Chapter II: The Peculiarities of Certain Accidental Acute and Chronic Diseases (1)

OCCURRING IN THE COURSE OF PREGNANCY.

The older obstetricians believed not only that pregnant women possessed a certain immunity from accidental diseases, but also that the course of such affections was favorably modified by gestation. Modern research has demonstrated the groundless nature of this belief. It is an established fact that pregnancy confers upon the individual no immunity from the disorders to which the non-gravid woman is liable. Moreover, such accessory diseases are usually aggravated by pregnancy, and, in turn, exercise an unfavorable influence upon gestation, frequently leading to its interruption.

Acute Infectious Diseases.

Of all the so-called accessory diseases occurring in the course of pregnancy, the acute infectious diseases are of the gravest clinical significance. These diseases are peculiarly dangerous complications for two reasons:

I. They have a marked tendency to cause the death of the foetus and the interruption of pregnancy, when the loss of blood and the muscular exertion consequent upon the expulsion of the product of conception from the uterine cavity seriously imperil the mother's life.

II. Hemorrhagic endometritis, caused in part by changes in the constitution of the blood, is not an uncommon symptom in the course of acute infectious diseases in the non-gravid state. In pregnancy this symptom is of more constant occurrence, just as it is of graver prognostic moment, both with reference to the mother and to the child.

I. The death of the foetus and the interruption of pregnancy may result from the operation of a variety of etiological factors.

1. The foetus usually dies in consequence of the elevation of maternal temperature. The case is a veritable example of that condition which H. C. Wood of Philadelphia terms heat-stroke. The normal foetal temperature is slightly more elevated than the maternal. The foetus in its membranes, surrounded by maternal tissues, must possess at least the {425} same temperature as the maternal body. But it has its own heat-producing apparatus in addition. A very slight elevation of the maternal temperature produces a disproportionate rise in the temperature of the foetal body. Kaminsky[31] has shown that an elevation of maternal temperature to 104° F. imperils foetal life. Increased frequency of the pulsation of the foetal heart and abnormally active foetal movements are followed by diminished cardiac and muscular activity, and the foetus dies. The autopsy reveals the characteristic lesions of heat-stroke.

[Footnote 31: _Moskauer Med. Z._, 1867, Nos. 13-19.]

2. Runge[32] has demonstrated the occurrence of foetal death from asphyxia when the maternal blood-pressure is seriously lowered. This lowering of the maternal blood-pressure occurs as the result of diminution in the force and frequency of the heart's action observed in the course of acute infectious diseases or from the sudden loss of blood. Asphyxia may also be caused by structural changes in the epithelium covering the foetal placenta, due to the state of the maternal blood.

[Footnote 32: _Arch f. Gyn._, Bd. xii. p. 16.]

3. The foetus may perish in consequence of infection with the specific poison of the acute disorder. Death as the result of acute infection has been observed in variola and relapsing fever.

4. Pregnancy may be interrupted, independently of the condition of the foetus, as the result of the thermic irritation of the uterine muscular fibre by the maternal blood. Spiegelberg on a priori grounds asserted the possibility of this event. Runge[33] has since demonstrated by experimental methods its actual occurrence.

[Footnote 33: _Volkmann's Sammlung_, No. 174; _Arch. f. Gyn._, Bd. xii. p. 16.]

II. Hemorrhagic endometritis in the course of acute infectious diseases complicating pregnancy has been demonstrated by Slavjansky's[34] researches. In cholera this symptom is observed with relative frequency. Following hemorrhage into the decidua, according to the time, extent, and site, pregnancy may be immediately interrupted, or secondarily as the result of the pathological changes in the placenta or membranes induced by the extravasated blood. The hemorrhage may be so severe as to jeopardize the life of the mother.

[Footnote 34: _Arch. f. Gyn._, iv. p. 285.]

Of the eruptive fevers, smallpox, scarlet fever, and measles are of especial clinical interest. Smallpox is observed most frequently. The eruptive fevers usually occur early in pregnancy, but the disposition to the severer forms and the mortality, as remarked by Spiegelberg, grow with the duration of gestation.

SMALLPOX.

A mutually unfavorable relation exists between smallpox and pregnancy. A distinct tendency to the hemorrhagic form of the disease is notable. Pregnancy frequently terminates in abortion or premature labor under circumstances which seriously imperil the mother's life from loss of blood. When the disease pursues its course without interrupting pregnancy, the effect upon the foetus is interesting and instructive. The child may be born alive with characteristic variolous cicatrices or in the eruptive stage. Usually the eruption appears from eight to ten days after birth. Very rarely the child may escape infection altogether. The foetus may be infected in utero, while the mother {426} remains apparently unaffected. Fumée of Montpellier narrates the history of a remarkable case of twin pregnancy. Only one of the children showed variolous pustules.

During smallpox epidemics abortions and premature labors, accompanied by abnormally severe hemorrhages, are frequently observed when no exanthem or other sign of the disease is noticeable in the mother. The healthy child of a mother affected with variola in the course of pregnancy is usually insusceptible to vaccinia for a long time after birth.

In the event of a smallpox epidemic the vaccination or revaccination of pregnant women is advisable. The effect of the vaccination of the pregnant woman upon the foetus is still a subject of controversy. Thorburn in 1870 successfully vaccinated a number of pregnant women, and found no insusceptibility in their children. Behm[35] vaccinated 33 women pregnant in the eighth, ninth, and tenth months. The vaccination was completely successful in 22 cases, partially in 7, and failed in 4. Of the 33 children, 25 were successfully vaccinated. In 8 cases vaccination was not attended with success. Failure was ascribed in 7 cases to bad lymph, leaving only 1 case of presumed protection from intra-uterine vaccination. Bollinger and Burckhardt, supported by the results of Rickett and Roloffs in the inoculation of sheep, maintain that over one-half the infants are protected from vaccinia and smallpox by the vaccination of the mother during pregnancy.

[Footnote 35: _Centralbl. f. Gynaek._, 1882.]

MEASLES.

