REMARKS ON THE FINAL CESSATION OF THE MENSES,
AND ON A REMEDY and METHOD of TREATMENT,
ADAPTED TO PREVENT OR REMOVE THE EVIL CONSEQUENCES ATTENDING THAT PERIOD:
TOGETHER WITH SOME STRICTURES ON SECRET AND ADVERTISED MEDICINES IN GENERAL.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY JOHN DONALDSON, BOOKSELLER, AT THE CORNER OF ARUNDEL STREET IN THE STRAND.
MDCCLXXV.
REMARKS, &c.
THE very name of a
Nostrum,
or
Patent Medicine
generally conveys the idea of imposture; nor is it matter of surprise. Almost every shop is furnished with secret medicines, and hand-bills and news-papers, in swarms, incessantly cry up their infallible virtues, and boldly promise a certain cure for every disease, whether within or beyond the reach of art. This sort of medicine never abounded more than in the present age. Seldom a month elapses, but something new is intruded as a specific. And yet, it may be said with truth, every species of disease is as frequent as ever; and some kinds, particularly the putrid, the scorbutic, and those called
nervous,
are known to gain ground. But it would be well for the credulous, if the use of
most
of the advertised medicines, only thinned their pockets, or disappointed their expectation of undoubted recovery. It is every where well known that many valetudinarians have suffered and daily do suffer by the use of those medicines, their complaints being sometimes increased, or vitiated humours translated to a more noble and therefore more dangerous part; at other times new disorders are formed, and, not unfrequently, the most alarming symptoms come on, and death at length closes the scene.
It may seem from the futility, or mischievous effects of
many
nostrums, that any medicine, whatever be its real excellence, if offered to the public under the veil of secresy, lies under a great disadvantage, and must meet, more or less, with censure and contempt. Many undoubtedly who are fond of invective, and wish to make a show of superior judgment, will
indiscriminately
condemn
every
medicine of the sort, and pretend to behold nothing but interested artifice on the part of the proprietor, and mischief, or, at least, insignificancy on the part of the medicine. But this dogmatical method of condemning is evidently erroneous, and must expose them that adopt it to ridicule and deserved censure; it being in fact as absurd as, on the other hand, it would be, to believe implicity all the virtues ascribed to every nostrum, or to every simple, &c. either in an antient, or a modern
Materia Medica.
As no rank of persons, so no class of things
universally
deserves either panegyric or invective. The merits or demerits of each must be singly considered, and when weighed in the balance of impartial criticism, receive praise or censure, according to its respective degree of worth or vileness. As common sense forbids to inveigh against
all
sovereigns, because
some
are tyrants: to censure
all
the professors of the law, because
many
of them are obnoxious to it; to condemn all physicians, because some are illiterate; or, with the medical Quixot, to declaim against the use of bread, because it is often ill made: so likewise it will restrain the impartial and discerning from crying down
every
secret medicine, notwithstanding
many
of them are the brats of mere quackery and imposture. Should a physician discover, for instance, a more efficacious preparation of the Peruvian bark than is yet known, keep the preparation secret, and advertise and disperse it after the usual manner of nostrums; the bark would not, for this reason, be less useful; nor deserve the censure of the public, because veiled from its eye. Even the great Hoffman, and other first rate physicians, as well as quacks and medicasters, have had their Nostrums. It is not therefore the mere secresy of a medicine, or the manner in which it is exhibited to the world; 'tis its being trifling or dangerous that must draw upon it the contempt and abhorrence, which are due to the
major part
of advertised medicines.
From the premises it appears, notwithstanding the usual and
commonly
just outcry against nostrums, that a medicine may with propriety be recommended, and with service introduced to general use, although its composition be not declared. There may be honour and skill on the part of the inventor or proprietor, and efficacy in the medicine.
