Considerations in regard to the treatment of displacement of the uterus / by J. Matthews Duncan.

  • Duncan, J. Matthews (James Matthews), 1826-1890.
Date:
[1854]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Considerations in regard to the treatment of displacement of the uterus / by J. Matthews Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    struments are not dangerous ! I have frequently heard it boasted of the British school of medicine, that opinions and practice such as that spoken of and defended by M. Velpeau, would not for one mo¬ ment be tolerated in the professional circles of our country. And I trust we shall never have reason to defend our profession from the charge of similar views, or our fellow-citizens from being the victims of such practice. It must not be forgotten, that a certain allowance has to be made to the defenders, properly so called, of these intra-uterine instru¬ ments, in consideration of their very partisanship, of the novelty of the subject, and of the flattery of many patients and practitioners. Such influences have a wonderful power over most minds, in shut¬ ting out the true view of the cause of evil results, and of their im¬ portance. But a very little reflection will place the matter in a proper light before every one. The gravity and fatality of the disease treated ought undoubtedly to determine the importance which we should attach to death as a result of treatment. The severity of the treatment itself ought to have no weight, unless such treatment have been used to test the powers of endurance of the subject of it. Uterine displacements are described by those who attribute to them the greatest importance, as affections causing painful feelings of various kinds, and sometimes difficulty and pain in walking, defe¬ cation, urination, menstruation. Fatal consequences are not attri¬ buted to them, unless in a very remote degree of indirectness. That such affections, then, should not be subjected to a plan of treatment which is unavoidably fatal in instances which are not extremely rare, is a proposition which requires only to be stated to command assent. And if this be admitted, it follows a fortiori, that a treatment which not only occasionally causes death, but frequently induces other dis¬ eases equally bad with the original complaint, and, in any case, rarely if ever cures the displacement, need not expect to receive the sanc¬ tion of the profession. If the treatment of uterine diseases by intra uterine pessaries comes within the scope of these propositions, then their condemnation is inevitable. Fatal results, and numerous injurious consequences, have resulted, here and elsewhere, from intra-uterine instruments. This undoubted fact is sufficient to show the necessity for the most careful use of these instruments, and their restriction to cases of a serious descrip¬ tion. But these fatal and injurious consequences may not have been, or may not be, inevitable. They may not have been inevi¬ table, but only the results of unskilfulness, foolhardiness, or ignorance, or neglect of the conditions for the safe use of the instruments. They may not be inevitable, for experience and anxious care may teach us the conditions necessary for safety in the treatment. A great body of the profession has already a decided opinion in regard to these instruments. Some reject them entirely as danger¬ ous to life : some, as frequently, if not invariably, inducing diseases at