On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead.

  • Whitehead, James, 1812-1885.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    162/382 (page 152)
    sure indication of inflammation of the lining membrane of the ute- rus, or endo-uteritis ; and is accompanied with enlargement, of, and pain upon pressure being applied to, the body of the organ. That these morbid conditions of the uterus constitute the principal cause of all the disturbances before enumerated, is sufficiently clear, from the circumstance of their being most signally, often instantaneously relieved, by the mere use of local remedies, even without the assistance of constitutional treatment. Case XXII. Purulent leucorrhcea after cessation of the Menses; Disease of the lower part of the Uterus ; Cure. Mrs. C. S., fifty-five years of age, of the lymphatic temperament, native of South Cheshire, consulted me in August, 1844, for disor- dered digestion, inward weakness, and the whites, under which symptoms she had for several years been a sufferer. It was stated that she had borne eleven children at the full term of utero-gesta- tion, and subsequently, two abortions, each in the fourth month of the process, and for which no adequate cause could be assigned. Her last abortion, which occurred in her forty-seventh year, was attended, at the time of delivery, by profuse uterine haemorrhage, which was continued in a moderate degree six or seven days; when an offensive, ichorous discharge came on, in quantity nearly equalling what the lochia should be under favourable circumstances. Three weeks after delivery, the menses appeared, and were after- wards repeated at regular periods; the offensive secretion occupy- ing the whole of each interval. In her forty-ninth year, the menses began to be irregular; sometimes continuing ten, twelve, or four- teen days, and sometimes being delayed seven or eight weeks; the light-coloured discharge, which at this time had assumed the ap- pearance of common pus, devoid of foetidity, occupying still the intermediate period. At fifty-two years of age, the menses finally ceased, but the leucorrhceal excretion continued undiminished, and for a length of time afterwards was observed to become periodically augmented, on which occasion it was usually attended with lan- guor and febrile irritation, aching of the loins, distention of the abdomen, and aggravation of the dyspeptic symptoms, to which latter