HOME TREATMENT.--Often brought on by colds. Treat by warm hip baths, hot
drinks (avoiding spirituous liquors), and heat applied to the back and
extremities. A teaspoonful of the fluid extract of viburnum will sometimes
act like a charm.
_HOW TO CURE SWELLED AND SORE BREASTS._
Take and boil a quantity of chamomile, and apply the hot fomentations. This
dissolves the knot, and reduce the swelling and soreness. {338}
_LEUCORRHEA OR WHITES._
HOME TREATMENT.--This disorder, if not arising from some abnormal condition
of the pelvic organs, can easily be cured by patient taking the proper
amount of exercise and good nutritious food, avoiding tea and coffee. An
injection every evening of one teaspoonful of Pond's Extract in a cup of
hot water, after first cleansing the vagina well with a quart of warm
water, is a simple but effective remedy.
_INFLAMMATION OF THE WOMB._
HOME TREATMENT.--When in the acute form this disease is ushered in by a
chill, followed by fever, and pain in the region of the womb. Patient
should be placed in bed, and a brisk purgative given, hot poultices applied
to the abdomen, and the feet and hands kept warm. If the symptoms do not
subside, a physician should be consulted.
_HYSTERIA._
DEFINITION.--A functional disorder of the nervous system of which it is
impossible to speak definitely; characterized by disturbance of the reason,
will, imagination, and emotions, with sometimes convulsive attacks that
resemble epilepsy.
SYMPTOMS.--Fits of laughter, and tears without apparent cause; emotions
easily excited; mind often melancholy and depressed; tenderness along the
spine; disturbances of digestion, with hysterical convulsions, and other
nervous phenomena.
HOME TREATMENT.--Some healthy and pleasant employment should be urged upon
women afflicted with this disease. Men are also subject to it, though not
so frequently. Avoid excessive fatigue and mental worry; also stimulants
and opiates. Plenty of good food and fresh air will do more good than
drugs.
* * * * *
{339}
Falling of the Womb.
CAUSES.--The displacement of the womb usually is the result of too much
childbearing, miscarriages, abortions, or the taking of strong medicines to
bring about menstruation. It may also be the result in getting up too
quickly from the childbed. There are, however, other causes, such as a
general breaking down of the health.
SYMPTOMS.--If the womb has fallen forward it presses against the bladder,
causing the patient to urinate frequently. If the womb has fallen back, it
presses against the rectum, and constipation is the result with often
severe pain at stool. If the womb descends into the vagina there is a
feeling of heaviness. All forms of displacement produce pain in the back,
with an irregular and scanty menstrual flow and a dull and exhausted
feeling.
HOME TREATMENT.--Improve the general health. Take some preparation of
cod-liver oil, hot injections (of a teaspoonful of powdered alum with a
pint of water), a daily sitz-bath, and a regular morning bath three times a
week will be found very beneficial. There, however, can be no remedy unless
the womb is first replaced to the proper position. This must be done by a
competent physician who should frequently be consulted.
[Illustration]
{340}
Menstruation.
1. ITS IMPORTANCE.--Menstruation plays a momentous part in the female
economy; indeed, unless it be in every way properly and duly performed, it
is neither possible that a lady can be well, nor is it at all probable that
she will conceive. The large number of barren, of delicate, and of
hysterical women there are in America arises mainly from menstruation not
being duly and properly performed.
2. THE BOUNDARY-LINE.--Menstruation--"the periods"--the appearance of the
catamenia or the menses--is then one of the most important epochs in a
girl's life. It is the boundary-line, the landmark between childhood and
womanhood; it is the threshold, so to speak, of a woman's life. Her body
now develops and expands, and her mental capacity enlarges and improves.
3. THE COMMENCEMENT OF MENSTRUATION.--A good beginning at this time is
peculiarly necessary, or a girl's health is sure to suffer, and different
organs of the body--her lungs, for instance, may become imperiled. A
healthy continuation, at regular periods, is also much needed, or
conception, when she is married, may not occur. Great attention and
skillful management is required to ward off many formidable diseases, which
at the close of menstruation--at "the change of life"--are more likely than
at any time to be developed. If she marry when very young, marriage weakens
her system, and prevents a full development of her body. Moreover, such an
one is, during the progress of her labor, prone to convulsions--which is a
very serious childbed complication.
4. EARLY MARRIAGES.--Statistics prove that twenty per cent--20 in every
100--of females who marry are under age, and that such early marriages are
often followed by serious, and sometimes even by fatal consequences to
mother, to progeny, or to both. Parents ought, therefore, to persuade their
daughters not to marry until they are of age--twenty-one; they should point
out to them the risk and danger likely to ensue if their advice be not
followed; they should impress upon their minds the old adage:
"Early wed,
Early dead."
