On the constitutional treatment of female diseases / by Edward Rigby.

  • Rigby, Edward, 1804-1860.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the constitutional treatment of female diseases / by Edward Rigby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    because the finger has pressed it against the painful spot. On passing up the finger along the side of the uterus, as far as the cul-de-sac of the vagina will permit, we find that we now reach the true situation of the pain, which we had but approximated in our external examination. Generally speaking, a soft swelling of about the size of an olive may be distinguished at this point, which might be almost mistaken for an abscess, if the position of the ovary were not borne in mind; the more so because the slightest touch produces intense suffering, and generally renders it impossible to examine the ovary with any de- gree of minuteness. Examination per rectum gives the same results. On passing the finger along the side of the uterus, we come to the same spot we had felt per vaginam. During this examination also, we generally find that if we use external pressure on the left groin at the same moment, we shall evidently have the painful body between the fingers of the two hands, and be sometimes capable of slightly moving it. For further details of this affection, I must, however, refer to the chapter on inflammation of the ovary. At the catamenial periods all the symptoms are greatly increased, and frequently rise to a degree of intense agony. The stomach sympathizes considerably, inducing severe nausea and vomiting; and when the catamenia appear, the discharge is mixed with portions of membranous matter. In some cases the discharge is scanty, and the patient continues to suffer the severest torture for some time, until at length a quantity of these fibrinous exuda- tions is expelled, with more or less relief to the patient's suffering. The quantity of these membranous portions varies considerably; in some there will be merely a few ragged shreds of membrane, whereas in others, large pieces are discharged, sometimes amounting to an entire cast of the uterine cavity. The severity of the paroxysm seems to be inversely to the quantity of the discharge, the relief being in proportion to the quantity expelled. Thus, in some cases a few shreds only are seen in the catamenial fluid; whereas in others the uterine discharge appears to