al emphasis has been laid--that of
the menstrual fluid. Here, as elsewhere, the intermittent phenomenon is
preceded by long-continued cell growth--effected by precisely such
processes of cellular assimilation and metamorphosis as take place in
the elements of the liver and the kidneys. The cell growth in question
is effected in the ovaries; the final stage of the process, the rupture
of the containing cell or ovisac, and escape of the ovule, is attended
by a concentration of nervous activity in the ganglionic masses sending
nerves to those organs--analogous to that which occurs in the solar
plexus at periods of digestion; the fall of the ovule is itself
analogous to the shedding of epithelial cells in the gastric follicles;
the afflux of blood to the utero-ovarian veins, analogous to the
periodical congestion of the gastro-splenic vascular apparatus. Only, in
this last case, the congestion results in the elaboration of a fluid
secretion, the gastric juice; in the utero-ovarian plexus, where no
secretion is required, the blood itself is discharged. It is difficult,
with these facts, to understand the assertion that, "Periodicity is the
grand (_i.e._ exclusive) characteristic of the female sex."

In normal conditions, the process of digestion and of menstruation are
both accomplished without invading the consciousness of the individual
whose body is the theatre of such extraordinary phenomena. Various
abnormal conditions raise the one or the other to the sphere of
consciousness--various stages in their evolution. Consciousness of
nutritive functions is always painful, and digestion, quite as well as
ovulation, may become a process most disturbing to cerebral tranquility
and efficiency. The longer duration of the latter is compensated by the
more frequent occurrence of the former. The ovaries are decidedly active
during at least fifteen days of every month; the stomach, during three
or four hours after each meal, or from nine to twelve hours a day. As a
matter of fact the digestive function is much more often the occasion of
conscious discomfort, than is the function of ovulation. Whenever it
becomes so, the dyspeptic approaches the condition of the reptiles or
ruminating animals, in whom the process of digestion so absorbs the
powers of the nervous system that all other modes of its activity are
suspended. But such a condition is universally regarded as an evidence
of disease, nor could any considerations concerning the co