On painful menstruation / by Francis Henry Champneys.

  • Champneys, Francis Henry, 1848-1930.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On painful menstruation / by Francis Henry Champneys. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    22/138 (page 6)
    known as mucous membrane—that is, the part superficial to the muscular coat—has a thickness of i mm. (21.-; in.) before the first menstruation. At its full growth before the first menstrual flow it measures from 3 to 6 or 7 mm. (from \ to \ in.), a thickness which it regains before each flow; but after the first menstruation it never regains its original small thick- ness, but retains a minimum thickness of 2 mm. (A in.). With regard to the changes associated with men- struation, opinions and observations differ. (1). Kundrat and Engelmann (1875) examined uteri in the pathological laboratory of the Allgemeines Kranken- haus in Vienna. These consisted of seventeen preg- nant uteri and two hundred others, some of which corresponded to the menstrual period, some were the subjects of recent abortion, some of recent parturition. Those concerned with menstruation are not enumerated, and general conclusions only are stated. The conclusions are as follows :— The increase in thickness is due to proliferation of the round cells of the stroma, an enlargement of all the cell-elements of the superficial layers, and an increase in the intercellular substance. The glands are in- creased in thickness and length, and the vessels are engorged. The increase in thickness of the mucous membrane begins at the approach of the menstrual period, is most marked during the flow, and afterwards gradually decreases. Fatty degeneration takes place in the cells of the inter-glandular tissue, blood-vessels, and glandular and surface epithelium.