On the diagnosis of inflammatory diseases of the cervix uteri : and on the use of potassa fusa or potassa cum calce in their treatment / by J. Henry Bennet.

  • James Henry Bennett
Date:
[1851]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the diagnosis of inflammatory diseases of the cervix uteri : and on the use of potassa fusa or potassa cum calce in their treatment / by J. Henry Bennet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    explanation of the frequency of ulceration in the cases examined by me is to be found in the facts, firstly, that slight fugitive catarrhal inflammation in this region often no doubt occurs, but without giving rise to sufficiently marked symptoms, local or general, to warrant any kind of local examination at the hands of a really scrupulous observer, such as I trust I may claim to be, and consequently is not often seen by him; and, secondly, that when inflammation does not subside spontaneously, it is aggravated by each successive menstrual conges- tion,—menstruation feeding uterine inflammation, and exercising a most pernicious influence over it in the great majority of cases ; and thus is called into action the peculiar liability to ulceration presented by this mucous membrane. The tendency in this region to the perpetuation of inflammatory and ulcerative disease, when once it has manifested itself, is certainly most remarkable; it is greater even than in the fauces, and impresses upon the inflammatory affections of the cervix and its cavity many of their peculiar characteristics. Indeed, it is owing to the obstinacy, and to the intractable nature of the disease in those cases which alone ought to come under the eye of the practitioner, that sur- gical appliances, and consequently surgical examinations, become necessary. The symptoms presented by j^atients suffering from inflammation and inflammatory idceration of the cervix uteri, may be summarily divided into local and general. The local symptoms are : pains in the lumbo-dorsal, ovarian, and hypogastric regions, and down the thighs, with, in some instances, difficulty of walking; a sensation of bearing down on standing or moving; vaginal discharges ; modifications of the menstruation, giving rise to dysmenorrhoea, menorrhagia, or amenor- rhoea ; constipation or diarrhoea ; and irritability of the bladder. The general symptoms are principally dyspeptic, neuralgic, and hysterical conditions; entailing, secondarily, defective general nutrition, and consequent debility and anaemia. All these symptoms, local and general, have been analysed so mi- nutely in my work on Uterine Inflammation, that it is unnecessary for me to do more than to enumerate them. Were they always combined in each patient, nothing woxdd be easier than the diagnosis of the disease; but such is by no means the case. Sometimes well marked local symptoms of disease will exist for years, without any general reaction, the general functions and health resisting and remaining good. In other instances, with the same amount of disease, there will scarcely be any local evidence of its presence, but the health will fail from the first, the disordered general condition resisting every means of treatment, until the local disease be treated and removed. These are the difficult cases in practice. From the extensive connexion between the nervous system of the uterus and other parts of the sym- pathetic and cerebro-spinal systems, the general morbid reactions to which disease of the uterus may give rise are protean. There is scarcely an organ in the economy, or any portion of the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which may not be sympathetically affected when uterine dis- ease, and more especially inflammatory ulceration of the cervix, exists. Such being the case, it behoves us, in chronic general derangement of health in the female, not to omit analysing the state of the uterine organs; and, if the general morbid condition prove intractable, not
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