Case of amputation of the neck of the womb followed by pregnancy : with remarks on the pathology and radical treatment of the cauliflower excrescence from the os uteri / by James Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of amputation of the neck of the womb followed by pregnancy : with remarks on the pathology and radical treatment of the cauliflower excrescence from the os uteri / by James Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CASE, &c. In his learned work on the Diseases of Females, (Dublin, 1838,) Dr Churchill remarks, (p. 249,) “ I am not aware that any attempts have been made in Great Britain to excise the cervix uteri” The following instance of this operation may therefore not be uninteresting, either as regards its details, or the hitherto flattering success that has resulted from it. In the beginning of May last I was requested by Dr Lewins of Leith, to visit with him Mrs Cameron,* who, as he informed me, had a tumour attached to the cervix uteri. The patient, aged 33, had been married for thirteen years. Dur¬ ing that period she had borne five living children, and suffered from a miscarriage at the sixth month. In June 1838, she wean¬ ed her youngest child. For about a month previously to that date she had a red discharge from the vagina, which was constant in its occurrence, though not great in its quantity. It continued dur¬ ing the autumn. In October, she passed with labour pains of three or four hours duration, a body which the midwife in attendance supposed to be an abortion of the second month. During the period of pregnancy with this alleged abortion, the vaginal dis¬ charge was still present. It increased considerably after October, and was now often mixed with coagula of blood. It had always a very offensive smell and more or less of a red tint, but sometimes it appeared comparatively pale and watery. The discharge was as profuse though less discoloured during the night, and when at rest, as during the day and when taking free exercise. From the supposed period of abortion in October, up to the period that I saw her with Dr Lewins in May, three or four cloths were soaked regularly every twenty-four hours by it. Whenever she ventured to walk about without napkins she felt the discharge u running” (to use her own expression) from her. On two sepa¬ rate occasions the escape of pure blood became suddenly so