the mind as to the true
nature of the menstrual period, and the age of superstition gradually
disappeared, the intense interest in menstruation vanished, and now,
rather than being held in fear and awe, the physicians of to-day
constantly see the results of copulation during this period. The
uncontrollable desire of the husband and the mercenary aims of the
prostitute furnish examples of modern disregard.

The anomalies of menstruation must naturally have attracted much
attention, and we find medical literature of all times replete with
examples. While some are simply examples of vicarious or compensatory
menstruation, and were so explained even by the older writers, there
are many that are physiologic curiosities of considerable interest.
Lheritier furnishes the oft-quoted history of the case of a young girl
who suffered from suppression of menses, which, instead of flowing
through the natural channels, issued periodically from vesicles on the
leg for a period of six months, when the seat of the discharge changed
to an eruption on the left arm, and continued in this location for one
year; then the discharge shifted to a sore on the thumb, and at the end
of another six months again changed, the next location being on the
upper eyelid; here it continued for a period of two years. Brierre de
Boismont and Meisner describe a case apparently identical with the
foregoing, though not quoting the source.

Haller, in a collection of physiologic curiosities covering a period of
a century and a half, cites 18 instances of menstruation from the skin.
Parrot has also mentioned several cases of this nature. Chambers speaks
of bloody sweat occurring periodically in a woman of twenty-seven; the
intervals, however, were occasionally but a week or a fortnight, and
the exudation was not confined to any one locality. Van Swieten quotes
the history of a case of suppression of the menstrual function in which
there were convulsive contractions of the body, followed by paralysis
of the right arm. Later on, the patient received a blow on the left eye
causing amaurosis; swelling of this organ followed, and one month later
blood issued from it, and subsequently blood oozed from the skin of the
nose, and ran in jets from the skin of the fingers and from the nails.

D'Andrade cites an account of a healthy Parsee lady, eighteen years of
age, who menstruated regularly from thirteen to fifteen and a half
years; the catamenia then became irregular