5. TIME TO MARRY.--Parents who have the real interest and happiness of
their daughters at heart, ought, in consonance with the laws of physiology,
to discountenance marriage before twenty; and the nearer the girls arrive
at {341} the age of twenty-five before the consummation of this important
rite, the greater the probability that, physically and morally, they will
be protected against those risks which precocious marriages bring in their
train.
6. FEEBLE PARENTS.--Feeble parents have generally feeble children; diseased
parents, diseased children; nervous parents, nervous children;--"like
begets like." It is sad to reflect, that the innocent have to suffer, not
only for the guilty, but for the thoughtless and inconsiderate. Disease and
debility are thus propagated from one generation to another and the
American race becomes woefully deteriorated.
7. TIME.--Menstruation in this country usually commences at the ages of
from thirteen to sixteen, sometimes earlier; occasionally as early as
eleven or twelve; at other times later, and not until a girl be seventeen
or eighteen years of age. Menstruation in large towns is supposed to
commence at an earlier period than in the country, and earlier in luxurious
than in simple life.
8. CHARACTER.--The menstrual fluid is not exactly blood, although, both in
appearance and properties, it much resembles it; yet it never in the
healthy state clots as blood does. It is a secretion of the womb, and, when
healthy, ought to be of a bright red color, in appearance very much like
the blood from a recently cut finger. The menstrual fluid ought not, as
before observed, clot. If it does, a lady, during "her periods," suffers
intense pain; moreover, she seldom conceives until the clotting has ceased.
9. MENSTRUATION DURING NURSING.--Some ladies, though comparatively few,
menstruate during nursing; when they do, it may be considered not as the
rule, but as the exception. It is said in such instances, that they are
more likely to conceive; and no doubt they are, as menstruation is an
indication of a proneness to conception. Many persons have an idea that
when a woman, during lactation, menstruates, her milk is both sweeter and
purer. Such is an error. Menstruation during nursing is more likely to
weaken the mother, and consequently to deteriorate her milk, and thus make
it less sweet and less pure.
10. VIOLENT EXERCISE.--During "the monthly periods" violent exercise is
injurious; iced drinks and acid beverages are improper; and bathing in the
sea, and bathing the feet in cold water, and cold baths are dangerous;
indeed, at such times as these, no risks should be run, and no experiments
should, for the moment, be permitted, otherwise serious consequences will,
in all probability, ensue. {342}
11. THE PALE, COLORLESS-COMPLEXIONED.--The pale, colorless-complexioned,
helpless, listless, and almost lifeless young ladies who are so constantly
seen in society, usually owe their miserable state of health to absent, to
deficient, or to profuse menstruation. Their breathing is short--they are
soon "out of breath," if they attempt to take exercise--to walk, for
instance, either up stairs or up a hill, or even for half a mile on level
ground, their breath is nearly exhausted--they pant as though they had been
running quickly. They are ready, after the slightest exertion or fatigue,
and after the least worry or excitement, to feel faint, and sometimes even
to actually swoon away. Now such cases may, if judiciously treated, be
generally soon cured. It therefore behooves mothers to seek medical aid
early for their girls, and that before irreparable mischief has been done
to the constitution.
12. POVERTY OF BLOOD.--In a pale, delicate girl or wife, who is laboring
under what is popularly called poverty of blood, the menstrual fluid is
sometimes very scant, at others very copious, but is, in either case,
usually very pale--almost as colorless as water, the patient being very
nervous and even hysterical. Now, these are signs of great debility; but,
fortunately for such an one, a medical man is, in the majority of cases, in
possession of remedies that will soon make her all right again.
13. NO RIGHT TO MARRY.--A delicate girl has no right until she be made
strong, to marry. If she should marry, she will frequently, when in labor,
not have strength, unless she has help, to bring a child into the world;
which, provided she be healthy and well-formed, ought not to be. How
graphically the Bible tells of delicate women not having strength to bring
children into the world: "For the children are come to the birth, and there
is not strength to bring forth."--2 Kings XIX, 3.
14. TOO SPARING.--Menstruation at another time is too sparing; this is a
frequent cause of sterility. Medical aid, in the majority of cases, will be
able to remedy the defect, and, by doing so, will probably be the means of
bringing the womb into a healthy state, and thus predispose to conception.
[Illustration]
{343}
Celebrated Prescriptions for All Diseases and How to Use Them.
[Illustration]