Observations on some of the more important diseases of women / by James Blundell ; edited by Thomas Castle.

  • Blundell, Dr., 1790-1878.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on some of the more important diseases of women / by James Blundell ; edited by Thomas Castle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    sometimes much longer. Pruritus, be it remembered, does not carry with it any disposition to cancer; let the patient clearly understand this, for she is then less likely to distress her mind with needless apprehensions. A fair trial has not yet been given, as far as I can learn, to injections into the cavity of the womb, yet it is not impossible, that though a great deal of pruritus is felt about the vulva, the real seat of the disease may be in the mem- branous lining of the cavity of the womb itself. Thus we find, where the stomach is disordered, that there is an itching about the nose, and where there are ascarides in the rectum, an itching of the perineum and the parts adjacent not infrequently occur. SECTION LVI. EXTREME SEXUAL SENSIBILITY. We sometimes in our practice meet with females labouring under sexual sensibility to excess. This excess of sexual sen- sibility in the vulva maybe connected with inflammation there, and when this is the case, it is the most effectually treated by leeches, poultices, and very frequent ablutions, at first with warm water, so as to keep the parts perfectly clear from all acrimonious substances. Sometimes, however, the disease has little or no connexion with inflammation ; it seems to be produced merely by an irritability of the parts. In this case I should recommend, in the first place, the local trial of the antiphlogistic plan ; after a few trials of which anodynes may be essayed, preparations of opium, hyoscyamus, tobacco, &c. locally administered in the form of ointment or washes. When the principal seat of the sexual sensibility has been the clitoris, or the parts adjacent, it has been proposed, in extremer cases, to extirpate this organ.* ' In Thomas's Practice of Physic, there is an account of a case of this kind, in which