A brief account of the application and uses of the utero-abdominal supporter : a new instrument for the relief and cure of procidentia and prolapsus uteri, invented by the late A.G. Hull of New-York.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief account of the application and uses of the utero-abdominal supporter : a new instrument for the relief and cure of procidentia and prolapsus uteri, invented by the late A.G. Hull of New-York. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    A BRIEF ACCOUNT, &c. '•©«. Tins Apparatus was invented by the late Dr. Hull, with a view to the radical cure of Prolapsus Uteri, by external pressure. It was thought by the Doctor, that at least in a very great majority of cases, that disease owed its existence to a descent of the abdominal viscera upon the uterus or bladder. If it be assumed, that the hypogastrick and perineal muscles are diminished in tone by gestation or con- stitutional causes, so as not to be able to re-act with sufficient strength against the combined depressing force of the diaphragm and the upper portions of the recti and cbliquii; as for example, in the acts of labour, going to stool, lifting, coughing, or the like, the necessary result will be an enlargement of the hypogastrick portion of the abdomen, and a tenden- cy, to a greater or less extent, of the viscera to crowd down into the hypogastrium and pelvis. Such a state, attended by anomalous and slightly distress- ing symptoms, might exist a long time before the viscera should be permanently dislodged; that is to say, before the upper portion of the abdominal cavi- ty becomes permanently narrower, and the lower more capacious than they should be.