Facts and observations relative to the fever commonly called puerperal / by John Armstrong.

  • John Armstrong
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and observations relative to the fever commonly called puerperal / by John Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    If the greater part of the various complaints which women in child-bed suffer are in reality inflammations of the uterus, of the intestines, of the peritoneum, &c. would not the pathology and treatment be equally clear in designating the disease by its appropriate name, as by calling it puerperal fever, and considering the essential or pathognomonic derangement as a mere symp- tom ? Doubtless idiopathic fever may take place after child-birth as well as under other circum- stances ; but I am persuaded it is of much less frequent occurrence than the inflammations of the several viscera. Of the cases which have occurred lately, call them by what name you please, the symptoms were very various, though mostly indicative of inflammation, and affecting the abdominal and pelvic more frequently than the other viscera: in some the pain and tenderness of the abdomen and hypogastrium were distinct and well marked, in some obscure. Not unfrequently the pains were referred to the back and loins, extending down the thighs:* in others the principal seat * It may seem superfluous to mention that, during the first days after delivery, the vague accounts of some patients might lead to the mistaking of after-pains for those of inflammation. When, as some- times happens, coagulum has formed In the uterus after the expul- sion of the placenta, the distinction will require close attention, as the
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