Notes on 'uterine polarity' / by Francis Henry Champneys.

  • Champneys, Francis Henry, Sir, 1848-1930.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on 'uterine polarity' / by Francis Henry Champneys. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    equipoise ; they are not widely separated towards different poles ; the contractile force is in excess, and is evenly divided through the whole mass. Together with impregnation, how- ever, the expansive force obtains the advantage, first, in the fundus, from thence farther and farther through the whole substance, drives the contractile force towards the opposite pole, until this latter, driven towards the extreme point, springs over from the neck to the fundus, and at this moment gives the signal for the commencement of parturition. Moreover, all these circumstances of the female sexual organs, however different they may appear to be, vary from one another, not in themselves, but only in their mutual relation. In all there is the same contraction and expansion, and the different grades of vitality consist only in this, that partly their quantitative relation changes and one gets the advan- tage over the other, partly in this that they separate them- selves and retreat towards the opposite poles of the uterus. Immediately with impregnation the indifference in the substratum of the fundamental forces of the uterus is suspended. The expansive force rises in comparison with contraction ; at the same time the two forces separate them- selves by dichotomy, the former occupies the fundus, the latter is driven back towards the neck, and the axis of the uterus resembles a magnetic line with different poles. The dynamic metamorphosis once begun lasts throughout the course of the pregnancy, and determines its whole develop- ment in the different stages through which it advances from its beginning to its end. The expansion begins in the focus of the fundus, and ex- tends thence into greater and greater circles through the whole fundus, body, and portio vaginalis as far as the neck, where it reaches the maximum both of its intensity and of the extent of its growth. In proportion as this occurs, the contractile force, more and more pressed back from the fundus towards the opposite pole, takes refuge in the extreme point of the neck, until it is even here overcome by expansion, which mostly happens with one bound and in a moment of time, as I shall