A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Marc Colombat de L'Isère
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    113/764 (page 107)
    As all the liquid seemed now to be evacuated, the canula was withdrawn ; no discharge followed its withdrawal. The patient had no symptoms attributable to the puncture; she rapidly recovered her strength, and left the city with renovated health, and nearly free from the misery that had so long embittered her existence. In the course of about a month after she returned to her home, she had a very copious discharge from the vagina, of a fluid similar in con- sistence to that which came away through the canula, but of a whitish colour, after which her health greatly improved. On the 14th Dec, 1837, while on her way to this city, for the purpose of taking further advice, she discharged about twenty-five ounces of a sub- stance in all respects similar to that which was first extracted. In the course of the summer of 1843,1 again saw this lady. Her health was good; she has tolerably regular menstruation, which gives pain. The artificial vagina has disappeared, leaving a sinuous opening, very small, which communicates with the cavity of the womb, and by which she menstruates. She could not be prevailed upon to submit to any further treatment. I think it highly probable that the sinus could be readily dilated into a full-sized va- gina.—M.] Notwithstanding that in some cases the adhesions may be easily and without much effort broken up, yet in other circumstances, the purulent matter becomes thickened to such a degree as to form, with the vaginal surfaces, a sort of solid concretion, capable of resisting the greatest violence, especially if the cohesions are of long standing. [I cannot avoid remarking the singular use of the word purulent in the above passage. I presume it is to be understood as referring not to pus, as such, but to the coagulating or organizable lymph, which is the bond of union in such cases.—M.] Where the inflammation has been very violent, the rugae of the vagina become so confounded with each other, that it is nearly impos- sible to dissect them up without perforating one of the sides of the canal, and wounding either the bladder or the rectum; the degree of the inflammation, then, may serve as the index of indication, as to whether an operation should be attempted or rejected, for it is as dan- gerous as it is difficult, where the obliteration exists for the whole extent of the tube. In such cases, Morgagni proscribes it entirely, and Blasius, as well as Benevoli, each of whom had the temerity to dissect the vaginal parietes after they had been coalesced from inflam- mation, was obliged to leave the operation unfinished. We shall, however, bring forward a case in which a successful result-was ob- tained by Professor Flamand, and which we take from the account given by Dr. Villette, of Paris,, in 1821. A country woman was de- livered by a midwife, who ruptured the vagina. The menses did not return after the confinement; the husband was discontented with his wife, supposing that his embarrassment was owing to her want of condescension. Being at last quite out of patience with her condition, she went to Strasbourg to M. Flamand's clinic, in order to undergo