Rubeola, of infrequent occurrence in the adult generally, is a very rare complication of pregnancy. It is of serious prognostic moment, from the tendency to the hemorrhagic form of the disease, and pneumonia.

SCARLET FEVER.

Scarlatina, like measles, occurs infrequently in the course of pregnancy. Olshausen has collected 7 cases. Pregnancy was interrupted in 4 out of these 7 cases, probably as the result of the elevation of maternal temperature. The renal complications also add an unfavorable element to the prognosis.

TYPHOID FEVER.

Typhoid fever occurs with greatest frequency during the early months of gestation. It is a very rare complication of the puerperium. Pregnancy is usually interrupted. Abortion rather than premature labor is observed. This tendency to the interruption of gestation is more marked than in any of the acute infectious diseases with the possible exception of smallpox. Of 98 cases collected by Kaminsky, interruption of pregnancy occurred in 63; Zülzer reports 14 interruptions of pregnancy in 24 cases; Scanzoni, 6 out of 10 cases. In about 63 per cent. of the cases collected by these observers pregnancy was interrupted. The causes of abortion or premature labor in typhoid fever are found in the elevation of maternal temperature, the hemorrhagic endometritis, and perforation (Kleinwächter). The transmission of the infection from mother to child is a disputed point. The prognosis depends largely upon the stage of the disease in which the interruption of pregnancy occurs. If abortion or {427} premature labor occurs early in the course of the disease, before the mother is exhausted, the outlook is naturally more favorable.

RELAPSING FEVER.

Murchison states very positively that pregnancy is invariably interrupted by the occurrence of relapsing fever. Recent investigations, however, indicate that this assertion is entirely too general. Weber[36] has collected 63 cases of pregnancy complicated by this disease. Pregnancy was interrupted in 23 cases, or 36.5 per cent. Hemorrhagic endometritis is of less frequent occurrence than in typhoid fever. In two cases (Wyss-Ebstein and Albrecht) spirilla were found in the foetal blood, indicating the infection of the child by the mother.

[Footnote 36: _Berlin. klin. Woch._, vii., 1870, p. 22.]

TYPHUS FEVER.

Typhus fever manifests much less tendency to the production of hemorrhagic endometritis than typhoid and relapsing fevers. The interruption of pregnancy is the exception rather than the rule. When abortion or premature labor occurs, it is usually caused by the elevation of the maternal temperature. There is no evidence pointing to the infection of the child with the specific poison of the disease.

MALARIAL FEVER.

The popular belief that pregnant women enjoy a certain[37] immunity from malarial fever seems to have some foundation in fact. This apparent immunity may be due in part to the environment and freedom from exposure to the malarial poison--in part to the condition of pregnancy. In latent, chronic malarial poisoning gestation may be the cause of the explosion or acute exacerbation of the affection. The course and symptoms of malarial fever are materially modified by the coexistence of pregnancy. The attacks lose something of their rhythmical character. Chills are of irregular occurrence, and the fever assumes a remittent or continued type. In the latter months of gestation acute attacks of malarial fever are especially distressing to the patient.

[Footnote 37: Ritter, _Virchow's Archiv_, 1867.]

The interruption of pregnancy is not an uncommon event. Göth has recently reported 46 cases, in 19 of which either abortion or premature labor took place. When pregnancy is interrupted hemorrhage is apt to be profuse.

The communication of the disease to the foetus is a well-authenticated clinical fact. Hubbard reports an interesting case of intra-uterine malarial fever. Autopsies of infants born of mothers affected with acute or chronic malarial poisoning reveal the characteristic lesions of that pathological condition. Malarial paroxysms are usually suspended during labor, but may reappear during the lying-in period. Very rarely the fever assumes a pernicious type, and then may stand in a certain causal relation to the essential anæmia of pregnancy, of which mention has already been made.

In the TREATMENT of malarial poisoning during pregnancy large doses of quinine are indicated. Spiegelberg points out the important fact that, owing to the impairment of the digestive and assimilative functions, only {428} a portion of the quinine is absorbed. There is no ground for fearing any untoward effect from quinine. The researches of Chiara of Milan and numerous other observers prove that even the largest therapeutic doses of quinine are not abortifacient in malarial fever or in health.

CHOLERA.

Pregnant women evince no proclivity to, nor immunity from, cholera. As in variola, the disposition to, and mortality of, the disease grow with the duration of gestation. The prospect of recovery is especially unfavorable during the sixth and seventh months. Pregnancy is usually interrupted when the woman survives the terribly rapid course of the disease. Many women die with the product of conception in the cavity of the uterus. Exceptionally, in the lighter forms of the disease recovery may occur without the interruption of gestation. The causes of premature labor or abortion may be found in the constant hemorrhagic endometritis and the changes in the pressure and constitution of the maternal blood. As the result of the operation of the two latter factors, asphyxia is usually produced. Buhl, Gütterbock, and others are of the opinion that the disease may be communicated by the mother to the foetus.

Pregnancy undoubtedly exercises an unfavorable influence on the course of the disease, chiefly from the tendency to uterine hemorrhage. Pregnancy is interrupted in over 50 per cent. of the cases. Premature labor is observed more frequently than abortion. The prognosis with reference to the life of the child is absolutely unfavorable.

In very exceptional cases the evacuation of the uterine cavity has seemed to exercise a favorable influence on the course of the disease. Upon this ground the induction of abortion or premature labor has been seriously proposed. The operation, after an extended trial, has fallen into deserved disrepute.

SYPHILIS.

Syphilis is a frequent complication of pregnancy. Sigmund[38] has observed and described the characters of syphilis contracted at the beginning or during the course of gestation. The duration of the stage of incubation is abbreviated. Two weeks is the rule, six weeks the exception. The initial lesions are characterized by an unusual degree of intensity, occasionally involving the vulva, vagina, cervix, nates, and inner surfaces of the thighs. The intensity of the initial lesions is due to the anatomical relations of the genitalia in the pregnant woman and the increased nutritive activity of the parts. The symptoms are marked local reaction, reddening and excoriation of the skin and mucous membrane, swelling, oedema, eczema, follicular abscesses, and necrosis of the connective tissue. Induration is not a characteristic of chancre situated about the genitalia of the pregnant woman. Phagedenic ulceration sometimes attacks the chancre, and then the case may be mistaken for one of phagedenic chancroid. The secondary symptoms are unusually mild. Condylomata appear about the genitalia, and psoriasis is noticeable on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Glandular infiltration follows slowly, and alopecia, iritis, laryngitis, and the skin manifestations are observed with comparative infrequency.

