ession from anaemia should be
employed. Their use will be followed by the most gratifying results. It
should be borne in mind, however, that when we have suggested any
treatment in this volume, it is generally such as the family may
institute and apply, and does not, by any means, represent the variety
or extent of the remedial resources which we employ when consulted in
person or by letter. We refer our readers to only a few of the safe and
reliable remedies which we have prepared and placed within their reach,
and give them just such hygienic advice as we think will best serve
their interests.

* * * * *

DYSMENORRHEA.

(PAINFUL MENSTRUATION.)

_Dysmenorrhea_, from its Greek derivation, signifies a _difficult
monthly flow,_ and is applied to menstruation when that function becomes
painful and difficult. Menstruation, like other healthy operations of
the body, should be painless, but too frequently it is the case, that
discomfort and distress commence twenty-four hours before the flow
appears, and continue with increasing pain, sickness at the stomach, and
vomiting, until the patient has to take to the bed. When the discharge
does occur, speedy relief is sometimes obtained, and the patient suffers
no more during that menstrual period. With others, the commencement of
the function is painless, but from six to twenty-four hours after, the
flow is arrested and the patient then experiences acute suffering. Pain
may be felt in the back, loins, and down the thighs. Sometimes it is of
a lancinating, neuralgic kind, at others, it is more like colic.
Frequently the distress causes lassitude, fever, general uneasiness, and
a sense of lethargy. There are those who suffer more or less during the
entire period of the flow, while the distress of others terminates at
the time when a membranous cast is expelled. For convenience of
description, dysmenorrhea has been divided into the following varieties:
_neuralgic, congestive, inflammatory, membranous_, and _obstructive_.

_The neuralgic variety_ of dysmenorrhea, sometimes called _spasmodic_ or
_idiopathic_, occurs when there is excessive sensibility of the ovaries
and uterine nerves, which sympathetically _respond_, especially to
cutaneous, biliary, and sexual irritation, and when ovarian or uterine
irritation is communicated to distant nerve-centres. In the first class,
usually comprising lean persons of an encephalic temperament, whatever