Copy 1

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 / Prepared for publication by George Skinner.

  • Gooch, Robert, 1784-1830
Date:
1831
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 / Prepared for publication by George Skinner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    frequently of the latter appearance: therefore the ‘disease is vulgarly termed the whites. Sometimes it is merely a local complaint of no great consequence, unattended with pain, or with any constitutional de- rangement: but at other times it is complicated, with much constitutional disturbance; such as disorder of the stomach and bowels, lowness of spirits, and ge- neral debility ; there is a pale, leucophlegmatic coun- tenance, with a dark circle around the eyes. We know very little more of the source of the discharge than that it flows from the external orifice of the vagina; but whether it is secreted by the membrane lining that canal, or by that lining the cavity of the uterus, it is difficult to determine. It often occurs during pregnancy: it must then flow from the membrane lining the vagina, as the os uteri is at that time hermetically sealed. Women have died when labouring under this disease, and the inside of the uterus has been found covered with this se- cretion; in such instances it must have proceeded _ from those vessels which pour out the menstrual fluid. We are well aware of the sympathy which subsists between the uterus and the constitution generally ; but the connection is less intimate between the vagina and the constitution; therefore, in the severer forms of the disease, which are attended by constitutional derangement, we suppose the discharge to proceed from the uterus; and from the vagina, in those more trifling ones, in which the general health does not appear to suffer. In speaking of some other forms $f uterine de- rangement, I said that it was difficult to ascertain whether they arose from a disordered state of the c 5