Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of midwifery / by Alfred Meadows. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![apparently without her knowledge ; but no sooner is her attention again drawn to it than the same exquisite sen- sitiveness reveals itself, and she screams out lustily even at the approach of pressure. Again, if by soothing words and ]n-omises of cautious proceeding we induce her to let us apply our hand upon the abdomen so gently that it does not even rest its weight upon it, we shall find that we may now gradually increase the pressure until, by degrees, it becomes considerable, not only without her feeling any increase of pain, but with complete relief, the pressure of the hand appearing, as it were, to benumb the pain. If we withdraw the hand in the same gradual manner no pain will be produced, but if we remove it suddenly, a spasm of the muscles, with intense pain, is instantly excited (Eigby). With aU this there is often a great show of constitu- tional disturbance, though it is all of the same evanescent character; the tongue becomes dry, the pulse quick, small, and jerking, the skin is hot but mostly covered with perspiration, and the mental excitement is often very great. If the disease be recognised and judiciously treated it seldom leads to any mischief, but if neglected, or if the symptoms are erroneously interpreted, it soon passes either into acute peritonitis or into the typhoid state of the malignant form, the latter transition being almost certain if the practitioner has considered it as an inflam- matory affection, and treated it antiphlogistically. There is generally little or nothing discoverable after death unless the disease has become complicated with some other affection; but, as befoi-e said, such a termina- tion is extremely rare, and therefore the opportunities of observing its effects are very infrequent. Most of the patients who were the siibjects of these attacks were women who in their ordinary health were delicate and sensitive; the attack sometimes seems to originate in violent after-pains, gradually passing into permanent pain and tenderness resembling inflammation or the painful operation of a powerful purgative, but it could sometimes be traced to no satisfactory cause; the patient had had a common labour, and had experienced no unusual cause of debility or irritation (Gooch). Treatment.—As a general rule the treatment of this affection is sufficiently simple, and on the whole very successful, if judiciously carried out; but a mistaken estimate of its true character may lead to very disastrous](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21521761_0458.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
