The people's common sense medical adviser in plain English; or, medicine simplified / by R.V. Pierce.

  • Pierce, R. V. (Ray Vaughn), 1840-1914.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The people's common sense medical adviser in plain English; or, medicine simplified / by R.V. Pierce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    The nervous system sympathetically responds, becoming exceed* ingly irritable, and thus implicating in this derangement every bodily organ. In some constitutions, the change of any habit is almost impossible, particularly if it is improperly acquired, or detrimental to health; and so we have sometimes thought re- specting this function, that the more it has been abused and perverted during the time of its natural activity, the greater is the disturbance occasioned when it ceases. Treatment. There should be regularity in all the habits „of life. Women are too apt to approach this important period without due care and consideration. When the physical system is about to suspend a function, it is folly to endeavor to per- form the labor or assume the responsibilities which were per- missible when the constitution was more robust. How the duties of each day and hour weigh upon the ener- gies of the mother! What intense solicitude and yearning she experiences! How unselfish is that mother who each day works steadily and faithfully for others, and who is conscious of the hidden dangers that lurk around her pathway ! With confiding faith and love, she commends the interests of her children to Him who doeth all things well. She anticipates the wants of her family and strives to supply the desired comforts, thus wast- ing her strength in the labors prompted by her loving nature. Would it not be a greater comfort to those children to have the counsel of. their dear mother in later years, than to have the bitter reflection that she sacrificed her health and life for their gratification? Unconsciously, perhaps, but none the less certainly, do women enter upon this period regardless of the care they ought to bestow upon themselves. Without sufficient forethought or an understanding of the functional changes taking place, they over- tax their strength, until, by continuous exertion, they break down under those labors which, to persons of their age, are excessive and injurious. Is it strange, when woman has thus exhausted her energies, when her body trembles with fatigue and her mind is agitated with responsibilities, that the menses capriciously return, or the uterus is unable to withstand congestion, and capillary hemorrhage becomes excessive? If the physical sys- tem had not been thus exhausted, it would have exercised its