Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine | Page 8

in the abundance of such cases on record. Schenck reports instances of menstruation from the nipple; and Richter, de Fontechia, Laurentius, Marcellus Donatus, Amatus Lusitanus, and Bierling are some of the older writers who have observed this anomaly. Pare says the wife of Pierre de Feure, an iron merchant, living at Chasteaudun, menstruated such quantities from the breasts each month that several serviettes were necessary to receive the discharge. Cazenave details the history of a case in which the mammary menstruation was associated with a similar exudation from the face, and Wolff saw an example associated with hemorrhage from the fauces. In the Lancet (1840-1841) is an instance of monthly discharge from beneath the left mamma. Finley also writes of an example of mammary hemorrhage simulating menstruation. Barnes saw a case in St. George's Hospital, London, 1876, in which the young girl menstruated vicariously from the nipple and stomach. In a London discussion there was mentioned the case of a healthy woman of fifty who never was pregnant, and whose menstruation had ceased two years previously, but who for twelve months had menstruated regularly from the nipples, the hemorrhage being so profuse as to require constant change of napkins. The mammae were large and painful, and the accompanying symptoms were those of ordinary menstruation. Boulger mentions an instance of periodic menstrual discharge from beneath the left mamma. Jacobson speaks of habitual menstruation by both breasts. Rouxeau describes amenorrhea in a girl of seventeen, who menstruated from the breast; and Teufard reports a case in which there was reestablishment of menstruation by the mammae at the age of fifty-six. Baker details in full the description of a case of vicarious menstruation from an ulcer on the right mamma of a woman of twenty. At the time he was called to see her she was suffering with what was called "green-sickness." The girl had never menstruated regularly or freely. The right mamma was quite well developed, flaccid, the nipple prominent, and the superficial veins larger and more tortuous than usual. The patient stated that the right mamma had always been larger than the left. The areola was large and well marked, and 1/4 inch from its outer edge, immediately under the nipple, there was an ulcer with slightly elevated edges measuring about 1 1/4 inches across the base, and having an opening in its center 1/4 inch in diameter, covered with a thin scab. By removing the scab and making pressure at the base of the ulcer, drops of thick, mucopurulent matter were made to exude. This discharge, however, was not offensive to the smell. On March 17, 1846, the breast became much enlarged and congested, as portrayed in Plate 1. The ulcer was much inflamed and painful, the veins corded and deep colored, and there was a free discharge of sanguineous yellowish matter. When the girl's general health improved and menstruation became more natural, the vicarious discharge diminished in proportion, and the ulcer healed shortly afterward. Every month this breast had enlarged, the ulcer became inflamed and discharged vicariously, continuing in this manner for a few days, with all the accompanying menstrual symptoms, and then dried up gradually. It was stated that the ulcer was the result of the girl's stooping over some bushes to take an egg from a hen's nest, when the point of a palmetto stuck in her breast and broke off. The ulcer subsequently formed, and ultimately discharged a piece of palmetto. This happened just at the time of the beginning of the menstrual epoch. The accompanying figures, Plate 1, show the breast in the ordinary state and at the time of the anomalous discharge.
Hancock relates an instance of menstruation from the left breast in a large, otherwise healthy, Englishwoman of thirty-one, who one and a half years after the birth of the youngest child (now ten years old) commenced to have a discharge of fluid from the left breast three days before the time of the regular period. As the fluid escaped from the nipple it became changed in character, passing from a whitish to a bloody and to a yellowish color respectively, and suddenly terminating at the beginning of the real flow from the uterus, to reappear again at the breast at the close of the flow, and then lasting two or three days longer. Some pain of a lancinating type occurred in the breast at this time. The patient first discovered her peculiar condition by a stain of blood upon the night-gown on awakening in the morning, and this she traced to the breast. From an examination it appeared that a neglected lacerated cervix during the birth of the last child had given rise to endometritis, and for a year the patient had suffered from severe menorrhagia, for which she was subsequently treated. At