The Goulstonian lectures on the influence of pregnancy upon certain medical diseases, and of certain medical diseases upon pregnancy : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London / by Herbert French.
- French, Herbert Stanley, 1875-1951.
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The Goulstonian lectures on the influence of pregnancy upon certain medical diseases, and of certain medical diseases upon pregnancy : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London / by Herbert French. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![$ UPON CERTAIN MEDICAL DISEASES, AND OE CERTAIN MEDICAL DISEiVSES UPON PREGNANCY. LECTURE I. Intkoduction. Mb. Pbhsidemt and Gentlemen,—The title of theee lectures perhaps requires a few words of explanation, In case It might be at all misleading. The subjects that It Is proposed to discuss will not be dealt with from an obstetrical point of view, but purely from their medical or pathological aspect. The gynaecologist and the obstetrician must naturally be interested In the medical diseases which may arise In a pregnant woman, and In some cases the treatment in these circumstances may be gynaecological or obstetrical ratber than medical. 1 have not the ability to deal with gynaecological or obstetrical treatment, and shall therefore say nothing about It. On the other hand, the fact that a medical disease arises, or is already present, when a patient has become pregnant by no means necessarily Implies that the immediate treatment of the patient should be carried out from a gynaecological or obstetrical standpoint. It is true that there are conditions under which the aid of the obstetric physician may be required to terminate the pregnancy artificially, and It Is also true that similar aid will be essential when the pregnancy reaches its natural term, or earlier if any accidental termination to It should arise. There are, how- ever, many conditions In which the pregnancy may be, as It were, an accidental concomitant or complication of the medical disease ; there are other conditions In which pregnancy is actually the cause of the medical disease, and many of these cases are of direct Interest to the physician. If In a given case It should be decided that the pregnancy may be allowed to run Its natural course, the responsibility for the patient’s health would rest with the physician until such time as the pregnancy either reached Its term or ceased to be itself normal. It Is, therefore, [218/08] A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22424982_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
