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A general treatise of midwifery ... illustrated with upwards of four hundred curious observations and reflexions concerning that art / Written originally in French by La Motte ... And translated into English by Thomas Tomkyns, surgeon.

  • Mauquest de La Motte, Guillaume, 1655-1737.
Date:
1746
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general treatise of midwifery ... illustrated with upwards of four hundred curious observations and reflexions concerning that art / Written originally in French by La Motte ... And translated into English by Thomas Tomkyns, surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is two or three inches thick, but only that its thick- nefs is proportioned to its life ; that at its greateft Hate of extenfion, it has as much thicknefs as in its natural Hate ; that this thicknefs is greater in its fundus, than at its fore-parts, and that all uterus'*s are not of an equal thicknefs. I have always found by diiTeftion, that the uterus was thicker immediately after delivery than before, and (till thicker two days after, and at lad draw¬ ing near to its natural Hate towards the eighth day. . I have thought myfelf obliged to examine what Mauriceau faid about the Hate of the uterus during pregnancy and after delivery, before I treated of the pains which women endure after being brought to bed, being able from thence to draw the caufe of them. Thefe pains like thofe of labour are both owing to contractions of the uterus, with this difference, that in one cafe they ferve to expel the child, in this the lochia, which after every pain come down in greater abundance \ thus are they very fervicea- ble to drain the uterus of all the humours it was foaked with during pregnancy. MoH women have thefe pains, though forne are quite free from them, and the greateft part of women feel nothing of them in their HrH lying-in. Thefe pains are fometimes fo fharp, that women who have bore their labour with a great deal of pa¬ tience, cannot help crying out with thefe: When there is a neceffity, all I do is to adminiHer a gly- fter ; but if the lochia come down plentifully, and the belly is open, I leave the cure to time, which happens generally in two or three days, tho* fome¬ times not till the feventh or eighth, but rarely fo late ; after which they leffen by degrees. The pains brought on by the cholick, the fup- preHkm of the lochia, or inflammation of the uterus, L 1 are 1