16 THE HUMAN BOD 1. 



closes the passage of the cervix and is especially apt to canso 

 pain at the menstrual period. The accumulated blood 

 distends the uterus, which makes violent contractions to 

 expel it; finally, if the resistance is overcome, the blood has 

 probably already clotted and its expulsion causes more suf- 

 fering. All this might usually be soon remedied, but the 

 sufferer, ignorant of what is wrong, often goes on month 

 after month until her health is undermined, hoping that 

 the trouble will get better of itself, which it never will. 

 To submit to the necessary examination and treatment from 

 one of the other sex is, however, to a refined woman apt to 

 be a more severe trial than all the physical pain; and there 

 is no recent social movement more deserving of every en- 

 couragement and support than that whose aim is to provide 

 properly trained female medical attendance for women in 

 the diseases peculiar to their sex; such as may now, fortu- 

 nately, be found in most of our large cities. Few except 

 physicians, and perhaps few physicians, know what an 

 amount of relievable pain women endure in silence rather 

 than run the risk of being forced to consult a male doc- 

 tor. If no skilled person of her own sex is at hand the 

 sufferer, if she do anything, is only too apt to take some of 

 the nostrums advertised in such numbers for (S female com- 

 plaints," or to consult a half -educated female quack of some 

 novel "school" with a taking title. The result of doing 

 this, or doing nothing, is often permanent valetudinarianism 

 and a life of uselessness, to those who might be active and 

 happy wives and mothers. 



The absence of the menstrual flow (amenorrhcea) is nor- 

 mal during pregnancy and while suckling; and in some rare 

 cases it never occurs throughout life, even in healthy women 

 capable of child-bearing. Usually, however, the non- 

 appearance of the menses at the proper periods is a serious 

 symptom, and one which calls for prompt measures. In 

 all such cases it cannot be too strongly impressed upon 

 women that the most dangerous thing to do is to take drugs 

 tending to induce the discharge, except under skilled advice; 

 to excite the flow, in many cases, as for example occlusion 

 of the os uteri, or in general debility (when its absence is 



