On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility; being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / [James Whitehead].

  • Whitehead, James, 1812-1885.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility; being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / [James Whitehead]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at our public institutions are so liable to misrepresent or exaggerate any accounts referring to their own personal his¬ tory, that the strictest investigation is necessary in order to arrive at anything approaching the truth; and, uneducated persons, advanced in years, can scarcely be expected to be at once prepared to give an account of the events of early life, so correctly as to render them worthy of implicit cre¬ dence. Fully aware of this difficulty, I set out with the intention of receiving no statement which could not be pro¬ perly attested. Whenever the person inquired of happened to have a mother or other relative or acquaintance, in any way informed of her early history, these persons were also consulted; and where no such competent persons were found to clear up any doubts as to the correctness of the information given, the case was rejected. On this account, I feel no hesi¬ tation in offering the facts now collected, as faithful reports in reference to the age of puberty in the town of Manchester. Assuming therefore, the age of the first menstrual crisis in tropical countries to be as already quoted from Mr. Fober- toifs papers, and that which I have obtained to be also correct for this climate, the average difference between the one and the other will be about two years and a half. The causes of a precocious puberty among the inhabitants of southern climates, have been variously accounted for. It has been said that the lax state of morals which prevails among the African and other equally ignorant and debased tribes, as well as in most southern countries, is one of the principal causes of those instances of premature sexual devel- opement so much more frequently noticed among them than in our own country; and that similar occurrences would be as common in the latter as in the former, were the morals of the people equally degraded. I fear such an allegation is but little in accordance with what is really the fact. It may be fairly questioned indeed, if civilization has, until very recently,