On diseases peculiar to women : including displacements of the uterus / By Hugh L. Hodge.

  • Hodge, Hugh L. (Hugh Lenox), 1796-1873.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diseases peculiar to women : including displacements of the uterus / By Hugh L. Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Women, therefore, are nervous; that is, more impressible than men. They are much more so, during the period of their menstrual life, say from fifteen to forty-five, than after this has terminated. Their susceptibilities diminish after the change has occurred; and their character, mental and moral, then some- what approximates that of their male companion. Their diseases, therefore, are all modified by this nervous temperament, and often are purely neurotic that is, irritations of the cerebro-spinal nervous system, involving the functions of organic life in so trifling or secondary a manner, that these last demand few or no attentions in practice. One great object of the present work is to maintain that, in many cases, the independence of nervous diseases is complete; and also that, when complications exist demanding therapeutical assistance, the neurotic affection is often of primary and essential importance, and demands the chief attention of the practitioner. The remark must be made, although apparently unnecessary, that these neurotic complaints are physical; they are, in every way, as much real diseases as those of organic life. They are irri- tations of the medullary matter of the brain, of the spinal cord, and of their radiations, the nerves; as truly as organic diseases, inflammations, fevers, &c, are irritations of the heart, arteries, capillaries, and organic cells. Since, therefore, the cerebrum is the organ of the mind, as well as of the body, and mental and moral causes may give origin to nervous diseases, and since remedies of an intellectual and moral character contribute to recovery in nervous affections; it is unscientific, as well as un- just and cruel, to maintain that such diseases are mental or moral, a perversion of the intellect or the heart, that they are imaginary, a mere notion, that the patient is affected, wishes to be interesting, to attract attention, has a bad temper, and that she would recover if she made the effort, if she were forced to work, and such other uncharitable suggestions. Let it be remembered, that the business of the physician is with the physical being: and, although he is often driven to the do- mains of the mental and of the moral philosopher, to detect the causes, or to furnish the remedial agents of nervous diseases, yet he should be slow to admit that his agonized patient suffers from the state of her mind rather than of her body, or to report to