Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1856, ©1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs. 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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    born October 30, 1837, which reproduced the relaxation. She soon got over this, and in the next pregnancy and confinement felt nothing of it: this labor was on the 2d of September, 1843. When the child was three months old, the relaxation took place, and was long trouble- some. She was again pregnant in 18-15, but had no return of the in- convenience in the gestation or lying-in, which occurred January 20, 1846. The joint gave way again soon after her last accouchement, August 17, 18-17: she discovered it on the 20th day of the month, and it was so movable, that a cracking sound was produced by turning in bed. The Student will readily perceive that a considerable relaxation of the pubal joint cannot fail to coincide with a relaxation, more or less considerable, of at least one of the sacro-iliac junctions, and that in such case the pain, weakness, or constitutional disturbances developed by the accident are readily accounted for, and can be treated wisely at least, if not fortunately. It appears to me that in articular maladies or acci- dents of this sort, there is but one sound principle of cure, and that is absolute rest in a recumbent position. A woman could hardly fail to recover if kept quiet in bed for a long time. She could hardly recover while taking usual exercise, which is wholly incompatible with the cure of the injured articulation. In those cases in which the joint has become positively inflamed and painful, it would be useful to apply leeches, cups, or blisters, or use amesthetic topicals, as chloroform, bel- ladonna, opium, or aconite. I have found every attempt at bandaging a failure, on account of the impossibility of well adjusting and properly retaining a bandage in place in this particular part of the body, so that I am obliged to conclude that the best thing that can be done is to go to a protracted rest in bed. Diameters of the Pelvis.—As every woman's hand, foot, or chin is not like every other woman's, so there arc, perhaps, no two pelves that are exactly alike. For the utilitarian purposes of clinical mid- wifery, it is enough, therefore, to know that as children's heads and trunks are supposed to be of a mean weight and bigness, so ought the pelvic canal to be of an average capacity for their transmission. Different authors give us different means of these pelvic diameters, and it is, perhaps, of no very great importance that they should exactly agree together in their several estimates of size. In order to reach what would be the average of ten different pelves, I measured ten of those in my collection at Jefferson College, and the result was as follows in tliis tabular view, which I subjoin:—