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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    November, 1824, at seven o'clock in the morning, to attend her, I found her so weak as scarcely to be able to walk, and the slightest uterine pains made her fall into fainting fits. She had great dread of her delivery, fearing that it might be found necessary to apply instruments. The orifice of the womb was sufficiently dilated, and every thing announced an approaching delivery. I en- deavoured to support the patient's spirits, but to no purpose. I waited patiently for several hours, and every appearance seemed to prove that it would be requisite to employ the forceps, after having broken the bag of waters ; but after having assured myself that there existed no malformation of the pelvis, I wished to try the effect of thirty grains of ergot, which she swallowed in a mixture of orange-flower and mint water. The pains were not slow in coming on; the pulse became full and frequent ; her strength was increased; and the infant, which was not full grown, was soon between my hands. The uterine contractions then ceased all at once, and I was obliged to employ gentle pulling at the umbilical cord to extract the pla- centa, which was already detached. Fourth case, by Chatard: A woman had been suffering for nine hours the pains of child-birth, which had produced but little change in the state of the uterus. She had taken an infusion of thirty grains of the ergot of rye. Ten minutes after there came on expulsive