Herself: Talks with Women Concerning Themselves

by E. B. Lowry

I promised to explain to you what I meant by the black plagues. It is strange when anything is as widely spread as are these diseases that so few people know anything about them, or realize their importance. At one time epidemics of typhoid fever were regarded as a revelation of the wrath of God. Now we know they are due to carelessness and lack of sanitation. It is the same with the sufferings of women. We used to think it was a dispensation of Providence if a woman were compelled to undergo an operation. Now we know it usually is due to someone's lack of care, to a desecration of Nature's teachings.

I remember when I was quite young hearing mention made of a "bad disease." Concerning the nature of this disease I was ignorant but I gathered the idea that it was some terrible disease which was contracted only by the most depraved of mortals. How little I suspected its widely-spread distribution, and how little I dreamed that among my acquaintances might be any afflicted with these diseases! nor did I dream of the danger of innocent contagion. Since then I have learned what these diseases were. Now we call them the black plagues, because, owing to the prejudice of the majority, we dare not use their correct names generally. I have no doubt you will be as surprised and shocked as I was at the things I am going to impart to you.

By black plagues we mean the two diseases spoken of by physicians as the venereal diseases, because they usually are contracted during sexual intercourse.

The most common of these diseases is gonorrhœa, or clap, as it often is called by men. How common it is may be judged by a statement made by a professor to his class in the medical college that at least eighty per cent. of the men in the world have contracted it sometime during their lives. Even the most conservative give the estimate as sixty per cent.

The prevalent idea common among men that it is no worse than a cold—a mere annoyance that all men must expect and endure sometime—is lamentable. The persistence of the disease in the deeper structures long after it outwardly is cured leads to unexpected communication of it to women, among whom may be the young wife. As a result she enters upon a period of ill-health that ultimately may compel the mutilation of her body by a surgical operation to save her life. Much of the surgery performed upon the female organs has been rendered necessary by disease contracted from the husband.

A few little germs of this disease left on even the external organs may find their way up through the vagina to the uterus or womb. Here they may produce an inflammation of the lining of the womb, causing severe pain and other symptoms, such as profuse discharge. The germs may go farther, or the inflammation may extend from the uterus to the tubes. When we consider that the passage through the tubes is only about as large as a broom straw, we see what serious trouble may result. The tubes become enlarged and filled with pus. The opening from the tubes to the uterus becomes closed, so there is no way for the pus to escape. The accumulation of pus or the products of septic inflammation stretch the walls of the tubes until the little nerves in the walls cry out in rebellion. The pain becomes so great and the reflex symptoms are so aggravated that finally the woman resorts to the only relief,—an operation for the removal of the tubes.

When we consider that the ovule, the human egg, must travel through these tubes to reach the uterus and, if they are destroyed, has no other way of reaching the womb and, if it cannot reach the womb and be impregnated, cannot develop into the babe, then we realize how this disease is dooming women to childless lives,—women whose natural instincts and desires cry out for motherhood. When we consider the factors that promote race suicide we must not forget this important one. Even though the woman refuses an operation, or in a case in which the inflammation is not so severe and is reduced until she is nearly free from pain, the result may be the same, for the tubes may remain closed permanently.

The closure of the tubes is not the only result that may follow the course of this disease. The infection may extend into the peritoneal cavity causing peritonitis, which so often results in the untimely death of the woman. Here let me say that not all cases of peritonitis or of inflammation of the womb, tubes or ovaries are due to this infection. There are other infections, other germs, that may produce similar results. These germs may reach the organs in various ways. Sometimes the woman herself is to blame and sometimes we can blame no one. Inflammation of these organs may result from pressure of clothing, colds, excitement, overwork, pregnancies, excesses or neglect. The inflammation may spread to these organs from an inflamed appendix or other neighboring organs.

Supposing, though, following this disease the tubes are not entirely closed and the woman becomes pregnant. There is still the danger that during labor the baby's eyes will become infected and may become permanently blind. It is estimated that seventy per cent. of the blindness in the world has this cause. How does this produce blindness? Some few germs of this disease have remained in the vagina or birth canal and as the baby passes along the canal they enter its eyes. They are so very strong and work so rapidly that they can cause total blindness within three days. This fact is so well known by physicians that at the present time all reliable physicians pay especial attention to the newborn baby's eyes, cleansing them with an antiseptic solution immediately after birth. This precaution doubtless has saved the eyes of thousands of babies. This is one of the reasons why it is dangerous to employ an uneducated person at the time of labor. Even though she may have assisted at hundreds of births yet often she is ignorant of the many dangers and of the precautions that should be taken in every case.

Even adults may become blind from this infection. The disease is carried to the eyes by polluted fingers or towels. In a few hours the eyes become inflamed, pus forms, and unless heroic measures are taken, the eyesight is soon destroyed.