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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    The uterus, in its unimpregnated state, as also the urinary bladder, when quite empty, are placed by nature below the reach of the downward forces of the muscular wall of the belly; they are within the sphere of the upward or re-acting forces of the low- er portion of the parietes, and therefore are they not sustained in situ by actual ligaments. But when, from the causes above enumerated, the lower part has lost its relative strength, and the force from above reaches even the pelvic viscera, the uterus, lacking ligamentous attachments, must be thrown down upon the vagina and perineum—the disease must be developed. The supposition of a gradual displacement of the abdominal viscera downward upon the pelvic viscera, is ably elucidated by the venerable and acute Scar- pa,* and other eminent writers upon the causes of Hernia. Dr. Hull's immense experience in the cure of Reducible Hernia, led him to a firm convic- tion that falling of the womb has a like proximate cause with Hernia ; and certainly, the very excel- lent results already produced by his New Appara- tus, go very far to sustain ins view of the subject. This Apparatus compresses, by a broad, soft, elastic pad, the whole hypogastrium, and the pres- sure is so contrived as to operate obliquely upwards and backwards. The effect of this pad is to give the weakened lower portion of the abdominal mus- * Traite des Herniva. Pref.