On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead.

  • Whitehead, James, 1812-1885.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes and treatment of abortion and sterility : being the result of an extended practical inquiry into the physiological and morbid conditions of the uterus, with reference especially to leucorrhoeal affections and the diseases of menstruation / by James Whitehead. 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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    where it is found necessary to support the uterus by means of the cup-shaped pessary provided with a hollow stem, the blood, during menstruation, passes almost entirely through the instrument, very little escaping along its outer surface, and the portion that does escape in this manner consists doubtless, of dissolved coagula which the openings at the upper part of the instrument are too small to admit; and portions of grumous blood are frequently found adhering to this part of the instrument on its careful withdrawal from the cavity. The blood escaping through the stem of the pessary invariably exhibits an alkaline reaction. But the fact is further proved by ocular demonstration. I have witnessed in numerous instances the menstrual blood issuing from the os uteri, the labia, cervix, and all the vaginal surface being per- fectly normal, and furnishing no such product. Some of these ob- servations were made upon females affected with procidentia uteri; but in the majority the information was obtained by means of the speculum. In a case of persistent retroversion of the uterus (pub- lished in the London Medical Gazette, for Sept. 1844,) wherein there was permanent extrusion of nearly the whole organ and the vagina, rendering the employment of the catheter for a length of time neces- sary, there being also considerable hypotrophy of the cellular struc- ture surrounding the urethra, the phenomena of menstruation were frequently noticed. During the flow of the menstrua the vaginal membrane always became unusually suffused, but never exuded blood. The fluid escaped entirely from the interior of the uterus, often in a state of partial separation as before described, in form of a red serum of variable consistence, accompanied from time to time by small, compressed coagula; the whole constantly exhibiting al- kaline properties. A question which has been a good deal agitated of late years, and one possessing a high degree of interest, physiologically viewed, re- lates to the functions of the ovarian bodies and the manner in which they appear to be concerned in the development of the menstrua] phenomena. It has long been believed that ova were matured and occasionally detached from the ovarium, and passed off' by the ute- rus, independently of sexual intercourse, and that such separation occurred especially during, or immediately previous to the com- mencement of the mentrual period. The fact was noticed by kirkringius as early as the year H>7.'5; and afterwards by Cruik- shank, in a paper published in the u Philosophical Transactions,