1. Concerning the Feminine Constitution.

2. Concerning the Barren.

3. Concerning Virgins.

4. On the Diseases of Regions.

5. On the Secret Parts of Women.

6. Essay on the Physical and Mental Diseases of Women.

7. Physiological Considerations on the Diverse Epochs of the Life of Woman.

8. Concerning Sexual Differentiation, and Its Influence on Organic Nature.

9. The Sexual Life of Woman.

10. On account of the womb alone is woman what she is.

11. The womb is the cause of all the diseases from which women suffer.

12. “Love is an episode merely in the life of man; of woman, it is the entire history.” But this epigram of Madame de Staël’s will, to English readers, be more familiar in the form in which it was cast by Byron (Don Juan, canto i, stanza 194):

13. On Love.

14. “This century will be known as the century of the diseases of the uterus.”

15. Half-virgin.

16. Beauty of the devil.

17. “The cry of the suffering organ comes not from the uterus but from the entire organism.”

18. “One for Many. Leaves from the Diary of a Maiden of Vera.”

19. It is by a certain abuse of terminology that the name follicle is given to these structures even before the appearance of fluid in their interior, the word folliculus meaning properly a little bag or sack. The author’s limitation of the term graafian follicle to the later, full-grown stage of these structures, though historically accurate, is not usual in England.—Tr.

20. “A uterus served by organs.”

21. Menorrhage des Jeunes Filles et Hypertrophie du Col Utérin.

22. The German word used is Herzkrampf; in the first line of the paragraph it is used in the plural, and in inverted commas. Angina pectoris proper, the severe and often fatal disease met with chiefly in elderly men, is sometimes known in Germany as Herzkrampf, but the established and distinctive German name for the affection is Stenokardia. It is evident, however, that Krieger’s cases are not cases of true angina, and it is probable that they would be classed by English physicians under the heading of pseudo-angina pectoris.—Tr.

23. Hebephrenie.—There is no current English equivalent of this word, used by Kahlbaum to denote a form of melancholia occurring at puberty, and terminating in dementia.—Tr.

24. Katatonia (Katatonie) is a term used in Germany to denote insanity associated with muscular rigidity.—Tr.

25. A term introduced by Charcot. See page 97.

26. The author’s classification is adhered to. It is not usual, I believe, in Germany, to class the thyroid body among the organs of respiration. But the only disease mentioned under the above heading is goitre.—Tr.

27. In Germany the term Lanugo, or Wollhaar, is used to denote the rudimentary hairy covering of the body throughout life, as distinguished from the specialized and fully developed hairs of the head, beard, axillæ, etc. In England the use of the term lanugo is usually restricted to denote the downy crop of hair with which an infant is covered at birth, which is shed in a few months thereafter. See the English edition of Toldt’s Atlas of Human Anatomy, Part VI., Appendix, note 503.—Tr.

28. It will be noticed that the author uses the term seborrhœa as a general term for diseases of the sebaceous glands, including acne. In England acne, and its preliminary stage, the formation of comedones, are separately considered, the signification of the term seborrhœa being limited to denote cases in which the secretion of the glands forms an oily, waxy, or scaly accumulation on the surface. Seborrhœa oleosa is defined by Crocker as that form of the affection in which the olein is in excess.—Tr.

29. It must be remembered that these dietetic directions are for German and Austrian middle-class people, the arrangement of whose meals differs from ours considerably. The usual meals and hours are: Early breakfast, coffee and rolls, at 8 or earlier; second breakfast, a more substantial meal, at 10; mid-day dinner, the principal meal, at 1 or 2 P. M.; afternoon coffee, at 4; supper at 8 P. M.—Tr.

30. Regarding the significance attached by the author to the words seborrhœa and seborrhœis, see note to page 107.

31. Eine Mutterpflicht.

32. See note 26 to p. 107.

33.

