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.

    343/382 (page 333)
    Case XLV. Secondary chancres within the vagina of seven or eight months exist' ence; endo-cervicitis; abortion ; cure. S. B., twenty-one years, of the sanguine temperament, was married at nineteen and a half, having previously enjoyed good health. She aborted of her first pregnancy at three months from accident. During recovery, her husband had a venereal affection, of which he is said to have been cured in three or four weeks. She menstruated a month after miscarriage, and immediately became again pregnant. She shortly became aware of the existence of a vaginal discharge in form of the whites, an affection with which she had not before been troubled: this was of a yellow*colour, leaving deep stains on the linen. There was also tumefaction within the vagina— swelling of the womb,—and the sexual congress was attended with great suffering. She was several weeks under treat- ment, which consisted in injections, and the exhibition, so far as could be understood from her statement, of the copaiba mixture ; the complaint being regarded as gonorrhoea. The parts were not submitted to examination. She applied to me when seven months advanced, believing abor- tion to be near at hand. Her health was in a miserable state. Her throat was swollen and extensively ulcerated ; there were several sloughs on the legs, the sub-occipital glands were enlarged, and she had a copious, yellow vaginal discharge. On applying the stethescope, no indication of foetal life was discovered. The specu- lum, the introduction of which occasioned great suffering, brought into view five deep, ehanchrous-looking sores, with raised, harden- ed edges, and yellowish centres, three on the left and two on the opposite wall of the vagina, about an inch and a half from the external orifice. The cervix was enlarged and presented a excoriated patches, and there was well-marked endo-cervkitis. She was delivered lour days afterwards of a dead foetus, between six and seven months grown, and in a decayed state. The cure was accomplished in the manner already related. The following cases are illustrations of venereal contamination received from one having the complaint in its secondary form; the primary affection having been cured, and the poison reputedly 33