These morbid processes in the genital organs of young girls have long attracted the attention of physicians, and it is more than sixty years since _Bennet_ described the “virginal metritis” observed by him in twenty-three virgins. _Bonton_ published in 1887 a monograph on this condition. _Gallard_ assigns masturbation as its principal cause. Retroflexion of the uterus is also sometimes observed in virgins, induced by the bad habits which are so common in young girls of retaining the urine for excessively long periods and of neglecting constipation. The prolonged distension of the bladder leads to a daily, long-continued stretching of the ligamentous apparatus of the uterus; the full bladder presses the uterus backwards, and after the viscus has been emptied, the flaccid ligaments are no longer able to restore the uterus to its normal position of anteflexion. The organ is left with its fundus directed backwards, and the intra-abdominal pressure keeps it permanently in this position; at the same time, an accumulation of fæces in the rectum, by pressing the cervix forward, favors this displacement of the uterus. Moreover, when the uterine tissues are flaccid through malnutrition in chlorotic or anæmic subjects, the organ yields more readily to mechanical influences than it would if its muscular tone was healthy. _Disorders of Hæmatopoiesis._ Chlorosis is in general rightly regarded as a disease of the period of puberty etiologically dependent on the processes that at this time of life occur in the genital organs. Its appearance generally coincides with the menarche, occurring at the age of 14 to 16, or even later, at the age of 19 to 21. As regards the composition of the blood in chlorosis, investigations have shown that its hæmoglobin-richness is always diminished; its specific gravity is proportionately lessened, but the specific gravity of the serum is normal. The erythrocytes are normal in number, or only slightly diminished; their shape is sometimes normal, sometimes, however, poikilocytosis is present. The leucocytes are generally normal both as regards number and form; myelocytes (_Markzellen_) are also described as present in the blood of chlorotic patients (_Neusser_, _Hammerschlag_, _Gilbert_, _Weil_); the blood-plates are normal in number, the alkalinity of the blood also normal, the isotonicity of the erythrocytes rather low. The relation of chlorosis to the menarche is variously explained. _Kahane_, in his elaborate monograph on chlorosis, regards it as an independent disease belonging to the group of “disorders of vegetation” (_Kundrat_), one which “according to its essential nature is an expression of the disharmony that obtains between the congenitally inefficient hæmatopoietic apparatus and the demands made upon the feminine organism by the processes of puberty.”