On this foundation a remedy is now offered, the want of which has hitherto been, and still is fatal to a great part of them, who by their sex are liable to a greater number of diseases than men, and by their characteristic qualifications claim the strictest attention, &c. I need not say that I mean the fair sex. There is a period of their lives, when the
menses
or monthly evacuations begin to be irregular, and then finally cease. This period admits of great latitude and many exceptions, but generally happens between the age of forty and fifty, and is the most critical time of women's lives; the final irregularity and cessation of the
menses
being the origin of most, perhaps, of all the diseases which attack them either at that or any other succeeding time. Many, who till this period had enjoyed the invaluable blessing of health, are then seized with one or other of the various complaints that afflict the human frame. Some are speedily snatched away by an acute disease: others fall a prey to a chronic distemper, and become invalids for life. Many indeed, by a peculiar happiness of constitution, pass over this period without any remarkable inconvenience: yet, their number is much the larger, who are then troubled with ailments, and in these cases it is the common practice to prescribe a few doses of physic: but as these seldom remove, or even touch the cause, so they rarely effect a cure. The event of which is, that the ailments increase, and a disorder is at length formed, either of the acute or chronic kind, which, still gaining ground from the presence or continuation of the primary cause, baffles the usual methods of cure, and the medioines, which otherwise might have answered every intention, here, at most, only palliate the symptoms.
But it may be queried: How can any medicine be supposed to possess such extensive efficacy, as to subdue the variety of diseases to which Females are exposed at the aforesaid period? This query shall be fairly considered. Its elucidation will clearly point out what judgment is to be formed both of the medicine here recommended, and in general of others that are advertised.
In variety of instances, it is demonstrable, that the same disease may proceed from very different canses; and it is equally certain, that according to the diversity of the cause, the method of cure must also be varied. It is, again, a certainty, that the same disease must often be treated in a different manner, by reason of the difference of constitution, age, sex; and of the different appearance, degree, inveteracy of the disease itself; and moreover, by reason of its combination with some other distemper. It is thus in the headach, toothach, quinsies, coughs; in consumptions or decays; in the apoplexy, palsy, deafness; in colics; in convulsive disorders, the epilepsy, tremours; in the hypochondriac or nervous disease. The same may be said of the rheumatism, the scurvy, cachexies, the vertigo, pleurisies, melancholy, madness, &c. &c. and was the whole catalogue of diseases to be ran through, and the principles of rational or judicious practice considered, it would be found that the above variety of causes, constitution, age, &c. require to be so accurately distinguished and attended to, that otherwise the best general method would frequently prove fruitless or noxious; and consequently that more or less difference in prescribing medicines, or a method of treatment, will often be requisite for the recovery of sive patients out of six labouring under the same disorder. With what shadow of probability then can the same drug, or composition, be fondly imagined a never-failing cure for all afflicted with the scurvy, or for all epileptics, all that are consumptive, or, in short, for all patients troubled with the same disease, notwithstanding the insuperable impediments arising from the diversity of causes creating the disease; from its changes, its complication with others; from the difference of age, sex, temperament, seasons, &c? Can the same medicine brace the fibres of youth and delicacy, and relax those of age? or warm the chills of the lymphatic constitution, and cool the heats of the sanguine? or break down the viscidity of the blood, and conquer its putrefactive diathesis? or act as a restorative in diseases from inanition, and perform the office of evacuants in the same, when brought on by a plethora? or remove those cholics, &c. in which warm medicines are essential, and the cool destructive; and those too
vice versâ,
where the warm destroy, and the cooling save? Nevertheless, some of these, or other such opposite indications, are commonly met with in the same disease, and proceed either from the varying symptoms which attend its different stages and progress, or, as was said before, from the diversity of its cause, of the patient's constitution, &c. But as rationally might we believe the promised feats of a bottle-conjurer, or expect adventurers to inhabit the bottom of the sea, and revisit its surface at pleasure, as fancy that any medicine can possess qualities diametrically opposite, and correspond with the widely differing intentions and methods of cure, which are so often requisite in order to treat the same disease with success. Hence is evinced, not only the small dependence that can be had on the
generality
of advertised medicines, but also the danger that must attend their use: and in fact, where they chance to suit the constitution of
one
invalid, accord with every symptom and indication of his disease, and thus luckily perform a cure; perhaps ten others, afflicted with the same disease, find no relief; and as many more reap nothing from their trial but the aggravation of their complaints.
If any medicines in the world can establish a well grounded confidence of their safety and efficacy, it must be those which are usually termed
specifics.