[Footnote 38: _Wien. Med. Presse_, 1873, No. 1, xiv.]

{429} Constitutional Syphilis.--The influence of constitutional syphilis upon the foetus is marked, and always unfavorable. The foetus may be infected through the medium of the spermatic fluid, the ovum, and by the mother after conception. From an enormous number of carefully-recorded observations it is possible to deduce the following conclusions with reference to the modes of infection and the effect upon the product of conception:

1. When the mother is perfectly healthy, but the father is affected with constitutional syphilis, the foetus is infected by the diseased spermatozoids. The intensity of the foetal disease will depend upon the degree of latency and age of the paternal affection. This mode of infection is observed in the severer forms of hereditary syphilis. Usually the mother is not infected. Occasionally the disease is communicated to her by the foetus in the mode termed by the French syphilographers choc en rétour.

2. When the mother has had constitutional symptoms prior to conception the ovum is infected before its fertilization. The child usually dies in utero, and is expelled in a state of maceration.

3. When the mother is infected during the act of coitus it was formerly believed that the foetus could only be syphilized during its passage through the parturient canal. Sigmund and Vajda have shown that even under these circumstances the infection may be communicated by the mother to the foetus in the course of pregnancy. If the father is affected with constitutional syphilis when the mother acquires the initial lesion, the result sketched in the first proposition follows.

4. Infection of the foetus may occur during its passage through the parturient canal. Weil[39] records a case of this nature.

[Footnote 39: _Deutsch. Zeitsch. f. prakt. Med._, 1877, No. 42.]

5. When both parents are affected with constitutional syphilis the disease will be communicated to the foetus. The intensity of the foetal syphilis will depend upon the degree of latency and age of the parental affection. When both parents have passed through the tertiary forms an apparently healthy child may be born. Evidences of hereditary syphilis, however, are usually developed before puberty.

According to the intensity of the poison the foetus dies in utero, causing the interruption of pregnancy; is born alive, with manifestations of hereditary syphilis, seldom acquired; or may give evidence of the inheritance of the disease after a variable interval of from weeks to months.

TREATMENT.--Fortunately, syphilis as a complication of pregnancy is a very tractable affection. The interruption of pregnancy may be prevented and the effect of the syphilitic poison upon the foetus favorably modified in the large majority of cases by appropriate specific treatment. Mercurial inunctions are preferable to the exhibition of the remedy by the mouth. Iodide of potassium must be used with care, on account of its tendency to provoke uterine contractions.

Attention must be paid to local primary or secondary lesions, since the child may be infected during its passage through the parturient canal.

Cardiac Diseases.

The mutually unfavorable relations between acute and chronic cardiac diseases and pregnancy depend largely upon the seat and character of the affection.

{430} ACUTE ENDOCARDITIS,

occurring in the course of gestation, evinces a distinct tendency to the malignant, ulcerative form. This disposition is much more marked during the puerperium. The dangers of the detachment of particles of valvular vegetations, giving origin to the processes of thrombosis and embolism, are obvious.

The PROGNOSIS of acute endocarditis during pregnancy and the puerperium is much more unfavorable than in the non-gravid state.

CHRONIC HEART DISEASES.

The mode in which pregnancy, parturition, and puerperium exert an unfavorable influence on chronic heart diseases is still the subject of controversy. Spiegelberg accounts for the disastrous results attending aortic insufficiency observed in the second half of pregnancy on the ground of the inadequacy of the compensatory hypertrophy of the left ventricle. The intercalation of the placental circulation, the increase of the total blood-mass, the increase in arterial tension, throw an extra amount of work upon the left heart, which it is not able to perform. Irregular heart-action and dyspnoea, sometimes leading to the interruption of pregnancy, are the results.

After labor the placental circulation is eliminated, arterial blood-pressure is lowered, venous blood-pressure is elevated, and the right heart is threatened. In case of mitral insufficiency and dilatation of the left ventricle, without compensatory hypertrophy of the right heart, the effect of these sudden variations in vascular tension is obviously serious. Dyspnoea, pulmonary catarrh, general oedema, albuminuria, ascites, pleural effusions, occur. Fritsch[40] is of the opinion that these phenomena, sometimes observed in the course of mitral disease after labor, are due to the sinking of intra-abdominal pressure, the accumulation of blood in the great abdominal vessels, and cardiac paralysis from insufficient blood-supply.

[Footnote 40: _Arch. f. Gyn._, viii. p. 373; x. p. 270.]

During parturition Spiegelberg[41] thinks the chief danger in all forms of valvular defects consists in pulmonary oedema as the result of circulatory disturbances.

[Footnote 41: _Lehrbuch d. Geburtshülfe_, 1882, p. 248.]

Löhlein and Kleinwächter[42] believe that the chief danger of chronic valvular disease occurs during the puerperium, and lies in the tendency to the recurrence of endocarditis.

[Footnote 42: _Kleinwächter's Grundriss d. Geburtshülfe_, 1881, p. 190.]

TREATMENT.--The treatment of acute and chronic heart disease is not materially modified by the coexistence of pregnancy.[43] In threatened asphyxia the induction of premature labor is indicated in the interest of the child. During labor the timely performance of version or application of the forceps lessens the bearing-down efforts, and may prevent alarming complications.

[Footnote 43: Carl Braun, _Lehrb. d. g. Gynaek._, 1881, p. 708.]

Diseases of the Lungs.

ACUTE LOBAR PNEUMONIA.

This is a rare affection in women at all times, and is a very infrequent complication of pregnancy. Occurring with greatest relative frequency {431} in the early months of pregnancy, the unfavorable character of the prognosis grows with the duration of pregnancy. Interruption of pregnancy may occur as the result of a variety of causative agencies. The elevation of maternal temperature, insufficient oxygenation of the maternal blood, placental anæmia from inadequate supply of blood to the left heart, are of chief etiological moment.

