A compendious system of midwifery : chiefly designed to facilitate the inquiries of those who may be pursuing this branch of study ... / by William P. Dewees.

  • Dewees, William P. (William Potts), 1768-1841.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compendious system of midwifery : chiefly designed to facilitate the inquiries of those who may be pursuing this branch of study ... / by William P. Dewees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    vessels, and only a slight attachment to the surrounding parts, excepting at its neck, which seemed to grow out of the sacro- sciatic ligament. Its texture was gristly, and the body of the tumour was a fat gristly substance. This view of the parts after death, suggested to the operator a question, whether the tumour might not with safety have been removed during life, by making an incision on one side of the perineum and anus, backwards, towards the os coccygis? 76. About six months afterwards, the second case occurred. The first time Mr. Drev/ saw the woman was the second day of her labour, in consultation with three other medical gentlemen, whose signatures he has thought it right to affix. The recollec- tion of the former case, suggested the only remedy in the present. Either the Csesarean operation, or the extraction of the tumour, was absolutely necessary. Besides the well-known danger of the former, even should it succeed, the diseased part would remain. Mr. Drew, therefore, undertook the operation of extracting the tumour by the perineum, and succeeded. The woman was soon after delivered of a living child, and, when the case was trans- mitted, both were doing well. 77. On the success of this important operation, which'does so much honour to the operator and to surgery, it is unnecessary to make any remarks; but we cannot dismiss the article without wishing gentlemen who are most in the habit of deciding upon such cases, to consider whether some of those tumours, which arise from the ovaria, and are confined to the pelvis, might not with safety be extracted in this manner. We mean not to pro- pose a hazardous operation, where the patient feels no other in- convenience than her increased bulk; but where the offices of the neighbouring parts are so much interrupted as to render life no longer desirable, such a proposal might be submitted to the patient. Sect. VII. — Tlie Examination of the Pelvis. 78. A variety of means have been proposed for measuring the pelvis, in order to ascertain the diameters of the various parts, concerned in the passage of the child : much ingenuity has been expended with a view to, and hope of accuracy; but we have reason to fear that none hitherto projected has attained this end. The pelvimeter of Monsieur Coutouly* is liable to serious objec- * Madame Boivin has also invented an instrument which she calls introp^ tim^tere. Its principles are much the same as Coutouly's, tliough it differs con-