On the proper sphere of constitutional and topical treatment in certain forms of uterine disease : introduction to a discussion in the Section of Obstetric Medicine at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association in Cardiff / by W.S. Playfair.

  • Playfair, W. S. (William Smoult), 1836-1903.
Date:
1885
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the proper sphere of constitutional and topical treatment in certain forms of uterine disease : introduction to a discussion in the Section of Obstetric Medicine at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association in Cardiff / by W.S. Playfair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    hi % On the Proper Sptee of Constitutional and Topical Treatment in Certain Forms of Uterine Disease. The subject which has been selected as the topic for dis- cussion in this Section is one, the importance of which to all who are interested in gynaecological work it would be difficult to exaggerate. Ever since modern gynaecology became a serious study, a time within the memory of the older amongst us, there has been a tendency amongst those of our brethren who are known as general physicians, not only to depreciate the accuracy of our conclusions, but to attribute to us the grave fault of over-estimating the in- fluence of uterine disease on the health of our patients, and, worse still, of doing many of them serious injury by unnecessary and injurious local treatment. Only last year, this feeling found caustic expression in the admirable Gulstonian Lectures of my friend. Dr. Clifford Allbutt, in which so bitter and scathing a censure was passed on the practice of gynaecologists, that he will not be surprised at it having given rise to much annoyance, or even something stronger. This feeling induced Dr. Routh to read an excellent paper at the Medical Society of London, in which he ably, but, I think, from rather too one-sided a point of view, controverted Dr. Allbutt's statements, and, carrying the war into the enemy's camp, showed how often the physician who is ignorant of gynaecology falls into grave error by overlooking the origin of some diseases that come under his observation. The fact is undoubted, and it would be easy for me to point out many lamentable errors