The speculum : its moral tendencies / by a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

  • Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The speculum : its moral tendencies / by a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/18
    APPENDIX. Since writing the above I have seen Dr. Rigby’s late work on the Constitutional Treatment of Diseases of Women, in which I find much to corroborate the truth of what I have written. The Doctor speaks of the “dishonest” applica¬ tion of caustic; and in a note he says, “ I am justified in using the word dishonest, a large number of cases having come under my notice where severe uterine irritation has been produced with chronic induration of the part and serious injury to the general health, without the evidence from the patient’s history to have justified the use of caustic at all. In some cases which I have seen, only a few hours after the application, the os uteri was perfectly sound, except the ash- coloured spot produced by the caustic.” Again, when speaking of the supposed frequency of the ulceration of the os and cervix, he says, “It presents an instance of delusion as discreditable to the candour of the practitioner as to the common sense of the patient,” and further, “ that cases had come under his knowledge where caustic had been applied to a perfectly healthy os uteri, and the patient informed that she had 4 ulceration.’ ”