Obstetric aphorisms : for the use of students commencing midwifery practice / by Joseph Griffiths Swayne.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetric aphorisms : for the use of students commencing midwifery practice / by Joseph Griffiths Swayne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    general ijlilebitis, followed by dejiosits of jius iu various remote parts of the body. Puerj)eral M%nia—Sym^itoms. 35. In cases of puerperal mania. This form of insanity may show itself as acute mania, or assume the more chronic form, melaucholia. The first kind com- mences very soon after labour ; the jralse continues very frequent, and the excitement of the second stage, instead of abatiug, increases to a wild delirium, which, if not relieved, may end in coma, paralysis, and death. The second and more common kind usually com- mences two or three days after labour, when the flow of milk sets in, or at a still later period; and is very apt to assume the form of religious melancholy. The patient is captious, suspicious, and liable to take sudden and unaccountable aversions to those about her. The bowels are usually constipated, and the secretions much vitiated. If fever be present, it is of a low form, and there is a general want of power in the system. When the acute form of puerjieral mania terminates fatally, the post-mortem appearances usually found are—thickening and opacity of the cerebral membranes, together with vascularity, softening, and effusions of blood or serum in the brain or membranes. This form appears in some instances to be nothing more than a i)articular kind of jmerperal fever. In the chronic form there is usually headache, offensive breath, a simken appearance of the eye, and pallor, or sallowness of the coimtenance. If there is any accompanying fever, it is of a low type. This kind appears to be mostly connecbed with derange- ment of the digestive organs. In other instances it has been