Читать книгу On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females онлайн

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I hope to be able to show that a far more humane and effectual method is that which I constantly practise, and for the last six or seven years have openly and consistently advocated. Of course, from the very novelty of these views, I have been met with many objections, such as unsexing the female, preventing the normal excitement consequent on marital intercourse, or actually, as some most absurdly and unphilosophically assert, causing sterility: whereas my cases will show fact to be directly converse to all these theories; and it is curious that a physician for many years connected with one of our largest metropolitan hospitals, and recognized as a standard writer on female diseases, has in writing condemned my practice in not very measured terms, but is himself constantly in the habit of trying to subdue this peripheral irritation by continual application of the strongest caustics to the seat of the irritation; thereby showing that he recognizes the source of evil, but is not yet able to see that a superficial sore will not destroy deep-seated nerve irritation. It wants, I imagine, little argument to prove that so far from this practice being beneficial, it is likely, by causing increased irritation, to be positively injurious.