THE USE OF BENZYL BENZOATE IN DYSMENORRHEA

It requires no little temerity to favor the addition of another drug to the already too lengthy list of medicines used for the relief of dysmenorrhea, but the logic of Macht's paper¹ recommending the use of benzyl benzoate in all painful spasmodic conditions of smooth muscle organs was too compelling to be resisted. Therefore, when my attention was called to this article by my colleague, Professor Hirschfelder, we determined to make a clinical study of this new antispasmodic, or rather this newly discovered action of a well known substance. This study is not based on the general run of cases as they come in private and dispensary practice, but on cases deliberately selected from among college women and nurses, because of their high intelligence and ability to cooperate in following directions and answering necessary questions under circumstances known to be experimental.

This so-called minor gynecologic condition has great import