Volume 1

A treatise on the science and practice of midwifery / by W.S. Playfair.

  • William Smoult Playfair
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the science and practice of midwifery / by W.S. Playfair. 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.

    159/432 (page 135)
    Chap. III.] PREGNANCY. drawn up so as to form part of the general cavity of the uterus, so that in the latter months it no longer exists. In ahnost all midwifery works accm-ate diagrams are given ot this progressive shortening of the cervix (figs. 70 to ^3). The cervix is generaUy described as having lost one halt ot its length at the sixth month, two thirds at the seventh, and to be entirely obliterated in the eighth and mnth. i he correctness of these views was first called in question m Figs. 70, 71, 72, 73. SUPrOSED SnonTEXLVG OF TnE CERVIX AT THE THIRD, SIXTH, EIGHTH, A>D NINTH M0.NTU3 OF I'llEQXANCy, AS riGUIUSD OBSTIiTMC WORKS. recent times by Stoltz, in 1826, but Dr. Duncan,' in an ela- borate historical paper on the subject, has shown that Stoltz was anticipated by Weitbrech in 1750, and, to a less degree, by Roederer and other writers. This opinion is now pretty generally admitted to be correct, and is upheld by Cazeaixx, Arthur Farre, Duncan, and most modern obstetricians. Indeed, various post-mortem examinations in advanced pregnancy have shown that the cavity of the cervix remains in reality of its normal length of one inch, and it can often be measured