Report on the progress of practical medicine, in ... midwifery and the diseases of women and children : during the years 1844-5 / by C. West.

  • West, Charles, 1816-1898.
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the progress of practical medicine, in ... midwifery and the diseases of women and children : during the years 1844-5 / by C. West. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tailed by M. Fouquier,* and some of M, Simm’sf observations on abscesses and chronic engorgements of the iliac fossa belong to the same category, though his remarks apply chiefly to the affection when it occurs independent of la¬ bour, and as one of the sequelae of inflammation of the caecum. [These essays confirm without adding anything material to the observations of Drs. Doherty and Churchill, referred to in the last Report.] Lactation. Dr. Witte! bas made some valuable practical remarks on the management of the breast during pregnancy, in order to fit it for suckling. In cases where the nipple is imperfectlydeveloped, he recommends that, after it has been brought into a state of erection, by the application of a warm sponge, an apparatus should be employed consisting of a wooden nipple-shield perforated at its apex, and fitted to an Indian rubber bottle, while its inner surface is ren¬ dered adhesive by the application of some adhesive plaster. This is adapted to the nipple when in a state of erection, and the pressure of the hand being removed from the bottle ^vacuum is at once formed, by which the nipple is gradually elongated as surely as by an ordinary breast-pump, and with less discomfort. The employment of this apparatus must be continued for five or ten minutes daily, during a longer or shorter period according to the state of the nipple. Mr. H. H. Davies§ relates an instance of supernumerary nipple below the left breast, of the existence of which the patient was not aware until her fifth preg¬ nancy. Dr. Chowne|| likewise mentions a similar case in which the supernu¬ merary nipple was situated two inches below the other nipple, and states that the same peculiarity had existed in this person’s mother. He describes also a case of supernumerary mamma which was situated on the thigh, and until the occurrence of pregnancy had been supposed to be merely a naevus, but it then enlarged to the size of half an orange. A remarkable case of galactorrhea is related by Dr. Green,^[ as having oc¬ curred in a lady aged 47 ; the mother of 4 children, of whom the eldest was born when she was 20, the youngest when she was 33. Ever since the birth of her first child the secretion of milk had continued unabated, but subject to increase at her menstrual periods. She had suckled her own children and two others, all of whom throve at the breast, and her own health had been unim¬ paired by the continuance of the secretion. The appendix to Dr. Ashwell’s work on Diseases of Women,** contains a very valuable essay on the morbid consequences of undue lactation, in which he shows that the symptoms resulting from it, though usually not appearing till after several months occasionally occur in the course of a few weeks; that or¬ ganic lesions may, though very rarely, result from undue suckling ; and that weaning the child is absolutely essential to the cure. II. On the Progress of Knowledge with Reference to the Diseases of Women, Since the publication of the former Report, the concluding part of Dr. Ashwell’s valuable work on this class of diseases has appeared.f f It includes the diseases of the lining membrane of the uterus, polypus, and displace¬ ments of the womb, as well as the diseases of the ovaries and of the external organs. Three out of four parts of M. Meissner’s!! work on the Diseases of Women have been published. It is written on the same plan as his manual on the diseases of children, and has all the merits of an extremely well-executed * Bull. G£n. de la Therap. Fevrier 1844. + Ibid. x Neue Zeitschrift f. Geburtskunde, Bd. xvi, I-Ieft i, s. 75. § Med. Gazette, Jan 26, 1844. || Lancet, June 15, 1844. ^ New York Journal of Med. Sept. 1844. ** Part III, p. 721. tt On the Diseases peculiar to Women, Part III, 1844, 8vo. Die Frauenzimmerkrankheiten; Leipsig, 1844-5, 8vo.