On uterine and ovarian inflammation : and on the physiology and diseases of menstruation / by Edward John Tilt.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On uterine and ovarian inflammation : and on the physiology and diseases of menstruation / by Edward John Tilt. 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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    no longer rest satisfied with treating painful menstruation by brandy-and-water, hysteria by sal volatile, and suppressed menstruation by internal and external stimulants; but having detected the local seat of mischief, it will be at once attacked energetically, with a curative and not merely a pal- liative intention. Some perhaps may say, “ Though we have not called the disease ovaritis, still we have cured it while treating metritis, painful menstruation, &c., by which it was accompanied.” It would not be difficult to prove, that though the compli- cating disease may be cured, the ovarian inflammation will often be only alleviated; the patient may be said to be cured, owing to an insufficient local examination, yet the ovaria remain in a state of sub-acute inflammation, subject to a relapse on every monthly return of ovarian periodicity, or on the accession of any one of the numerous causes of ovarian irritation. A fit soil for disease to spring from, or to take root in and develop itself, until at last it is recog- nised, but found to be incurable ! With regard to the frequency of diseases of the womb, I do not think it has been exaggerated of late years, neither do I esteem these diseases to be increasing in frequency, for as a complaint is more studied it appears more frequent, which has been the case with diseases of the womb, as it w7as with those of the heart and of the brain. The fre- quency of erosions and slight ulcerations of the neck of the womb has been established by the statistical inquiries of Dr. West; indeed, so frequent did he find these lesions, that he came to the conclusion that they were unimportant, and this would be correct, to a certain extent, if such lesions were to be considered as pathological entities occurring accidentally; but the habitual existence of such lesions show's an habitually unhealthy condition of an important mucous membrane. Dr. West, and many other pathologists, forget that these lesions are less important in themselves, than for what they portray; and that, as the furred tongue marks an unhealthy state of the gastric mucous membrane, so the habitually eroded circle round the os uteri usually shows that the mucous lining of the cervix is inflamed, even when it is not possible to inspect it.