On dysmenorrhoea and other uterine affections, in connection with deragement of the assimilating functions / by Edward Rigby.

Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On dysmenorrhoea and other uterine affections, in connection with deragement of the assimilating functions / by Edward Rigby. 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.

    23/166 (page 5)
    emunctories, yet if the cause be frequently repeated (which is usually the case) the excretory powers of these organs either become impaired, or at least un- equal to the task of removing the offending cause. The skin is generally torpid, and even if the impurities be pretty freely thrown off by the kidneys in the form of lithic acid and lithate of ammonia, the circulation is not entirely relieved, and by degrees other parts of the body begin to suffer in consequence. The muscles become irritable, and maintain more or less a state of continued contraction, even when at rest, producing that aching and painful lassitude of the limbs which is so well known as to need no description; they ache from the slightest exertion, and the sense of weakness and fatigue appears but little relieved even by long- continued rest. This condition is still more distinctly marked in children by the grinding of the teeth, clenching of hands, and strongly flexed limbs. It soon brings with it other symptoms arising from defective nutrition, as general pallor, debility, torpid or unhealthy secretions, and emaciation. In many of these cases, after a while, the joints swell with inflammation of an acute or chronic form, followed by effusion into their cavities, or deposition of lithate of soda both in and around them, so as greatly to impede their action and