But how small is their number? and how very frequently do they fail of success? how often is their trial attended even with disadvantage, with an increase of the disease they were intended to cure? or with the introduction of some other? And whence all this, but because they are often administered without discernment: the remperament of the patient, the cause of the disease, or some concomitant symptoms, are not taken into consideration? Again, they may be exhibited at an improper time, too soon, or too late; or without a cautious preparation; or are given in an incongruous form or quantity; or are not qualified with the addition of other suitable ingredients, which, by restraining or increasing some of their properties, should promote their efficacy. Such is too often the fate of the Peruvian bark in intermittents, of opium in spasms, of tin for worms, of steel for the chlorosis, of cerated glass of antimony for the dysentery and sanguineous fluxes. Such likewise the fate attending the
injudicious
use of Dr. James' celebrated powder, which, though a medicine of sovereign efficacy, when given under his inspection, or precisely according to his directions, has nevertheless been productive of many bad consequences, and has sometimes proved almost suddenly fatal: and why? because given without necessary precautions, or in cases, in which that ingenious Physician, as best knowing its composition and strength, would have judged it improper, perhaps perilous.
The difficulties and danger which accompany the use of most nostrums, or the unskilful exhibition of other medicines, and which arise, in part, from their not being suited to the causes and complication of diseases, to the difference of age, sex. &c. have no place in the present subject of enquiry,
viz.
a method of treatment to prevent or remove the complaints which attend or follow the cessation of the
menses.
Here one sex only is concerned: age is nearly the same: the diseases or complications of disease, which frequently seize the fair at or after the said period, are indeed various, yet the cause is but
one.
Such the difference between this and other medicines proposed as general cures for any malady. Almost every disease may have various, and sometimes opposite causes: the remedies therefore must be subject to the same variations, and to more still, when constitution, age, sex, &c. are taken into the account. But respecting the Remedy now offered to the fair, every thing wears the pleasing aspect of certainty and safety. It is adapted to them, to the critical period of their lives, to the radical cause which at that time involves so many of them in almost all the evils of pain and disease The varieties that may occur in their use of this remedy, arise chiefly from the kind of morbid quality that may chance to affect the fluids, and from the difference of constitution, whether sanguine, lymphatic, &c. or from their being of a robust and healthy, or a delicate and infirm habit. These variations are duly considered; and directions adapted to each, together with cautions and methods to be observed in the cases that usually happen at this period, are laid down clearly and explicity, and will be presented with the medicine.
But to proceed. As it may be acceptable to many to be informed of the complaints, diseases, danger, which frequently accompany or follow the final cessation of the
menses,
and to know what grounds there are to expect requisite assistance at that period from the use of the Remedy and method of treatment here recommended, I shall enter more minutely into these particulars.
One grand point in the medical art is to discover and distinguish the real causes of disease: another, to choose that method of cure, which, all things considered, is specifically proper, safe, and essectual.
Most diseases owe their formation either to some fault in the quantity, or to the morbid qualities, of the blood and other fluids.—The principal cause of the diseases which afflict females at the period in question is manifest,
viz.
a general or partial plethora brought on by the cessation of the
menses.
—When a long accustomed evacuation ceases, a redundancy of blood, &c. must ensue, and this excess now confined in the body, receiving fresh additions, and its wonted drain being checked, must either disorder the whole frame, by bringing on a general disease, or, collect in particular parts, and generate the disorders to which those parts are respectively subject. This is evident in the cessation of the haemorrhoids, of the haemorrhage of the nose, or of other usual sanguine evacuations: the consequence being many, and sometimes fatal diseases: but daily observation demonstrates, that those which follow the final cessation of the
menses
are more in number, and attended with greater peril.—Secondly, any morbid quality of the blood, &c, whether acrimonious, viscid, dissolvent, &c. that existed in the habit before the cessation, after it, becomes more predominant: and these morbid qualities of the blood also give birth to a variety of disorders.
From one or other of these causes singly, or, from their complication, proceed the various diseases with which females are affected at the turn of life,
viz.
headachs, spasmodic pains, the
vertigo,
large haemorrhages of the nose. In the throat a quinsy sometimes succeeds. The parts contained within the breast have their share of vexatious symptoms: a palpitation of the heart, an uneasiness in the
praecordia,
with difficult breathing, violent and lasting coughs, the convulsive or dry asthma, pleuritic pains; not rarely a spitting of blood, which returns at the usual time of the
menses.
