On artificial dilatation of the os and cervix uteri by fluid pressure from above : a reply to Drs. Keiller of Edinburgh, and Arnott and Barnes of London / by Horatio R. Storer, M.D.

  • Storer, Horatio Robinson, 1830-1922.
Date:
1863
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On artificial dilatation of the os and cervix uteri by fluid pressure from above : a reply to Drs. Keiller of Edinburgh, and Arnott and Barnes of London / by Horatio R. Storer, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ON ARTIFICIAL DILATATION OF THE OS AND CERVIX UTERI BY FLUID PRESSURE FROM ABOVE; A REPLY TO DRS. KEILLER OF EDINBURGH, AND ARNOTT AND BARNES OF LONDON. BY HORATIO R. STOKER, M.D., OF BOSTON, Surgeon to the Pleasant St. Hospital for Women, Member op the Obstetric AND MeDICO-ChIRURGICAL SOCIETIES OF EDINBURGH, ETC. [Read before the Suffolk District Medical Society, May 30th, 1863.] Those who are interested in obstetric surgery can hardly have failed to notice a controversy, for many months past carried on through the more important British journals, involving the question of priority as to suggestion and practical application in a matter of much im- portance—namely, the dilatation of the cervix uteri from above, as a means of diagnosis and treatment. As one of the original claimants of the suggestion referred to, and, as I supposed, till within a few weeks, the only one with any legitimate ground for such claim, I have felt some little interest in the result. Not caring, however, again to enter the controversial arena, I should continue to remain a passive spectator, did not a more careful examination of the whole matter, to which ] have been led by some recent allegations, compel me to break silence in sim- ple justice to one of my opponents. It will be found, also, that this communication will not be without its value as bearing upon and in- stancing the law which should govern physicians, as all other scien- tific men, in the settlement of similar disputes. Immediately on entering practice, it became evident to me that the great field for advance in obstetric therapeutics was the interior of the uterus—an opinion that was daily strengthened during the intimate relations to which I was admitted by Prof. Simpson in 1854-55. At that time the sole means, at all safe and reliable, of directly reaching the interior of the unimpregnatcd uterus, was by the use of expansible tents, then only made of sponge, first suggested for this purpose by Simpson in 1844.* It is true, that for the induction of • Edinljiirgl) Moiitlily Jonnial of Medical Science, Aug. 1844, p. 734. Obstetric Works, Yol. i., p. 12o, Scotch edition j p. 128, Americau do.