NATURE OF THE MENSTRUAL DISCHARGE.
The question as to the nature of the menstrual discharge, has attracted a good deal of attention among physiologists and others. Savage nations, and perhaps some others in the world who would claim a higher place in the range of human civilization and improvement, have entertained singular notions concerning it.
Superstition has been carried so far in this matter, that if a man should meet with the great misfortune of dropping his pipe, and breaking it, the accident would be imputed to its having been lighted at the hut of a female who was at the time menstruating.
So, also, it has been regarded that if a woman, during this period, should walk three times around a garden, all the flowers would be destroyed, and the caterpillars killed in it.
A North American Indian, according to Dr. Gooch, said that if the saliva of a menstruating virgin were applied to the bronchocele of a male, it would cure it.
Every one has read the strict regulations recorded in the Old Testament concerning this function. Thus in the Levitical law we read:
“And if a woman shall have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days; and whoever toucheth her, shall be unclean until the evening.
“And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.
“And whoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“And whoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“And if it be on her bed, or on any thing on which she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the evening.
“And if any man shall lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed on which he lieth shall be unclean.
“And if the woman shall have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it shall run beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.
“Every bed on which she lieth all the days of her issue shall be to her as the bed of her separation; and whatever she sitteth upon shall be unclean as the uncleanness of her separation.
“And whoever touches those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.
“But if she shall be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.”
Thus we see how particular, in regard to the menstrual function, were those good old people of the Mosaic time. No doubt many at this enlightened age would say that they carried things to an extreme.
I cannot but think, however, that it would be a great improvement if our modern ladies, some of them, at least, would be one half as careful in regard to cleanliness as the Jewish people were.
The Romans believed the menstrual fluid to be endowed with the most noxious qualities. It was, in short, regarded as a dangerous poison, the exhalations of which alone are sufficient to turn all the sauces of a whole kitchen, the cheeses of a whole dairy, and make a whole family sick, and wilt all the flowers of a parterre.
If the ancients went to an extreme on one side in this matter, there is, perhaps, equal danger with the moderns of going quite as far in the opposite way. Certain it is, that too great pains cannot be taken in reference to this period. It is generally true that old proverbs have at least some truth on which they were originally founded. There was wisdom in the Levitical law, so strict in regard to the purification of women at this period.
Does the menstrual discharge consist of blood? This is a question concerning which physiologists, both ancient and modern, have put forth many speculations, and many experiments have been instituted to settle the matter.
Hippocrates regarded the menstrual fluid like the blood of a slaughtered animal, or, in other words, blood.
Aristotle was of the same notion, comparing it to the blood which flows from a simple wound. It may be a question whether pure blood is discharged; but that the fluid contains the most important properties of blood, is a fact settled beyond dispute.