The pathology and treatment of childbed : a treatise for physicians and students. ... From the second German edition with many additional notes by the author / by Dr. F. Winckel; translated by James R. Chadwick.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology and treatment of childbed : a treatise for physicians and students. ... From the second German edition with many additional notes by the author / by Dr. F. Winckel; translated by James R. Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    29/492 (page 25)
    ■V INTRODUCTION. 25 liaml, may be ascribed to tlie non-inflanimatory increase in the transformation of tissues. This last, which persists for some time, is induced partly by the post-partum involution and functional regeneration of many important organs, and partly by the new and excessive secretions of the skin, the breasts, and, as we shall soon see, of the kidneys. With reference to the state of the urinary secretion in healthy women during childbed, Gassner {loc. cit., pp. 51, 52) was the first to show that there is considerable diuresis. He mentions one puerpera, who sutiered from enormous oedema of the lower extremities, and passed in childbed 10 kilogrammes (!) of veiy limpid urine within the first twenty-four hours. To Gassner’s assertion that the degree of diuresis must necessarily be proportionate to the amount of oedema present, we can onl}^ reply that the secretion of urine is always decidedly increased in childbed, and that women who have had no oedema may also secrete enormous quantities of urine. According to my researches,' which have been recently repeated and corrobo- rated in about 200 jmerperie, the amount of urine is consider- ably increased in the first daj’S after delivery, and chiefly within the first two to twenty-four hours. The augmentation of the urinary secretion is also much greater in childbed than during pregnancy. The urine is clear, with little sediment, of very low specific gravity, and is generally bright yellow. The absolute elimination of urea, phosphoric acid, and sul- phuric acid, is somewhat diminished ; that of chloride of soda slightly, or not at all. As the involution of the genital organs progresses, the amount of urine gradually sinks to its usual limit; its specific gravity rises ; its color becomes yellow, and the elimination of Ur., PO^, and SO3 equals that of healthy individuals. It is a very interesting fact that the elimination of Ur., HaCl, PO^, and SO3, in healtl ly pneiqiei’fe, keeps pace with the curve of the tenqierature. The mean weight of the urine evacuated by a healthy puerperal woman in the first six days amounts to 11,160 grammes. The mean specific gravity is 1010. The mean quantity of urine for each day amounts, ' Stiulicn liber den Btoflivechsel Lei dir Gebnrt und ini Woclienbett. liostock, 18Cr,, pp. 05-83.