Uterine and tubal gestation : A study of the embedding and development of the human ovum, the early growth of the embryo, and the development of the syncytium and placental gland / By Samuel Wyllis Bandler.

  • Bandler, Samuel Wyllis, 1869-1932.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Uterine and tubal gestation : A study of the embedding and development of the human ovum, the early growth of the embryo, and the development of the syncytium and placental gland / By Samuel Wyllis Bandler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    27/184 (page 7)
    prove at the beginning of each menstrual period a wave move- ment and an increased blood tension by no possibility due to reflex causes. During and after menstruation regressive changes are evident, and the excretion of nitrogenous elements is dimin- ished. During pregnancy we have an increased amount of the watery elements of the blood, an increased proportion of fibrin, a di- minished amount of albumin, an increase in the white blood cells, a genuine increase in the number of red blood cells and in the amount of hemoglobin. Before labor the temperature is highest in the last three months of pregnancy, and there is an increase in the elements of the body, equal to one-thirteenth of the body weight. This increase is due to serous infiltration, and to the increased ability of the body to form organized tissue. Post partum, after a tem- porarily short rise, the temperature is lower, the blood pressure sinks, and becomes normal on the ninth day. The loss in body weight is equal to one-ninth of the weight of the pregnant per- son. For labor and post partum together, there is a loss of weight nearly equal to one-fifth of the body weight at full term. After labor there is a diminution of tissue change and a diminu- tion in the amount of urine. Therefore as regards temperature, blood pressure, body weight, the amount of urine secreted, etc., there is always a similar in- crease before menstruation, and a like decrease in intensity dur- ing and after menstruation, as during and after parturition, so that Virchow has well characterized menstruation as being a labor en miniature. According to Loewenthal, who believes that every ovum is em- bedded in the mucous membrane of the uterus, we may say that labor is a menstruation in which a fully developed ovum is ex- pelled. The coincidence of labor with a menstrual period seems therefore natural. The resemblance of the mechanical processes concerned in menstruation and in labor is remarkable, and these changes can be due only to the stimulative effect of the ovarian secretion, acting not alone upon the uterus and the genital organs, but likewise upon the breasts, upon the blood elements, and upon blood tension. This secretion is a stimulus likewise to uterine contractions, and is the probable cause of the contractions nor- mally occurring during pregnancy. The action of this accumu- lated secretion upon the uterus at the end of pregnancy is prob- ably the cause of labor pains.