She had never been sick, and she had never been of a nervous habit; and such a condition was entirely unexpected. There was no epidemic of such a character, and no accountable cause except that given. Her case was of an inflammatory type and lasted twenty-one days.
Treated by large doses of gelseminum, veratrum viride, and quinine when safe. The case was a sthenic one throughout, a meningitis without a doubt, and no cause but venereal shock.
When she recovered I asked her if she remembered what occurred during the night of her falling sick, and she flushed, but finally confessed knowing when he put his hand upon her genitalia, when she thought she fainted; but casually remarked, “I don’t understand it, but I had no power to prevent him doing so.”
The young man again informed me that his hand was upon the vulva, perhaps a minute, when he noticed a strange expression on her countenance.
The shock did not occur at or near her menstrual period, and she menstruated during convalescence, which her mother informed me was a period six weeks from her previous time. She never entirely recovered her mental vigor, and remained single till three years ago, when she married, and all has gone well.
The shock can only be attributed to that susceptibility to nervous impressions so common to the female reproductive organs in the stage of development. There is a strong probability that had this nervous shock been less impressive in character and more prolonged, a nymphomania might have occurred.