other parts of the genital organs 

 are usually more vascular and turgid with 

 blood than in the interval; the mamma, which 

 exhibit at all times a remarkable sympathy 

 with the condition of the uterus, frequently 

 participate in this increased activity at the 

 menstrual period, as they then swell and be- 

 come hard. 



Menstruation consists essentially in the 

 exudation of a fluid resembling blood from 

 the female genital organs, and principally from 

 the uterus. Haller states that the blood has 

 actually been observed to proceed from the 

 uterus in women labouring under prolapsus 

 of that organ, and John Hunter as well as 

 others have found the cavity of the uterus filled 

 with the fluid in women who have died during 

 menstruation. 



Menstruation usually ceases during pregnancy, 

 and in the majority of women during lactation 

 also. In those instances in which the monthly 

 flow has continued to take place during preg- 

 nancy, there is reason to believe, according to 

 Haller, that it may have proceeded from the 

 upper part of the vagina, as the first changes 

 attendant upon utero-gestation usually close 

 firmly the neck of the uterus. 



The quantity of fluid which exudes during 



one menstrual period amounts in general to 

 five or six ounces; but this is subject to great 

 variation from the mode of life of the indivi- 

 dual, state of her health, diet, and other 

 circumstances. The quantity is usually greatest, 

 cseteris paribus, in healthy women living well, 

 but the increase of the quantity above a certain 

 point or its diminution below another are 

 equally to be regarded as unnatural or diseased 

 states of the action. In tropical countries the 

 quantity is greater than in more temperate 

 regions, amounting occasionally to twelve or 

 even twenty ounces. In Lapland and some 

 other northern countries the quantity is, on the 

 other hand, much below the mean, being 

 occasionally as low as three ounces ; and yet 

 in both these situations the women are to be 

 regarded as within the bounds of health. 



The quantity of fluid lost in menstruation is 

 increased by all those circumstances which cause 

 a determination of blood to the pelvis or its 

 contained viscera; hence the effect of posture, 

 irritating diuretics, drastic purgatives, and those 

 medicines termed emmenagogues. 



The nature of the fluid discharged in men- 

 struation has not yet, we believe, been investi- 

 gated with sufficient accuracy. It bears a close 

 resemblance to blood, having generally the 

 colour of the venous kind. It is generally 

 fluid, but sometimes coagulates from exposure 

 to air : it is generally believed to contain less 

 fibrine than blood, and to be less prone to 

 putrefaction. 



Respecting the causes of the menstrual dis- 

 charge and its uses in the economy, many very 

 absurd hypotheses have been advanced in me- 

 dical writings. It was a common belief among 

 the ancients that the menstrual fluid exerted a 

 baneful influence on every living object, plant, 

 or animal, and many of the institutions and 

 laws of antiquity shew that this natural process 

 was looked upon with abhorrence. The corres- 

 pondence in the length of time of the moon's 

 changes with the recurrence of the menstrual 

 period induced many to believe in an influence 

 exerted by the moon on the female generative 

 system ; but the error of such a notion is suffi- 

 ciently proved by the circumstances, first, that 

 more women are not found to menstruate at one 

 period of the moon's changes than at another, 

 and, second, that the women of any place men- 

 truate at all different times. Besides this, many 

 women do not menstruate regularly every lunar 

 month. In some this change takes place 

 every three weeks, in others every fortnight, 

 and there are many in whom there is a varia- 

 tion of one or two days on either side of the 

 common period of twenty-eight days. 



When we consider the circumstances pre- 

 viously mentioned respecting the intimate con- 

 nexion subsisting between the menstrual flow 

 and the processes of reproduction, we shall be 

 led rather to the opinion that menstruation is 

 to be regarded as a means of relieving the 

 female system periodically from an overplus of 

 blood which exists during the whole of the 

 time in which it is capable of propagation. It 

 occurs at this period of life only, it generally 

 ceases during pregnancy, and it may therefore 