34. It seems expedient to point out that whilst in this work the German word Geschlechtstrieb has in the great majority of cases been rendered in English by the term sexual impulse, on two or three occasions, as here, the author speaks of the Geschlechtstrieb as composed of sensation, perception, and impulse (Drang), when for obvious reasons the rendering sexual instinct becomes necessary. Though the term sexual impulse is, I think, in more general use than the term sexual instinct, it must not be forgotten that the inclination towards sexual congress is composite in nature, and that an impulse in the strict sense of the term is only one element in its composition.—Tr.

35. This word urning, used to denote individuals exhibiting this particular type of homosexuality, belongs to the terminology now generally adopted by writers on sexual pathology, and has been used by English writers on the subject—Havelock Ellis, for instance.

36. The German word Angst, here translated anxiety, is used in various senses, ranging from anxiety to anguish, according as the mental element or the element of pure feeling predominates in the conception. In the case of the angst-neurosis, however, a condition of mental uneasiness would appear to be connoted, and therefore anxiety is the best rendering.—Tr.

37. German, Lendenmarksymptome.

38. German, saures Aufstossen und Sodbrennen; for the latter noun heartburn would appear to be the most precise English equivalent, since the term pyrosis is sometimes employed to denote the acid eructation (or water-brash) and sometimes the accompanying sensation at the pit of the stomach—heartburn or cardialgia. Etymologically, of course, the latter sense of pyrosis is correct (Greek, πῦρ, fire).—Tr.

39. By consideration of the results of treatment.

40. Ger. in den Parametrien. The reasons for preferring the phrase parametric connective tissue to the noun parametrium will be found in the English edition of Toldt’s Atlas of Human Anatomy, Part IV, App. note 84.

41. It is usual of the Continent of Europe to divide the course of pregnancy into ten “months” of four weeks each. This fact must never be forgotten when comparisons are made between English and Continental tables, respectively, of the events of pregnancy.

42. Ger. Lufthunger.

43. See note 36 on p. 225.

44. The statement is so often made that conception occurring when one or both parents are intoxicated is likely to be harmful to the offspring, that it seems expedient to point out that neither the author of this work, nor any other author known to me, has ever brought forward any rigorous scientific evidence in proof of the alleged fact. It is one of those crude generalizations whose superficial verisimilitude leads to their continued though unsupported reassertion. The fact that the notion of procreation by inebriated progenitors is repugnant to our æsthetic sensibilities has, of course, nothing whatever to do with the logical proof of the assertion that such an act is harmful to the fruit of conception.—Tr.

45.

46. The author omits special reference to the metastatic orchitis that so frequently complicates epidemic parotitis (mumps) when that disease occurs after puberty. Though usually benign in character, the inflammation very often results in atrophy of the testicle. Fortunately, bilateral atrophy from this cause is very rare; and even when it does occur, both testicles being extremely small, potentia coeundi and potentia gestandi may nevertheless remain. But when double atrophy from this cause takes place before puberty (happily an occurrence of the utmost rarity), sexual development is usually arrested, the sufferer being in effect a eunuch.—Tr.

47. It is recorded of John Hunter that in a case of hypospadias, he advised the patient to draw his semen into a syringe and inject it into his wife’s vagina, with fruitful result.—Tr.

48. Constrictor Cunni Muscle.—In women the bulbocavernosus muscles, right and left, form, as it were, a sphincter to the vaginal outlet. Hence the alternative names of sphincter vaginæ and constrictor cunni muscle. The latter name is in common use in Germany, but, though appropriate, is rarely employed in England.—Transl.

49. “Prostitutes conceive often, but abort frequently.”

50. “Prostitutes become fecund when, abandoning their profession, they marry, or pass under the protection of a single man; in such cases they become pregnant, they are always happy, and their children are as healthy as those of other women.”

51. Compare stanzas 46 and 47 of “Venus and Adonis”:

52. Note.—In Germany, the term Ausfallserscheinungen is used as a general name for the various disorders of the climacteric period. The word Ausfall means literally a falling out, or shedding, as of the hair. No precise English equivalent of the term is known to me, nor is one really needed, the phrase disorders of the climacteric being sufficiently distinctive.—Transl.