On the diagnosis and treatment of retroversion of the unimpregnated uterus / by J.Y. Simpson.

  • James Young Simpson
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the diagnosis and treatment of retroversion of the unimpregnated uterus / by J.Y. Simpson. 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.

    11/42 (page 7)
    the fact of the uterus being the seat of some diseased state or action, without pointing out what is the specific nature of that diseased state or action. To gain this last most important in- formation, we must have recourse to the study of the physical signs or symptoms of uterine disease, in addition to the func- tional. In other words, we must attempt to ascertain the actual physical or structural condition of the uterus by the tactile and visual examination of the affected organ itself We must en- deavour to decipher and read its morbid anatomy on the living body, by the careful employment of the senses of touch and sight. Hence, then, I attach far less importance to the func- tional symptoms of retroversion which I have first to enume- rate, than to the physical signs, which I shall afterwards con- sider. FUNCTIONAL SYMPTOMS OR DERANGEMENTS. In some cases of retroversion of the unimpregnated uterus (more especially when the displacement is chronic and the pelvis large), as in some other forms of serious uterine disease and of pregnancy, few or no marked functional or sympathetic symptoms, either local or general, are present; while in other instances the attendant functional derangements and irritations are excessively severe and distressing. And in this, as in other uterine affections, between these two extremes we may meet with every shade of difference. In retroversion, as in other morbid conditions and diseases of the unimpregnated uterus, the accompanying sympathetic derangements or symptoms are, when they are well and highly marked, more or less perfect imitations of the secondary phe- nomena of pregnancy. Dyspeptic and hysterical symptoms are sometimes present, with local neuralgic pains in the mammas; in some portions of the vertebral column; or, what is still more frequent, in the parietes of the abdomen or chest, and more especially in a limited spot beneath the left mamma. The displaced position of the uterus often gives rise to mechanical irritations and symptoms of the same kind as if the organ were