A text-book of obstetrics / by Barton Cooke Hirst.

  • Hirst, Barton Cooke, 1861-1935.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of obstetrics / by Barton Cooke Hirst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    11/1036 (page 9)
    PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. The revision for the sixth edition has been thorough. The most extensive additions have been made in the section on oper- ations, which now includes the operations for the compHcations and consequences of the child-bearing process at all periods— that is to say, all the gynecologic operations. ]\Iany works on obstetrics are curiously deficient in this respect. Pan-hysterec- tomy for chorio-epithelioma is as much an obstetric operation as the application of forceps. It is illogic to recommend the operative treatment for retroversion of the uterus following child- birth ; salpingo-oophorectomy for ectopic pregnancy and the infections of the puerperium; supravaginal hysterectomy for fibromyoma or for the Porro-Cesarean section; the plastic oper- ations for injuries of the genital canal, and then to tell students nothing about the kind of operation to select or the technic of its performance. x\n effort has also been made to present a brief account of the diagnosis and treatment of all the pathologic phenomena peculiar to women, which is the proper scope of a work on obstetrics. All the diseases of women must be considered in relation with the chief act in woman's history, child-bearing. The vast major- ity of them are consequences of that i)rocess. All of them arc pos- sible complications. Consequently, the s])ecialist in this l^ranch of medicine must be an expert in every department of gynecology. In fact, he is the only specialist qualified as an expert by com- mand of clinical material, by extent and variety of experience. It is not sur])rising, therefore, lliat the l)ulk of this work is com- ing into his hands in America as all of it long ago came into the hands of his colleagues in the older medical centers of the world. To maintain his reputation, retain his practice, and escape legal res])onsibility the general physician also must l)e prepared at