A practical treatise on the diseases peculiar to women : illustrated by cases, derived from hospital and private practice / By Samuel Ashwell.

  • Ashwell, Samuel, 1798-1857.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases peculiar to women : illustrated by cases, derived from hospital and private practice / By Samuel Ashwell. 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.

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    used, may have improved both the quality and quan- tity of the circulating fluid. In this condition, the suspension of the eatamenia continuing, congestion, or, according to the French, engorgement, occurs in some of the organs of digestion and nutrition; irregularity of gastric and intestinal action is the result: constipation, pain, spasm, and nausea harass the patient; and, in an effort to cough or to vomit, a quantity of dark, venous-colored blood is thrown up. It often happens, that these dissharges observe a catamenial period, recurring every three or four weeks;* there being in the intervals more or less of leucorrhceal secretion. I have seen patientsj*darm- ingly ansemiated by these hemorrhages, especially where the amenorrhcea has been of long standing, and where it has been greatly neglected. It is sometimes perplexing to determine whether the blood comes from the stomach, the lungs, or the mucous surface of the fauces and trachea; its quan- tity and color will generally determine this point; although there are cases, where pulmonary bleeding is extensive, and where, from some quantity of the blood having been swallowed, and again rejected, by vomiting, it has acquired a dark hue and a clotted form, involving the point in still more difficulty. Doubt will not, however, be of long continuance ; if the bleeding be pulmonary, there will be a preva- lent cough, and a series of symptoms plainly denot- ing disease of the lungs. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that local emmenagogues are here peculiarly * Vide Chapter on Vicarious Menstruation.