A practical compendium of midwifery : being the course of lectures on midwifery, and on the diseases of women and infants, delivered at St. Bartholomew's Hospital / by the late Robert Gooch ; prepared for publicaton by George Skinner.

  • Gooch, Robert, 1784-1830.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical compendium of midwifery : being the course of lectures on midwifery, and on the diseases of women and infants, delivered at St. Bartholomew's Hospital / by the late Robert Gooch ; prepared for publicaton by George Skinner. 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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    and perceived they had employed all the usual re- medies for menorrhagia. As the discharge had con- tinued so long, I suspected the existence of a poly- pus, and refused to prescribe without examining the state of the parts, when my suspicion was confirmed. The next day I applied the ligature, tightening it daily, and cleansing the parts of the discharge; on the ninth day the polypus came away; from that time she had no return of the hemorrhage, and has since menstruated regularly. No medicines were administered, except pro forma. I took care of the uterus, and left the constitution to take care of itself. She recovered with amazing rapidity. The neck or stalk of the polypus is sometimes so small that, by slightly pulling it, the tumour comes away, and no hemorrhage ensues. When a ligature is applied to the neck of a polypus, which is itself insensible, the only pain occasioned by it is a slight sense of dragging; but if a portion of the uterus be included, the most violent pain will be produced. Dr. Den man once applied a ligature to a polypus uteri: he tightened it, and immediately the patient complained of pain ; he relaxed the ligature, and again pulled it, and with the same effect. Being a cautious man he loosened the ligature, and left it in the uterus ; she died in a day or two. On examin- ing the body, he found the polypus had grown from the fundus uteri, and by its weight had partly'm- verted the uterus, around which he had placed the ligature. Dr. Hunter in a case of this kind applied a ligature, and drew it tight; violent pain wras pro- duced ; he slackened it, the pain ceased ; he pulled it again, and agonizing pain was occasioned; he told the patient she must bear it; he gave her an opiate, and thus left her. The next day he found her with a thready and almost imperceptible pulse, bathed in cold sweats, with a cadaverous, Hippocratic counte- nance. She soon died; and he discovered on exami-