The principles and practice of obstetricy, as at present taught / by James Blundell ; to which are added, notes and illustrations by Thomas Castle.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of obstetricy, as at present taught / by James Blundell ; to which are added, notes and illustrations by Thomas Castle. 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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    excites but little attention ; cutaneous patches, of a red colour, of an area varying between that of a split pea and a silver penny, constitute its principal character. In a few days, the disease always ceases spontaneously. Do not confound it with the measles. As there are neither catarrhal nor febrile symptoms; and as the erup- tions differ, the two affections are easily distinguished. In the severer varieties there is a minute articular elevation in the centre of the red patch.* ICTERUS INFANTUM,+ OR YELLOW GUM. In infants, jaundice, notwithstanding its very frequent occur- rence, is never scarcely a dangerous disease. J Haller supposed that jaundice is produced in the infant by a clot of milk closing the ductus communis choledochus; for when the skin is yellow, often the bile from the bowels is very abundant. The real cause of the • The varieties In Willan are the following, whose descriptions are large and somewhat loose. We may extract from them, however, the subjoined distinctions of character. a S. Intertinctus, or jRed-gM7» ; pimples bright red; distinct; intermixed with stigmata, and red patches, sometimes spreading over the body. S. Albidns, or White-gum; pimples minute, hard, whitish; surrounded by a reddish halo. fy S. Confertus, or Tooth-rash; pimples red, of different sizes, crowding or in clusters, the larger surrounded by a red halo; occasionally succeeded by a red crop. B 9. Volaticus, or Wild-fir e-rash; pimples deep red, in circular patches, or clusters; clusters sometimes solitary on each arm or cheek, more generally flying from part to part. e S. Candidus. Pallid gum-rash ; pimples large, glabrous, shining; of a lighter hue ^han the skin, without halo or blush. Generally speaking, none of these varieties are of serious importance, and all of them being consistent with a healthy state of the functions of the body, require but little attention from medical practitioners. Dr. Good's Study ofi Medicine, 3rd. ed. vol. v. p. 56*. t Icterus—named from its likeness to the plumage of the golden thrush, of which Pliny relates, that if a jaundiced person looks on one, the bird dies and the patient recovers. t This disease affects children at or soon after their birth, and usually continues for some days. It has generally been supposed to arise from meconium impacted in the intestines preventing the flow of bile into them. The effects produced by it are languor, indolence, a yellow tinge of the skin, and a tendency to sleep, which is sometimes fatal where the child'is prevented from sucking. Dr. Hooper,