Report of the Committee on Obstetrics of the American Medical Association / by D. Humphreys Storer.

  • American Medical Association. Committee on Obstetrics.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee on Obstetrics of the American Medical Association / by D. Humphreys Storer. 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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    undoubtedly receive the notice it deserves from your Committee on Surgery. C. F. Winslow, M. D., of Nantucket, lias described, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for Feb. 1851, a case of encysted tumour of the left ovarium. In this case, seventy-two pounds, by weight, of gelatinous fluid •were pumped from the abdomen, with great relief to the patient. The abdomen gradually enlarging again, at the expiration of several months, a second operation was performed, at which tJdrty-five pounds of the same kind of fluid were removed. At the i^ost-rnortem, which was performed six weeks after the second operation, the left ovarium was found to have been enormously distended, and weighed seventeen pounds. Csesarian Section. — The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal^ for Nov. 1850, contains a case of this operation success- fully performed by Dr. Thos. Cottman. In this instance, there was an exostosis of the sacrum. An incision having been made along the linea alba, an opening, sufficiently large to introduce two fingers of the left hand, was made through the peritoneum. The uterus was then laid open, and the child seized by the feet and de- livered; the hand was then introduced into the uterus, and the placenta and membranes removed. This was done in less than two minutes. The wound healed by the first intention. The child, minus the parietal bones and brain, weighed twelve pounds. On the twelfth day after the operation, the patient was able to sit up, and in three weeks was going about as usual. John Travis, M. D., of Mansfield, Tenn., has reported a case also, in the Medical Examiner for Sept. 1850, which we quote verbatim:— The Caesarian operation is a rare one, and, when performed, it has generally proved unsuccessful, more so in Europe than in Ame- rica. In the year 1841, I was called to a lady, aged twenty-eight years, who was in labour with her third child, which could not be delivered in the ordinary way, on account of malformation of the foetus. I performed the operation in the usual manner, and the mother and child are both living. The mode of operation is so well described by authors, and so generally understood by physi- cians, that a description here is deemed unnecessary. The case is briefly reported to show that it was successful. The above is the entire history of a case of Cecsarian section, and