Volume 1

System of gynecology / by American authors ; edited by Matthew D. Mann.

Date:
1887-1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: System of gynecology / by American authors ; edited by Matthew D. Mann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    32/806 (page 28)
    of ovariotomists in this country has rapidly increased, even up to the present time, while the percentage of mortality attending the ()])cration by competent operators has, under improved nietluKls, antiseptic and mechanical, grown to be quite as small as that attending most other capital operations. In 1853, Dr. Washington L. Atlec read before the American INIcdi- cal Association a paper on fibrous tumors of the uterus which at once became a portion of the classic gynecological literature of this country. It dealt with such of these tumors as had hei^etofore been supposed to be inaccessible to the knife or not amenable to curative measures. The paper was based wholly on the author's own experience, and gave important information touching the classification and means of diagnosing these tumors, besides indicating a method of their treatment by enucleation. It divided them into—1, extra-uterine or surface tumors; 2, intra-ute- rine or cavity tumors; and 3, intranniral tumors of the uterus. The value of ergot given internally as a remedy was strongly insisted on, and the use of that di'ug in the removal of these growths through absorption due to pressure from contraction of the non-striated muscu- lar tissue has since been regarded as the most efficacious means of treat- ing such growths as are inaccessible to the knife. In 18e56 there appeai-ed the prize essay by Dr. George H. Lyman of Boston upon the History and Statistics of Ovariotomy, and the Circum- stances under which this Operation may be regarded Safe and Expedient. Up to that date Dr. Lyman's monograph was, probably, the most com- plete of any that had appeared, being a complete and careful research of the ovariotomy statistics of all countries. In the same year Dr. I. E. Taylor advocated a new operation for the cure of recto-vaginal fistula, reporting two cases in which he had suc- cessfully employed it. This operation consisted in the severing of the sphincter ani in such cases. Some remarkable operations for the removal of the extra-uterine fcetus were performed in the early history of this country. In 1791, Dr. William Boynham of Virginia successfully removed the tumor by incision of the abdominal parietes. In 1799 he performed a similar operation, and with equally satisfactory results. In 1816, Dr. John King of South Carolina cut through the walls of the vagina and removed through the incision, by means of the forceps and abdom- inal pressure, a living child which had been carried through the full term of gestation in the abdominal cavity outside the uterus. The life of the mother was also saved. This case stands on record as one of the most remarkable ever encountered, and, being without precedent, does all the greater credit to the operator's judgment and resolution. In 1874, Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas incised the vaginal wall with the gal- vano-caustic knife and removed a three months' fcetus; and in 1875,