On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead.

  • Whitehead, James, 1812-1885.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead. 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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    magnitude in the aggregate, and one which is, at the same time, so completely amenable to remedial agency, should have so little en- gaged the attention of British practitioners. In the course of a pu- pilage of several years' duration, including the year 1831 and por- tions of the four following years, in the London and Provincial Hospitals, I do not remember having witnessed a single instance— with the exception of a few cases of malignant disease—wherein the speculum or any similar means were employed in the investigation of disease of the uterus; although numbers, doubtless, were con- stantly under treatment for complaints of anomalous character, having their origin in lesions of this description. On the Continent the subject, although not very greatly in ad- vance, has nevertheless been very differently dealt with. During my attendance 3t the Paris Hospitals in the year 1836, and also on a subsequent visit to the French capital, I had frequent opportuni- ties of seeing cases of uterine disease in the practice of M. Emery at the Hospital of St. Louis, in that of M. Ricord at the Hospital du Midi, and elsewhere; but the class of patients applying for re- lief at that period were principally women of doubtful character, to whom I then believed these affections to be almost peculiar. It will appear however, in the course of the present treatise, that this was a mistaken idea, the result of a very imperfect acquaintance with the pathology of the uterus. The admirable treatise on Inflammation, Ulceration, and Indu- ration of the Cervix Uteri, recently presented to the public by Dr. J. H. Bennett, will have tended materially to direct attention to this branch of medical science ; and the subject will doubtless increase in interest as the spirit of inquiry shall become more generally awakened. The opinions promulgated by this author, however, are far from being universally adopted ; many are willing to believe his accounts exaggerated, although I have no where heard that ex- perience has proved them incorrect. My own personal knowledge enables me unhesitatingly to affirm, on the authority of a multitude of facts, that Dr. B.'s statements in reference to the extreme pre- valence of uterine disease, are not only borne out in practice, but as regards their occurrence during pregnancy, to which depart- ment of the subject he has but incidentally alluded, they are de- cidedly under-estimated. It is, my purpose to record in the following pages, some of the results of a series of observations on the progressive changes,