Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

Inflammation of the canal by which the urine is conducted and discharged from the bladder is termed urethritis.

There is no organ of the female anatomy that is oftener the seat of local inflammation.

The acute and chronic inflammations that affect the male urethra, also affect that of the female, only perhaps to a more limited extent, owing to the comparative smaller mucous surface of the tube, it being only from an inch to an inch and a half in length.

Inflammation is oftener confined to this portion of the urinary apparatus than is generally supposed, because any derangements of these parts is at once attributed to the bladder, and it is an actual fact that many women have doctored uselessly for years, for the one, when it was the other that was diseased. Symptoms of urethral inflammations are so very similar to inflammations of the bladder that the points of distinction are easily overlooked.

The trouble begins with frequent desire to void urine and a continual bearing down or straining sensation, which may be accompanied with a sense of heat suggesting to the minds of the most chaste and pure women, sexual desire, which the gratification of that indulgence does not relieve nor satiate, but, on the contrary, the sexual passion becomes only exaggerated. It is only the strongest force of character and Christian fortitude that keep some of these unfortunate women in the path of rectitude and virtue, and it is only the scientific specialist who can appreciate the real cause. In many instances women, truly noble in character, have fallen from their high estate, because uncontrollable impulses swept them into the maelstrom of licentiousness, which might have been averted, if they had known of whom to seek proper advice.

This irritation is often innocently and ignorantly acquired in early girlhood by fingering the parts, or practicing masturbation, which sets up an inflammatory condition of the urethra that becomes chronic, and in time may entail the terrible consequences to which I have already alluded. For that reason mothers should not be over-delicate; they should not only keep a watchful eye on their children when in seclusion, but should make it their holy duty to gradually initiate their children into a knowledge of physiology and of the diseases that may result from any violation of youthful virtue.

Why is it that many children who have been reared in an atmosphere of sanctity, children who have enjoyed from their earliest recollection moral and spiritual administration, have fallen into vice and depravity? The reader should stop to answer this question for herself, while I too will answer it for her.

It is because moral teachers overlook the fact that human beings are dual; that we are all animal, however spiritual, and that the functions of the animal nature must be understood in order that the spiritual nature can control them.

A false delicacy has entirely neglected this part of the education of our children, which I stamp as the height of stupidity and hypocrisy.

Among other causes of this malady is hot and acrid urine, or gravelly discharges from the bladder, cutting and irritating the mucous membrane in its passage; abrasions of this nature often lay the foundation for ulcers. When the urine is in that condition, it is probably due to a complication of diseases of the bladder, the kidneys and the liver. A chemical and microscopical examination of the urine will be the only means of settling these questions.