The PROGNOSIS with reference to mother and child is always grave.

The TREATMENT is that of pneumonitis in the non-gravid state. Parturition exerts a prejudicial influence by overtaxing the failing heart-power and increasing the hydræmia. The induction of premature labor is therefore strongly contraindicated. In the event of labor every effort must be made by operative procedure to save the mother's strength.

ACUTE PLEURITIS

is nearly as fatal a complication of pregnancy as pneumonitis, and for the same reason. The danger is especially great during labor.

CHRONIC PLEURISY, EMPHYSEMA, AND EMPYEMA

are dangerous complications of pregnancy, limiting respiratory space and producing cardiac complications. The induction of premature labor may be indicated by these conditions in the interest of mother and child.

PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.

Pregnancy exerts a prejudicial influence on hereditary or acquired tuberculosis as a rule. Latent tendencies to the disease are developed, and the progress of the existing affection is hastened. These effects upon the course of phthisis, Lusk says, are most frequently observed between the ages of twenty and thirty years, although of not infrequent occurrence between the ages of thirty and forty years. To these general propositions there are occasional rare exceptions. The disease is sometimes--very rarely--observed to make no progress during gestation and the patient may decidedly improve during the lying-in period. The puerperal phases, says Spiegelberg, exercise such varied influences upon the development and course of tuberculosis that it is an imperative necessity to individualize in every case.

When the disease progresses during pregnancy, abortion or premature labor may take place, or the woman may die undelivered. Infants born of tuberculous mothers are usually weak and sickly, and perish during the first months of life.

For these reasons it is an established rule in practice to inform women of the tuberculous diathesis of the dangers entailed by the marital relation. A woman affected with tuberculosis ought never to nurse her own child. As a rule, however, there is seldom any necessity for such a warning, as the function of lactation is rarely established under these conditions.

{432}

FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS IN CONNECTION WITH THE MENOPAUSE.

BY W. W. JAGGARD, A.M., M.D.

DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY.--The time of life in a woman when the natural cessation of ovulation and menstruation occurs has received a variety of appellations more or less descriptive of the phenomena which are supposed to precede, attend, and follow that event. Change of life, Turn of life, Critical time, Climacteric, in English; Das klimacterium, Das aufhören menstrualer Ausscheidung, Das aufhören der Weiblichen Reinigung, in German; Ménopause, Âge de retour, Âge critique, Temps critique, in French; Cessatio mensium, Climacterium, in Latin; Menolipsis, in Greek,--are terms used to mark out a certain period of time commencing with the functional and organic disorders connected with the cessation of ovulation and menstruation in a causal relation, and terminating with the permanent resettlement of health.

DATE OF CESSATION OF MENSTRUATION, AND DURATION OF THE CHANGE OF LIFE.--The function of ovulation, as far as we know, ceases with the discontinuance of menstruation, although immature ova still exist in the ovaries. The date of natural cessation of menstruation and ovulation is variable in different women. It is difficult to determine an average date, because the menopause may be gradually ushered in, and then women are apt to interpret any genital hemorrhage as menstruation. In certain cases the menstrual flow may cease between the ages of thirty and forty years, or even at an earlier period. On the other hand, the function has been noted by competent observers[1] to continue up to and beyond the sixtieth year. According to tradition, Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, was confined in her seventieth year. Parvin[2] has recently called attention to another historical instance of alleged late menstruation, recorded in a note to the fifty-sixth chapter of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. On the authority of D'Herbelot's great work, _Bibliothèque orientale_, 1777, Gibbon mentions the case of Asima, the mother of Abdallah. When the tidings of the death of her son were borne to Asima her menses reappeared at the age of ninety as the physical effect of her grief. The historian informs us that the flow proved fatal in five days. These anomalous cases of so-called protracted menstruation are frequently examples of pathological hemorrhages dependent upon structural changes, sometimes of a malignant character. Even admitting the {433} possibility of the condition of extremely protracted menstruation, such cases, as remarked by Playfair, like examples of unusually precocious menstruation, cannot be regarded as having any bearing on the general rule.

[Footnote 1: Tilt, _The Change of Life_, 4th ed., 1882, p. 24.]

[Footnote 2: _The Medical News_ 26th Sept., 1885, p. 352.]

The periodic discharge of blood from the uterus usually ceases between the ages of forty and fifty years. Raciborski[3] concludes, from the observation of a large number of cases, that the average date of cessation is the forty-sixth year. This estimate is confirmed by the observations of Brierre de Boismont, Guy, and Tilt. The average date of cessation in 1082 cases,[4] collected by these three observers, was forty-five years and nine months.

[Footnote 3: _Traité de la Menstruation_, Paris, 1868.]

[Footnote 4: Tilt, _The Change of Life_, 4th ed., 1882, p. 22.]

Climate, race, and the various accidental circumstances which exercise such potent influence upon the establishment of the functions of ovulation and menstruation have measurably less effect upon their cessation. Mayer[5] attaches some importance to social condition as determining the date of cessation. From the observation of a large number of cases belonging to the higher classes he determines the average age to be 47.138 years. It is a popular belief that the period of menstrual life is a constant number of years, usually from thirty to thirty-five; that is to say, if a woman commences to menstruate when very young, cessation will occur at an earlier age than in a woman who begins to menstruate later in life. Cazeaux, Raciborski, Frank, Dusourd, and Tilt, supported by Guy's[6] analysis of 1500 cases, are of the opinion, on the contrary, that the duration of menstruation is longest in women who have menstruated earliest. In the words of Négrier,[7] "It seems well proved that the ovarian function, creative of germs, is prolonged in life in direct ratio of the volume of the ovaries and of the precocity of ovulation; thus the girl nubile at twelve will continue menstruating until fifty or even fifty-five; whilst the girl who did not menstruate until eighteen or twenty--a fact which reveals feeble development and small energy of the organs--will cease to menstruate at forty, an early age."[8] Cessation occurs later in women who have passed through repeated normal pregnancies than in virgins or sterile females. Cohnstein[9] observed the longest duration of menstruation in women who had menstruated early, married, and borne more than three children, suckled their offspring, and were normally confined for the last time between the ages of thirty-eight and forty-two years. An interesting opinion with reference to the relation between longevity and the date of cessation was expressed by Robert Cowie at the Paris Medical Congress in 1867. According to Cowie, there is a direct and constant relation between longevity and protracted menstruation. A woman who menstruates up to an advanced period of life has more chances of attaining extreme old age than one whose menstrual function has ceased earlier. Cowie derives this opinion from the observation of numerous cases of longevity and coincident protracted menstruation which occurred in the Shetland Islands.

