On the commoner accidents attending parturition, their immediate and remote effects : with treatment / by William A. Duncan.

  • Duncan, William Archdeckne, 1857-1917.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the commoner accidents attending parturition, their immediate and remote effects : with treatment / by William A. Duncan. 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.

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    10 puerperal women are due to hetero-infection, and few (if any) to auto-infection, I cannot refrain from pointing out before concluding this paper the immense importance of the strict use of antiseptics in midwifery practice, not only on the part of the practitioner himself, who, as a rule, only touches the genitals during parturition, but more particularly on the part of the nurse, who should have definite rules laid down for her guidance, so that she may always wash her hands with carbolic soap before attending to her patient, and should keep the vaginal pipe and the catheter constantly in a 1 in 40 carbolic or 1 in 2000 per- chloride of mercury solution. I venture to suggest then, that every midwifery case should be conducted somewhat as follows : Before making a digital examination the hands should be carefully washed with carbolic soap,* and the finger smeared with a 1 in 10 solution of carbolized oil ; that the vagina should be washed out (before the birth of the child) with either a 1 in 40 carbolic, or a 1 in 2000 per- chloride of mercury, solution.f After any perinaeal laceration has been sutured, a vaginal injection of a 1 in 2000 sublimate solution should be ad ministered and repeated night and morning for about five days. And for the following week a 1 in 4000 solution night and morning, every precaution possible being taken that no septic matter be brought near the vulva by the fingers either of the practitioner or nurse. If every woman's lying-in were to be conducted on the above-mentioned lines, it seems to me that we should but seldom meet with a case of that fearful malady, puerperal septicaemia. * Calvert, of Manchester, supplies an elegant 1 in 20 carbolic soap in a small metal case for carrying in the waistcoat pocket. f Messrs. Calvert prepare a granulated phenol readily soluble in warm water without deposit, and Messrs. Krohne and Sessmann supply small bottles containing Professor Helferich's sublimate tampons, each one of which dis- solved in a pint of water makes a 1 in 1000 solution. PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.