An eclectic compendium of the practice of medicine / by Lyman Watkins.

  • Watkins, Lyman, 1854-
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An eclectic compendium of the practice of medicine / by Lyman Watkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    ECLECTIC COMPENDIUM OF THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. ABORTION. ABORTION is defined as the expulsion of a non-viable foetus prior to the seventh month. The causes may- be either traumatic or artificial. An abortion may be induced by such constitutional conditions as lower the standard of health—syphilis, scrofula, rheumatism, epi- lepsy, hysteria, acute fevers, and infectious diseases, as well as uterine and ovarian troubles. The traumatic causes are accidents, such as blows, bruises, and wounds in the neighborhood of the uterus; violent exercise, severe jars, rough or excessive coition. Artificial abortion is that which is brought on by the introduction of sounds or other instruments into the uterine cavity, with the intention of causing an expulsion of its contents, or by the internal administration of drugs for the same purpose. Many circumstances combine to produce abortion; and those which cause abortion in one female may not so affect another. Abortion is dangerous chiefly on account of excessive hemorrhage; and the danger corresponds to the length of time the fcetus has occupied the womb.