An inquiry into the pathological importance of ulceration of the os uteri : being the Croonian lectures for the year 1854 / by Charles West.

  • West, Charles, 1816-1898.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the pathological importance of ulceration of the os uteri : being the Croonian lectures for the year 1854 / by Charles West. 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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    cipal heads, to each of which, in succession, our attention must be directed. In the first place we may enquire how far these state- ments receive confirmation from what we know of the ana- tomy and physiology of the uterus in a state of health. Still, what answer soever we may receive to this question, it cannot, from its very nature, be conclusive ; it may render a certain occurrence probable or improbable, may substan- tiate or disprove the correctness of certain opinions or ex- planations, but cannot invalidate the evidence of positive facts. In the second place, we may try to ascertain whether examination of the dead body shows the morbid condi- tions of the os uteri which have been described to be frequent or rare, slight or extensive; and we may also endeavor to make out what connection subsists between ulceration of the mucous membrane of the os and cervix uteri, and other changes in the tissue of the organ. It must, however, be borne in mind that many evidences of disease, such as are very obvious during life, may be greatly obscured, or may even entirely disappear after death : and further, that uterine disorders of the class which we are considering, though exceedingly painful, and seriously inter- fering with a woman's health and comfort, are yet not of a kind to prove the direct occasion of her death. Evidence derived from this source will therefore be open to the ob- jection that it understates both the frequency and the importance of these diseases. We may enquire, in the third place, whether there is any condition in which ulceration of the os uteri comes under our notice unconnected with other disease, and with such circumstances as to admit readily of our observ- ing its characters and watching its course and consequences. Such a state of things presents itself to us often in the