DISEASES Or Tali MULE SEXV•L SYSTEM.
From a cause that has never yet been explained, women, on the commencement of puberty, throw forth, at monthly inter vals, a peculiar and coloured fluid from the uterus; which terms of discharge only cease, or only should cease, during pregnancy, and lactation, till the age of about forty-five in this country, and others of a similar warmth, though the age at which it ceases is much earlier in coun tries of greater heat, and where the gene ral form acquires a much earlier maturi ty. At the commencement of this natural or regular flow, which is usually denomi nated menses or menstruation, women are often subject to many diseases, from the change that takes place in the constitu tion at that period. They are subject to other diseases from a morbid suppres sion, or too large or too frequent an evac uation of this discharge and again to oth ers, at the period of Its final termination.
We shall first examine into the nature of the menstrual fluid itself. It was for merly supposed that this fluid was a kind of surplus blood thrown out of the system from the mouths of minute veins. It has been clearly ascertained, however, by Dr. W. Hunter, that this fluid, whatever it be, is thrown from the mouths, not of the uterine veins, but the uterine arte ries; and that, instead of being blood, it has scarcely any one property in common with blood, excepting indeed in its colour. Generally speaking, the average time the discharge continues is three or four days; and as to the proportional quantity lost on each day, on the first and fourth, or on the third day, the woman loses a fourth of the whole quantity each day, and, on the middle day, about the other half. The quantity lost will generany be three or tour ounces altogether. a single ounce on the firs: 1,y, two on the second, and the fourth and last ounce on the third day. There is nothing, however, more affected by the climate than this : in a warm cli mate the quantity being increased, while it is diminished in cold ones Linnzus, while writing his account of Lapland, says, that the quantity lost there is never above half .n ounce or an ounce. In hot islands,
as in those of the Archipelago, Hippo crates writes, that the women lose twen ty ounces of blocitl by this evacuation. Artificial warmth promotes the menstrual flux as powerfully as that of the sun.
The discharge, as we have already ob served, commences with puberty, which varies exceedingly from climate. In Per sia the females are fit for all the purposes of women at ten years old. In Lapland not till twenty. In our country about sixteen ; and this period is charac terised by certain attendant circumstan ces : the age of puberty is evinced by hair growing on the pubes and in the ex ilic ; the breasts are formed and made per fect; there is also a change in the ovaria.
The discharge when it earliest appears is not at first red, generally it is without colour. The succeeding periods are ve ry regular, being every month, unless the woman lives in a state of nature, and falls with child, when, upon a pretty ac curate calculation, she will menstruate about once in twenty months, if she suc kle. Menstruation having begun will On regularly, unless interrupted by dis ease, or pregnancy, fur a great number of years, generally till between the fortieth and fiftieth year; and the time of its ces sation is generally regulated by the age at which It commenced The final ces sation of the menses may be known to be advancing by certain irregularities in the appearance : instead of the discharge lasting three, it will continue for ten days ; nothing will then be seen for two months ; next it may come once a fortnight, and then profusely Mcnsu ration .ippvai, to be a discharge intended to the uterus in a state fitted for conception, for a girl cannot conceive till after the men ses have appeared ; nor does any woman conceive after they have ceasel to flow.