Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips.

  • Phillips, John.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of the diseases of women / by John Phillips. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    156/332 (page 136)
    Fig. 80. a 136 OUTLINES OF DISEASES OP WOMEN. leucorrhceal discharge, and may therefore require no treatment. Usually the patient is depressed in health, and the constitutional state must therefore be paid special attention to; a tonic of quinine and iron or arsenic and iron, with regular purgation, is in many cases sufficient to effect a cure. Where local treatment is necessary, it should be directed as ^Hot douches night and morning (as described in Chapter vii.), with decoctum papaveris 3Ij to each quart of water, to produce an anodyne effect; later, in order to give the water an astringent pro- perty, zinci sulphatis, 3ij to the quart, or a similar amount of copper sulphate. This treatment should be persisted in for a month or six weeks : if no good result occurs, then it is right that some topical application should be made. For this means there are two distinct me- thods. (1) The first, and the one in general use, is to expose the cervix with Sims's or Fergusson's speculum; then take a Playfair's probe (Fig. 80, a), wrap cotton-wool round its metal end, in a thin layer (Fig. 80, b); after having wiped away the discharge with cotton- wool by means of the forceps, dip the probe into a saturated solution of carbolic acid in glycerine and apply it freely and firmly to the red surface and interior of the cervical canal, rubbing it up and down; to prevent any escape of the fluid into the vagina when using a Sims's speculum, the lower vaginal fornix may be plugged with cotton-wool: the superfluous^ so- lution must be wiped off to prevent any injury to the mucous membrane of the vagina; the carbolic is anaesthetic and the glycerine just keeps it viscid. . Tinctura iodi, or a mixture of iodine and carbolic acid, is used in a similar manner. (2) A more thorough method is to expose the cervix through a Fergusson's speculum : sufficient solution of sulphate of copper in water (3ss ad «) is then poured into it to well cover the vaginal portion of the cervix : the wool-covered Playfair's probe is then pushed into the cervical canal asfax a* Sehiiernad os uteri, being moved up and down several times; freshportions of the solution are thus brought to act upon the a. Playfair's probe. . (a) Covered with cotton - wool, and ready for use. (From a photo- graph.)