Volume 1

A system of gynecology / by American authors ; edited by Matthew D. Mann.

Date:
1887-1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of gynecology / by American authors ; edited by Matthew D. Mann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    have writteti upon electrolysis in the treatment of subperitoneal and intramural fibroids. Drs. Tliomas, Mund6, Vanderveer, and Semclleder of Mexico have experimented and wi'itten upon electrolysis in the treat- ment of ovarian tumors. Dr. Mund6 gives a report of fifty-one cases which he has collected from various sources, of which there were nine deaths and fourteen failures, the remainder being benefited or cured. In 1874, Dr. Oilman Kimball published in the Boston Medical Journal a paper entitled Treatment of Uterine Fibroids by Electrol- ysis or Galvanism. In 1878, Ephraim Cutter reported fifty cases of uterine fibroids treated by electrolysis by Kimball and himself These cases were treated during the period extending from 1871 to 1877, with the following results: Non-arrests, 7; death, 4; arrests, 32; relieved, 3; cured, 4. Writing of these cases nine years later (in 1887), Cutter shows that time has served to strengthen rather than weaken the posi- tion which he and Kimball took as pioneers of this method, for the present r6sum6 of those same fifty cases now stands thus: Non-arrests, 7; fatal, 4; arrests, 25; relieved, 3; cured, 11. Dr. Robert Newman of New York is the veteran advocate in America of the electrol}^ic treatment. He reported the results of some of his labors in this direction as early as 1867. Reports of successful cases of electrolysis in extra-uterine pregnancy have been made by Drs. A. D. Rockwell, T. G. Thomas, E. G. Landis, N. Bozeman, Garrigues, J. C. Reeve, William T. Lusk, and others. Hot water, which is so generally made use of in the treatment of diseases peculiar to women, and has had such an ardent advocate in Dr. Emmet, was first brought to the attention of the profession as a haemostatic during surgical operations by the late Dr. Pitcher of Detroit in 1859. A valuable contribution to gynecology has been made by Dr. H. Coe, the pathologist of the Woman's Hospital of New York. His published observations of certain conditions of the ovaries have been revelations to many who believed that anything appearing like a cyst upon the ovary indicates disease demanding removal. Some of his conclusions are a.s follows: Laparotomists oflen judge of ovarian dis- eases by—1st, thickening of the cortex of ovaries : such thickening is perfectly normal in the senile organ or after frequent ovulation; 2d, by the appearance of a cystic degeneration, which is often only hydrops foUiculorum, and, according to Olshausen, the stroma of tlie ovary in these cases is intact and most of tlie vesicles are normal. Tliis con- dition seldom attains any clinical importance, because the changes pro- duce no symptoms. Dr. Coe states the case of a perfect ovum found within a Graafian vesicle as large as a marble. Of a large number of tubes removed by different operators wliich Coe ]ia.s examined, only one- fifth liad true pyosalpinx. A less number were aflcctcd witli hydro-