4. In like manner, if the uterus secretes more than it ought to do, it exhibits an inflammatory tendency, if the secretion is regular but too abundant; but if the secretion is irregular, or more putrid than it should be in healthy subjects, the disease is then quite manifest, for it is necessary that some pain should show that all is not well. In a healthy subject, at the commencement, and the cessation of menstruation, the secretion appears white and putrid. All those subjects in whom the secretion is more putrid than in healthy persons, or is irregular, or too abundant, or deficient, should receive attention, for this it is that prevents child-bearing. But in those subjects who are only irregular, and unequal in the periods of the secretion, the disease is not the preventive of child-bearing, though it shows that the habit of the uterus is changeable, and does not always remain the same. And this affection is sufficient to prevent those persons from conception who are otherwise well disposed towards it. It is, however, hardly a disease, but an affection which may be restored without medical treatment, unless it is affected by some previous fault. 5. If the regularity and quantity of the discharge is subject to alteration, without any corresponding change in the rest of the body, which is sometimes in a more fluid, at other times in a more dry state, the uterus is not in fault, though it ought to follow the habit of the rest of the body, and receive and secrete in proportion. If the body is in a good state of health, but undergoing a change, when this takes place, and there is no need of medical treatment; but if the secretion is too small from disease, and the secretion is taken through some other source, the body suffers: and if the discharge is too great, from all the secretions of the body being turned in one direction, this does not point to disease of the uterus, but of the whole body. Whenever the catamenia coincide with the general habit of the body, it is evident that the fault does not lie with the uterus, which would perform its functions properly if the general health were correct. 6. Sometimes the uterus is weak, and sometimes strong; sometimes too fluid, and sometimes too dry; and the discharge coincides with the state of the body, it is abundant when that is full, deficient when it is less full. If the body is full of fluid, the discharge is watery; if the body is dry, it is more sanguineous; it begins with being white, like milk, and is without smell. Some are dark-coloured, and when about to cease they become white, at the last secretion. The white discharge has not the smell of putrid matter, but is more harsh and disagreeable, nor has it the smell of pus; and when this is the condition of the symptoms, there is no wearing away, but the body becomes heated. In all that are in this state, the uterus is in a healthy condition for child-bearing. CHAPTER II.