... Disputationem medicam de mensium suppressione

VI.

The suppression of the menses is the abolition of the purgation of menstrual blood, arising from causes existing in the principal parts, or in the whole body, or in the uterus alone.

VII.

Those causes are, first, a cold intemperance, which generates blood that is crude and not at all prone to flow, and weakens the innate heat in the parts, whence their expulsive faculty, being enfeebled, does not rise up to excrete the blood. Next are obstructions or scirrhus of the liver itself, of the spleen, in cachexia, dropsy, etc.

IIX.

The cause existing in the uterus is obstruction; blood produces this in the mouths of the vessels reaching to the uterus, being at fault either in quantity or quality: when it has the surrounding mass of the body turgid, by flowing in ἀθρόως (all at once), it blinds and occludes its own paths. Thick blood, by reason of its density, cannot permeate the vessels. Slow and viscous blood, adhering tenaciously to the tunics and mouths of the veins, does not easily yield to the expulsive faculty, nor does it irritate the same.

IX.

Others also posit other causes, namely compression from tumors of the incumbent parts and from the omentum having become too fatty: constipation from an innate membrane or pellicle, as in those not perforated, or from flesh or callus from an ulcer, or from some tumor, such as inflammation, scirrhus, etc. Coalescence after ulcers of the uterus, which, while they are being brought to a scar, happens in such a way that the vessels coalesce. Lastly, subsidence. But whether the suppression of the menses can arise from these causes, many doubt, and the matter is still sub judice (before the judge); it is not for us to reconcile that in this place. Consult, if you please, Pereda, Schol., chapter 56.

X.

The external causes are: cold or dry air; coldness of drink; cold, crude, and difficult-to-digest foods; immoderate motion and exercise or excessive rest; immoderate evacuation of blood, either from the nostrils, or from hemorrhoids, or from a phlebotomized vein; an immoderate flow of the bowels, vomiting, copious sweats; likewise, immense fear, grief, and cares. All these [cause] the suppres-