the purpose. Such customs are extant at the present day in some
parts of India, despite the efforts of the British Government to
suppress them, and descriptions of child-marriages and their evil
results have often been given by missionaries.

As the advances of physiology enlightened the mind as to the true
nature of the menstrual period, and the age of superstition
gradually disappeared, the intense interest in menstruation
vanished, and now, rather than being held in fear and awe, the
physicians of to-day constantly see the results of copulation
during this period. The uncontrollable desire of the husband and
the mercenary aims of the prostitute furnish examples of modern
disregard.

The anomalies of menstruation must naturally have attracted much
attention, and we find medical literature of all times replete
with examples. While some are simply examples of vicarious or
compensatory menstruation, and were so explained even by the
older writers, there are many that are physiologic curiosities of
considerable interest. Lheritier furnishes the oft-quoted history
of the case of a young girl who suffered from suppression of
menses, which, instead of flowing through the natural channels,
issued periodically from vesicles on the leg for a period of six
months, when the seat of the discharge changed to an eruption on
the left arm, and continued in this location for one year; then
the discharge shifted to a sore on the thumb, and at the end of
another six months again changed, the next location being on the
upper eyelid; here it continued for a period of two years.
Brierre de Boismont and Meisner describe a case apparently
identical with the foregoing, though not quoting the source.