On an examination being made, the right foot of the child was found to present, the cord was prolapsed, and did not pulsate. The tumour, however, was found to be so much softened that it was possible to pass three fingers through the outlet of the pelvis. Professor D’Outrepont brought down the foot, in doing which, he found that the hips had compressed the tumour still more. The chief difficulty was experienced in extracting the head by means of the forceps, which gave the patient considerable pain. The child was still-born, but was speedily recovered. After the birth of the child, the tumour regained its former size, so that the placenta could not be expelled by the natural efforts, and it was necessary to introduce the hand in order to remove it.
The patient recovered rapidly, and returned ten weeks after her delivery, in order to have the tumour removed, which operation was performed by Professor Textor. The growth was found to be fibro-cartilaginous, and was connected neither with the bone nor the periosteum. It weighed 11½ ounces, and was so hard that none but they who were present at the patient’s delivery, could have believed its previous softening possible. The patient was completely cured.—Ed.]
[131] A sudden drink of cold fluid will generally excite contractions of the uterus, owing to the close sympathy which exists between it and the stomach. A couple of ounces, at most, will be sufficient for this purpose, if swallowed quickly; a larger quantity not only fails of its effect, by oppressing the stomach, but, by filling it with fluid, renders almost inert any stimuli or medicines which may afterwards be required.
[132] “Cold injections,” says Dr. Young, “should be thrown into the uterus, and repeated ten or twelve times; as on this the success depends.” (MS. Lectures.)
[133] Essay on Inversion of the Uterus. Dublin Journal for September and November, 1837, quoted by Dr. Churchill on Diseases of Females, p. 317.
[134] Midwifery Hospital Reports. Med. Gazette, May 31, 1834; also Aug. 26, 1837.
[135] “I have reason to believe that a placenta which is entire and uninjured, which is enclosed in the uterus, adherent to it, and shut out from access of air, never becomes putrid.” (Matthias Saxtorph, Gesamm. Schriften.)
[136] [An interesting memoir on retained placenta, by Dr. Edward Warren, of Boston, will be found in the American Journal of Med. Sc. May, 1840, p. 71.—Ed.]
[137] Dr. Churchill observes, “I have found, in several cases of prolapse, that the placenta was situated low down on the side of the uterus, and in some few others that the funis was inserted into the lower edge of the placenta.” (Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, Oct., 1838.)
[138] [Dr. Churchill in his Researches on Operative Midwifery, subsequently published, has collected the results of 92,017 deliveries, in which there was prolapse of the cord, in 333 cases, or 1 in every 276⅔.—Ed.]