Practical observations on uterine haemorrhage / [William Newnham].

  • Newnham, W. (William), 1790-1865
Date:
[1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on uterine haemorrhage / [William Newnham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON UTERINE HEMORRHAGE. By William Newnham, Esq., Surgeon, &c., Farnham, Surrey. If there be one circumstance in life more replete with danger to female health than another, it is uterine haemorrhage ; if there be one event in life more disquieting to the practitioner than another, requiring especially the developement of his more active energies, his presence of mind, his exhaustless and uncomplaining endurance, and his most zealous efforts to support his pa¬ tient, to allay the alarms of friends, and not to betray his own disquietude, it is uterine haemorrhage ; and if there be one event more than another demanding the prompt and energetic employment of all the resources of science and of art, it is uterine haemorrhage ;—and these circumstances must plead my excuse for seriously passing over a path so haeknied, in order to restore a few practical rules to their light position in the estimation of my professional brethren. In the simpler forms of uterine haemorrhage, where there is only a profuse, or too frequent return of the periodical discharge, there will result to the system, changes of a serious character, pud very important to the well-being of the economy. 1. Thus, for instance, the first effect of uterine haemorrhage will be to pro¬ duce a want of the usual fulness of the vessels, and in consequence an altered oondition of the circulation, both in its capillaries, and in the larger venous trunks. 2. But the blood which remains in the vessels, has also lost its vital pro¬ perties ; it is deficient in red particles ; it possesses a large preponderance of serum, and no longer affords that healthful stimulus to the various organs of interior life, which is so necessary to their conservation. 3. An immediate effect of this cause is, that less energy is imparted to the brain and nervous system; the functions of that system are languidly exer¬ cised, and oftentimes become irregular or disordered, while the shattered nerves are disturbed from the slightest causes, and the hysterical condition is the consequence ; while intellectual activity, legitimate feeling, and sound judgement are not to be found. 4. But the indirect influence of uterine haemorrhage is also felt by the various organs of the animal economy ; for the stomach fails in its digestive power, the assimilative and nutritive functions are impaired; the bowels become sluggish ; the heart beats feebly ; the arterial system is languid ; mus¬ cular fibre becomes soft and in-energetic ; the whole system is anaemic ; the patient is pale, breathless ; complains of a beating head upon every exertion ; while the legs are too feeble to support the body ;—in fact, the aggregate of symptoms forms the history of feeble life, and the slightest cause which adds to this feebleness, produces the greatest amount of exhaustion, and often leads to its extinction. 5. Uterine haemorrhage, therefore, whether considered in its present alarms, its immediate results, or its future consequences, is a malady of no ordinary