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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    consequences of such mistakes, the practitioner having forgotten, what in female disease it is pecu- liarly important to remember, that the severity of the pain, and the rapidity of the pulse, are generally indications of irritability and excitement, not of in- flammation ; demanding narcotics, carminatives, and at the most, counter irritation, not bleeding, active purgatives, or spare diet. If my definition be cor- rect, amenorrhcea, which may, and often does exist, quite independently of chlorosis, cannot be regarded as a synonymous disease. It is impossible, that there should be chlorosis without more or less of amenorrhcea, yet it is often seen, that there is amenorrhcea without any degree of chlorosis. It is quite true, that when amenorrhcea has not been cured or relieved—when it has produced, by its long continuance, extensive constitutional derangement— that then chlorotic symptoms will appear, and that, ultimately, the series of morbid phenomena consti- tuting chlorosis will be clearly seen. Nor must it be forgotten, that chlorosis is itself a frequent cause of amenorrhcea, by its prevention or protraction of puberty, on which menstruation depends ; and sub- sequently, even when the catamenial function has been established, leading to its partial suspension, and occasionally to its entire suppression. There will be no difficulty in distinguishing chlorosis from chronic affections of the abdominal viscera, espe- cially from hepatic, splenic, and renal disease, or indeed from any morbid state, of which anaemia and pallor are prominent symptoms. The period of