The Ladies Book of Useful Information, Anonymous [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

severe pains in the back and lower part of the abdomen. It is caused by taking cold during the period; fright, violent mental emotions, obstinate constipation, sedentary occupations, smallness of the mouth and neck of the womb. Females subject to this trouble are generally relieved by marriage. The symptoms are severe bearing-down pains in the region of the uterus, like labor pains; restlessness, coldness, flashes of heat, with headache; aching in the small of the back, lower part of the abdomen, and thighs; the discharge is scanty, and contains shreds of fiber and clotted blood. TREATMENT.

The patient should immediately go to bed and cover up warmly. Stimulating food and drinks should be avoided. Use a warm foot bath and sitting-bath, with hot poultices of hops or cloths wet in hot water applied to the abdomen.

In the interval of the menses, take active exercise, with a tepid hip bath three nights in the week, injecting some of the water high up in the vagina. Keep the bowels open by a pill of aloes and myrrh, and take a small teaspoonful of the volatile tincture of guiacum three times a day, in water. On the approach of the period, take the following at night:

Calomel, Three grains; Opium, One grain.

In the morning a dose of caster oil, and on the appearance of the menses, the Dover's Powder and mixture as before. Repeat this treatment, in each interval, until permanently relieved.

The following is recommended by an eminent physician, to be taken a few days before the period:

Acetous tincture of colchicum, Three drams; Magnesia, One dram; Sulphate of magnesia, Three drams; Distilled mint or cinnamon water, Four ounces.

Mix. Dose: A small wineglassful every two or three hours until it operates. This should be preceded the night before by a small dose of blue pill.

SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES—AMENORRHŒA.

By suppression is meant a disappearance of the menses after they have become established, and may be either acute or chronic. It is caused by cold caught during the flow, by exposure to night air or by wetting the feet; fear, shocks, violent mental emotions, anxiety, fevers and other acute diseases. Chronic suppression may be either a consequence of the acute, or caused by delicate health; also, from diseases of the ovaries or womb. It may also be occasioned by an imperforate hymen, in which case it must be cut open by a physician.

TREATMENT.

When the suppression is caused by some disease in the system, that disease must be cured before the menses will return. For sudden suppression, use the warm sitting-bath or foot bath. Apply cloths wet in warm water to the lower part of the abdomen, and drink freely of warm water. If the suppression is chronic and the patient is delicate, in the interval between the menses use the shower or the full bath of cold or tepid water, rubbing the body briskly with a coarse towel, especially around the abdomen, loins, and genital organs.

As soon as the discharge has ceased, a warm hip bath will generally bring it on. If there is much inflammation of the uterus give the following:

Tincture aconite leaves, Two drams; Sweet spirits of nitre, One ounce; Simple syrup, Three ounces.

Dose: One teaspoonful every two or three hours.

If the discharge cannot be brought on, wait until the next period. A few days before the term the bowels should be freely opened and kept open until the period for the discharge has arrived. A pill of aloes and iron is one of the best that can be given. Give from one to three pills daily. If there is no evident reason for the discharge not appearing, such as pregnancy, inflammation of the neck of the womb, and the woman is suffering from the suppression, use the following:

Caulophyllin, One dram; Extract aconite, Eight grains; Aloes, Ten grains; Sulphate of iron, Ten grains.

Make into forty pills. Dose: Two or three pills, taken night and morning.

The remedies should always be taken a few days before the period arrives for the menses. If the chronic suppression is the result of any acute disease, the health must first be re-established, otherwise it would be wrong to force the menses. When this has been done, immediately before the return of the period a warm hip bath should be taken every night for six nights, and one of the following pills taken three times a day:

Fresh powdered ergot of rye, Fifty grains; Barbadoes aloes, Twelve grains; Essential oil of juniper, Twelve drops.

Make into twelve pills with syrup or mucilage, washing down each pill with a cupful of pennyroyal tea.

CESSATION OF THE MENSES—CHANGE OF LIFE.

By the phrase, “change of life,” or, the critical period, we understand the final cessation, or stoppage, of the menses. It usually takes place between the ages of forty and fifty, although in some cases it may occur as early as thirty, and in others not until sixty. However, we can expect the change about the forty-fifth year.

The symptoms will vary according to the constitution of the woman. In some the change occurs by the discharge gradually diminishing in quantity; in others, by the intervals between the periods being lengthened. A woman may pass this period without having any more unpleasant symptoms than an occasional rush of blood to the head, or a headache. Others, however, may have very severe symptoms arise, which will require the care of an intelligent physician. These disagreeable sensations should receive a careful consideration and not be hushed up with the reply that these complaints arise from the “change of life” and will vanish whenever that change takes place. The foundation of serious trouble may be laid which will make the remainder of her existence a burden and cut short a life which might have been conducted to a good old age. While this change is in progress, in probably the majority of cases there is more or less disturbance of the health. It is sometimes quite impossible to say exactly what is the trouble with the patient, except that she is out of health. The following are some of the symptoms which may arise: Headache, dizziness, biliousness, sour stomach, indigestion, diarrhœa, piles, costiveness, itching of the private parts, cramp and colic of the bowels, palpitation of the heart, swelling of the limbs and abdomen, pains in the back and loins, paleness and general weakness.

