Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/240

 several or more periods. Its temporary cessation should occasion no anxiety, for the menstrual flow is at all times a waste product, and, in pregnancy and after the menopause, its disposal is accomplished through other channels. However, instances have been noted in which the menses have appeared, when food was omitted, at irregular intervals almost viscid in consistency and very offensive in odor. This may be regarded as the result of congestion localized in ovaries and uterus, and as a natural cleansing of a reproductive system clogged with refuse.

With respect to the menstrual discharge, the interesting facts are to be observed that it is of regular recurrence during the bearing period in the females of all mammals ; that it is barely perceptible in some; and that in none is it so profuse in quantity as in woman. She is the only female in the animal kingdom that is compelled to undergo a monthly inconvenience of copious flow from the uterus ; yet this evidence of function is as natural as breathing, but because of perversion in habit, it has become aggravated in excessive degree. Profuse discharge is the penalty attached by nature to the use of the organs of reproduction for other than legitimate purposes, and