There are several other diseases which appertain to these organs, but which be long rather to the department of surgery than of the obstetric branch, and to that department we shall transfer them. These are enlarged nymphs:, impertb rate hymen, diseased labia, poly pous tumours, scirrhous and cancerous ute rus.
Final Cessation of the Menses. This is a work of time ; a work which proceeds slowly, for nature never acts abruptly. The discharge is first broken after hay ing continued from fifteen to fifty years of age. It is necessary, indeed, that it should be stopped gradually, to prevent the constitution from being. destroyed ; and it happens that the body is frequent ly broken by this event ; in fact it is one of the most dangerous periods of a WO man's life. It not uncommonly happens that the menses at this time become pro fuseoroducing dropsy, and the woman is carried off in this manner. Another evil is, that at this period all glandular complaints, which may have lain dormant for many years, now come forward. A little lump in the breast, which has hardly been felt for years, will now be convert ed into a formidable cancer, which will destroy, if not removed. Not unfrequent
ly a tumour, which has long lain harm lessly on the os uteri, will now begin to give pain, enlarge, and be troublesome. The utmost care is necessary in rekcard to simplicity of diet, and regularity of ex ercise and rest ; and the state of the bow els should be carefully watched.
At this period, also, there is a disposi.
tion to a general enlargement of several of the sexual organs, which often induce a woman to suppose that, instead of finally ceasing to menstruate, she has once more begun to conceive. The uterus appears to swell, the breasts to become full, and there is a sense of motion in the uterus as though a foetus was in the act of strug gling. This affection, for want of a bet ter name, is generally called spurious pregnancy. Perhaps we are not exactly acquainted with the cause, but we know what is of far more consequence, and that is, that, in point of fact, there is no pregnancy whatever, and that the symp toms which thus mimic it subside in a few weeks, when attacked by a course of gentle cathartics, andefree exercise.