SECT. LXIII.—ON THE FEMALE FLUX.
This is a defluxion of the uterus, by which the whole body is purged. Wherefore that which is evacuated is of the same colour as the prevailing humour. It is red when from the ichorous part of the blood; white, from phlegm; pale, from bitter bile; and black from black bile; and sometimes it is watery. If the blood is discharged pure as in venesection, we must attend carefully, lest there be any erosion of the uterus. The flux is recognized by the following symptoms: The parts are moistened with fluids of various colours; the patient is pale; is not nourished; and loathes her food; and is affected with difficulty of breathing when she walks; her eyes are swelled; and the discharge sometimes is accompanied with pain, and sometimes without it; with ulceration or without it; and the ulceration is inflammatory, foul, or clean. Wherefore, when the affection is of a humid nature, we must endeavour to remedy the general system by administering such things as are desiccants, without being manifestly of a heating nature. The whole body is to be rubbed, and anointed with honey properly boiled, and we must give diuretic medicines, such as water in which asarabacca and parsley have been boiled, and evacuate the whole body by the bowels. In addition to these, purslain when eaten, and the juice of it when drunk, are beneficial. Also the flowers of the wild pomegranate, the fruit and flowers of bramble, that part of an oak which is under the membranous part of the trunk, and that which is below the peel of the acorn. Horse-tail in particular stops a red discharge, when drunk with water or wine; or hypocistis; the fruit of lentisk sodden with wine and drunk; Samian aster, Lemnian earth, the rennet of a hare, or of a kid, or of a lamb, or of a calf, or of a stag; grape-stones triturated, myrtles, dried unripe grapes, the bark of the pine, and those things recommended for uterine hemorrhage, unless the most drastic. When the flux is attended with pain, we must inject with an uterine syringe, or clyster instrument, the juice of alica, or of ptisan, or of tragus, or of rice, with some of the anodyne medicines. And during the exacerbations we must soothe; but during the remissions (for it has its periods) we must try to alter the system by different kinds of gestation, walking, vociferation, anointing, cupping, dropaces to the parts above, insolation, friction, depilatories, detergent ointments, sinapisms, emetics from radishes, a restorative regimen, baths, wine, and variety of food.
Commentary. By the term female flux, Ruffus describes the complaint now called the whites; but our author applies it to any vitiated state of the menstrual discharge.
Hippocrates has given a very good description of the symptoms which sometimes attend leucorrhœa, namely, swelling of the face, paleness of the countenance, enlargement of the belly, anasarca of the limbs which pit upon pressure, short breathing, debility, and so forth. He admits the difficulty of curing such complaints, but directs it to be attempted with diuretics, epithemes, masticatories, a desiccative diet, and exercise. He details many interesting histories of the complaint.
The account which Aretæus gives is nearly the same as our author’s. It is sometimes, he says, attended with a white discharge, and sometimes with a red, of which there are several varieties. It occurs at irregular periods, and in some instances when it continues long it will prove fatal by hemorrhage. The symptoms are various according to the nature of the discharge. His chapter on the treatment is lost.
Aëtius has treated of the red flux and of the white separately. When the discharge is red, he begins with venesection, and then applies to the parts sponges soaked in astringent decoctions, the preparation of which he has described at great length. When the discharge is white, he recommends gestation, vociferation, walking, friction, and applications which are both astringent and detergent. Galen correctly remarks that women of a loose phlegmatic habit of body are most subject to the whites.
Oribasius and Nonnus are little different from our author.
Octavius Horatianus approves of an astringent and desiccative regimen. His advice is to produce vomiting frequently with radishes, to use exercise gradually increased, to change the air frequently, and to apply depilatories, calefacient plasters, and sinapisms to the part. If the discharge is copious, and attended with pain, he advises bleeding.
Eros recommends fumigations with the vapours of various herbs, after which calefacient oils are to be applied upon wool to the part.
The works of the Arabians contain nothing remarkable on this head. Haly Abbas recommends venesection when the discharge is bloody; but, if it consist of other humours, he directs us to administer medicines which promote their discharge; and also to use astringent and stimulant pessaries. Alsaharavius recommends the same medicines, and likewise in particular the warm bath.