The principles and practice of gynaecology / by Thomas Addis Emmet ... With one hundred and thirty illustrations.

  • Emmet, Thomas Addis, 1828-1919.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of gynaecology / by Thomas Addis Emmet ... With one hundred and thirty illustrations. 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.

    60/902 (page 52)
    very well. For temporary use, the India-rubber inflated-cusbion bed- pan will answer, but it is liable to stick together from the effects of the hot water. The shovel-shaped French bed-pan, more in general use in the sick room, does not answer for this purpose, as it allows the clothing of the patient to become wet. When using the regular bed-pan, it is neces- sary to place the patient so far forward on it that her weight will not tilt it up. Or the handle, which is hollow, may be turned to one side, and with a piece of large India-rubber tubing stretched over it, the water be made to pass off into a receptacle placed along side of the bed. For use in my private hospital I have this form of bed-pan made of copper, and, instead of so large a handle, a small spout which can be kept closed when not needed, by screwing on a cap. When a large injection is needed, the cap can be removed, and a small piece of tubing, placed over the spout, will carry off the water. The injection can be better given to the patient after she is un- dressed for the night and in bed. She should be placed near the edge of the bed with the hips elevated as much as possible by the bed- pan, and a small pillow under her back, the lower limbs being flexed. Her body must be covered, to protect her from cold, and her position made perfectly comfortable ; whenever the bed is a soft one, for the purpose of keeping the hips elevated, a broad board should be placed under the pan to prevent it from sinking into the bed from the weight of the patient. The vessel of hot water is placed on a chair by the bedside, and the nurse passes the nozzle of the syringe into the vagina, over the perineum, directing it along the recto-vaginal wall until it has reached the posterior cul-de-sac. The water must be thrown in, at first, very carefully, until the vagina has become dis- tended. If the nozzle is not properly introduced, a stream of water may be throAvn directly into the uterine canal. The forcible entrance of any fluid into the undilated uterus causes intense pain, frequently alarming symptoms of nervous prostration or collapse, and sometimes it is the cause of an attack of cellulitis. At the completion of the injection, the vagina can be emptied by depressing the perineum for a few seconds, with the finger on'the nozzle of the syringe before with- draAving it, and, as the bed-pan is removed, a napkin should be placed against the vaginal outlet to absorb an}^ water which may have been retained. . When, from the force of circumstances, the injections cannot be thus administered, it is better to use a fountain, or siphon, syringe than that the patient should attempt to give them to herself. This mode,