Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / [abridged] by A. Neale.

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / [abridged] by A. Neale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    SPURRED RYE, the first place I ought to declare, that 1 did not myself witness this case, borrowed from the ob- stetrical practice of one of my junior colleag-ues ; but having learnt from him that he had adminis- tered the ergot, I requested to be informed of the result. I learned, in his presence, that it was the case of a poor girl, found lying on the pavement of the streets of Lyons, begging, starving, and labouring under sickness. She was suffering, had undergone all sorts of privations, and was ex- tremely weak. Her pains, which were thought to belong to the act of parturition, were as slow, feeble, and lingering as they could well be, but more on account of her general state of debility than from any real torpidity of the womb. The remedy was administered and delivery took place. The first effect of parturition by the removal of the burden, and a slight loss of blood thence re- sulting, appeared to relieve this unfortunate young- woman, who, in spite of every care bestowed on her, died on the eighth day. The opening of her body discovered the traces of a slight peritonitis, and of a slow chronic phlegmasia. The accoucheur acknowledged that the womb was without any apparent change, at least in the eyes of those ac- customed to examine the bowels of women dying at various periods after their delivery. Neither of us doubted that this young female had contained in her own system the elements of this stage of