with the free expulsion of the fæces by its pressure against the rectum, thereby predisposing the one affected to constipation; and if, as is sometimes the case in this unnatural position, the neck of the womb presses against the neck of the bladder, micturition becomes difficult,

THE WOMB FALLEN BACKWARD AGAINST THE RECTUM.

and at times painful. This may also be the case when the womb is fallen forward, if the muscular relaxation is so great as to drop the womb below the upper or main part of the bladder. The common symptoms of falling of the womb are dragging or bearing-down sensations in the lower part of the abdomen; pain and numbness in the limbs; weakness in the loins and lower part of the back; general

debility, and nervous irritability. I say these are the common symptoms, but I should here mention that I have often encountered cases of prolapsus of the womb in my practice, in which there were no unpleasant local symptoms whatever. The displacement had occurred at such an early age that the system had been made gradually to tolerate its unnatural position. In these cases, when the physician suspects something wrong about the uterine organs, the patient quickly informs him that she is perfectly sound in that locality; and she has reason to think so because she has no one of the symptoms common to an affection of this kind; but an examination reveals the correctness of her physician's opinion; and it is generally found in cases of this kind that their ill-health proceeds directly or indirectly from the uterine displacement.

Leucorrhoea generally precedes, and in most cases attends, falling of the womb. When chronic irritation or inflammation, with more or less congestion, are also present, existence is a burden, and married life a curse rather than a blessing. Unless relieved or cured, months or years of misery, according to the endurance of the sufferer, are fastened upon her, until consumption, or some other disease in a fatal form, forever relieves her of her physical distress.

In the incipient stages of the disease the exercise of walking is necessary to keep up what is left of the muscular strength; but in advanced stages this exercise is generally too painful to be endured, and in such cases frequent manipulation of the abdomen with the hand should be resorted to. All the muscles may indeed be benefited by pressure and manipulation by a healthy hand.

To cure prolapsus, various utero-abdominal (should read abominable) supporters or pessaries have been invented, more for the purpose of making money than doing good. These mechanical means are irritating to the womb and vagina, which are so delicately organized and permeated with sensitive nerves, that constant contact with any wood, glass, earthen, or metallic contrivance used to support the parts, can only give temporary relief and ultimate injury in most cases; while instances do occur in which the first effects are so irritating and distressing that the patient dies from inflammation induced thereby. These worse than senseless things should be dispensed with entirely, and the disease treated locally and constitutionally, as the common sense of the skillful physician naturally suggests.

of this singular difficulty is altogether attributed by medical writers to a local irritability of the procreative organs. I cannot acquiesce fully in this explanation. That nervous irritability, or, rather, that too much nervous or electrical stimulus is present in these organs there can be no doubt; but an inharmonious distribution of the nervous forces among the organs of the brain, manifestly precedes or co-operates with the former condition. It is a fact that ought to be well understood, that the nervous forces, sometimes in consequence of some violation of nature's laws, are withdrawn, or partially so, from one or more organs, and the excess given to another, so that, while one or more may be deprived, or nearly so, of their vitalizing or stimulating presence, the recipient of the excess is excited to an unusual degree. Thus one or more of the organs of the brain may become abnormally excited at the expense of inactivity to the rest, so that a person will be fanatical on some one subject, and think and talk of little else. In brief, he has a "hobby." In consequence of this mental inharmony, growing out of an unequal distribution of the nervous forces among the organs of the brain, we often meet with crazy poets, fanatical religionists, mad politicians, luny inventors, harum-scarum doctors, etc., etc. Now, when the causes of these peculiar conditions of mind are understood, according to my explanation, is it not easy to see how an excess of nervous force may be sent to the organ of amativeness, at the expense of other organs of the brain? If the reasoning and moral organs are robbed to supply this excess, how natural that a woman who may have previously sustained a spotless character for modesty and reserve, should, with such an abnormal condition of the mental faculties, exhibit uncontrollable emotions in the presence of men, in extreme cases, or a disposition to indulge to excess in venereal pleasure, with husband or paramour, when able to restrain her emotions in company. The intellectual organs are almost paralyzed, and the nervous or electrical stimulus which should give them activity is expended upon amativeness; and this organ, very naturally, expends its excess upon the nerves centering in the sexual or procreative system, of which it is the head and director.

