Diseases of women : including their pathology, causation, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment a manual for students and practitioners / by Arthur W. Edis.

  • Edis, Arthur W. (Arthur Wellesley), 1840-1893.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of women : including their pathology, causation, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment a manual for students and practitioners / by Arthur W. Edis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    increased from ad §j to as much as 5iij or 5iv ad gj. Cold hip baths, injections of salt or sea water, are also of service. Another and a very effectual method of applying astringents to the vagina is by wrapping up a teaspoonful or two of powdered alum or other astringent in a piece of prepared cotton wool or small muslin bag and inserting this into the vagina. This can readily be done by the patient herself, either directly or by means of the suppository tube. Injections#of cold water must then be employed. Prepared wool saturated with alum, tannin, &c., can be procured at many of the leading chemists, and when made into plugs with a piece of twine answer the purpose very well. Tannin and other suppositories ma}^ be em])loyed at bedtime or when the patient remains lying down ; but they are not so cleanly as the plugs, and should only be used where, for any reason, the patient objects to the latter. There are certain means adapted to obviate downward pressure which are too often neglected, but which assist materially both in the prevention as well as the relief of prolapsus uteri. The employment of skirt suspenders, by means of straps passing over the shoulders, enables the patient to sustain the whole weight of the underclothing from the shoulders, in place of allowing the constant dragging upon and compression of the lower abdomen by the garments, as is too frequently the case. A carefully adjusted abdominal belt, that does not extend too high up, may assist in lifting the abdominal viscera and preventing them pressing unduly on the pelvis. All tight-lacing, or employment of corsets that compress the thorax and press the viscera downwards, should be strictly for- bidden. Whilst the patient remains in bed it is a good plan to elevate the foot of it six inches so as to favour the return of venous blood, and thus lessen congestion of the pelvic viscera. Pessaries.—We have already indicated the steps that should first be taken in replacing the uterus and encouraging a healthier action of the pelvic organs, before resorting to any mechanical appliances to retain the uterus in situ. The term pessary is an example of the change that takes place in the meaning of a word, until it no longer signifies the thing it stood for. Pessary, from Treaa-o), to soften, originally meant a soluble substance placed in the vagina, as a suppository is in the rectum. Dr. Barnes suggests a far more appropriate term, Hysterophores {vo-repa, womb, and (^epw, I bear), for instruments employed in retain- ing the uterus in position. Objections have been raised to their employment on the plea that they are unscientific, that their usefulness is only palliative and tem- porary. Whatever objections, however, may be urged, there is little doubt that they offer a valuable method of relief for a large number of cases of prolapsus, as well as for other forms of displacement. It will generally be found that those who are most opposed to their employment have seldom if ever tried them, or only so rarely