Resume of a report on position, pneumatic pressure and mechanical appliance in uterine displacements : read before the Georgia Medical Association at Savannah, April 23d, 1875 / by Henry Fraser Campbell.

  • Campbell, Henry Fraser, 1824-1891.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Resume of a report on position, pneumatic pressure and mechanical appliance in uterine displacements : read before the Georgia Medical Association at Savannah, April 23d, 1875 / by Henry Fraser Campbell. 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.

    7/18 (page 7)
    credit will be gladly given to the authors, for their praiseworthy, even though unsuccessful, efforts to fix attention upon this most valuable method of correcting the malpositions of the uterus.* It will be recollected that the use made of the measure by Drs. Sims and Bozeman had in view a far different object—not uterine reposition at all—but operations within the vagina for the cure of vesico-vaginal fistula and other accidents and affec- tions, of a purely surgical nature. In the Report just pronounced by me at Savannah, the, object was distinctly proclaimed. It was to establish among gynaecologists generally, in this as well as in foreign countries, pneumatic pressure, as it can be evoked and utilized in the genu-pectoral position, as a constantly available and powerful instru- mentality; not only for occasional use, in unusual and difficult cases of displacement, but for daily application also, in the mildest forms and degrees of uterine malposition. The use and benefits of this method would be greatly restricted and depreciated should its ap- plication involve the attention, each time, of the physician or even a nurse; it became therefore an object of earnest thought, that I might place in the hands of suffering women, through their medi- cal advisers, an ever safe and “ready method” of self-replacement, by which, in most cases, instantaneous relief may be secured from, not only the distress and many inexplicable discomforts of uterine dislocation, but, far more important, from the imminent dangers, to both mother and offspring, which, from this cause alone, con- stantly hang around and imperil the yearned-for result, in the earlier months of gestation. I cannot but believe that to uterine displacements, more than to any other cause—more than to all other causes combined—is due the alarming frequency of abor- tions, in the period before, and about the time of, quickening. Frequent replacement lessens these dangers, facilitates quicken- ing, or at least, ascent of the womb, and anticipates the liability to impaction. Nightly self-replacement greatly mitigates—indeed, often en- tirely relieves, the- irritations, whether local or reflected, which are known to arise from varying degrees and forms of displace- ment, which, as is argued in the Report, are not only incident to, but are almost normal attendants upon, the earlier months of preg- * From my eminent and most erudite friend, Dr. John T. Metcalfe, of New York, I have received some rare and very important records, relating to the History of Knee-and Breast Posture. For this highly valued kindness, I here render my grateful acknowledgments to that distinguished gentleman.