A handbook of uterine therapeutics and of diseases of women / by Edward John Tilt.

  • Tilt, Edward John, 1815-1893.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of uterine therapeutics and of diseases of women / by Edward John Tilt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tage ; but, fortunately, when they come to the treatment of inflammatory affections of the womb, they are guided by the same principles of action. Notwithstanding Dr. Eigby's belief in the constitutional origin of uterine diseases, he admitted that uterine ulceration sometimes requires to be treated by potassa fusa c. calce, and even by potassa caustica ; and although Dr. West has successfully persuaded himself how unimportant are those uterine inflammatory periods of which he has proved the frequency, he advises his pupils to adopt exactly the plan of treatment that Dr. Bennet recommends, including the strongest caustics. Those who first advised the profession to adopt the use of caustics in the treatment of uterine disease, had to encounter a general hue and cry ; but now all practitioners of standing use them, although some prefer the nitric and muriatic acids, like Dr. Fleetwood Churchill, or others, with Dr. Evory Kennedy, the acid nitrate of mercury. Potassa c. calce is not energetic enough for Professor Simpson, who uses potassa fusa; and the French give the preference to the actual cautery. During the last fifteen years, the utility of escharotics for the cure of a host of surgical diseases has been amply shown by Bonnet, Pietrequin, Bouchacourt, and other skilful surgeons of Lyons, who have found an able exponent in Dr. Philippeaux, whose work on *' Cauterization I strongly recommend. The profession has thus become more and more convinced of the great utility of caustics in many diseases; were it otherwise, surgery would be deprived of valuable remedies, and the obstetric art robbed of the only means of curing the most distressing cases of uterine inflammation; for many patients would then have to drag on, from year to year, their weary load of misery, with the only hope that the cessation of menstruation, by putting an end to the physiological activity of the womb, might also check its liability to inflammation. Tincture of Iodine.—I use the ordinary tincture of iodine; but I shall be brief on this subject, as I shall have to refer