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.

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    Case XXXV. Abortion in the seventh month of pregnancy ; Jissurated ulcer of the cervix uteri. M. C, twenty-six years of age, of the lymphatic-bilious tempera- ment, was admitted a patient of the Lying-in Hospital on the 2d of May, 1846, in the seventh month of her sixth pregnancy. She miscarried in her fifth pregnancy in the seventh month; the foetus was still-born. Since the nursing period of the fourth pregnancy, she had been troubled with a yellow vaginal discharge, rigors, pap of the loins, bearing-down, and gravel pains. At the period of quickening she had a slight attack of uterine hoemorrhage, and the discharge had since been frequently of a dark brown colour, and sometimes mixed with blood. At the time of her admission she stated that for a fortnight pre- viously she had experienced occasional attacks of uterine hoemor- rhage, and she had not felt the foetal movements for eight days: the time when the child ceased to move being marked by an attack of intermittent bearing-down pains, like those of labour, accompanied with an increased discharge of blood. The burden sank low down in the abdominal cavity; a sense of coldness and weight were ex- perienced in that part; the breasts for some days secreted milk, but had since become-flaccid. Upon manual examination, the uterine tumour wras sufficiently distinct, but no movement was elicited; nor could either the pla- cental soufle or the double battement be heard. The upper part of the vaginal membrane was deeply injected and inflamed; the cer- vix was enlarged and indurated, and two deep, ulcerated fissures occupied, one the middle of the posterior labium, the other the left •commissure, from both which blood exuded during examination. The adjacent parts were unusually firm, and their surfaces excoriated. She was delivered four days afterwards, of a dead, decayed foetus about six months and a half grown ; the placenta was shrivelled, but otherwise healthy; the membranes presented no unusual ap- pearance. The lochial discharge was at first plentiful, and con- tinued in a moderated degree ten days, when it was replaced first by a brownish watery, then by a muco-purulent secretion which was said to be similar to what she had had formerly.