The diagnosis, pathology and treatment of diseases of women : including the diagnosis of pregnancy / by Graily Hewitt.

  • Hewitt, Graily, 1828-1893.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diagnosis, pathology and treatment of diseases of women : including the diagnosis of pregnancy / by Graily Hewitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    discharge is pelvic abscess. The abscess may follow after, or be the result of, parturition ; in which case, the other signs present would lead to a suspicion as to the origin of the purulent discharge in question. Another highl}^ interesting class of cases is that in which an abscess, the result of suppuration of the contents of the cyst of a peri-uterine h?ematocele, discharges its contents into the vagina. In both classes of cases, however, the discharge appears suddenly, and they markedly differ in this respect from ordinary cases of purulent leucorrhoea. SANIOUS DISCHARGES From the generative passages are not unfrequently the subject of observation ; that is to say, there is a discharge of a reddish tinge, and evidently containing a certain admixture of blood-elements. In women the subjects of profuse menstruation, as the discharge of blood is becoming less, there is generally to be observed a period when there is sanious discharge. Where an hypertrophied (so- called ulcerated) condition of the villi lining the cervix is present, slight bleeding readily occurs, and gives rise to a sanious discharge. Sanious discharges are not unfrequently found to be due to the presence of morbid growths within, or organic disease of, the uterus; a fungoid condition of the uterine mucous lining will give rise to it, malignant ulceration of the os uteri, &c.; and we find, combined, leucorrhoea and very slight but continuous hemorrhage. In polypus of the uterus, such sanious discharge, alternating with hemorrhages or with colorless leucorrhoeal discharge, is observed. Whatever, in fact, is capable of giving rise to hemorrhage may occasion discharge of a sanious character. In cases of pelvic hgematocele, where an opening has formed between the cyst and the vagina, and the contents are in process of evacuation, there will be a sanious discharge. The presence of a more or less con- tinuous sanious discharge is a condition of things requiring a care- ful digital examination. OFFENSIVE DISCHARGE. This quality of the discharge is important in reference to the determination of the disease present in certain cases; but it is one on which too much reliance must not be placed, or serious mis- takes may be made. Discharges of an offensive character have been usually considered as absolutely indicative of the existence of cancer. ]^ow, it is true that, in almost all cases of cancer of