The principles and practice of obstetricy, in five parts ... with observations on some of the more important diseases of women ... / Edited, with copious notes and illustrations by Thomas Castle.

  • Blundell, Dr., 1790-1878
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of obstetricy, in five parts ... with observations on some of the more important diseases of women ... / Edited, with copious notes and illustrations by Thomas Castle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1145/1172 (page 267)
    sort of transfer of the increased action which used to subsist in the uterus itself to the vessels of the brain, and you must endea- vour to overcome the effects of this action as much as possible, by endeavouring to keep the blood, as much as may be, away from the head, without inflicting any serious injury un the constitution. DISTURBANCE OF THE DIGESTIVE FUNCTIONS, At the time the catamenia cease to flow, I may observe, further, that we have sometimes a good deal of disturbance of the digestive organs, though not of a serious kind. I have no proof of hepatic disorganization being apt to take place at this time, though some of my friends seem to think that they are more apt to oceur now than at other periods. Inflation of the bowels, a want of appetite, gas in the stomach, constipation, and other chylopoietic symptoms —these are some of the principal affections apt to occur; in truth, _ they are little more than the simple symptoms of dyspensts, and require treatment by the same methods. DISPOSITION TO CANCER. Again, it is said, too, that at the cessation of the catamenia, there is a greater disposition to cancer of the breast,* or of the womb,} than at other times. My own mind is unsettled on this * If there be a tendency to any organic disease, it is greatly increased at this time, more especially if it exist in the uterus or mammez; and, indeed, the cessation of the menses does of itself appear, in some cases, to excite cancer of the breast. Dr. Burns, p. 175. Again, Dr. Good remarks, ** The mammez that constantly associate in the changes of the uterus, and constitute a direct part of the sexual system, are at this time also not unfre- quently in a state of considerable irritation ; and if a cancerous diathesis be lurking in the constitution, such irritation is often found sufficient to excite it into action. And hence the period before us is that in which cancers of the breast most frequently shew themselves.” Study of Medicine, vol. v. p.65- + If there be a disposition to disease in the constitution, especially in the uterus, a more rapid progress is made when the menses cease; not most probably because these give exist- ence to or promote disease by any malignant quality, but because the constitution, or the parts disposed to disease, are deprived of a local discharge, by which they were before 1elieved. * a “s It is a well-known fact, that the uterus, breasts, and every part