ght. Thomas cites an instance of
a woman of sixty-nine who had had no menstruation since her forty-ninth
year, but who commenced again the year he saw her. Her mother and
sister were similarly affected at the age of sixty, in the first case
attributable to grief over the death of a son, in the second ascribed
to fright. It seemed to be a peculiar family idiosyncrasy. Velasquez of
Tarentum says that the Abbess of Monvicaro at the very advanced age of
one hundred had a recurrence of catamenia after a severe illness, and
subsequently a new set of teeth and a new growth of hair.

Late Establishment of Menstruation.--In some cases menstruation never
appears until late in life, presenting the same phenomena as normal
menstruation. Perfect relates the history of a woman who had been
married many years, and whose menstruation did not appear until her
forty-seventh year. She was a widow at the time, and had never been
pregnant. Up to the time of her death, which was occasioned by a
convulsive colic, in her fifty-seventh year, she had the usual
prodromes of menstruation followed by the usual discharge. Rodsewitch
speaks of a widow of a peasant who menstruated for the first time at
the age of thirty-six. Her first coitus took place at the age of
fifteen, before any signs of menstruation had appeared, and from this
time all through her married life she was either pregnant or suckling.
Her husband died when thirty-six years old, and ever since the
catamenial flow had shown itself with great regularity. She had borne
twins in her second, fourth, and eighth confinement, and altogether had
16 children. Holdefrund in 1836 mentions a case in which menstruation
did not commence until the seventieth year, and Hoyer mentions one
delayed to the seventy-sixth year. Marx of Krakau speaks of a woman,
aged forty-eight, who had never menstruated; until forty-two years old
she had felt no symptoms, but at this time pain began, and at
forty-eight regular menstruation ensued. At the time of report, four
years after, she was free from pain and amenorrhea, and her flow was
regular, though scant. She had been married since she was twenty-eight
years of age. A somewhat similar case is mentioned by Gregory of a
mother of 7 children who had never had her menstrual flow. There are
two instances of delayed menstruation quoted: the first, a woman of
thirty, well formed, healthy, of good social position, and with all the
signs of puberty except menstruation,