A System of gynæcology : by many writers / edited by Thomas Clifford Allbutt and W.S. Playfair.

  • Allbutt, T. Clifford (Thomas Clifford), 1836-1925.
Date:
1896
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A System of gynæcology : by many writers / edited by Thomas Clifford Allbutt and W.S. Playfair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN GYNECOLOGY (, (Grkat as the progress has been during the last fifty years in every I domain of medicine, in no depai'tment has it been so marked as in that \which embraces the diseases peculiar to women. Indeed, in tracing the (developments of modern gyna3cology, it is difficult for the student of our ttimes to estimate the value of each claim to progress, and to set a just ]price on each alleged advance; for it must be allowed that among many 1 brilliant achievements many false starts have been made, and the boasted r triumph of yesterday has been ranked among the failures of to-day. Sir William Priestley, in his address before the section of Obstetric 'Medicine and Gynfecology, says: Looking back on forty years of Lgynsecological practice, I can recollect what has been termed a craze for i inflammation and ulceration of the os and cervix uteri. During its [prevalence, it Avas said of some devotees that every woman of a household vwas apt to be regarded as sufl'ering from these affections, and locally t treated accordingly. Shortly afterwards came a brief and not very fcreditable period when clitoridectomy was strongly advocated as a rremedy for numerous ills. This, fortunately, had a very limited currenc}'' ;iand was speedily abandoned. Then followed a time in which displace- nment of the uterus held the field, and every backache, every pelvic dis- f comfort, every general neurosis, was attributed to mechanical causes, and 'must needs be treated by uterine pessaries. Again we had an epoch 'when oophorectomy was not only recommended, and largely practised ias a means of restraining hajmorrhage in bleeding fibroids, but also as a 1 remedy for certain forms of neurosis, even when the ovaries were healthy or not seriously diseased. Ere long it was discovered that removing the ovaries for neuroses, even if safely accomplished as far as life was concerned, was frequently followed by more serious nervous jDenalties than those for which it had been used as a remedy; that, in fact. It often entailed a loss of mental equilibrium, and sometimes ended m insanity. Close upon this, again, came an ardour for stitching up rents in the cervix uteri following child-birth, rents which were described as producing many hitherto unknown evils, and frequently conducing to the establishment of malignant disease. Lastly, we have had what has been described as an epidemic of operations for the excision of the uterine B