Females laboring under nymphomania deserve rather the sympathy than the condemnation of friends. It is a species of monomania, and as such should shield its victim from unjust and uncharitable aspersions.

When the blood is diseased and nymphomania exists, inflammation, irritation, and sometimes ulceration, locate about the pudenda, vagina, and uterus, rendering the parts sore and extremely tender. But this condition of the organ is not sufficient to deter the female from the act of coition if the opportunity offers. A very respectable married woman, afflicted with this malady, whose desire for coition was incessant, in describing her symptoms to me in a letter, said: "In describing myself, I cannot think of any better way of expressing myself than to say it feels good to be hurt." This quaint and frank statement conveys the idea exactly, for the nervous excitability of the organs of amativeness and the sexual parts, demands gratifica. tion, however sensitive the latter may become by the presence of ulcerous or inflammatory diseases.

My mode of treating nymphomania without complications, is such administrations of electricity as are calculated to equalize the nervous circulation, and draw off the excess from the organ of amativeness and the sexual parts. In complications growing out of blood impurities, the treatment must combine both electrical and blood-purifying remedies. My theory of the disease is original, as is also my mode of treating it, but my success in its management convinces me that both are correct.

Amorous Dreams.

Women, as well as men, are subject to these, and they are nearly as debilitating to the former as they are to the latter. Although no very vital secretions are lost by a woman so affected, the vital or nervous forces are expended without recompense, as in masturbation. An amorous dream is indeed practically an involuntary act of masturbation. It has often been remarked that no exercise is so tiresome to the muscular system as to kick or strike at nothing. All know, too, how it wrenches one to step down a foot or two while walking. What this wrench is to the muscular system, an amative dream is to the nervous system. A volley of nervous force is gathered up from all parts of the body, and directed with the greatest impetuosity toward a supposed companion in the sexual embrace, and it passes off with violence and is lost, while the compensative nervous or electrical volley from the supposed companion is not received. In men this nervous loss is accompanied with an expenditure of some of the most vital fluids of the system-those secreted

by the testicular glands, and which are composed of the most vital elements of the blood. In women, the nervous waste is simply accompanied with an expenditure of glandular secretions of not much more vital value than the saliva or spittle of the mouth. But the nervous waste the nervous shock-the wrench to the magnetic system, is such as will, if frequently repeated, prostrate the nervous ener gies, destroy the memory, and weaken all the faculties of the mind. Some married women have these dreams who do not enjoy natural intercourse. The function of the amative organs is so perverted that the imagination can affect those organs when contact with a male companion cannot arouse them. This morbid and unnatural condition has, in most cases where it exists, been caused by masturbation. The amative organs of the brain, and those occupying their proper position in the body below, have been trained as it were to act alone or without the help of a companion of the opposite sex; and after marriage it is found, much to the mortification and disappointment of the wife, that she is unable to participate in the pleasures of the sexual act, while her dreams are made delirious with imaginary pleasure. It seems as if the erectile muscle and tissue of the clitoris, labia, and vagina had become so accustomed to receive their inspiration or magnetism from, to use a homely illustration, the back-door, that they are perfectly dead to any raps at the door in front. The organs have been accustomed to simply unmagnetic friction locally, and that of the most violent nature, so that the milder friction of the male organ, and the presentation of a magnetic force to the nervous termini, produce no sensibility whatever. They seem to shrink from it.

Married or single women awaken from these dreams with a sense of weakness they are often unable to account for. They do not suspect for a moment the true cause. General want of energy, in both mind and body, and sometimes back-ache, weakness of the limbs, faintness, and entire want of appetite, are experienced in the morning, especially when one of these dreams has taken place during the preceding night.

Masturbation is not in all cases the cause of these debilitating dreams; sexual isolation, diseased wombs, ovaries, etc., many times induce this morbid condition of the amative organs; but whatever the cause, the disastrous effects are the same, and no woman, young or old, should allow these dreams to occur without making thorough