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
Catalogue details

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.

    256/370 (page 242)
    Flooding, from this cause, must be attacked by a full dose of opium (not less than forty minims of the tincture, or three grains of the gum), and immediately on the cessation of spasmodic action, which is mani- fested by the diminution of pain in the back, the hand of the accoucheur must be introduced into the uterus, for the purpose of gently dilating the stric- ture, emptying the organ of its coagula, and stimu- lating it to more healthy contraction. [Care must be taken, in administering opium, that it be not given in very large doses, lest the muscular contractility of the uterus be destroyed, and a con- dition induced more serious than that of irregular contraction. It is preferable, before having recourse to opium, to attempt to reduce the strictured portion of the uterus by the gradual introduction of the hand; and as the fibres are generally relaxed to some extent, in consequence of the previous hajraorrhage, the task is not so difficult as it would be in a case unattended with flooding. — J. M. W.] Syncojje, or fainting, is not an unfrequent conse- quence of flooding; and, although it is beneficial, when contrasted with continued htemorrhage, yet it must ever be viewed as an evidence of danger, and as indicative of extreme loss of energy in the vascular system. It may be here observed, that there are three important agents concerned in restraining uterine hjemorrhage; uterine contraction, the formation of coagula, which block up the mouths of the blcedmg vessels, and the contraction of the vessels themselves;