Chronic catarrhs of the womb are especially suited for galvanic treatment, and when the inflammation invades the muscular structure of the uterus, giving rise to what was described as chronic metritis, there is no remedy that will yield the same positive and satisfactory result as electricity. Plate V gives a practical illustration of the employment of electricity for chronic inflammation of the uterus; the internal or negative pole is introduced into the uterine cavity and held there by the operator, the external or dispersing pole spreads over and rests on the abdomen.
Subinvolution of the uterus. I have already referred to this affection as an arrested involution of the womb after confinement at the end of the natural term, and after abortion. The womb in this condition remains permanently and preternaturally enlarged, and its entire tissue becomes the seat of a subacute or chronic inflammatory process. The vagina is also more or less relaxed, so that the heavy uterus sinks down into the pelvis, imparting to the patient a dragging or bearing-down sensation, which makes walking or any other exertion exceedingly difficult. In subinvolution an extra uterine electrode is not required, but only a vaginal electrode, so employed that a current of high intensity is passed through the uterus; this varies from 50 to 150 milliampères. The duration of each galvanization is from eight to ten minutes, and should be repeated every third or sixth day. I succeed as a rule in six to eight weeks in restoring the organ to its normal size, which I ascertain through comparative measurement at the beginning and end of the treatment.
If the subinvolution is complicated with retroflexion, then intra-uterine galvanization after the organ is replaced is the most effective treatment. Old pelvic adhesions and exudations as a result of pelvic cellulitis or peritonitis are amenable to galvanization after hot douches, sitz baths, and other discussives have failed to excite absorption.
Hemorrhoids and prolapse of the rectum; the former is a frequent concomitant of constipation, and the latter may be the result of an imperfect involution after confinement. I have employed galvanism for either with the most brilliant results.
It would be interesting for the reader were I to continue to cite different diseases in which electricity has been successfully employed, but that would require a systematic arrangement of the subject, which would be incompatible with the original purpose of this book. I simply desire to awaken an interest in a comparatively new remedial agent, in its present field of employment. There may be a great many ways to get relief, but that course which offers the least risk to life and the least suffering to the living is the one that should recommend itself to the sufferer. What patients need is not brilliant surgical exploits to make the reputation of an ambitious operator, but the conscientious aid of the conservative physician who is content to labor in the less pretentious capacity of an assistant to nature’s curative energy.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY.
Pregnancy is the condition in which the female has within her an impregnated, fecundated germ, which gradually becomes developed in or out of the womb. In a perfectly normal state of things, the impregnated ovum becomes attached to the inner surface of the womb by virtue of a preordained vital force by which the ovum becomes animated at the moment of conception. It obtains its nutrition from a plexus of blood vessels, by means of which the ovum is attached to the inner side of the walls of the uterus, and this complex of vessels grows with the development of the fetus, and constitutes the placenta, which, together with the membranes and the umbilical cord, is called the afterbirth.