—Variety of pains and ailments attack the stomach, flatulencies, distentions, the
cardialgia,
the heart-burning, loss of appetite, &c.—Colics often torment the bowels. Nauseas and reachings to vomit are not unfrequent: even a vomiting of blood now and then alarms the patient.—The loins have their uneasy sensations, and an inflammation of the kidneys has often followed. It is easy to conceive that the womb particularly, when the
menses
cease to flow, becomes a seat of disease. A sensation of weight and distention are here common, and pains are sometimes felt which nearly equal those of labour. Of profuse, frequent, and sometimes fatal haemorrhages, of dropsies, inflammations, ulcers, scirrhous tumours, cancers of this part, instances are frequent. Sometimes a tumour or hard substance is there formed of considerable size. Its weight, the frequent and violent returns of pain, the attendant fever, and other symptoms, are similar to those which accompany a mole. At other times the whole
abdomen
or belly grows big and turgid, and in size and appearance resembles that of a pregnant woman. This turgescency, when mistaken for pregancy, or neglected, has continued in some one or two, in others ten years, and has sometimes lasted with life.
To these evils, which seize particular parts, may be added those that distemper the whole habit. A cacochymy or depravation of the humours, and hence generally a cachexy or relaxed state of the solids.—Weight and weariness of the limbs, particularly after exercise. A corpulent or rather bloated habit. Oedematous swellings of the feet, &c. Dropsies. Gouty and rheumatic pains, wandering or fixed. Slow or nervous, hectic, inflammatory fevers. A distemperature of the nerves and their subtle fluid, which manifests itself by the frequent assault of hypochondriac, hysteric, convulsive, or paralytic symptoms, some of which are most troublesome at the changes of the moon, and at the periods when the
menses
usually came on. Even madness has been a consequence of the cessation, and was happily removed. When the humours abound with scorbutic salts, or other foulnesses, the itch both of the dry and moist kind, variety of other eruptions, blotches, &c. disfigure and torment the patient. Obstinate ulcers and spreading sores, especially on the legs, are very frequent, and the more so as age advances.
Besides these complaints, one or more of which, in a greater or less degree, too often succeed, and are occasioned by, the cessation of the
menses,
many other disorders, either acute or chronical, some of which are sometimes obscure and complicated, and perhaps not easily reducible to any class of disease, also arise from the same cause.—And here it may be observed, that, although at the cessation no present inconvenience be perceived, nevertheless it often happens, that in the course of some months or years after it, some disorder or other begins to appear, and becomes exceedingly stubborn; but might have been prevented, had proper care been taken when the final irregularities and cessation of the
menses
first came on.
Having now indicated, in part, the various complaints, to which the cessation of the
menses
subjects the fair, it remains to show, that the the medicine and method of cure recommended to their use, are adapted to the cause of the said complaints, and possessed of the properties requisite to remove them.
It was observed above, that the causes of the inconveniencies and diseases which frequently accompany or succeed the final cessation of the
menses,
are chiefly a redundancy, and sometimes a vitiated state of the blood and other fluids. The intentions of cure are therefore to lessen their quantity, correct their vitiated qualities, and remove the morbid symptoms, viz. obstructions, relaxation, &c. which they may have generated in the solids.—In order to answer these intentions, the medicine under consideration is calculated to act on the blood, lymph, &c. it enters even the smallest vessels, causes a free circulation of their contained fluids, and promotes every secretion and excretion. It likewise cleanses the
primae viae,
and keeps the body open. By these means obstructions are removed from the uterine and other vessels, from the viscera, &c. redundancies are carried off, and the variety of complaints, which the cessation of the
menses
might produce in the stomach and bowels, are obviated or subdued. It moreover contains a balsamic quality most friendly to the blood, which preserves or restores the natural balsam of that fluid; and, being at the same time mildly attenuating, prevents a glutinous or viscid state, which is alone productive of many disorders. The salutary effects of this medicine on the solids, that is, on the vessels and organs of the body, merit also to be noticed: it imparts to them a just degree of elasticity and strength to protrude their contained fluids, and perform their several functions regularly and with ease. Thus, by the peculiar qualities of this medicine, assisted, when necessary, by other means which will be specified in the directions, and which relate to the different state of the humours, to constitution, &c. the following indications are fully answered, viz. redundancies are evacuated and thrown off by the different emunctories, the faults of the fluids are obviated or corrected, the solids are strengthened, and the whole habit invigorated.
