Observations on the disease usually termed puerperal fever : with cases / by William Campbell.

  • William Campbell
Date:
[1822]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the disease usually termed puerperal fever : with cases / by William Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of a bilious nature. Among this number are two or three of the Continental practitioners, such as Finck, Stoll, and Doulcet. The most generally received opinion now is, that the disease under consideration is only peritonitis in the puerperal state, modified by various causes and cir- cumstances, and produced by infection or casual occurren- ces. Many authors on the Continent, as well as in our own country, are converts to this last opinion; such as Walter, Johnston, Forster, Cruickshanks, Bichat, Pinel, Gardien, Capuron, Gordon, Armstrong, and Hey. From a review of the sentiments of the different authors whom I have quoted, it will be seen that no less than se- ven different opinions have been entertained respecting the nature of puerperal fever; first, that it is inflammation of the uterus; secondly, that it is inflammation of the abdo- minal linings and intestines; thirdly, that it is simply pe- ritoneal inflammation in the puerperal state ; fourthly, that it is an affection sui generis, and peculiar only to lying-in women; fifthly, that it is a putrid fever; sixthly, that it is a bilious fever; and, lastly, that it is peritoneal inflamma- tion with typhus. I shall now make a few observations upon the first, se- cond and third of these opinions, as they all relate, more or less, to inflammation of the abdominal viscera. With re- spect to the first of these, I have had indubitable proofs, both during life and after death, that the uterus may be implicated in the disease, and that to a very considerable extent. In the commencement of the disease, in many of the cases which I shall detail, the patients complained of pain sometimes acute, sometimes obtuse, in the lower part of the abdomen ; and the uterus, much enlarged, could be distinctly felt through the abdominal parietes. Along with this, there was severe pain complained of in the re- gion of the ovaries—sometimes in one iliac region only, at
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