TREATMENT.

Eat and drink moderately; sleep in airy, well-ventilated rooms; exercise daily in the open air, either by walking or riding; avoid violent emotions; shun exposure to wet, stormy weather, wet feet, etc.

Keep the bowels regulated with the following:

Mercurial pill, one grain; ipecac powder, one-half grain; compound rhubarb pill, three grains. Mix for a pill to be taken every night.

Or, one ounce of hicra picra, or powdered aloes with castella, mixed in a pint of gin, which should stand for four or five days, after which a tablespoonful in a glass of water may be taken every morning or second morning, as the case may be.

If the patient is large and fleshy, of full habit, the following is recommended:

Sulphate of magnesia, one and one-half ounces; compound infusion of roses, five ounces; cinnamon water, one ounce. Mix, Dose: Two tablespoonfuls once a day.

If there are nervous symptoms prominent, give valerianate of zinc, eight grains; tincture of valerian, two drams; orange flower water, three and a half ounces; syrup of red poppies, two drams. Mix. Dose: A tablespoonful every six hours.

FALLING OF THE WOMB
(Prolapsus uteri).

Falling of the womb is simply a sinking down of the organ, and may be so slight as not to be noticed or so great that the organ will protrude between the legs through the external opening. It is not a disease of the womb itself, but of some of its supports.

So long as the vagina retains its natural size and the ligaments are but two and a half inches long the organ will not be displaced. Whatever tends to relax and weaken the system may cause the complaint. The muscles of the abdomen which support the intestines being weakened from any cause will allow the intestines to press down upon the womb and its ligaments, and, in consequence of this constant pressure, they give way. Another cause is too early exercise after childbearing. Flooding and leucorrhœa, or whites, if allowed to continue for a long time, will produce it; in delicate females, continued running up and down stairs, also tight lacing, dancing, leaping, and running, particularly during the period of menstruation, when the womb is increased in weight by the blood contained in it. The use of medicines to loosen the bowels, which is very common among many, is still another cause of the disorder.

Most females who are troubled with falling of the womb think that it is necessary to a cure that they should wear some kind of a support to the abdomen. These supporters, however, do a vast amount of harm, for by being worn tightly around the abdomen they increase the pressure on the bowels, thus forcing down, more and more, the womb and its appendages. All that is necessary is to raise up the womb to its natural position, and use an instrument that will keep it in place. This instrument is called a pessary. This pessary is a ring or hollow cup-shaped globe, made of gold, silver, ivory, wood or gutta-percha, and is placed in the vagina or birthplace, thus supporting the womb. The cold hip bath should be used once a day, at the same time injecting cold water into the vagina with a syringe. Lie down as much as possible, and avoid becoming fatigued. Apply cold bandages to the abdomen on going to bed.

If the womb has descended to the external orifice it is often necessary to restore it to its natural position by pressing it upward and backward by a finger or two pressed into the vagina. If the process be accompanied with pain, the vagina should be well washed by injections of thick flax seed or slippery elm bark tea for a day or two before the astringent washes are used.

Avoid tight corsets and heavy skirts, suspend the under-garments from the shoulders and not from the waist, as is usually done. Use plain vegetable diet, and avoid tea, coffee, spirituous drinks, and all sensual indulgences. Allow the clothes to be loose. These things must be attended to closely. The diet should be plain and nourishing, but not stimulating.

Use an injection of an infusion of white oak bark, geranium, or a solution of alum, in the proportion of one ounce to the pint of water. If there is inflammation of the womb, this must be subdued before using the pessary. Give tincture of aconite, compound powder of ipecac and opium, with injections of an infusion of hops and lobelia, or an infusion of belladonna.

If there is heat and difficulty in passing water, drink an infusion of marsh mallow and spearmint. If the patient is weak, give the following tonic:

Sulphate quinine, twenty-five grains; citrate of iron (soluble), thirty-five grains. Make into twenty-four powders. Take a powder three times a day, after each meal, in sweet wine.

LEUCORRHŒA—WHITES—FLOUR ALBUS.

The word leucorrhœa is derived from two Greek words, and means literally a “white discharge.” It is also known as “flour albus,” “whites,” and “female weakness,” and consists of a “light colorless discharge from the genital organs, varying in hue from a whitish or colorless to a yellowish, light green, or to a slightly red or brownish; varying in consistency from a thin, watery, to a thick, tenacious, ropy substance; and in quantity from a slight increase in the healthy secretion to several ounces in the twenty-four hours.” This discharge generally occurs between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, seldom during infancy or old age. When it occurs in young female children, it will not infrequently be produced by the presence of pinworms in the vagina, which make their way there from the rectum. There will be intense itching of the