Diseases of women : a clinical guide to their diagnosis and treatment / by George Ernest Herman.

  • Herman G. Ernest (George Ernest), 1849-1914.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of women : a clinical guide to their diagnosis and treatment / by George Ernest Herman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    A Clinical Guide to their Diagnosis and Treahnent.^ |)art |l. GENERAL. CHAPTER I. / INTRODUCTORY. Major and minor gynaecology.—Gynaecology, or the knowledge of the diseases peculiar to women, may broadly be divided into two parts: major and minor. Major gynaecolog}^ means the treatment of grave diseases which so endanger health or life that they must be treated. Minor gynaecolog}^ means the treatment of slight ailments which interfere witli the patient’s comfort, but, if she has fortitude to disregard this, neither impair health nor endanger life. It is not possible to draw a sharp line between these two groups ; for there are cases in which it is hard to say to which group the case belongs. But most could be easily put into one or the other category. In each group there are cases in which diagnosis is clear and treatment easy. In each there are cases in which diagnosis and treatment are dithcult. Their differences.—The kind of difficulty in the two groups is different. In major gynaecology the difficulties are surgical; experienced hands are wanted; hands that can report correctly to the brain what they feel. In oninor gynjecology they are medical. The difficulty is to dis- entangle the parts played by the central nervous system and the local changes in the pelvic organs; to distinguish whether a small local change is deteriorating the patient’s ; B