WOMAN AND HER DISEASES.
An imaginative poet avers that woman is the link connecting Heaven and earth. True it is, we see in her the embodiment of purity and heavenly graces, the most perfect combination of modesty, devotion, patience, affection, gratitude and loveliness, and the perfection of physical beauty. We watch with deep interest the steady and gradual development from girlhood to womanhood, when the whole person improves in grace and elegance, the voice becomes more sonorous and melodious, and the angles and curvatures of her contour become more rounded and amplified, preparatory for her high and holy mission.
The uterus, or womb, and ovaries, with which her whole system is in intimate sympathy, render her doubly susceptible to injurious influences and a resulting series of diseases, from which the other sex is entirely exempt. By their sympathetic connections they wield a modifying influence over all the other functions of the system. Physically and mentally, woman is man modified, perfected,—the last and crowning handiwork of God. When, therefore, this structure so wonderfully endowed, so exquisitely wrought, and performing the most delicate and sacred functions which God has ever entrusted to a created being, is disturbed by disease, when the nicely-adjusted balance of her complex nature deviates from its true and intended poise, the most efficient aid should be extended, in order that the normal equilibrium may be regained, her health restored, and her divine mission, on which human welfare so largely depends, be fulfilled. Its importance should elicit the best efforts of the highest type of mind, the ripe development of genius, and the most scientific administration of the choicest, rarest, and purest medicinal elements in the whole range of nature.
A Vast Experience. As the remedial management of diseases of women has, for many years, entered very largely into our practice at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, located at 663 Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y., comprising the treatment of many thousands of cases annually, we have been afforded great experience in perfecting and adapting remedies for their cure, enabling us to meet their requirements with increased certainty and exactness.
Treating the Wrong Disease. Our improved and perfected system of diagnosing, or determining, the exact nature and extent of chronic affections, which, in most cases, we are able to do at a distance, and without a personal examination of the patient, as will be more particularly explained in the appendix, or latter part of this little book, has enabled us to avoid the blunders so often committed by the general practitioner, who not infrequently treats those afflicted with chronic ailments peculiar to women, for long weeks, and perhaps months, without ever discovering their real and true disease, or condition. Thus, invalid women are often uselessly subjected to treatment for dyspepsia, heart disease, liver or kidney affections, sick headaches, and various aches and pains, as if they were primary diseases, when in reality, they are only so many local manifestations, or symptoms, of some overlooked derangement, or disease, of the womb. For, as we have already intimated, every organ of the system is in intimate sympathy with the uterus, or womb. Any disease, either functional or organic, of this organ, is at once manifest through several, if not all, the sympathizing organs of the system. When we receive a sharp blow upon the elbow, the pain is felt most keenly in our little finger. Just so in diseases of the womb; often the most distress is felt in organs or parts of the system quite distant from the real seat of disease. On this account, thoughtless, easy-going and ignorant physicians are misled, and very commonly mistake the invalid's disease for some affection of the stomach, heart, liver, kidneys, or other organ, when really it is located in the uterus. Cure the disease of the womb, and all these disagreeable manifestations, or symptoms, vanish. Their cause being removed, the various dependent derangements, and disagreeable nervous sensations and sufferings rapidly give way, and vigorous health is firmly re-established.
Time and Perseverance in Treatment Required to Cure. Most chronic diseases of women are slow in their inception, or development, and their removal or cure must necessarily be gradual. Disease that has been progressing and becoming more firmly established for months, or perhaps years, cannot, except in rare cases, be hastily dislodged, and the system restored to perfect health. The process of cure, like the development and progress of the disease, must be a gradual one, accomplished step by step. Often, too, the use of medicines that, if persisted in, will prove beneficial and curative, will, for a considerable time, arouse in the system very disagreeable sensations, and many times this leads unthinking persons to become frightened or discouraged, and to quit the treatment best adapted to their cases if only faithfully carried out. In many forms of womb disease, their are organic lesions or changes, that can be repaired only by a gradual process, just as an external wound would heal,—not suddenly, but by a constant, slow filling in and building up, or by the gradual development or growth of one cell upon another. Just as a great breach in a wall would be repaired by filling in brick upon brick, until the defect is effaced, so must these lesion's be removed by gradual processes. When fully repaired, the dependent, sympathetic derangements, disagreeable sensations, and all the long train of consequential symptoms are, one by one, abolished.
Not Limited in Our Remedial Resources. It should be borne in mind that, while we recommend, in this little volume, certain courses of treatment for ordinary cases, the remedies mentioned do not by any means embrace all our resources in the way of medicines and other curative agencies, especially for complicated, difficult, or very obstinate cases. In many of the latter class we can send medicines that are exactly adapted to the case, if the invalid will fill out one of our "Applications for Treatment," which may be found folded in the latter part of this book, or which will be sent to any address, on application, by mail. In most womb diseases, the chemical and microscopical examination of the urine also furnishes valuable aid in determining the exact condition of the patient, as well as the precise stage of the local organic disease. Full directions for putting up and sending such samples may be found in the "Appendix" of this little volume. Every case submitted to us, either by letter or in person, receives the careful and deliberate consideration of a full Council of specialists before a decision as to the nature of the malady, or the proper course of treatment to be employed, is determined upon. The great advantage of this system of practice must be obvious to every intelligent, thoughtful person. No experimenting is ever resorted to. The treatment is specially and exactly adapted to each individual case, which requires such judgment, skill, and nicety of discrimination, as has only been acquired by our specialists through long and diligent study, and an experience embracing the treatment annually of many thousands of cases of those chronic diseases which are peculiar to women.
WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,
663 Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y.