Here it may be remarked, that this medicine is of equal service to females on many other occasions. It frequently happens, that the first eruption of the
menses
is slow, difficult, &c. or that afterwards they are irregular, or deficient, or otherwise deviate from their usual and healthy appearance; or that they are checked for many months successively; or in fine, perhaps entirely cease long before the usual time of their cessation. I have known several instances of their ceasing entirely and finally at the ages of thirty, twenty-seven, twenty-six, once at twenty-five. When the above complaints occur, the strong emmenagogues or forcing medicines, such as steel, hellebore, savin, &c. are too often advised, but for the greater part are highly improper, and very frequently are attended with pernicious consequences, particularly if the patient be of a cachectic or relaxed habit; or if the vessels, or the viscera be obstructed in consequence of checked perspiration, or a cold, or of glutinous sluggish humours; or if the irregularity or defect was brought on by the excessive use of astringents; or, in fine, if any other species of evacuation has spontaneously, or otherwise, succeeded the said irregularity, defect or suppression. In these cases the above medicine, as will be more particularly declared in the directions, will, without danger, answer every desirable intention.
This sketch of the virtues of the Remedy and method of treatment here recommended to the sex, is not merely theoretical, or merely descriptive of the good effects which are to be wished for when the
menses
are irregular, deficient, or finally cease; but is in fact, a concise and candid relation of the efficacy and success with which their use has been accompanied in almost an infinite number of instances. The above assertions being therefore established on experience, which is above all authorities—any other panegyric would be useless.
The cases attending or following the irregularities and cessation of the
menses,
which have been brought to an happy issue by the method here recommended, are so very numerous and various, that a descriptive collection of them would swell to a moderate volume, and probably would prove both satisfactory and serviceable. Almost every female patient might discover therein a case similar to her own, and with pleasure observe it had been treated with safety and success. Perhaps too the professors of the healing art might not deem it an useless attempt, particularly if the writer of these lines should, in the said collection of cases,
fully
communicate his observations on the cessation of the
menses,
which though a fertile and fatal source of disease, has hitherto been little noticed, and generally improperly treated. But other avocations permit me not to sit down to any thing of the kind. Moreover, the fair sex only being here concerned, the subject might to some appear rather too delicate to admit an historical detail and explication of cases.
It should therefore seem sufficient, that every female may know, and have it in her power to obtain, a remedy and directions, which will answer her most sanguine wishes, when arrived at the critical period of life, or when, before that period, the free and healthy emanation of the
menses
is any way disturbed. And this is the motive why the said remedy is thus offered to the sex, as it will, by this publication, and by advertisements, be far more speedily and universally known than by any other means. But, it may be said, is not the author's own emolument also a motive? I answer, be that as it may, the efficacy of the remedy is not for that reason the less. Again, why should not the author reap some advantage from his endeavours to relieve and save multitudes? But, in truth, the advantage will be in favour of the public. First, the medicine will be made with the best ingredients, and nicest accuracy. These are conditions, without which medicines, the most judiciously prescribed, would often prove, not fruitless only, but noxious: and, was the composition of this medine declared, who would answer, that as many as made it up would strictly observe the above conditions? Hurry, negligence, bad drugs, any presumptuous alteration, or the substituting one ingredient for another, (faults which are too common and inexcusable) would frustrate every hope, every wished for effect. These uncertainties, and the dangerous consequences of neglect, &c. are cut off by entrusting the composition of this medicine to a person whose integrity and indefatigable attention are not to be called in question. Secondly, the price of the medicine will be reduced to the lowest, to the end that, the inferior ranks, as well as the opulent, may purchase it with case, and, for a triflle, receive that benefit, which an expensive variety of drugs, and repeated fees, seldom procure at the period, &c. in question.
Let it be finally observed, that hitherto this remedy has been made up in almost every form, according to the inclination of different patients; some preferring liquid, others solid forms. But now, that it is intended for more general use, it will be made into pills. This form is less liable to accidents than any other, may be carried from place to place without difficulty or injury, and be taken by patients without trouble, when on a journey, visit, &c.
FINIS.
N. B. This Remedy is sold, under the Name of BALSAMIC PILLS, by Mrs. Hall, perfumer, at the Corner of Beaufort Buildings, No. 103. in the Strand: and by Mrs. Grigg, milliner, at Dock-head, Southwark.—This pamphlet is likewise sold by the said Persons.