“I must confess, I thought her case desperate, and had but little hope that Desomeaux’s celebrated Portuguese Pills, which I determined to put to the test, would here avail, as I had never known them to be administered under circumstances quite so apparently hopeless for a cure. But I resolved upon a trial. Accordingly I recommended their use, watching their effects upon the patient. At first their virtue, so to speak, seemed to be only negative—that is, the young woman got no worse. This, however, under the circumstances, I considered a point gained. In the course of three weeks favorable indications began to present themselves. The appetite was better; the deathly-sallow complexion giving place to a healthy hue; the eyes, also, becoming clearer, but still no menstrual discharge. The improvement, however, meanwhile, became more and more apparent, till, at the end of the ninth week after commencing their use, a slight, somewhat reddish discharge took place. Here was a beginning; the patient still improving, taking moderate exercise, with light but nourishing diet. Their exhibition was then dispensed with until within five or six days just previous to the expected return of the menses, when they were again used, and their use continued during the seven days; on the eighth the menses again appeared—on this occasion somewhat freer, but still not in sufficient quantity. Their exhibition ceased with the cessation of the menses, which lasted irregularly about four days. This treatment continued to the end of the fourth month, when the monthly returns were perfectly established. At each successive appearance they assumed a healthier color, freer in quantity, and less obstructed by coagula. The patient entirely recovered, and became possessed of sound health.” He then relates another instance still more surprising. “A woman applied to be treated for suppression. It appeared that she had been subject to irregularity, or stoppage of the monthly turns, and as she appeared to be free from the usual symptoms attending pregnancy, it was not supposed that the stoppage arose from that cause. She commenced using Desomeaux’s Pills. After using them about five days—from certain indications attending miscarriage—apprehensions began to be entertained that the suppression might have arisen from pregnancy, which, upon examination, proved to be the case—too late, however, to prevent the miscarriage. In a short time the expulsion took place, and on about the third day after she entirely recovered, with but little comparative inconvenience to her general health.”