The diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of diseases of womem : including the diagnosis of pregnancy / by Graily Hewitt.

  • Hewitt, Graily, 1828-1893.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of diseases of womem : including the diagnosis of pregnancy / by Graily Hewitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    30/760 (page 4)
    Women during the four years is included in the statistics given, in order that the numerical preponderance and importance of the various ailments might be made more evident. Some few only of the prescription papers, containing also accounts of the diagnosis, &c., have been lost, perliaps 10 or 20 in number in the four years, probably not more. For the accuracy of the facts stated, I am personally and indi- vidually responsible. The diagnosis was, with a few and trifling exceptions, made by myself. And when there was any doubt as to the nature of the diagnosis, the case was put down in the category of ' doubtful' cases. For the purposes of this analysis, I have only included in the following statistical account my ' hospital' cases. It would have added weight to the reasoning which I have based on my expe- rience had I included ' private' cases. But records of hospital cases are particularly valuable, as less open to objections as to their validity and accuracy. Eespecting the system of classification of the cases here adopted, one or two preliminary remarks are needed. Nomen- clature should, of course, represent the scientific view of disease, whether applied to the diseases of the uterus or of other organs. Each particular case might be classified under two or more heads, but in almost every case there is a ' primary' element, which it is the business of the physician to discover, and the diagnosis cannot be said to be complete until the relation between the primary and the secondary elements in the particular case has been scientifically determined, The statistical account here given is an attempt to represent the predominating or primary element in each case. The analysis of each case has been pushed as far as possible. The result is, to give evidence of the preponderance of the 'mechanical' element in the explanation of a very large proportion of those cases jDre- senting what may be conveniently termed 'uterine' symptoms. Thus, for instance, comparatively few cases are put down as cases of ' monorrhagia,' for the reason that in so many of such cases tliis symptom was traced to the existence of marked alteration in the form of the uterus. So, again, with respect to ' leucorrlioea,' the same fact holds good. ' Chronic inflammation of tlie uterus,' pure and simple, finds a very limited representation in tliese statistics, not because it was very rare, but because it was so frequently found to be traceable and dependent on alterations in the sliape of the uterus. If these observations are worth anything, they should go