The diagnosis of early pregnancy : with report of one hundred cases and special reference to the sign of flexibility of the isthmus of the uterus / by Ellice McDonald.

  • McDonald, Ellice, 1876-1955.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The diagnosis of early pregnancy : with report of one hundred cases and special reference to the sign of flexibility of the isthmus of the uterus / by Ellice McDonald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    WITH REPORT OF ONE HUNDRED CASES AND SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SIGN OF FLEXIBILITY OF THE ISTHMUS OF THE UTERUS.* BY ellice McDonald, m:d., New York. Instructor in Obstetrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons; Clinical Assistant in Obstetrics, Vanderbilt Clinic; Instructor in Obstetrics, New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. (With Illustrations.) The question of the diagnosis of pregnancy is one which has been an object of investigation for medical observers of all times. The ancient writers from the time of Hippocrates and Celsus have all directed their attention to the subject. The vaginal methods of examination^ however, have only come into use during the last century and brought with them the knowledge of new signs of pregnancy. To make a decided diagnosis of pregnancy in the early weeks is one of the most difficult problems in medicine and one in which the physician’s prestige with his patients may suffer the greatest shocks. It is a problem to which the physician should bring his most cautious efforts. Van Smieten, in 1718, said on the subject: “Nunquam forte magis perclitatur fama medici, quam ubi agitatur de graviditate determinanda: undique fraudes, undique saepe insidere struuntur incautis. . . . Omnes enim qui de graviditates signis scriperunt, quamvis longo artis obstet- ricae usu celibres primis praecipue mensibus signa graviditatis satis incertum esse.” 1 The question of pregnancy is one which must be solved before any operation upon a woman, and almost every operator has had the experience of finding, at operation, an unsuspected pregnancy. Unfortunate the surgeon who thus errs! He is held in execration by his patient and in derision by his colleagues. Yet the literature is full of such mistakes, although it is safe to say that the great majority are not published. Van der Veer,2 m 1889, collected seventy-seven cases of abdominal section, in * Read before the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society, Dec., 1906. Copyright, William Wood & Company.