ANOMALIES AND CURIOSITIES OF MEDICINE.

CHAPTER I.

GENETIC ANOMALIES.

Menstruation has always been of interest, not only to the student
of medicine, but to the lay-observer as well. In olden times
there were many opinions concerning its causation, all of which,
until the era of physiologic investigation, were of superstitious
derivation. Believing menstruation to be the natural means of
exit of the feminine bodily impurities, the ancients always
thought a menstruating woman was to be shunned; her very presence
was deleterious to the whole animal economy, as, for instance,
among the older writers we find that Pliny remarks: "On the
approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds
which are touched by her become sterile, grass withers away,
garden plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the
tree beneath which she sits." He also says that the menstruating
women in Cappadocia were perambulated about the fields to
preserve the vegetation from worms and caterpillars. According to
Flemming, menstrual blood was believed to be so powerful that the
mere touch of a menstruating woman would render vines and all
kinds of fruit-trees sterile. Among the indigenous Australians,
menstrual superstition was so intense that one of the native
blacks, who discovered his wife lying on his blanket during her
menstrual period, killed her, and died of terror himself in a
fortnight. Hence, Australian women during this season are