The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-07-03

per cent Oh the American peOple are phy 81
cally unsound, ailing in one degree or an
other. The probabilities are that this state
ment is true Of the women of America,
whether It Is true Of the men or not
CAUSES OF THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS
No student of this condition need look
very far to ascertain the causes. the last
fifty years Of the history of the American
people have been rapid ones. The nation
has been prosperous most of the time.
Ways of living have been revolutionized.
At the present time a part OF the people
are living too fast, because they have
nothing to do. They spend their time IN
trying to find amusements. Whatever is
exciting or unusual serves this purpose.
Society makes heavy demands upon Its
women. Late hours, dances, suppers,
elaborate toilettes, wine and dissipation in
general bring around their revenges In the
shape of broken constitutions.
The other part of the American people
are living too fast because they have too
much to do. Under existing industrial con-
ditions, they find difficulty in making liv-
ing. Much of this burden falls upon the
women. Some of them assume burdens
that they might avoid. through an EFFORT
to be self-supporting and to do work that
men used to do. Over-study and too in
tense application break down the vitality
of very many women. If all this could be
changed and the American people could
return to the simple, outdoor lives OF sixty
or seventy years ago, before every inter-
est of human life had followed the gait
set by steam and electricity, the world
would be better and its inhabitants would
be healthier. But this would be an I'M
possibility.
PERvERsIONs OF MARRIAGE
There are other causes than these gen.
eral ones which are familiar to physicians.
A normal marriage ought to promote the
health and longevity of husband and wife,
and ought to result in healthy offspring.
Too often the reverse is the case. Through
a desire to avoid a family altogether, or
to limit the number of children, mistakes
are made and things are done which are
little less than criminal. Ignorance or lack
of care at critical periods, such as child
birth, also has numerous victims. Ana
sometimes there are unavailable compli-
cations, when the best care available has
been employed, which bring disaster. 1t
Is unnecessary to
NAME ALL OF THESE DISEASES.
In a general way, they are familiar to
everybody. Doctors have been naming and
describing them for years, and thousands
of alleged specialists have been attempt
ing to cure them-for the most part, with
very little success. There are arrangements
of the menstrual function, making the
flow too scanty, too profuse, irregular or
entirely stopped. These produce general
feeling of malaise, bearing-down pains,
Inflammation. sick headaches and dizzi-
ness and scores of other painful symp-
toms. Inflammation of the ovaries and
of the womb is a very common
trouble. Various misplacements of the
womb, prolapsus. retroversion, ETC.. make
life miserable for thousands of women
There are infinite conditions and degrees of
alterations and congestions, which often
develop into cancers. In sympathy with
these disorders cancer Of the breast
frequently appears. Most Of these dis
eases involve weakening or poisoning of
the blood, Inflammation, deterioration of
muscles and tissues, and-to a greater or
less extent-nervous prostration.
UNAvAILING ATTEMPTS AT CURES
There are thousands of alleged remedies
for these diseases. Hundreds of these
are "cure-alls," which are extensively ad-
vertised and widely sold. There are spe-
cialists in every city and principal town.
who make a practice of treating. if not of
curing these disorders. The surgeon finds
in them a field for his most brilliant work
and hesitates at no operation which, in his
judgment, would help these cases. All of
these operations are painful many of them
result fatally; some are the merest expert
ments, and those which are considered sue
cessfu simply remove some offending or
gan or portion of the body and get rid
of the disease by cutting away the seat of
it, In hundreds of cases the shock and
unnatural condition produced by these op-
erations bring about physical disorders
worse than the original disease. A very
common operation nowadays is to cut away
the ovaries, thus unsexing the patient and
frequently bringing the most disastrous
complications.
THE CHANGE OF LIFE
All women who live to be fifty must pass
through the menopause, or "change of
life" This is a period of untold terrors
for many women. The Change is protracted
many years beyond the natural period and
causes a good deal of suffering. This suf-
fering Is because of a defective circulation.
impure blood a weakened or exhausted
nervous system and Inflammation in the
organs most directly involved. 1t is pos
sible that a tendency to trouble at this
period may be inherited. Whatever the
cause, it often means several years of
misery, from which some women never en-
tirely recover
MISTAKES IN TREATMENT
The universal mistake in treating all the
special disorders of women is in attempt
ing to cure them by purely local appnca-
tions. Efforts are made by the local use
of emollients, astringents and antiseptics
to remove Inflammation, reduce conges-
lions and cure alterations. These methods
of treatment may perhaps be helpful. up to
a certain point in relieving pain. temper
arily But, in nine cases out of ten, the
cause of the disease is too deeply hidden
to be reached by such efforts. There are
many mechani contrivances In existence,
which are called into play to cure displace-
ments and to take the place of weakened
muscles which fail TO perform their proper
Offices Scrapng and cutting ire constant
ly resorted to in order to remove ulcera-
lions and morbid growths. The trouble
with this method is that the conditions
which produced these growths are not
changed, and other growths of tie same
sort, but often more severe in their effects,
will come from the same conditions to take
the place of those that are thus summarily
removed.
RADICAL TREATMENT NECESSARY
Treatment that Is more radical, although
not so severe. is required. The internal con-
ditions of ill-health which have produced
the painful and destructive local mani
festations must be removed Radical treat
ment Is that which goes to the root Of the
disease. The local manifestation is usually
a result of some other arrangement not
the disease itself. And injuries which are
purely local almost always react upon the