[Footnote 5: Schroeder, _Handbuch der Krankheiten der Weiblichen Geschlechtsorgane_, 1881, p. 321.]

[Footnote 6: _Medical Times and Gazette_, 1845.]

[Footnote 7: Barnes, _Diseases of Women_, 1878, p. 194.]

[Footnote 8: T. Gallard, _Pathologie des Ovaires_, Paris, 1885, p. 114.]

[Footnote 9: _Deutsche Klinik_, 1873, No. 5.]

Among the pathological factors which determine the early occurrence {434} of cessation, puerperal atrophy of the uterus, syphilis--especially the graver forms--and chronic alcoholism deserve particular attention (Lancereaux).

The average date of cessation of menstruation may be regarded as the fixed time from which to estimate the duration of the pre-cessation and post-cessation periods of the menopause. The duration of the pre-cessation period--or the dodging-time, as it is popularly termed--is subject to many and extreme variations. Tilt[10] places the limits of normal variation between a few months and six or seven years. The average length of the dodging-time in 275 cases Tilt estimates at two years and three months. The same observer claims to have seen cases of morbid prolongation of the pre-cessation period through ten and even twelve years. Equally variable and indefinite, in point of duration, is the post-cessation period. From the study of his 500 cases, Tilt concludes that cessation of menstruation divides involution into two periods of nearly equal length when no disease of the uterus or adnexa is present. In 383 cases, three or four years after cessation all functional disorders due to the menopause disappeared. But the length of the post-cessation period, as in the case of the dodging-time, is liable to abnormal protraction. Tilt is very positive in the assertion that disturbances directly traceable to the menopause may continue ten or twelve years after cessation of menstruation. The statistical evidence adduced by Tilt in support of his peculiar views as to the possible protraction of the pre-cessation and post-cessation periods (twenty to twenty-four years) may well be questioned. His analysis of cases does not indicate rigid scrutiny. The line between merely coincident phenomena and disorders which are directly traceable to the menopause is nowhere clearly and distinctly drawn. Robert Barnes[11] is of the opinion that the average duration of the change of life, comprehending the pre-cessation and post-cessation periods, is from two to three years--an estimate more in accord with the experience of the majority of clinicians.

[Footnote 10: _The Change of Life_, 4th ed., p. 46 _et seq._]

[Footnote 11: _Diseases of Women_, 1878, p. 287.]

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CHANGE OF LIFE.--In order to gain an adequate conception of the dynamic disorders in connection with the menopause, it is necessary to bear clearly and distinctly in mind the alterations in functional activity of a purely physiological character which attend that event. Many of the so-called functional disorders of the change of life are merely physiological processes consequent upon the transition from active ovario-uterine life to sexual decrepitude. There is nothing remarkable in the fact that the cessation of menstruation and ovulation, after functional activity of an average period of time varying from thirty to thirty-five years, is sometimes attended by a series of disturbances of a local and constitutional character. The changes of functional activity under these conditions are in analogy to the course and constitution of nature as observed in connection with dentition, puberty, and other epochs in human life.

The physiology of the menopause is a subject extremely difficult of investigation. The reasons are obvious. Our knowledge of the nature and significance of the function of ovulation and menstruation is very defective. The phenomena in connection with the change of life are numerous and complex. All interpretations of the appearances are peculiarly liable to fallacies and unavoidable sources of error. Correction {435} and confirmation by anatomical research are usually impossible. Then the number of recorded cases in which the phenomena have been rigidly analyzed is very limited. But, despite the difficult nature of the subject and the poverty of the literature, a solid nucleus of acquired truth exists. Familiarity with these definitely established facts will clear up many obscure points in the pathology of the menopause.

RESPIRATORY CHANGES. The researches of Andral and Gavarret[12] indicate that the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled by the lungs during the second infancy (eight years to puberty) is increased in man and woman. With the establishment of menstruation the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled by the female becomes constant, and persists in this state throughout her menstrual life. During the pre-cessation period the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled by the lungs is rapidly augmented, attaining its maximum about the time of cessation. During the post-cessation period the quantity gradually diminishes until the resettlement of health is effected. After this period it remains relatively constant. In the male, on the other hand, the quantity of carbonic acid exhaled increases up to the thirtieth year, and then progressively diminishes until the end of life.

[Footnote 12: "Recherches sur la quantité d'Acide carbonique exhalé par les Poumons dans l'Éspèce humaine," _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, 3^e Série, t. viii.]

During pregnancy the amount of carbonic acid exhaled is approximately the same as at the time of cessation.

Aran[13] recognizes in this augmented excretion of carbonic acid during the change of life a critical or compensating discharge--a waste-gate or outlet, to use the figurative expressions of Tilt and Barnes, for the energy set free in the system by the more or less suddenly suppressed functions of ovulation and menstruation. Gallard,[14] on the other hand, has pointedly called attention to the fact that the menstrual blood carries out of the system a quantity of carbonic acid which during pregnancy and change of life is excreted by the lungs--that, accordingly, the increased exhalation of carbonic acid during the climacterium cannot be regarded in the light of a critical discharge.

[Footnote 13: _Leçons cliniques sur les Maladies de l'Utérus et de ses Annexes_, Paris, 1858-60, p. 284.]

[Footnote 14: T. Gallard, _Pathologie des Ovaires_, p. 87, Paris, 1885.]

