ANTEVERSION is characterized by the fundus being towards or against the bladder, the os being directed to the cavity of the sacrum. (Fig. 16.) Retroversion is liable to occur at the third month of pregnancy, from the neglected distention of the bladder, and from a morbid weight and enlargement, though after the fourth month the uterus is too much enlarged to fall down in any way. The chief symptoms are backache and bearing down pains. It may happen that micturation will be impeded; and if the bladder may be felt at the lower part of the abdomen, or if the patient complain of a constant desire to pass water, or especially if the urine should dribble away, the catheter ought to be passed without loss of time, and the bladder should be kept evacuated. It may be necessary, in order to restore the organ to its proper position, to introduce the first and second fingers of one hand into the vagina, and a finger of the other into the rectum. CHAPTER V. MISMENSTRUATION. AMENORRHŒA. The first variety of cases of amenorrhœa are those where no menstrual fluid has ever been secreted. All girls, as we have seen, do not menstruate at fifteen years, as all children do not cut their first teeth at seven months, and in either case there may be no disease. But when a female has reached adult life, when her frame has assumed the character of womanhood, when she is not chlorotic, and when all her organs (save the sexual) perform their functions naturally, then a cause of the absence of the flux should be looked for. Menstruation may be absent from congenital malformation. The ovaries may be wanting, or if present may be atrophied or diseased; perhaps they present scarcely a trace of a Graafian vesicle; or these glands can exist and the uterus be absent or imperfect; or there may not be found a trace of a vagina. In the second variety of amenorrhœa there has been a secretion of the menses but no evacuation of them. This may be because there is an occlusion of the vagina, or the os uteri may be imperforate. When the os is closed by a membrane, the structure may be incised with the bistoury, or perhaps be ruptured by the uterine sound. The third variety is the most common form of amenorrhœa, viz: that in which the flux having been properly established and appearing regularly for a time, has been prematurely arrested. But it may be said of amenorrhœa in its various forms, that it is not so much a disease as a symptom of disease; a consequence of either individual organization, disorder of the uterus or ovaries, or of some other organ or organs sufficiently important to affect the constitution.