The practice of medicine and surgery : applied to the diseases and accidents incident to women / by W.H. Byford and Henry T. Byford.

  • Byford, W. H. (William Heath), 1817-1890.
Date:
1888
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The practice of medicine and surgery : applied to the diseases and accidents incident to women / by W.H. Byford and Henry T. Byford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    children and become sterile afterward, we shall sometimes find no external ulceration. The result of my observation is, that when sterility originates in uterine inflammation, it is in that form of it known as endocervicitis. Sterility often depends on the condition and quality of the leucorrhcea. In many of these cases the secre- tions from the vagina are very abundant and intensely acid, so as to produce irritation of the external organs. Although the semen is diluted and defended from the influence of acid vaginal secretions, by mucus of alkaline reaction, yet when these vaginal secretions are abundant and possess strong chemical qualities, they may destroy the vitalizing influence of the seminal fluid, and thus prevent fructi- fication. • Or the very thick, tenacious, albuminous fluid, which some- times plugs up the os uteri and whole cervical cavity, may prevent the ingress of the spermatozoa, which, by their independent motion, according to present belief, penetrate the uterus, meet the ovum somewhere on its passage to the os uteri, and produce their fructifying influence upon it; and thus is precluded the possibility of effective insemination. Abortion. But conception may readily occur and pregnancy be complete, and after gestation has continued for a certain time abortion may take place. Abortion is a very frequent effect of inflammation and ulcera- tion of the os and cervix uteri. The seat of inflammation or ulcera- tion which most frequently induces it is inside the cervical cavity. We find some patients who have aborted very frequently and never had a full-term child; others, who have had one or more children, but who miscarry every pregnancy afterward; and again, others who miscarry frequently and occasionally go to full term. It is not strange that miscarriages should result from this cause; a priori, miscarriage might be regarded as its necessary effect. Nevertheless, many patients bear children at term who labor under severe ulceration, and who are prostrated by the constitutional sympathies accompanying pregnancy. Conditions of the Uterus in Abortion. Two general conditions of the uterus exist as the effect of cervical inflammation, and are probably the proximate causes of abortion, viz., congestion or arterial injection of sufficient strength to cause hemor- rhage; and, perhaps, by means of insinuation of the clots, separation of the placenta, or irritability of such a nature occurs that contraction and expulsion follow conception; or, perhaps increased sensitiveness of the mucous membrane may increase its excito-rellex influence SO as to arouse uterine contraction, and thus cause the fetus and mem- branes to be expelled. When abortion is caused by congestion, it is apt to be ushered in by hemorrhage. The hemorrhage, after con-