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.
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