A practical treatise on the diseases peculiar to women, illustrated by cases. Derived from hospital and private practice / by Samuel Ashwell.

  • Samuel Ashwell
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases peculiar to women, illustrated by cases. Derived from hospital and private practice / by Samuel Ashwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    protracted nursings.., There is, however, .a marked difference in. the frequency. of the two diseases,, ‘The shock of parturition; the suddenness of the, transition, from pregnancy to the ‘puer- pera], state, and, the establishment of lactation itself, all of which involve considerable changes in the circulation and in the erv- ous, system, sufficiently account, for the prevalenee of the one malady, over the’ other. rods The pathology of these functional results. of sinus pet on: is by no. means intricate or. doubtful. - An, impaired and: at- tenuated condition of the blood, and..a consequently depressed state of the nervous system, especially of the organic system:of nerves, is the clue,by which all the symptoms may be unrayelled. I pass on now to notice what my experience leads me to believe to be a fact; viz., that very prolonged undue suckling may, a/- though ee neg organic change in the brain, lungs, and uterus. | It has already been remarked, that headache is a foely died concomitant of the malady: nor can the practitioner be too strongly impressed with the hazard arising from its constancy. So. long as it is general, not very severe and transient—so long as it does not recur periodically, with marked premonitory symp- toms—it may be viewed as comparatively free from risk. But if it be dreaded, on account of the permanent uneasiness which it has already produced, or from its intensity and acuteness ; if it seize on one part of the head, and remain fixed there; if its paroxysm be preceded by rigors, and if the pain never entirely subsides; more especially, if there be partial paralysis, mental pecuharity, or forgetfulness approaching to imbecility, or any other anomalous symptom indicative of deranged nervous action; for instance, an unusual affection of the eye, such as double or impaired vision, or of the auditory nerve, injuring the hearing, er rendering it excessively and. painfully acute; or if there be impeded deglutition ; then danger exists, and a softened, or otherwise structurally altered condition of the brain may be feared. If weaning has not been adopted, it ought now to be urgently enjoined. Again, the lungs may become organically affected; or, to ex- press what is probably more. strictly accordant with the fact; a tendency to phthisis, hitherto latent, may be developed ;. tuber-