ALTERATIONS IN THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SKIN.--It is a matter of common observation that the functions of the skin are profoundly influenced in many cases by the changes consequent upon the menopause. Tilt records 300 cases of more or less profuse perspiration, occurring in 500 women, due in some degree at least to the change of life. This estimate is probably exaggerated. A variety of agents influences the total amount of perspiration, as well as the relation between sensible and insensible perspiration, at all periods of life. The dryness, temperature, and amount of movement of the surrounding atmosphere, nature and quantity of food taken and liquid drank, exercise, mental condition, medicines, poisons, diseases, and the relative activity of the other excreting organs (_e.g._ the kidneys), are factors which deserve due consideration before attributing all increased activity of the sudoriparous glands about the forty-fifth year to the effects of the change of life. In the tables mentioned no distinction is drawn between mere coincidence and causal relation.

{436} The perspirations due to the change of life may have prodromal signs. These symptoms are--sensations of cold, shivering, chills, sinking or faintness referred to the pit of the stomach. Usually, however, they are not attended by any premonitory phenomena. They are frequently accompanied by dilatations of the skin blood-vessels, corresponding to definite areas of distribution of the vaso-motor nerves, which are popularly known as flushes. When the perspirations following the dilatations of the skin blood-vessels are insensible, women are in the habit of terming the symptoms dry flushes. The number and duration, as well as the time of occurrence, of these sweats and flushes are various in different women. Tilt has observed them to occur as often as five or six times in an hour, and last from two to fifteen minutes. They are usually noticed during the daytime. The regions involved are, in the order of frequency, face, chest, lower portions of the trunk, upper and lower extremities. Very seldom the entire skin surface is affected. In point of intensity the heightened activity of the sudoriparous glands varies from a gentle perspiration to a drenching sweat.

The function of these perspirations and flushes cannot be regarded as definitely settled. The popular opinion is that they constitute an important outlet for the actual energy liberated by the cessation of ovulation and menstruation. Tilt, adopting the popular view, thinks that the relief obtained by increased perspiration is the most important and habitual safety-valve of the system during the change of life. There are certain a priori considerations which render this hypothesis in some degree probable.

The quantity of matter which leaves the human body by the skin, per hour, is considerable. Seguin[15] has estimated it at eleven grains, while the quantity excreted by the lungs is seven grains. It is possible to isolate three factors which directly influence the secretion of sweat: (1) The skin, apart from its glandular apparatus, is a simple animal membrane, and permits a relatively small quantity of water to transude through the portions intervening between the mouths of the glands. As pointed out by Erismann,[16] this function of the skin is a subordinate one. The simple transudation of water is greater through those portions of the skin abundantly supplied with glands than through those in which they are sparsely distributed. (2) Vascular dilatation accompanies, and at least aids, the secreting activity of the cutaneous surface. Bernard's experiments on the division of the cervical sympathetic and clinical observation abundantly demonstrate the operation of this etiological factor. (3) Independently of vascular supply, it is in a high degree probable that there are special nerves directly controlling the activity of the sudoriparous glands. Stimulation of the sciatic nerve causes an increase in perspiration in the toes of the dog, without any concomitant hyperæmia, as shown by the experiments of Kendal and Luchsinger.[17] In a word, the skin is adequate to the regulation of aberrations in nerve-force and blood-supply and to the restoration of equilibrium. If superfluous actual energy is liberated by the cessation of the monthly ovarian stimulus and determination of blood to the uterus, it is not improbable that the perspirations and flushes of the menopause may constitute an efficient means of discharge.

[Footnote 15: _Ann. de Chim._, xc. pp. 52, 403.]

[Footnote 16: _Zeitschrift f. Biol._, xi. p. 1.]

[Footnote 17: _Pflüger's Archiv_, xiii., 1876, p. 212.]

{437} ALTERATIONS IN THE SECRETION BY THE KIDNEYS.--In many cases of the menopause important changes occur in the urine. The secretion becomes turbid and the quantity of sediments is large. These sediments usually consist of the inorganic salts. The phosphates, carbonates, and sulphates are increased, while no change is observed in the quantity of sodium chloride. The quantity of nitrogenous crystalline bodies is apparently not influenced in the great majority of cases. Occasionally the quantity of uric acid is increased,[18] and gives origin to many distressing symptoms. In the absence of accurate data respecting the changes in the constitution of the urine it is useless to speculate about the significance of the occasional increase in the quantity of inorganic salts and uric acid. Doubtless the functional activity of the skin and lungs, diseases of the genito-urinary tract, and diet play an important part in the production of the alterations in the chemical constituents of the excretion. It cannot, however, be denied that the menstrual flow performs some office as an emunctory, and it is not at all improbable that its cessation throws additional work on the kidneys.

[Footnote 18: Barnes, _Diseases of Women_, 1878, p. 285.]

ALTERATIONS OF NUTRITION.--Of the various alterations of nutrition consequent upon the change of life, obesity is of greatest clinical interest. It is a matter of common observation that women frequently grow fat coincidently with the cessation of menstruation. Out of 383 cases collected by Tilt, 121 women grew stouter within five years after cessation; 3 women became suddenly fat when the menstrual flow ceased to recur. Barnes, Baillie, Fothergill, and numerous other clinicians abundantly confirm this observation. Adipose tissue is usually deposited in the omentum, abdominal walls, breasts, face, and limbs.

The nature of the relation between the formation of fat and the change of life is obscure. In the attempt to ascribe due influence to the menopause in the production of adipose tissue it must not be forgotten that in males the maximum of weight is attained, according to Quetelet, about the fortieth year. But the accumulation of fat in many of the lower animals after the extirpation of the ovaries, and the frequent occurrence of obesity in women after normal ovariotomy and the Porro-Müller operation of Cæsarean section (Braun, Spaeth), indicate that in some cases, at least, there is a necessary relation between the two phenomena. The generally received view is that the formation of adipose tissue is an outlet for the more or less sudden aberrations in nerve-force and blood-supply following cessation. The weight of probable evidence is very decidedly in favor of this opinion. Physiology teaches that fat fluctuates in bulk more than any other tissue in the body. As remarked by Foster,[19] a large amount of adipose tissue may disappear within a very short space of time, or the quantity in a body may be multiplied many times within an equally short time. Although the direct influence of trophic nerves on metabolic activity has not been demonstrated, there is still evidence of a high order in favor of such a view.

