Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners.
- Conquest, Dr.
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.
195/370 (page 181)
![in 21 died in this countiyj and one in four on the continent. —J. M. W.] Perhaps the only satisfactory reason that can be assigned for the remarkable difference in the result of the operations performed in this country and on the Continent is, that it has scarcely ever been determined on in England until after long-continued fruitless efforts have been made by the mother to expel the child, so that her constitutional powers, and the parts to be operated on, have been in the most unfavourable condition; whilst, on the Continent, an ecclesiastical law compels the patient to submit to, and the ac- coucheur to perform, the operation, as soon as careful examination demonstrates the necessity, whilst the constitution is tranquil and its powers unimpaired. [The Cfesarian section is the most formidable of aU surgical operations, and it appears that, under the most favourable circumstances, the mortality rises nearly as high as 1 in 2. The great dangers to be dreaded are nervous shock, htemorrhage, incarceration of the bowels in the uterine wound, and the super- vention of peritonitis, which is much more likely to occur after this operation than after ovariotomy, owing to the highly fibrinous condition of blood which obtains in the puerperal state. When, during pregnancy, an osteo-sarcomatous growth from the sacrum has completely blocked up the pelvic aperture, a condition of parts exists in which the Caesarian operation is indispensable. — J. M. W.] The uterus may be opened for the extraction of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20398840_0195.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)