An essay on the symptoms of pregnancy from the earliest stage to the period of quickening : with a physiological explanation of the physical and mental changes produced by the impregnated uterus upon the system of the mother / by John Morley.

  • Morley, John.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the symptoms of pregnancy from the earliest stage to the period of quickening : with a physiological explanation of the physical and mental changes produced by the impregnated uterus upon the system of the mother / by John Morley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    children * without the public having had the least suspicion of the matter. But the most important and conclusive indica¬ tions of pregnancy depending on the alterations in the uterus, are to be derived from manual examination, or as the French express it, le touchev ,*—a means which should invariably be resorted to in every dubious case, as it is the only one by which a satisfactory diagnosis is to be obtained between pregnancy and certain morbid enlargements which are sometimes mistaken for it. These examinations are made per vaginarrij and by applying the hand over the abdomen externally. The earliest indications to be derived from a vaginal examination are from the state and situation of the os and cervix uteri. When the womb is not gravid, the lips of the os tincce are always open, and will even admit of the tip of the little t finger; but, soon after the entrance of the ovum into the uterus, it is almost entirely closed,—the small aperture remaining being filled up by a secretion of ropy mucous from the follicles of the cervix. As the uterus enlarges, the os gradually changes from the trans¬ verse to the circular form ^ and at this eai ly stage it IS more difficult to detect, than at any othei period, being situated higher up in the vagina. But as the developement of the uterus continues, it becomes heavier, and its fundus more expanded, * Fodere Medicine Legale, Tom.-v. t Burns p. 172.