[Footnote 19: M. Foster, _Physiology_.]

The Mammary Glands.--Apart from the enlargement of the mammary gland from the deposition of adipose tissue, the organ may be the seat of active secretory changes. Tilt observed this phenomenon in 15 out of his 500 cases. The breasts increase in size and become tender. Blue veins are visible through the skin, and changes resembling in kind {438} those of pregnancy may be observed about the nipples and areolæ. A milky fluid is sometimes secreted. Semple has described a case in which a monthly discharge of blood continued for five years after cessation. Tilt has published a case in which a painless exudation of red serum, lasting for several days, recurred every three weeks.

In view of the intimate connection between the ovaries and uterus and mammary glands at other periods of life, it is in a high degree probable that many cases of active nutritive disturbances in the mammary glands, occurring about the forty-fifth year, are directly due to cessation. The exact nervous mechanism has not been fully worked out. These nutritive disturbances are probably physiological, and partake of the nature of the so-called critical discharges.

HEMORRHAGES AND MUCOUS AND SEROUS DISCHARGES.--Vicarious hemorrhages are occasionally though rarely observed in connection with the change of life. These more or less regular discharges of blood occur from a great variety of sites. The region is usually so located that the external escape of blood can easily be effected. The more usual forms of vicarious hemorrhage are hæmatemesis, epistaxis, hæmoptysis, and bleeding from hemorrhoids. General hæmatidrosis, bleeding from the nipples, intestinal hemorrhage, bleeding from the alveoli of the teeth, and subcutaneous ecchymoses are more uncommon types. Every case of suspected vicarious hemorrhage deserves most rigid scrutiny. The condition is such a rare one, and so many local causes sufficient to explain the phenomena frequently exist, that a certain amount of scepticism in the concrete case is perfectly justifiable.

The nervous mechanism of these hemorrhages, so far as it has been worked out, may be stated in a very few words. The cessation of menstruation causes an increase in vascular tension, and consequent irritation of the vaso-motor centres. Various local hæmostases result, which cause the symptoms of suffusion of the face, tinnitus, headache, giddiness, etc. In a limited number of cases these local congestions are relieved by the escape of blood. Vicarious hemorrhages seldom lose their physiological character.

Metrorrhagia is a less uncommon event than vicarious hemorrhage during the climacteric. Uterine hemorrhage is regarded as a critical discharge due to the changes brought about by the menopause, when it occurs, in the absence of local disease or constitutional vice, in connection with the perspirations, flushes, obesity, nervous phenomena, and other signs of cessation. In point of time these uterine hemorrhages, or floodings, usually occur after cessation. The causes of the floodings of the menopause are not at all evident. Barnes[20] is of the opinion that they are ultimately referable to imperfect functional activity of the liver and kidneys. Local congestions occur, vascular tension is increased, the heart and blood-vessels are engorged, and a disposition to uterine hemorrhage is created. In many cases flooding seems to exert a salutary influence upon the health of the individual. J. Frank says he has observed cases of critical floodings after cessation in which checking the bleeding caused apoplexy. Tilt[21] confirms this opinion by the citation of two cases. Not infrequently, however, metrorrhagia during the change of life exceeds physiological limits and endangers the life of the individual. In the {439} large majority of cases flooding after cessation is always a cause for anxiety, and constitutes an urgent indication for a physical examination. By careful indagation it is usually possible to eliminate cases of metrorrhagia due to carcinoma, fibroids, and diseases of the endometrium.

[Footnote 20: _Diseases of Women_, p. 283.]

[Footnote 21: _Change of Life_, p. 197.]

Leucorrhoea.--Closely allied in function to the floodings of the menopause is the profuse flow of mucus, unmixed with pus, from the cervix and vagina. This phenomenon is of frequent occurrence in connection with the other signs of the change of life. In the absence of local disease and constitutional vice it may be regarded as a critical discharge, an effort of nature to relieve pelvic congestion.[22]

[Footnote 22: Emmet, _Gynæcology_, 1884, p. 184.]

Diarrhoea.--The recurrence of a profuse serous diarrhoea at more or less regular intervals during the change of life is common. Gendrin, Brierre de Boismont, and Chambon regard diarrhoea as habitual at this time. It acquires particular prominence as a symptom in the absence of the other critical discharges already mentioned. Indeed, it may constitute the only sign of the menopause apart from cessation of the menstrual flow. Care must be exercised, however, to differentiate in the concrete case between the purely functional serous diarrhoea of the change of life and those forms of the affection which depend upon local or general causes.

The explanation of the serous diarrhoea of the menopause, viewed as a critical discharge, is simple when the intimate connection between the pelvic circulation and that of the mesentery is considered.[23]

[Footnote 23: _Ibid._]

FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS IN CONNECTION WITH THE MENOPAUSE.--Vague, indefinite, and speculative as our conception of the physiology of the climacterium is, the deficiency of precise knowledge becomes more apparent when we come to consider the functional disorders of cessation. Many women pass through the change of life without the slightest disturbance of normal functional activity. In such women menstruation has usually been established at an early age and without local or general disorders. Moreover, all traces of disease of the uterus and adnexa are usually absent. Again, it is not an uncommon observation to see hysterical women, afflicted for years with uterine disease, begin to improve in health at an early stage of the pre-cessation period. These facts indicate that the change of life does not necessarily involve morbid phenomena.

