The dull wire curette in gynecological practice / by Paul F. Mundé.

  • Paul F. Mundé
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dull wire curette in gynecological practice / by Paul F. Mundé. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/16
    GYNECOLOGICAL PRACTICE. By PAUL F. MUNDE, M.D., AS8ISTANT-SURGEON TO THE NEW YORK WOMEN’S HOSPITAL; FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK OBSTETRICAL AND AMERICAN GYNECOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Read before the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, 23d January, and Reprinted, with the Author's permission, from the Edinburgh Medical Journal for March and April 1878, for Archibald Young, Surgical Instrument Maker to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 58 North*Bridge, Edinburgh. Since the discovery by Becamier in 18501 of the presence of “ intrauterine fungosities ” as a cause of metrorrhagia, and his recommendation of the curette with subacute edges known by his name for their removal, the majority of gynecological text-books have mentioned these growths and their operative treatment. Only in Meigs (1851), Churchill (1857), and Hewit (1872) do I find no reference to the curette, the latter merely speaking of “ fungus- like vegetations on the surface” as a cause of profuse menstruation. When I say that all these authors describe Becamier s subacute curette, I would not, however, have it understood that they all recommend or approve of it. Indeed, some authors were so loud in their condemnation, and others so laint in their praise, as almost to abolish the use of the instrument. And no wonder, for Becamier himself reported three cases of perforation of the uterus and death resulting from its use, a misfortune which caused Aram to denounce the curette as a barbarous instrument, which merely shaved oft portions of the normal mucous membrane, and was productive of benefit only in those exceptional cases where real vegetations existed, a verdict entirely concurred in by West,3 and without the extenuating exception by Scanzoni,4 who curtly dismisses the curette “as an instrument based on entirely erroneous theories, and therefore devoid of all practical utility.” On the other hand, men like Trousseau, Nelaton, Maisonneuve, Nonat, and others, princi- 1 Memoire sur les productions fibreuses et les fongosites intrauterines Univ. mdd., Juin 1850. 2 Maladies de Vuterus. 3 Dis. of Women, 3d edition. 4 Krankh. derweibl. Sexualorgane, 186/.