Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine | Page 8

grief, she shed bloody tears. She
menstruated at the age of eleven, and was temporarily improved in her
condition; but after any strong emotion the hemorrhages returned. The
subsidence of the bleeding followed her first pregnancy, but
subsequently on one occasion, when the menses were a few days in
arrears, she exhibited a blood-like exudation from the forehead, eyelids,
and scalp. As in the case under D'Andrade's observation, the exudation
was found by microscopic examination to consist of the true
constituents of blood. An additional element of complication in this
case was the occurrence of occasional attacks of hematemesis.
Menstruation from the Breasts.--Being in close sympathy with the
generative function, we would naturally expect to find the female
mammae involved in cases of anomalous menstruation, and the truth of
this supposition is substantiated 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