health in the contiguous
organs, and to relieve excessive congestion and nervous excitement in
the ovaries. The patient should be very quiet during the menstrual
period and avoid severe exercise or fatiguing occupations, not only at
those periods, but during the intervals. All measures calculated to
improve the general health should be adopted. Use injections of warm
water, medicated with borax, soda, and glycerine, in the vagina every
night and morning. The surface of the body should be kept clean by the
daily employment of hand-baths, followed by brisk friction. The bowels,
if constipated, should be regulated as suggested for constipation. The
system should be strengthened by Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription,
and, if the blood be disordered, no better alterative can be found for
domestic use than Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery. If the patient
does not in a few months improve under this treatment, the case should
be placed under the immediate care of some physician well qualified by
education and experience to critically examine and successfully treat
this affection.

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION AND ULCERATION OF THE UTERUS, A CAUSE OF STERILITY.
When enumerating the causes of barrenness we mentioned that chronic
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth and neck of the womb
was the most common affection that defeats conception. Of all diseases
of female organs, this is, without doubt, the most common, and, since it
does not at first produce great inconvenience or immediately endanger
life, it does not excite the attention which its importance demands. It
is overlooked, and, when the attention is directed to the existence of
this long-neglected disease it appears so trivial that it is not
regarded as being the real cause of infertility in the patient.

When this disease has existed for a long time, the very structure of the
parts involved becomes changed. The glands of the cervical membrane
secrete a glairy mucus, resembling the white, or albuminous part of an
egg. The secretion is thick and ropy, and fills the entire mouth and
neck of the uterus, thus preventing the entrance of the spermatozoa. The
mucous membrane becomes thickened, the inflammation extends to the
deeper structures, and, on examination through the speculum, we find the
mouth of the uterus inflamed, hardened, and enlarged, as represented in
Fig. 22, Colored Plate IV, or in Fig. 23 of same plate. Fig. 25, Plate
IV, shows the mucous follicles