Facts and cases in obstetric medicine, with observations on some of the most important diseases incidental to females / by John T. Ingleby.

  • Ingleby, J. T. (John Thomas), 1794-1845.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and cases in obstetric medicine, with observations on some of the most important diseases incidental to females / by John T. Ingleby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    sensibility, the circulation will generally be found more or less faulty, as the straining made in an advanced state of labour will occasion an increased force and velocity of the circulation, and bleeding may be a most judicious precautionary measure. Besides these causes, convul- sions which arise after the os uteri has acquired a mo- derate degree of dilatation, may sometimes be traced to malfonnation either of the pelvis or head of the infant. According to Denman, abdominal inflammation is a common sequence of convulsions after delivery. Gooch and Collins, also, speak of peritonitis following convulsions; and in an instance of convulsions occnrring before de- livery, and detailed in another part of this work, extreme tenderness of the abdomen was a very prominent symp- tom, and continued until the patient had been bled a number of times. M. Duges observes, that serous ple- thora, or the anasarca which often accompanies a first pregnancy, especially if the oedema extends to the face and upper extremities, predisposes to eclampsia: and Velpeau is of the same opinion. I. F. Osiander also con- siders a tumid condition of the hands and face as premo- nitory of the attack; but Miguel questions this doctrine. That convulsions have frequently occurred in connexion with oedematous states of the system, accords with experi- ence. But is it not more agreeable to the principles of medical science to consider both complaints as the effect of a common cause, viz. an embarrassed circulation, rather than to regard the one as the consequence of the other ? It has been affirmed that this disease reigns epidemically, connected, probably, (as Andral observes) with electrical states of the atmosphere, acting primarily on the nervous system and producing cerebral excitement. The particular influence of the air is alluded to by those accurate writers, Drs. Smellie and Denman. Madam Lacha]mlle remarks.