In the large majority of cases, however, various functional and organic disorders are observed during this period of life. Under these circumstances it becomes a matter of extreme difficulty to distinguish between accidental complications, dependent upon collateral disease and pathological conditions of the pelvic viscera, and those disorders which stand in some causal nexus with the change of life. The scanty literature of the subject is to a great extent a mass of confused generalizations, in which the distinction between the relation of cause and effect and mere coincidence in point of time is seldom adequately drawn. Tilt's meritorious treatise is not free from this defect. In Table xxi., among the morbid liabilities at the change of life in five hundred women, heart disease, rheumatism, erysipelas, hysteria, epilepsy, cancer of the womb, ovarian tumors, and more than one hundred and fifty other pathological states are mentioned! Any paper on the subject at the present time, to perform a {440} serviceable office, must direct attention to the obscure, confused, inadequate state of knowledge rather than aid in the perpetuation of error by the description of purely hypothetical forms of disease. The comparatively few functional disorders which stand in direct pathological connection with the change of life are, in the large majority of cases, examples of pathological exaggerations of physiological processes. Under these conditions it requires an unusual degree of diagnostic skill and penetration to draw the boundary-line between health and disease. Then in the matter of treatment, as remarked by Spiegelberg, it requires tact to determine how long a purely expectant attitude should be maintained and the time when active interference should be instituted.

The woman passing through the change of life possesses no immunity from accidental diseases. But some of these accidental diseases may be modified in symptoms and course by the changes consequent upon the climacterium.

DISORDERS OF THE ALIMENTARY CANAL.--Salivation.--Ptyalism has been observed by Bouchut and other observers to occur in connection with the other symptoms of the change of life. It is a phenomenon of infrequent occurrence. In the absence of any other adequate explanation it may be regarded as an example of sympathetic irritation strictly analogous to the salivation sometimes observed in pregnancy.

The milder degrees of this affection deserve slight attention. When, however, the flow of saliva is so great as to incommode the individual or seriously endanger her health, active treatment must be instituted. Chalybeate tonics, quinine, hypodermatic injections of atropia over the glands--especially the submaxillary--and iodide of potassium, are among the more reliable remedies. Astringent mouth-washes are grateful and relieve the congestion of the mucous membrane.

Constipation.--The habit of constipation, although not induced, may be aggravated, during the change of life. Interference with the action of the voluntary muscles and intestinal peristalsis by the deposition of adipose tissue in the abdominal walls and omentum, diminution of the intestinal secretions as the result of profuse perspirations and critical discharges, are etiological factors frequently referable to the menopause. Alterations in the innervation of the intestinal walls are probably productive of conditions which tend to constipation. The nature of the changes in the functions of the abdominal sympathetic nervous system during the menopause is a matter of pure speculation. There are many a priori considerations, however, which render probable the view that the constipation in connection with the menopause is, in some degree at least, a visceral neurosis. The prominence of the symptoms, enteralgia and flatulence, lends additional probability to this opinion. The treatment of constipation in connection with the menopause is a subject of the greatest practical importance. Many of the obscure nervous symptoms, distressing perspirations, and critical discharges may be relieved, if not prevented, by attention to the regular daily evacuation of the bowels. The specific hygienic and medical means to be used to secure this end are fully discussed in other portions of this work.

Diarrhoea.--Diarrhoea referable to the menopause and regarded simply as a critical discharge, sometimes, though rarely, passes beyond physiological limits and demands active remedial treatment. This statement {441} holds true especially in cases of chronic diarrhoea aggravated by cessation. It is frequently a matter of extreme difficulty to draw the boundary-line between the physiological process and its pathological exaggeration. Careful attention to the symptoms, however, will usually disclose the fact whether or no the frequent alvine dejections conduce to the patient's well-being. Sometimes the stools are very profuse, and threaten life from the loss of large quantities of serum. Entorrhagia and colic are frequently observed under these circumstances. Rest, restricted diet, opium, the vegetable and mineral astringents, usually suffice to fulfil all the indications.

DISORDERS OF THE LIVER.--Many eminent clinicians unite in the opinion that functional derangements of the liver are peculiarly liable to occur during the change of life. Sir J. Y. Simpson, Robert Barnes, Tilt, Gardanne, Gendrin, Meissner, and Otterburg may be mentioned among the observers who hold that there is some direct relation between certain dynamic disorders of the liver and the menopause. There are also many a priori considerations in favor of this view. Habitual or long-continued constipation--a condition frequently observed in connection with the change of life--interferes materially with the secretion and excretion of bile. Barnes ascribes to the menstrual flow an excretory function. In the absence of this emunctory an increased amount of work is thrown on the liver and other secretory organs. The portal venous system is engorged. Under these circumstances disorders are apt to arise as the result of increased functional activity in an organ which may be undergoing organic change.

Well-pronounced jaundice, however, is of infrequent occurrence during this period in the absence of more potent factors than those just mentioned. It is not more justifiable to speak of the icterus of the menopause than of the icterus of menstruation. Flint[24] has justly said that the occurrence of jaundice at the menstrual periods is too infrequent to suppose that there is any direct pathological connection, as implied in the term icterus menstrualis proposed by Senator.

[Footnote 24: _Practice of Medicine_, 1881, p. 637.]

On the other hand, that condition vaguely described as biliousness, implying the constitutional effects of chronic hepatic hyperæmia, has been noted by many clinical observers. The derangement referred to is aptly described in the words of B. Lane and quoted by Tilt:[25] "Nothing can be more common than to find severe biliary derangement occurring at or about the period of menstrual cessation; and, looking at the great physiological change which then takes place in connection with hepatic development, it is naturally to be expected. A woman will complain of being bilious; there may be a bitter taste in the mouth, a burning in the throat, frontal headache, nausea, and even vomiting, the urine high-colored, the bile abounding in the alvine dejections, and perhaps causing heat and a stinging sensation in the rectum; the tongue furred, a biliary tinge pervading the cutaneous surface." The propriety of ascribing the symptoms so graphically described in these words to excess, deficiency, or vitiation of the biliary secretion, in the entire absence of precise knowledge, may well be questioned. Tilt is of the opinion that the gastro-intestinal disorders produced by functional disturbances of the liver during the menopause are peculiarly obstinate in their resistance to {442} treatment. Many other clinicians bear testimony to the truth of this statement. This fact increases the importance of the subject of treatment. As this matter is very fully discussed in other parts of this work, it is only necessary to call attention at this time to the importance of directing the therapy to the gastro-intestinal disorders, such as the accompanying subacute gastro-duodenitis and constipation, rather than to the hepatic viscus itself.