Additional observations on unavoidable hæmorrhage in cases of placental presentation / by J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Additional observations on unavoidable hæmorrhage in cases of placental presentation / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    1/4
    ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON UNAVOIDABLE HiEMOERHAGE IN CASES OF PLACENTAL PRESENTATION. By J. Y. SIMPSON, M.D. F.R.S.E. PROFESSOR OF MIDWIFERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, From the London Medical Gazette, Nov. 7, 1845. “ ’Tis pity. She’s not honest, honourable.” Shakespeare’s Winter Tale. Before proceeding to demonstrate what I conceive to be the anatomical and practical errors into which Dr. Lee has fallen, in his observations upon the alterations which I have advocated in the treatment of unavoid- able haemorrhage, I shall first point out some of the misstatements contained in his last communication on the subject*. I do so, not so much in my own self-defence against the criticisms and charges brought against me, as in order to clear the ground for cor- rect future inquiry. 1. “ Dr. Simpson, who professes (observes Dr. Lee) to know the number of cases which I have seen much more accurately than I do myself, says the number is 46, and not 45.” With the view, however, of shewing my reckoning (46) to be erroneous. Dr. Lee has published in the Gazette, p. 1109, a table which—to use his own words—“ contains all the cases of placental presentation which I (Dr. Lee) have ever seen, and of which I have preserved the histories.” This long table assuredly contains only 45 cases, and so far appears to demonstrate that I was wrong in alleging Dr. Lee’s published cases of unavoidable hsemorrhage to amount to 46. The explanation of this, however, is, that * Medical Gazette, Oct. 24, p, 1106. Dr. Lee has omitted one of his own published cases from the table, and thus reduced their total amount from 46 to 45*. 2. Dr. Lee’s table does not shew so many maternal deaths after “ turning” in un- avoidable hsemorrhage, as actually occurred * As the case here omitted has been dropped out of the table at a point where, of all others, it is perhaps most difficult for the general reader to detect the absence of it, I may state its exact locality. Dr. Lee has reported his cases of pla- cental presentation in chronological order. The 35th case in the table in the Gazette, is marked as being one in which “ turning, by Mr. Harvey,” was performed. This is the second last placental presentation reported in Dr. Lee’s Clinical Mid- wifery (p. 162-3), and occurred in July 1842. On the 11th July, 1843, Dr. Lee was called to a case of partial placental presentation (Medical Gazette for September 19, p. 893), which is entered in the table as “ No. 38, membranes ruptured artificially by Dr. Lee.” It should be No. 39, and the num- bers of all the subsequent cases should be altered correspondingly. For between the dates of the two preceding cases, Dr. Lee saw and has reported three cases of complete placental presentation, in aU of which turning was performed. These cases occurred, one on the 7th of Sept. 1842 j a second on the 15th of Oct. 1843; and the third on the 24th of Feb. 1843. But Dr. Lee has omitted one of the three, and entered two of them only in his table. The three cases, one of which is thus omitted, form the three last in Dr. Lee’s table of unavoidable hsemorrhages in his published Lec- tures, p. 379.