Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women : Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Ed. by Fleetwood Churchill.
- Fleetwood Churchill
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women : Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Ed. by Fleetwood Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![disease, she always becomes extremely emaciated. That this depends entirely on the discharge, will appear from the conse- quences of the treatment pursued in a case hereafter described. I have never met with an instance in which the disease did not terminate fatally.1 As it seemed quite evident, that the diminution of bodily strength in this disease is owing to the discharge, I had for many years wished for an opportunity of removing the excrescence by a ligature, to ascertain whether relief might be obtained by this operation, believing, from the insensibility of the tumour, that it would not increase the danger of the patient. At length, a favorable case presented itself about three years ago. At that time I was called upon to visit a patient, who was supposed to have a polypus of the uterus. She had been very much weakened by a continual discharge from the vagina before I saw her, and was apparently sinking very fast. On examination, I discovered that there was a cauliflower excrescence of the size of an orange, growing from about one third of the circle of the os uteri. The uterus above the tumour was enlarged. It was agreed in a consultation, in a case so hopeless, to attempt the extirpation of the tumour by a ligature, which might be instantly loosened, if any pain or other inconvenience should be produced by it. I accordingly passed a ligature round the base of it, as near to the os uteri as possible. The patient was not sensible of any pain upon tightening the 1 [I fear that general experience, unfortunately, confirms Dr. Clarke's opinion of the mortality of this disease. There are, however, some exceptions on record for our encouragement. The case related by Dr. Montgomery has continued free from any return until the present moment. That mentioned in my work was perfectly well two years after the operation, and may be so still; hut I have not seen her lately. Dr. Simpson's case (Dublin Journal, Nov. 1846, p. 352), operated on in May 1840, has continued well ever since. Boivin and Duges mention (Mai. de l'Uterus, &c, vol. ii, pp. 172-6) two cases which recovered after excision of the cervix for the extirpation of the tumour. These are but few successful cases it is true, and it may perhaps have been owing to the removal by excision or cauterization of the portion of the cervix from which the tumour grew. This is not always easy, however, nor is it easy to say how much of the cervix it is necessary to remove; for in another case of Dr. Montgomery's, from which he removed the lower segment of the cervix entire, and apparently much more than the diseased parts, the disease was reproduced, and I saw the patient shortly before she died. A new cauliflower growth occupied the fragment of the cervix, and the uterus itself apparently participated in the malignant disease.—Ed.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21030170_0543.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
