Book Description

Excerpt from A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Women: Illustrated by Colored Plates and Numerous Wood Engravings Want of rest, and exposure during the menstrual period, is a frequent source of disease, and it is well to' impress upon the minds of our women the need of care at these times. Not but that a woman who had inherited a vigorous body, and had lived an ao tive, healthy life, might not endure very great exposure without suffering, Congenital hydrophobia is a very common cause of uterine dis ease. Some women never wash - anything but their faces - and have to be taught that in civilized life cold water may compensate for sedentary habits. The woman of lax fibre and feeble develop ment will find the vigorous application to the pelvis, abdomen, and genitalia, of cold water, with brisk friction in drying, a most important means of development. I am free to say, that no woman has a right to enter the marital relation, unless she can perform the duties appertaining to it. If the body is feeble, or lacks development, her duty to herself, her husband, her children, and to society, demands that she employ all means to recover physical and sexual health. I leave it to the reader to say, from his experience, if these are not facts; if they are, the physician's duty in the premises is very clear - educate the people to right views of life. With the use of the reproductive apparatus comes abuse, and from this many cases of uterine disease are grown. In early mar ried life comes too frequent copulation, and excessive excitement of the reproductive apparatus, sometimes without the relief that comes from the completed venereal orgasm. Then pregnancy follows Without a knowledge of the care that should be used in this condition, and frequently a too early return to the exhausting labors of the household after childbirth. Then possibly exhaust ive and prolonged lactation comes in to complete the wrong to the previously exhausted reproductive apparatus. In many cases the cares of life are so great as to exhaust the vital forces; in other cases the labor in the care of the household is exhaustive, and in others the food is so imperfectly prepared that the woman can not make blood enough to sustain healthy life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.