Note 273 — VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE FOREGOING SUBJECTS, ELUCIDATED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES.

A question has arisen whether this discharge be a secretion from the internal surface of the uterus, or pure blood; it is now generally admitted that the former is the true theory of its origin, and it is important for the medical jurist to know that it does not coagulate; in the celebrated case of the murder of Mary Ashford, this fact furnished a useful feature in the evidence; and in other cases that might be cited, the medical witness has been thus enabled to discredit the explanation given by a woman, for the appearance of blood. The average quantity in this country is about four ounces, which is generally about four days in flowing, but this of course is liable to great variation. An opinion has prevailed from the most remote antiquity, that there is something peculiarly malignant and unclean in the nature of this discharge. Haller thinks that this belief was brought from Asia into Europe, by the Arabian physicians; that such an idea should have originated in hot countries is not extraordinary, when we consider how rapidly blood runs into putrefaction under such circumstances. In Africa the women are obliged at these periods to separate themselves from society, and to abstain from the performance of their domestic duties, and even to carry about them some mark, by which others may learn to avoid them. The Jews observed the same practice, and the laws of Moses condemned to death the persons who were discovered to have had sexual intercourse during this period. (Levit. Ch. 20. v. 18.)