Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / by Adam Neale.

  • Adam Neale
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / by Adam Neale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    contract^, closing upon itself, either by means of its natural contractibility^ or from the effect of the remedy. The woman then suffers no other pains than those which have produced delivery; which being completed by the expulsion of the placenta^ &c. she remains then, all other things being equal, as if no remedy had been employed. M. Chev- rue] observes, that the blood furnished by the umbilical cord presents no character different at all from other cases. In regard to delivery we ought here to state, that we know of no case where the ergot has been employed a second time to procure the expulsion of the placenta, after having been already given to hasten the birth of the child. Without, therefore, prejudging this question too much, we are induced to conclude, that the uterine contractions produced by the ergot (in the case of torpidity of the womb during parturition) continue sufficiently long in all cases to bring about the expulsion of the placenta, as well as to hinder all subsequent hemorrhages. For there is no instance of any accident from this cause having happened after the employment of this remedy; more particularly as we know, that it has often been given to females who, after delivery, had suff'^ed before more or less severely from hemorrhages : and these remarks seem to confirm the opinion of Foot, that even after de- livery, the uterine contractions produced by the ergot continue for at least twelve or fifteen minutes.