On artificial dilation of the os and cervix uteri by fluid pressure from above : a reply to Drs. Keiller of Edinburgh, and Arnott and Barnes of London / by Horatio R. Storer.

  • Storer, Horatio Robinson, 1830-1922.
Date:
1863
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On artificial dilation of the os and cervix uteri by fluid pressure from above : a reply to Drs. Keiller of Edinburgh, and Arnott and Barnes of London / by Horatio R. Storer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    sition, subjecting the patient to a certain amount of risk from such possible absorption as is hereby implied. They act at times with great rapidity and force, and where the tissues are morbidly friable, if not very carefully made, they may produce unintentional or dan- gerous tension and laceration. From direct experience of these several dangers, it became my aim to find, if possible, a substitute for sponge in the dilatation of the cervix, and in May, 1855, in a paper read before the Medico-Chi- rurgical Society of Edinburgh, I proposed the use of tents prepared from the bark of our indigenous slippery elm.* Shortly after, dur- ing the publication of Dr. Simpson's Memoirs, I had again occasion to refer to the disadvantage of sponge under certain circumstances,! and at still greater length in a paper presented during the fall of the same year4 The use of elm tents in my own hands and those of others who have communicated with me upon the subject, proved the agent greatly superior to sponge in those cases where a slow and mode- rate action is desired, as, for instance, in mechanical dysmenor- rhea and certain forms of sterility; and as yet I know of nothing that will here better answer the indication, although during the course of my experiments in this direction I have tried a variety of other substances, as althea' root, <fcc, among them the root of gen- tian, afterwards made the basis of a memoir upon mucilaginous tents by an English Surgeon, Dr. Aveling, of Sheffield,§ in apparent ignorance of his having been anticipated by my suggestion of three years before. Steadily pursuing these efforts towards the solution of the inte- resting problem proposed, I again called the attention of the pro- fession to its importance by a paper published in Philadelphia early in 1859, in which were pointed out the several indications for arti- ficial dilatation of the cervix uteri, and the several dangers attach- ing thereto, alike in the induction of premature labor, the assistance of the progress of accidental abortion and of labor at the full time, the exposure of the uterine cavity for the purposes of diagnosis and treatment, both in diseases puerperal and non-puerperal.|| During the preparation of this paper, duly appreciating, as will be apparent from its perusal, the actual and relative value in the assistance or induction of labor, of the several elements of action involved—namely, dilatation of the cervical canal, detachment of the membranes from the walls of the uterus, and the prolonged preservation intact of the bag of waters—I had frequent conver- sations upon the subject with my friend Dr. Nathan Hayward, * Association Med. Journal, London, May, 18.55, p. 446; Glasgow Med. Journal, April, 1856, p. 116 ; Braithwaite's Retrospect, Jan., 18-57, p. 247, &c. f Preface to Simpson's Obstetric Works, Sept., 18-55, p. 16. t This Journal, Nov., 1855 ; Gardner, Causes and Treatment of Sterility, 1856, p. 148. $ Medical Times and Gazette, June, 1858, p. 653. || The Use and Abuse of Uterine Tents. American Journal of the Med. Sciences, Jan., 1859, p. 57. 1*